The Fight Against Evil
By Bernard B. Kerik

In the days immediately following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as we all tried to comprehend the evil of those acts, an expression swept around New York City’s One Police Plaza from the 18th century philosopher, Edmund Burke; “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” I don’t know who started expressing this thought; I just remember that it seemed to clearly define the crisis we were in.

I was reminded of that statement the other day as I channel surfed through one negative newscast after another. First, a “60 Minutes” segment where military personnel were criticizing the mission in Iraq, to an HBO feature on Abu Ghraib, and then to a newscast about the Democrats denouncing the Iraq conflict and threatening to pull funds and fight President Bush on renewed deployment. On and on it went, all negative all the time, with little thought or analysis given to the hard reality of terrorism and the real war we face. The Iraq conflict overshadows this reality, but the fact is that if we pulled out tomorrow the terrorists would still be there, still plotting to kill us. Their hatred can not be satisfied; it can only be destroyed.

And they are working to achieve their goals on many fronts. In Iraq they attack American and coalition forces in an attempt to sap our political morale. At the same time they continue to indiscriminately kill innocent civilians, both in Iraq and around the world. People going to work or school, going out to dinner, lunching at a sidewalk café or shopping at a market; these are the terrorists’ targets.

To think that leaving Iraq would stop this violence is to forget that on September 11, 2001, we were not in Iraq, or even Afghanistan. A majority of the American public had never heard of Al-Qaeda or Usama bin Laden and yet we suffered the most substantial terror attack in our history.

To the terrorists bent on jihad, Iraq is just a convenient excuse to carry on their murderous campaign. If we leave tomorrow, they will increase their attacks on American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. And although there is a deep divide in this country on the Iraq war, that is not the case with our presence in Afghanistan, where Osama Bin Laden, harbored by the former Taliban government, planned the September 11th attack on America.

But five-plus years from the murder of thousands of innocents on our soil, the war on terror has succumbed to the heat of contemporary politics as the presidential candidates vie to outflank each other on the Iraq question. Whether it’s the hair-splitting analysis about who did or didn’t admit that their vote on Iraq was a mistake, or a debate about a timetable to withdraw, it seems that we have forgotten the real battle we face.

Strip away the consuming debate about Iraq and you will see that the crisis of 2001 is still with us. No amount of political jockeying or shrill denunciations among the candidates will change that fact. Ignoring it won’t change it either. Of course the Iraq issue must be addressed. But those who advocate bringing the troops home now must also admit that such an action would not end terrorism, but only embolden it. What course of action then?

So far in this political year, it’s as if the issue of terrorism has fallen off the table. The subject is hardly discussed. Instead, we get generalities about convening an international conference and vague calls for more diplomacy. And on the rare occasion when Iraq is not the topic, the candidates—probably happy for a respite from this admittedly contentious subject—speak about programs for education and health care reform. These are important issues to be sure, and we all have a stake in the outcomes. But the bigger outcome is to know that our government is doing all it can to ensure that we will not be murdered on the way to work.

Yes, one day we will leave Iraq, one of the first battlegrounds in this war that will continue for decades; rooting out and fighting radical fundamentalists, facing and dealing with the Palestinian – Israeli conflict, and encouraging the true preaching of the Koran and combating and removing those who preach and promote death to the west and good Muslims around the world that do not share their views.

So, the underlying issue that needs to be addressed by the candidates’ today is a simple one; what do they propose to improve the security of our homeland and how will they deal with those who threaten it—in a phrase… to ensure that evil does not triumph?

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Bernard B. Kerik, Chairman & CEO of The Kerik Group

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