Machiavelli and the Mullahs

David J. Rusin states that there are three principles that Machiavelli could guide President Bush by. The first is self reliance. The author, Rusin states many examples of how the US Government trusted others to do things, and the people they entrusted the tasks to, failed. This example was found in The Prince, when Machiavelli was stating that "a leader must act decisively in pursuit of his objectives, rather than relying on others to accomplish them." An example includes when the major Al-Qaeda leaders were hiding in the Tora Bora mountains and Bush made a poor decision on trusting the local Afghani fighters search for them, instead of sending US troops. The Afghani fighters CLEARLY, let them escape. Rusin also states that he believes that if we were to ask the Secretary Council, they will try to prevent us from acting because China, Russia, and France all have interests in Iran. The second is the importance of being feared. In this principle, Rusin talks about Muammar Qaddafi's pledge to dismantle his weapons programs because we overthrew Saddam Hussein. The author states that "Islamic extremists do not fear death, but they fear loss of power." I agree with Rusin's theory on how we need to make them fear us. The third is the need to take the initiative once conflict is inevitable. I think that, yes, eventually they will be just as powerful, if not more, than us and will be able to "beat" us. I do believe we should stop them, before anything major happens, however...we are bringing this on ourselves. We make all these decisions for other countries and think it's okay. Now, that these countries are becoming "knowledgable" we are fearing them...WELL WE SHOULD!! ;D

All they want is to make us Muslim.While David Rusin makes some good points, I thought this war was on terrorism, not the Islamic religion.