Fear is the Beginning of Wisdom II

As we approach our fourth year of fighting Islamist terrorism as a real war, opponents of the war over here claim we are just enraging the Moslem world and radicalizing them to support jihad against the West. Fighting is just playing into Osama's deep plan to trick us into pasting his movement and chasing him into remote caves to hide while the Moslem world builds the caliphate. And trying to impose Western democracy on them (as if fascism and socialism aren't Western imports, unfortunately) is just making things worse.

Indeed, this poll (via Instapundit) shows that America is not terribly popular:

Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan and Turkey -- also now have unfavorable views of the United States. In the sixth, Morocco, views are divided. The governments in all six countries are allied with the United States and recipients of U.S. aid.

Well there you go, we're not popular. Oh, but wait. There's more:

Osama bin Laden's standing has dropped significantly in some key Muslim countries, while support for suicide bombings and other acts of violence has "declined dramatically," according to a new survey released today.

In a striking finding, predominantly Muslim populations in a sampling of six North African, Middle East and Asian countries also shared to "a considerable degree" Western nations' concerns about Islamic extremism, the survey found. Many in those Muslim nations see it as threat to their own country, the poll found.

"Most Muslim publics are expressing less support for terrorism than in the past. Confidence in Osama bin Laden has declined markedly in some countries, and fewer believe suicide bombings that target civilians are justified in the defense of Islam," concluded the Pew Global Attitudes Project.

Compared with previous surveys, the new poll also found growing majorities or pluralities of Muslims surveyed now say democracy can work in their countries and is not just a political system for the West. Support for democracy was in the 80 percent range in Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco; in Pakistan and Turkey, where significant numbers of respondents were unsure, it rated 43 percent and 48 percent respectively.

Well what do you know? After nearly four years of waging war against Islamists and promoting democracy, Moslems generally think less of Osama, suicide bombings and other terrorism, and Islamist beliefs, and approve of democracy in growing numbers. Fancy that. Don't they know that fighting a threat to them and us is just supposed to piss them off? Don't they read The Nation? Are they ignorant of the Daily Koz? Haven't they attended classes taught by the world-renowned professor Juan Cole (He speaks Arabic, you know!)?

In another decade of fighting this war and imposing democracy in the Moslem world, the nuclear option in Moslem countries might be the debate about filibusters over judicial nominees.