The Taliban once again confirmed what little military strategy that Islamofascist terrorists can muster when faced with professional troops in the field in an interview with the Canadian Press wire service. Their spokesman informed reporters from Canada that the terrorists only needed to kill enough Canadians to make the nation weary enough of war to withdraw:

As MPs gather in Ottawa to discuss Canada's more combative role in southern Afghanistan, a senior Taliban official and coalition commanders painted two disparate images Sunday of where the war is headed.

In a weekend interview with The Canadian Press, insurgent spokesman Qari Yuosaf Ahmedi said the Taliban are convinced the resolve of the Canadian people is weak.

As suicide attacks and roadside blasts increase, the public will quickly grow weary, he said.

“We think that when we kill enough Canadians they will quit war and return home,” Mr. Ahmedi said in an interview, conducted through a translator, over a satellite telephone.

Sound familiar? It's what Islamofascists thought about Americans after Somalia, Beirut, and Viet Nam, which is why they didn't worry about provoking us in a series of terrorist attacks throughout the 90s and into 2001, culiminating with the 9/11 attacks. Four and a half years later, they've started to learn differently about American resolve, even though some politicians continually talk about precipitous withdrawal.

That same problem exists in Canada, and the Taliban points to the Commons debate on the deployment as a sign that their strategy could work. Democracies need to debate these policies, of course, but the trick is to do so responsibly. That requires the knowledge that the enemy is listening to everything being said and to cast the rhetoric with that knowledge in mind. Foolish talk about abrupt withdrawal in the face of terrorism only amplifies the terrorist impulse, as anything that succeeds will be repeated until it no longer works. It's a lesson that America has been slow to learn, even after the past fifteen years.

It will be hard to ignore the explicit endorsement of this strategy by the Taliban. They know that the only way they can win is to force the Western coalition to surrender through a breakdown of our will, because they can never defeat our forces in the field.

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