"Cult of Death"

I had a great article by David Brooks sent to me today. It points to the root of the fanaticism that permiates from the Muslim world. Brooks frames the terrorists "cause" as a cult like movement:

Because the death cult is not really about the cause it purports to serve. It's about the sheer pleasure of killing and dying. It's about massacring people while in a state of spiritual loftiness. It's about experiencing the total freedom of barbarism - freedom even from human nature, which says, Love children, and Love life. It's about the joy of sadism and suicide.

It is for this reason that the president's vision of a democratic middle-east is so vital to the defeat of terror. While terrorism itself will be a problem the West will always have to deal with, we can greatly diminish its ranks by improving the region in which they recruit. US Marines - through their "out reach" programs - can always be counted on to fulfill the wishes for martyrdom of madmen, but real victory will come when young men in the middle-east would rather live.

The president's critics should give him great credit for the path he has chosen, because the alternatives are few and drastic.