Posted on 02/09/2006 10:13:01 AM PST by bikepacker67
All of this seems vaguely familiar. We are engaged in mortal combat with an implacable foe. The enemy loudly, blaringly broadcasts his philosophy. In fact, he depends on his propaganda and his air of strident moral certainty as his greatest asset, his only counterbalance to our material might.
We have right and justice on our side, but instead we pay homage to our enemy's philosophy, describing his creed as noble and well-intentioned, and condemning our foe merely for taking his ideas to an "extremist" excess. The result: a long, ineffectual half-struggle in which we are constantly undercut by our lack of moral certainty.
For five decades, this conflict was called the Cold War. It was a war fought by our free, capitalist society against a Marxist dictatorship--a war in which it was considered uncouth, on the capitalist side, to condemn socialism, to expose Marxism as a vicious philosophy, or even to brand the enemy as an "evil empire."
Today, this conflict is called the War on Terrorism. It is a war fought by our free, secular society against a constellation of theocratic Islamic states--a war in which it is considered uncouth, on the secular side, to say anything but the kindest words about Islam.
Politicians, the press, and academics have rushed to declare that this is not a war between Islam and the West. Islam, we have been told again and again, is really "a religion of peace." Perhaps the reason we have to be told this so many times is because it so obviously contradicts the facts.
Let's start with the history. From its inception, Islam was a theocratic religion that imposed its dogma by the sword. The descendants of Mohammed, religious kings called Caliphs, fought ceaseless wars against non-Muslim "infidels." Scholars may try to tell us that "jihad" only refers to a personal moral struggle--but that wasn't what it meant during centuries of Muslim conquest.
Of course, nearly every religion has a bloody past. Rather than excusing Islam, this suggests to me an indictment of all religious dogmas. Be that as it may, there is a crucial difference between Western religions and Islam: the West's religious cruelties have stayed in the past. For centuries, our religions have made their peace with a secular outlook. They have been forced to recognize the individual mind as the ultimate arbiter of truth and to compete through persuasion, rather than coercion.
But the Islamic world is still mired in the Medieval mindset, and a return to a pure Medieval fundamentalism is the dominant trend in Islam today, a sweeping religious movement some scholars have dubbed the "Islamic Reformation." This outlook is endemic even in "moderate" Islamic states. Saudi Arabia, for example, is ruled by the fundamentalist Wahhabi sect, whose religious police patrol its streets and enforce Islamic strictures. Saudi oil money is also behind the Pakistani madrasahs, the religious schools that trained the Taliban. And the government of Pakistan, our other "ally," helped create the Taliban.
Islam is the driving force behind every major conflict in the Middle East--and, by one calculation, it is behind about half of the world's armed conflicts, from Algeria to the Philippines. The latest Palestinian intifada was sparked by incendiary anti-Jewish speeches by Muslim clerics in Palestinian mosques. And when Iranian protesters chant "Death to America," they do it after similar sermons at their own mosques.
The evils of dogmatism and religious tyranny are endemic to Islamic culture--and our evasion of this fact is making a mockery of the War on Terrorism. Consider the demands to halt the Afghan campaign during the holy month of Ramadan--an attempt to make our leaders obey the decrees of their Mullahs. Or look at our shameful betrayal of Israel, an open attempt to sacrifice the Jews to appease the religious hatred of the Muslims. And worse, our refusal to recognize Islam as the enemy is preventing us from waging a wider war against all Islamic terrorist states.
If we want to win this war, we must begin by recognizing that it is a war against Islam--or to be more exact, this is Islamic fundamentalism's war against the "infidel" secularism of the West. Our goal in this war should be to beat down, to curtail, to drive out Islamic fundamentalism--not to replace it with our own religion, but to force Islam, like the religions of the civilized world, to lay down its arms and accept the freedom of a secular society.
Quite so. Islam is inherently hostile to Judaism and Christianity...to say nothing of pagans.
If Islam in the "religion of peace," I'm Mr. Green Jeans.
The defeat of the West was accomplished once it became impossible to even speak of many things. If we do not have the courage to even talk, how can we have the courage to follow through with action?
There were always good impulses to curb one's tongue, to be polite, to leave unsaid even true things that might hurt someone else. But just like every other decent aspect of our culture, that has now been twisted into a noose to choke off discussion of public policy, of national survival. More and more subjects became hedged with taboos. We have more superstitious dread about words today than the most primative worshipper of Mumbo Jumbo among the lost tribes.
"Oh, sure there are extremist Nazis, but most of them just want to lead a healthy lifestyle and enjoy art, and you can't blame them for being upset about the way we treated Germany after WWI." Or how about: "Sure the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, but you have to understand how desperate our own economic policies have made them."
That was not the attitude that we had in WWII, nor would we have won if it had been.
At least Moslems have no problem with forthright expressions of their culture and religion. You have to hand that to them. While we hem and haw with our hands in our pockets, saying "Well, yes, but..." in the little fake whiny voice Rush Limbaugh uses to mock liberals, they are sharpening their knives.
Besides all that, there are a lot of people who simply don't like this country very much, not as it is, not as it has been shaped through a vigorous history. They're still put out that communism was such a bust in Russia, and wish they were French, and think the Red state cretins probably deserve to be Jihad bait.
Peaceful, moderate Moslems have had years now to draw a distinction between themelves and the violent crazies. We are beginning to realize that isn't going to happen, because, as far as we can see, it's the violent crazies who are the true representatives of this religion and the moderates are just gutless weasles who lack the courage of thier convictions.
We have long held that certain malignant ideologies should not be allowed to control the offensive resources of the state. Nazis. Fascists. Until we add Islam to that list we will never understand the problem or deal with it. The idea that Iran is going to be a nuclear power and we're still biting our lips and shaking the U.N. voodoo doll at them in fear is mind-boggling.
Islam can only be judged by what Moslems approve and tolerate in their own religion. By that measure, Islam is unworthy of respect and invites upon itself retribution and incapacitation from its betters.
No, it is our childrens' and grandchildrens' generations that will have to resolve this conflict once and for all. And they will damn us to hell that we didn't address the problem before they had their back's against the wall.
Well, you're right, but maybe our grandchildren will one day research what went wrong and find our posts on Free Republic and think that not everyone was a gutless moron back then!
Although there's a lot of truth in what you say, even absent Muslim immigration (or, more accurately, metastasis), we would still have to worry about Iran getting nuclear weapons and Pakistan's government falling into Islamofacist hands.
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