It's the Jihad, Stupid

I hate to say it, but the fix is in. The Iraq Study Group will be the 9/11 Commission redux, in more ways than one.

By swerving outside its lane and officiously volunteering to redesign our intelligence gathering apparatuses, the 9/11 Commission gave our political class a convenient excuse to shirk its responsibilities. It’s hard to imagine a single solon so neglectful that in the wake of the catastrophic intelligence failures that begot 9/11, he didn’t give at least some thought to how our intelligence agencies could be improved.

But singing a rare bipartisan grace note, the congressional leaders of both parties decided that the 9/11 Commission was omniscient on all matters concerning intelligence. After all, if brilliant thinkers like Richard ben Veniste, Jamie Gorelick and the former governor of New Jersey didn’t have all the answers on how to completely revamp our intelligence agencies, who did?

The presence of the 9/11 Commission gave Congress a convenient excuse. By universally agreeing to outsource Intelligence Design to a merry band of partisan lawyers and ex-politicians, our political class had effectively passed the buck. If/when the next terrorist attack comes, politicians near and far can defend themselves by reminding the public that they supported the 9/11 Commission in all matters big and small, thereby intimating, “What more could I have done?”

The same dispiriting Kabuki ritual is due to be performed once again with the Iraq Study Group reprising the role formerly played by the 9/11 Commission. Ancient Congressional dinosaur Lee Hamilton is the only holdover from one cast to another.

Lee Hamilton happens to be a very good man. I’m less sanguine about James Baker’s personal attributes than Hamilton’s, but he’s earned a right to have his opinion heard also.

But the preemptive deference being accorded both of these figures is way out of line. I don’t recall the Democratic Party being so eager to embrace Baker’s every pearl of wisdom back in 1990-1991. And for that matter I don’t recall the Athenians adopting Hamilton’s advice without question when they were fighting the Spartans. The Iraq Study Group’s conclusions should be taken for what they’re worth. If they’re valuable, then they should be treasured. If they’re worthless, they should be treated as such.

Again, my biggest fear is that the Baker/Hamilton commission will give our political class an excuse to punt away its responsibilities. Regardless of how steeped the recommendations are in misguided “realist” nonsense, the media and our political class will rush to acclaim them as unique new insights that must be immediately implemented.

Merely anticipating this ritual is enough to crush a pundit’s spirit. It’s just so dumb. It’s not like the Iraq Study Group is going to produce a single unique insight. The only new thing it will “accomplish” is the introduction of a new player in the War on Terror drama. This addition to the dramatis personae will allow the administration and its abettors in Congress to tip over the checkerboard and start anew while claiming that they’re all just deferring to a higher authority.

In their younger days, both Hamilton and Baker dreamed of the presidency. Even if they had won the oval office, they never would have had their policies so unanimously hailed and so eagerly adopted by Washington’s political class as will be the case in the coming weeks.

So what happens next? We can momentarily console ourselves with the hope that the Iraq Study Group surprises us and offers a solution more muscular than seeking a diplomatic accord with people who have been rather outspoken regarding their desire to see us destroyed. If that happens, then almost everyone will get on board with the war against Jihadism and the administration will get a second crack at bat.

But that scenario is unlikely. Given the predominance of self-styled “realpolitik” practitioners in the study group and the fervor with which the cut-and-run caucus is awaiting its pronouncements, we have reason to fear that their counsel will be to leave the Middle East in peace (relatively speaking) and normalize relations with our malefactors as much as possible.

We can expect a lot of gooey reassuring rhetoric from the study group that our problems in the Middle East can be solved by winning hearts and minds. Expect much pabulum about carrots and sticks. And don’t forget the tiresome but erroneous assertion that the only people who really want to kill us are a bunch of cave dwelling whack-jobs in Waziristan, but that the rest of the region is just aching to start a love affair with America.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO IN the face of such a determined effort to put lipstick on a pig? First, we have to be prepared to utter the unpleasant and seemingly unspeakable truth.

The first key factor that few Americans seem to know that is Al Qaeda and Hezbollah are not some strange, tiny and exotic minority in the Islamic world. If free elections were held in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would win. The Muslim Brotherhood is composed of Ayman al Zawahiri’s old playmates. If free elections were held in Saudi Arabia, a Salafist regime ideologically in sync with Al Qaeda would win. In Pakistan, yet again, Al Qaeda sympathizers would be major players. In the free election held in Palestine, terror group Hamas was a landslide winner. In Iran, the current regime is popular. In Jordan, free elections would see the moderate Hashemite regime toppled and replaced by a far more belligerent entity.

So what does all this mean? It means a storm is gathering. At this moment, our would-be malefactors’ abilities to seriously damage us are limited to terrorist attacks and economic disruption.

But those are only the threats of the moment. In time, the threats will grow. Exponentially. Although right now the Islamic world can’t so much as produce a shotgun on its own, that will change as petrodollars mix with government-sponsored Jihadism.

The ultimate component of the threat is the philosophy of Jihadism. While Saudi benefactors have convinced American academic uber-schmucks like John Esposito to see jihad as a form of yoga done while facing Mecca, that interpretation doesn’t square with the rhetoric coming out of the Islamic world. Islam’s most prominent and popular spiritual leader, Yussuf al-Qaradawi, has vowed to conquer Europe and America. In Iran, the Khomenist regime has turned against centuries of traditional Shiite disinterest in politics and likewise has announced plans to conquer the non-Islamic portions of the world. Al Qaeda you know about.

In short, if we don’t somehow reform that part of the world or at the very least dissuade the people there that their ambitions are misguided, we are in for the fight of our lives.

AGAIN, WHAT CAN WE DO? The first thing we must do is make a steady and unwavering effort to educate our countrymen. If the events of the last week have proven anything, they have shown that so far we haven’t made much headway in that regard. For this, I blame ourselves. The only Republican politician of any prominence who made this case in the latest campaign season was Rick Santorum. Other than that, the silence from conservative politicians was as conspicuous as it was damning.

I call on looking-for-work politicians like Rick Santorum, Chris Chocola and New Gingrich who understand the threat to take this message to every Podunk little TV station and eager Elks Lodge that will host them. Progress here will be measured in inches, not miles. But if we do this right, we can make sure the Republican presidential primary revolves around this issue and that it gets a good airing for the first time. They should also be reaching out to potential allies in the Islamic world who are as appalled by the Jihadist menace as we are.

I’ve written here many times of how Winston Churchill spent the 1930’s as a back bencher doing everything in his power to convince his countrymen of the threat posed by Nazi Germany. It took a cataclysm for Great Britain to finally agree with him, but at least he tried. And when his hour finally came, he saved his country.

Hopefully it won’t take a cataclysm to awaken our slumbering countrymen. But regardless, let us try.

Hopefully it won’t take a cataclysm to awaken our slumbering countrymen. But regardless, let us try.

A thought provoking column by Dean Barnett, and for many no doubt too close for comfort.

" And when his hour finally came, he saved his country."

And may God in Heaven give us a "man" with a capital "M" who will save our country and our children from flighty fruits.

Life is too important to leave to low life politicians.

It will take time, but in due course what is being brought against us must not be merely called Jihad, but the root of Jihad, Islam. Jihad is a bitter fruit, but Islam is the tree.

You are quite right about Winston Churchill. His is a most powerful message people need to appreciate. His nation was divided while the Nazi threat grew in power and capacity. Too many people today see only that Churchill was a conservative and thus believe it was conservatives that mustered the forces to defeat Nazism. Quite the opposite was true in the 1930's. Winston Churchill was a nuance to his conservative party, the same party Neville Chamberlain belong to. In the USA, it was conservatives that set about thwarting the pre-war efforts of FDR. What Churchill and FDR both knew was that the enemy could not be defeated by divided nations, but nations with population united to defeat the enemy. Each recognized a higher calling that transcended political ideology. We call it freedom.

If victory is to be gained, the first battle must be to unite our people as one. There is no more important task before us presently. If we do not unite, victory cannot be assured.

I have a lot of faith in President Bush being able to pat them on their heads and tell them thank you...and then talk to Peter Pace..and find out what they are going to do next to win this war!!

Well I suspect you will see a lot of talking and posturing in the media and the plan will just keep rolling along as it is. See the reality in Iraq is NOT what the Junk Media, and the Conservative pundits, have been telling people. Every story has two sides and they have NOT reported ANY of the other side.

I think the Democrats are still trying to figure out how to play this. At some point they are going to have to try and stick their oar in so they can claim THEY "fixed" Iraq. They have 58 seats to defend in the Red parts of the Election map in 2008. They are NOT going to want the tag of "losing Iraq" hung around their neck in 2008.

Try as we might, I'm not very optimistic that we can convince an overwhelming majority of our fellow countrymen to take the growing threat of the jihadists seriously. Unfortunately, it will likely take a cataclysmic event on our own soil to wake them up.

History is being repeat because some have not learned from the past

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.