Posted on 05/05/2004 3:50:32 PM PDT by yonif
Herb Meyer is calling for a holy war to save western civilization. But the former Reagan CIA official has a problem: Most people dont know what it is he wants to save.
"Weve forgotten what Western civilization is," Meyer told NewsMax.com. "We no longer teach it in the schools. If you come to the schools where I live and ask a group of high school students what is Western Civilization? Theyll tell you its slavery, the oppression of women and we dont recycle.
But Western Civilization is not made up of our faults; all civilizations have those. Meyer contends, Its the rule of law, the idea of individual and economic rights, scientific inquiry - this is important stuff and our failure to teach our children what Western Civilization is may be the worst mistake weve ever made."
Meyer was not one just to ride into the sunset after his government service with Ronald Reagan. During the 1980s he served as Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence, William J. Casey. Meyer played a key role in helping Ronald Reagan and Bill Casey win the cold war. Meyer was also one of the first analysts to predict the breakup of the Soveit empire.
Now, this former CIA analyst says its the U.S. and the West that may just crackup.
In fact, he has just produced a new video, The Siege of Western Civilization," that makes his point, and explains to Americans what we need to save.
Meyer also had a distinguished career in journalism. He's a former associate editor of Fortune, author of several books and dozens of published essays about politics and economics.
Meyer has put together the case sometimes in shocking detail - the continuing assault on the very underpinnings of the civilization which has produced the concepts of religious and individual freedom, economic liberty, and the rule of law which have guided mankind for centuries.
This foundation of civilization led to a flowering of art and literature, monumental scientific discoveries and a living standard unmatched in all history.
But now Meyer is worried Americans today are willing to lose it all because they have no idea of how it all came about.
He argues that there has been an assault against Western civilization.
This attack he sees as three pronged:
A new civil war fought against the existence of any moral code governing conduct
A war against the kind of population growth required to sustain a nations economy and the welfare of its elderly people
An attack by a brand of Islam which seeks nothing less than to subjugate the Western world. This video is available on dvd or cassette, and is one every high school student in America and their parents should see.
Meyer tackles all three threats and explains what has to be done if Western Civilization and its incredible benefits are not to be vanquished.
"People want to be talked to seriously about the issues that confront us," Meyer explained. "They want to be talked to about the war, about our culture and about our economy. What they need more than anything else, is a way to pull it together, to connect the dots so that they have a context for following the news and for understanding whats happening out there, and thats what we tried to do in the video: To give them that context, to connect the dots, for them."
Population Suicide
You dont hear much about it, but the Western world and Japan are in the process of committing population suicide and America is not far behind.
Current birthrates in England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and in Japan are far below what its required for a society to reproduce itself and sustain a healthy economy.
Russia is a population basket case. To reproduce itself, the birthrate must be 2.1 children per family. In Europe its almost half that, and in the U.S. its now 2.0 and headed down. In a mere 20 years, the population of some European nations and Japan will have dropped by an astonishing 30 percent.
"We seem to have forgotten what every primitive society understands: you need children," Meyer told NewsMax.com.
"They are a blessing obviously, but from a practical point of view they are consumers which an economy needs and then they grow up and become taxpayers. If you dont have a big enough tax base you simply cannot generate the wealth to take care of the older people.
"And thats whats happening in Western Civilization today. We simply dont have enough working age people to support the retired people.
"Its the worst in Europe and Japan and we are obviously on the same trajectory. We can see whats happening in Europe and Japan, so we have some time to deal with it."
Meyer says a second civil war is being waged against the culture of Western Civilization by hordes of neo-barbarians.
No Rules
"Back in the 1960s we just decided to throw away the rule book. We said You dont need rules anymore; everybody do whatever you want. If it feels good, do it.' That was a terrible mistake and were paying a price for it now. We expanded rights but no one wants to take responsibilities. You have to match the two. If youre going to have more rights, you have to have more responsibility, but we want the rights without the responsibility."
And there is a worldwide war of terrorism against Western Civilization being waged by the fanatical wing of Islam.
Radical Islam Wants Us Gone
While noting that there are millions of good and decent Muslims in the world Meyer warns that "There is within Islam a radical streak and when the radicals are in charge, Islam attacks Western Civilization.
"It did that in the 7th century, it did again in the 15th and 16th centuries, and its doing it now in the 21st century. What we call the War on Terror, is in fact radical Islams third attack on Western Civilization. Terrorism is the tactic they are using."
Meyer insists, "We have to go back and understand just what it is we are fighting for. And when you understand Western Civilization then you have a very clear sense of who the enemy is, what they are attacking and why its worth defending."
Someone's off his meds..
Q: When does civil war happen? Can it be caused by a failure of deterrence? Our country is becoming extremely polarized, could a civil war be in our future?The balance of ties vs. faultlines no longer applies, I think. That's why I believe that a very ugly civil war is unavoidable. I'll take it one step further and suggest that not only is it inevitable, but that it is also necessary. Consider, for a moment, the nature of the enemies - foreign and domestic - of civilization. They're not going away. They aren't amenable to reason, facts or logic. What they seek is not merely control over the economic details of your life, but they also seek dominion over your innermost thoughts and feelings. They don't just want your stuff - they want your soul as well. And they expect you to applaud them for it.Hanson: Anything is possible, but there are still more ties than fault linespopular culture, common allegiance to certain values of fair play and meritocracy, a general ease and familiarity in American culture. I was worried at the time of Clintons disgrace that some tried to destroy rather than discredit him, and now we see that same excess in the attacks against Bush that transcend politics and reveal a visceral hatred. But certainly, there are two divergent views of what this country should bewhether it is committed to liberty and an equality of opportunity or more to egalitarianism and a government-mandated equality of results.
That's enough to tell you that this next war is one that we must absolutely fight to win. No negotiation, no compromise, no neutral ground.
They have to pray towards the Ka'aba five times a day. Kind of hard to do that when the Ka'aba's been turned into a thousand-mile plume of radioactive soot... (c8
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