Mark Steyn: Wake up, folks — it’s war!

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 07/30/05 | Mark Steyn

[Sabramerican]

No it's not.

It's "A global struggle against violent extremism."

[r9etb]

Why are the Western nations acting like they want this conflict to bring them down?

You could have asked the same question to the Roman Empire. It's decadence. Confronted with a threat, decadent cultures tend to navel-gaze, and to assume that the other side is just like them. The misapprehension that the other side wants to be left alone leades to a tendency to ignore, rather than to deal with the threat.

Steyn, BTW, nails the threat: it's not Islam per se, but rather the ideology and practitioners of Wahabism. Deal with those nice people, and the rest (and majority) of Islam will eventually emerge from the 7th Century.

[NeoCaveman]

Why are the Western nations acting like they want this conflict to bring them down?

I was reading Frederick Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" the other day and in it he posits that after WWI we became what we defeated in otherwords Nichean nihilists. IOW The west is a suicidal culture intent on ending itself. Jihad is just the latest, newest tool.

[PetroniusMaximus]

*** just the latest, newest tool.***

Cultural death wish?

[NeoCaveman]

Cultural death wish?

Yes.

[Txsleuth]

BTTT

[Gritty]

...the fact is that the jihad has held out a long time against very tough enemies. If you’re not shy about taking on the Israelis and Russians, why wouldn’t you fancy your chances against the Belgians and Spaniards?

Steyn has once again boiled this complex war into a single, well reasoned column which should be required reading by every govenment employee (as well as regular citizen) in the West. How does he do it?

[Pokey78]

Will do.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

Bumpety Bump Steyn to the top ping...

[tnlibertarian]

How idiotic is it for a country to fight a stupid "war on terror" while at the same time helping to promote it and finance it through its own welfare system foreign aid?

[AFPhys]

Jihad IS WWIII

[rock58seg]

bump

[The Shrew]

Please add me to your Steyn ping list!

Regards,

TS

[Vic3O3]

ping for a good read!

[AmishDude]

Four days after Mr de Menezes became the most famous foreigner in the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Government is unable to give a definitive answer on his immigration status.

Hmmmmmmmm

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[xsrdx]

pay as you explode

To add further insult, after they tax you to finance the Jihad, they vote to confiscate your firearms and outlaw defending your home or person.

Socialism Sucks.

[Pokey78]

Done.

[GOPJ]

Ummmmm, Radical Muslims don't seem to get along with anyone...

And whatever one’s opinion of the various local conflicts around the world — Muslims vs Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs Jews in the Holy Land, Muslims vs Russians in Chechnya, Muslims vs Christians in Africa — the fact is that the jihad has held out a long time against very tough enemies. If you’re not shy about taking on the Israelis and Russians, why wouldn’t you fancy your chances against the Belgians and Spaniards?

If the jihad has its war aims, maybe we should start thinking about ours. What would victory look like? As fascism and communism were in their day, Islamism is now the ideology of choice for the world’s grievance-mongers. That means we have to destroy the ideology, or at least its potency — not Islam per se, but at the very minimum the malign strain of Wahabism, which thanks to Saudi oil money has been transformed from a fetish of isolated desert derelicts into the most influential radicalising force in contemporary Islam,

[GOPJ]

Now, that would make a great tag line:

Appeasement is feeding others to a crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.