Time For U.S To Get Comfortable With Ideology (Mark Steyn: Ssh On Islamofascism, Folks)

Orange County Register ^ | 10/15/2007 | Mark Steyn

[goldstategop]

So many of the administration's present problems derive from squeamishness about ideological confrontation that any effective Long Telegram would have to address. When President Bush declared a "war on terror," cynics understood that he had no particular interest in the IRA or the Tamil Tigers, but that he was constrained from identifying the real enemy in any meaningful sense: In the fall of 2001, a war on Islamic this or Islamic that would have caused too many problems with Gen. Musharraf and the House of Saud and other chaps he wanted to keep on side. But it's one reason, for example, why the Democrats, as soon as it suited them, had no difficulty detaching the Iraq front from the broader war. If it's a "war on terror" against terrorist organizations, well, Saddam is a head of state and Iraq is a sovereign nation: the 1946 Long Telegram was long enough to embrace events in Ethiopia and Grenada 30 years later, but the "war on terror" template doesn't comfortably extend to Iraq. Nor to the remorseless Wahhabist subversion of Europe. Nor to the Palestinian Authority, where Condi Rice is currently presiding over the latest reprise of the usual "peace process" clichés designed to persuade Israel to make concessions to a populace, which largely believes everything the al-Qaida guys do. The state-funded (which means European- and U.S.-taxpayer funded) Palestinian newspaper published a cartoon this September celebrating 9/11 as a great victory.

Perhaps we need more investment in jobs. Or maybe guns are too easily available in Gaza. Or, if guns aren't, self-detonating school kids certainly are. This is the ultimate asymmetric warfare: we're trying to beat back ideology with complacent Western assumptions. Not a good bet.

[goldstategop]

In 1946, at the dawn of the Cold War, we knew the name and nature of our adversary. Communism headed by a totalitarian Soviet Union. Today, we have the "war on terror" but our elites are afraid of ideological confrontation. Its ssh on Islamofascism. You can't say this or you can't say that about an enemy committed to your destruction. But hey - you can talk to him and try to explore ameliorating his grievances. Mark Steyn would make a good bet we've become that lazy and complacent. Not good for our survival.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[gogogodzilla]

Ping.

[fporretto]

Steyn remains the pinnacle of political commentary in our time. Not only does he write beautifully; he sees clearly and articulates what he's seen in a fashion that no one can deny or misinterpret.

He's correct about our aversion to ideological confrontation. Unless we overcome it, and take Islam at its word that it intends to convert, subjugate, or kill every last one of us, we'll simply continue to drift toward that precise end. The journey will be powered by demographic forces none of us in the comfortable West can overcome.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Eternity Road

[Cicero]

Last night at dinner, an older woman we know had a bit too much to drink and started giving us a long rant on how Muslims are no different from Christians and Jews, and the Koran is no different from the Bible.

I was pleased to learn that our other friends at the table, though usually very liberal on most subjects, didn’t believe a word of it.

But the public schools and media are very busy trying to persuade people that Islam is as good as Christianity, if not better. With this kind of confusion out there, no wonder people don’t understand what we are fighting for.

[Carry_Okie]

He's correct about our aversion to ideological confrontation.

It arises out of our failure to profess the driving force of our own ideology with the forcefulness and commitment He demanded. If you can't praise G-d with all your soul, where will be the commitment to face His enemy? Where will be the power in joy? Christianity is not for wimps acting Barney soon-to-be-Dinosaurs!

[Thommas]

Mark Steyn lays out our ideological dilemma quite succinctly, as usual. Without recognizing that out political operatives are trying to deal with a religious, socio-economic template that CANNOT be intellectually appeased, our elites are doomed to intractable failure. Mr. Steyn gets to the root of the problem, in this article, quickly. The knuckle-dragging proles, us, understand the fundamental nature of the issue, i.e., Islam is the Terminator religion. You can't talk to it. You can't reason with it. It won't understand negotiation. It exists for one purpose only, to establish Dar al-Islam. It positively, absolutely will not stop until everyone else is dead.

The elites, our betters, think that Islam is rational and can be appeased on Western terms.

[Issaquahking]

Behold the Peace of Islam: Picture of the Week
The Empire State Building (currently New York’s tallest following the toppling of the twin towers) will be adorned with green light honor of Islam's Eid-al-Fitr.  If Muslims succeed in knocking it down too, then the Chrysler Building would be the next in line to celebrate the Religion of Peace.

[PGalt]

“The men who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently: they are most helplessly in its power.

The men who are not interested in philosophy absorb its principles from the cultural atmoshpere around them - from schools, colleges, books, magazines, newspapers, movies, television, etc. Who sets the tone of a culture? A small handful of men: the philosophers. Others follow their lead, either by conviction or default.”

from - “Philosophy Who Needs It?” - Ayn Rand

Time to get educated about ideology. Thanks to Mark Steyn for educating.

[no-to-illegals]

I sincerely believe the majority of the world's people want America gone. America is desired to be gone, by the majority of the world, because the world wants America's wealth and technology. Nations steal America's technology and wealth at every opportunity. Many nations, of the world, act as criminals, and the world is full of criminals whose desire is to take. America is a just nation. America grants her criminals a fair shake. How long America continues to grant the majority of the world's people the opportunity to steal from America is anyone's guess.

The people of America will decide not the world. This fact has been lost to the world. America is the greatest Nation on the face of the Earth for some specific reason, in this time. When America chooses uses her might will be a chosen time, by Americans. I would not want to be in the enemy's shoes, when that time comes. The American People have identified the enemy, even though many of the political leaders on the left have not. Americans sometimes choose to ignore that enemy, but make no mistake, Americans know what is at stake and should a response of overwhelming force be necessary, America and Americans can deliver.

Mark Steyn is an author and writer, of which, I hold in undying respect. The Man hits nerves when he writes. One cannot ask more from a writer / author.

[grey_whiskers]

But the public schools and media are very busy trying to persuade people that Islam is as good as Christianity, if not better. With this kind of confusion out there, no wonder people don’t understand what we are fighting for.

To revise a phrase from G.K. Chesterton, "Students of popular culture...are always insisting that Christianity and Islam are very much alike, especially Islam."

Cheers!

[pallis]

When you play with Islam, you get burned. You can’t appease it, accommodate it or change it, but your principles don’t allow you to go to war with it, so we have the “War on Terror,” not even Islamic terror. There is a lie about it right from the start. We go overseas to fight the result of the disease, while we do everything possible to encourage the spread and acceptance of it here. It’s mind boggling, but hey, we follow the many demons we’ve chosen to lead us, with little regard for the nightmare they are creating for our grandchildren.

[Biggirl]

Ironic isn’t it, since this is the same America that while as it is posted, “the world wants gone”, is the same world that LOVE to simply want to get IN.

[Biggirl]

Ironic isn’t it, since this is the same America that while as it is posted, “the world wants gone”, is the same world that LOVE to simply want to get IN.

[B Knotts]

True. We cannot win this war if we are unable to be honest about who and what it is we are fighting.

[AmericanVictory]

Someone should make this ignorant woman read “Hatred’s Kingdom,” among other truths.

[nosofar]

But the public schools and media are very busy trying to persuade people that Islam is as good as Christianity, if not better.

Christianity is the major religion in the U.S. and a major influence on the development of the present culture, so it's bad. Like children rebelling against their parents, leftists rebel against the culture and history of their country. Islam is minor and with little influence, so it's good. Any religion is considered acceptable as long as it does not challenge the dominant secularist belief system and has not had a role in the development of America.