Posted on 03/21/2008 6:54:28 AM PDT by K-oneTexas
Jihad, Islamism, and Non-Interventionism 3.5. The Non-Interventionist Abandonment of the World to Islamism But these Islamist terms of surrender from Osama Bin Laden urged on Americans by Non-Interventionists are not enough. It is hardly just Israel that the Non-Interventionists seek America to abandon - it is quite literally the entire world. Mr. Scheuer claims that nothing short of America surrendering its position in addressing Islamism and Islamist terrorism throughout the world will suffice. Clearly his argument of appeasement seeks to proactively negotiate even greater terms of American surrender to Osama Bin Laden and Islamists than even they have demanded. So Mr. Scheuer's Non-Interventionist guidance on U.S. foreign policy continues to be littered with a series of defeatist recommendations and warnings should America dare to intervene in areas of the world where Islamism is continuing to grow. In Nigeria, Mr. Scheuer warns that "where U.S. forces may have to intervene to secure oil supplies, the prospect of doing so in the Niger Delta may be the most appallingly difficult and bloody" (p. 174). In effect, Mr. Scheuer warns the U.S. to ignore a nation which has frequently seen Islamist violence, has seen efforts to attempt to institute Sharia law, and which represents a risk to evolve into another Islamist terror base. In Somalia, Mr. Scheuer complains of how "trying to kill Somali-based al-Qaeda leaders" has been turned "into another casus belli for jihadists by endorsing the Christian Ethiopians' destruction of an Islamist government and subsequent stationing of troops in the country to fight Somali Islamists" (p. 178). Mr. Scheuer apparently seeks to echo Osama Bin Laden's July 2006 warning to America not to send troops to Somalia to fight Islamist terrorists. Moreover, Mr. Scheuer effectively seeks the U.S. to ignore a nation that has had a history of recruiting Islamist terrorists from around the world (including the U.S.) to help expand an Islamist terror base in Somalia. In Thailand, Mr. Scheuer threatens that should America "be committed to respond positively to a Thai request for military help against the Islamist insurgency", that "even the bare possibility of U.S. involvement in Vietnam-like jungle combat... would in turn draw other regional Islamist fighters to Thailand like a magnet" (p. 176). Once again, any where in the world where Islamist terror is having a significant influence, Mr. Scheuer would have America ignore it. In the past four years, Thailand has seen 2,776 killed as a result of Islamist terrorism in Thailand's southern regions - nearly the same death toll as the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City. Not mentioned in this Thailand terrorist attack death toll is the grisly nature of the endless litany of decapitations, burning victims alive, and deliberate savage attacks on children, schools, elderly, and women. But Mr. Scheuer would have America look the other way regarding the Islamist terrorist crimes against humanity in Thailand. In Europe, Mr. Scheuer shrugs off the growing Islamist problem as something where there is "very little America can do to help" (p. 179) and asserts that that it is "almost impossible for Americans to help Europe" (p. 180), as "demographic statistics" alone will allow Islamists to conquer Europe. In his defeatist discourse, Mr. Scheuer assails Europeans' "manliness" (p. 179), while he argues for the surrender of the world to Islamism. Europe clearly does have many serious problems with Islamism, and it is well documented as to Europe's demographic problems. But how does acknowledging this justify American abandonment of Europe? It doesn't. America fought two World Wars to help liberate Europe. Apparently, given Mr. Scheuer's philosophical embrace of Charles Lindbergh's Non-Interventionist ideology, he views such past American sacrifices as a waste of time, as he shrugs while recognizing the growing Islamist movement develop in Europe. Especially in Europe, ignorance of the growing Islamist movement is nothing short of national security suicide for the United States. The facts are that Europe-based Islamist terrorist cells were used in planning the 9/11 terror attacks, and have been used frequently since to try repeated efforts to attack the United States, especially with United Kingdom-based Islamist cells. In August 2006, a plot by British Islamist terrorists to hijack transatlantic jetliners to crash into the United States was foiled; had it succeeded, the loss of lives in the American homeland easily would have been in the tens of thousands if not more. In April 2001, British Islamist terrorists were in the final stages of plots against terrorist attacks in New York City on financial buildings, Jewish targets, and possibly the World Trade Center. In fact, British Islamist terrorists could have been the ones that succeeded in the first major mass-casualty terrorist attacks in the United States homeland, before the 9/11 attacks. But Mr. Scheuer still makes a Non-Interventionist argument is that America can be secure from Islamist terrorists by appeasing Islamists and allowing their influence to grow around the world. Europe is just as acceptable a loss under such terms of surrender, as the rest of the world is - no matter what the direct consequences are to America's national security. Certainly, the U.S. has finite resources, which it must delegate based on a clear definition of the enemy and priorities in a coherent strategy to defeat the enemy. Such reality of finite American resources, however, does not justify the Non-Interventionist argument to ignore and abandon every area outside of the American homeland to Islamist terrorism and Islamism. This is nothing short of surrender. But to the Non-Interventionists, surrender is not a dishonorable notion; rather it is a practical tactic to achieve "peace in our time". Finally, as if Mr. Scheuer is seeking America to just sign on the dotted line of such surrender terms, he reiterates the value of surrender to Islamism. Specifically, Mr. Scheuer warns of the consequences of those who do not surrender to his "political genius" Osama Bin Laden. Mr. Scheuer writes: "[i]n April 2004, bin Laden had also spoken to the populations of America's allies, warning them that the previous month's attack on the Atocha train station in Madrid was an example of what al-Qaeda has in store for them", and foolishly in Mr. Scheuer's view, then "[t]he governments of Europe contemptuously rejected bin Laden's truce offer, and al-Qaeda made its chief's words good by attacking the London subway system on July 7, 2005" (pp. 200-201). Mr. Scheuer then goes on to cite the political misfortunes of those in Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Poland, and Australia - who dared to side with the United States. Mr. Scheuer crows that their political failures are the result of a successful "al-Qaeda policy result[ing] in... decrease in the will of U.S. allies to support American military operations against the group and its allies". "[E]ach clearly advances the goals of the doctrine for international political warfare that bin Laden established for al-Qaeda; the erosion of popular support for the war on terrorism among the populations of America's allies, and the gradual isolation of the United States" (pp. 201-203). Basically, to make sure that Americans get Islamist Osama Bin Laden's message, Mr. Scheuer underscores his point - surrender or else. In Mr. Scheuer's view, there is no hope against Islamism - America has already lost; surrender is nothing more than a pragmatic cutting of our losses, and all that remains is a craven appeal to the mercy of Islamists by America not standing "in the way" (p. 250) of Islamists to conquer the rest of the world. Yet as previously proven, this Non-Interventionist propaganda is based on a litany of falsehoods, deceptions, the leveraging of America's confused monofocus on tactical operations, and, of course, an appeal to American fear and malaise. The Non-Interventionists seek to remake America into the land of the confused and the home of the cowards. Americans must refuse this Non-Interventionist defeatist ideology and these disgraceful terms of surrender. Yet, the issue is not just that America must not surrender to Islamism and that it must reject the defeatist policies of Non-Interventionism. To truly address this issue, America must find a shared understanding regarding America's identity, and recognize that it is the battle for America's identity that is what truly empowers the Non-Interventionist movement. It is with a definition of who America is and what it stands for - that patriotic Americans can most effectively denounce and reject the anti-freedom ideology of Islamism and the appeaser arguments of Non-Interventionism. On September 12, 2001, could you have imagined that six and a half years later, Americans would be writing about and publicly advocating accepting terms of surrender with Islamist Osama Bin Laden? Let alone gaining praise for such defeatism by the Washington Post, Newsweek, the New York Times, and being uncritically allowed to bruit such propaganda on major national news television programs? While spreading a defeatist argument that is explicitly endorsed by Osama Bin Laden himself? The magnitude of such Non-Interventionist appeasement during wartime, when your nation itself has been under attack by the enemy, is more than a Charles Lindbergh-led, "America First" isolationist phenomenon. The magnitude of a national presidential candidate such as Ron Paul espousing Non-Interventionism during wartime in America is more than a few outrageous books, speeches, and Internet web sites by former CIA employees. The root of this problem is much deeper; it requires an examination of the malaise and identity crisis that America has been struggling with since the Cold War, and a redefinition of our identity in regards to the global Islamist and Islamist terror threats to America and the world. It is nothing less than a battle for the very identity of America. Given the enormous sacrifices of our fathers and forefathers, of American peoples for hundreds of years, to preserve, protect, and defend such commitment to liberty and justice - how dare any individual demand that our nation surrender to anti-freedom tyrannies such as Islamism. It is a craven disgrace beyond words. The lack of political willpower to crush such disgraceful, defeatist dialogue through action and a strategy against a defined enemy is just a further ignominy to our great nation. It is a national imperative that all Americans must demand that American political leadership do the right thing, no matter how costly and difficult, in clearly identifying its enemy, in clearly defining the links between Islamist terrorism and Islamism, and in developing a blueprint strategy for all American use of resources to effectively combat this global enemy. But to effectively come together, unified, as a United States of America, against such anti-freedom enemies as Islamist terrorism and Islamism, it is also essential to understand and counter the malaise and confusion that allows Non-Interventionists to spread their message and to keep us living in fear. American business in the 20th and 21st centuries has required an endless series of globalist pressures that have filtered down to the American public in their life style habits, working hours, family commitments, and how their time is used. The endless frenetic pace of American workers in globalism has led to a decrease in reading, of fractionalized information media sources, dependency on sound bites, and on reactive decision making to keep pace with speed of globalism and global changes that increasingly affect the lives of Americans. Simultaneously, America has spent much of the better part of a century in a series of world wars and anticipation of such wars, concluding in a 40 year protracted "Cold War" with the former USSR. In the course of that protracted "Cold War", a marked weariness in the American public found itself in a series of reactions that perhaps the Communist USSR was "not so bad", and that perhaps military struggles such as the Vietnam War were not really worth the sacrifice in fighting the spread of the anti-freedom ideology of Communism. Over the course of this period of weariness and malaise, the American baby boomer generation questioned America's role in fighting against such anti-freedom ideologies. Some left the country to avoid military service, and some adopted a new language to critique concerns that the U.S. military was fighting simply for the sake of fighting. On January 17, 1961, President Eisenhower's exit speech contained a reference to post-WWII America to be cautious about its military expenditures, warning of a growing influence of a "military-industrial complex". This phrase and the oxymoronic use of the phrase "American imperialism" would become part of the vocabulary of debate during the ongoing military conflicts with the anti-freedom ideology of Communism in the years to follow. With 20/20 historical hindsight, it is clear that a centralized military response in the Cold War was a necessity to address the technological weapons threats of the Communist USSR enemy. But during that period of American history, that issue was still an open debate, as the newly adult American superpower gained its first lessons in balancing its inherent ideology of liberty with its global responsibilities. But that baby-boomer dialogue and mentality would continue to influence academia, the mass media, and Americans for generations afterwards. "Vietnam quagmire" was the phrase used to attack any who would consider using American force in the world. In Afghanistan, American political leadership found it more politically acceptable to fight Communists via the Jihadist proxies, who would later turn on America itself. And the American defeat and withdrawal in Vietnam scarred a generation so much, that when the Communist USSR enemy inevitably collapsed in December 1991, there was as much puzzlement as there was joy. Among many in the baby-boomer generation there was also a sigh of relief that America had dodged a bullet in not having to fight an ICBM world war with the USSR. But the dialogue, language, and way of thinking among academia, the mass media, and much of the public did not change as a result of the Communist USSR collapse. There were no victory parades, no monuments to those who fought and dedicated their lives to defeating the anti-freedom ideology of Communism. Even the controversial Vietnam War memorial was a black, grim, slate of despair. Outside of the short-lived tactical 1990-1991 Gulf War defending the U.S. ally of Kuwait, which Mr. Scheuer condemns as giving rationale for the Islamist "indictment" against "U.S. presence on the Arabian Peninsula" (p. 98), the post-USSR mood of the country was decided against foreign military engagements. As a result, there was no vision that recognized the need to challenge the anti-freedom ideology of Islamism. So despite repeated declarations of war by Osama Bin Laden in 1996 and 1998, the American political leadership was so affected by the national malaise regarding foreign engagements that decisions were made to not aggressively pursue Islamist terrorists in the 1990s. Islamists increasingly became convinced that America was no longer willing to fight. The deep and cancerous spread of this dialogue and thinking during the period of American malaise can not be underestimated. It is a fundamental aspect of why Non-Interventionist propaganda has successfully reached the American people, even during wartime. Once one starts looking for it, the malaise is like an ever-present virus infecting the nation, it is found in academia, it is found in the media, it is found in literature, it is found among political parties, it is found in the government, and in fact, it is hard not to find it. But identifying it is the first step to fighting and crushing it. A typical product of the malaise regarding global threats is Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11", which received American and foreign film awards. Mr. Moore's non-interventionist propaganda film seeks to portray an America that is controlled by a government-induced climate of fear, and that goes to war only because of baby boomer-era military-industrial complex arguments. In Mr. Moore's non-interventionist propaganda film, the war in Afghanistan is not to fight the Taliban who gave refuge to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda to attack the United States homeland, but it is for ulterior corporate objectives, such as a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean. Not surprisingly, this film was popularly received among Islamists in the world, including Islamist Iran. But the true depth of the malaise can be found in a 2006 propaganda film, sarcastically titled "Why We Fight", produced and directed by Eugene Jarecki (who also directed the 2002 film "The Trials of Henry Kissinger"). In this film, Mr. Jarecki posed as a BBC filmmaker interviewing people about the Iraq war, when in fact, his intent was actually to get enough footage of film of American military members, civilians, and political figures making various comments, so that he could cut such comments out of context and make a film diatribe condemning the American "military-industrial complex". Among those that Mr. Jarecki succeeds in embarrassing this way is Senator John McCain, who Mr. Jarecki then prominently lists as a "star" in this propaganda pseudo-documentary. Mr. Jarecki managed to get clips of Senator McCain, a war hero who fought against Communism and who is dedicated to American values, making comments on the "military-industrial complex" and American "imperialism": "President Eisenhower was concerned about the military-industrial complex. These words have unfortunately come true. He was worried that priorities are set by what benefits corporations, as opposed to what benefits the country" and "where the debate and controversy begins, is how far does the United States go, and when does it go from being a force for good to a force of imperialism". Even out of context, this language demonstrates the widespread reach of the malaise that America is facing that it must exorcise from its dialogue in using force to protect American interests, and that it must exorcise from its dialogue in combating anti-freedom ideologies around the world. When our war heroes talk like this, Americans need to realize that our nation's psyche needs some serious ideological repair and re-tuning to remember truly why we fight. In today's world, our enemy is not the "military-industrial complex" or "American imperialism" - our enemy remains the continuing threat of global Islamist terrorism inspired by the ideology of Islamism. On September 11, 2001, America received a tragic wake-up call on the threat of Islamist terrorism. For a short time, the blow to the nation cleared the fog of malaise that had long hovered over our nation like a dark cloud. Mr. Scheuer's "political genius" Osama Bin Laden had miscalculated on America's willingness to regroup, unify, and fight its enemies. But after the September 18, 2001 U.S. Authorization for Use of Military Force, there was no follow through on defining the enemy, the enemy's ideology, and developing a global strategy to address the enemy - with resources used on a priority basis to address such a specific strategy on an identified enemy. To date, other than the 2004 9/11 Commission Report reference on "Islamist terrorism", there still remains this massive glaring hole in America's political leadership in facing this global enemy. In the absence of such strategic-thinking leadership, the fog of malaise found time to regroup and darken America's psyche once again. An enervated America found distractions in endless debates over tactics, effectiveness of individual military operations, and arguments over whom or what the "enemy" was. Conspiracy theorist groups blossomed to debate whether there even was an enemy, or if all of the 9/11 attacks were indeed engineered by the U.S. government. In the ever broadening chasm of non-strategic American political leadership, the media, academia, and the public fell right back into abyss of the generations of malaise from which it had been awakened, and the same old dysfunctional discussion about American "imperialism" and "military-industrial complex" was reintroduced. It is in this context that Non-Interventionists such as Mr. Scheuer dare to offer Americans with terms of surrender to Osama Bin Laden and the Islamists. But such advocates of surrender can only succeed if we lack the national will to demand that our American political leadership makes the decisions to identify the enemy, and develop a strategy that is focused on the Islamist terrorist enemy and its links to Islamist ideology -- and uses resources to strictly address that strategy. Both in our national leadership and across the nation, it is not enough to continue to straddle the fence on identifying the enemy and its ideology, which is more than merely "extremism". We cannot pretend we have an enemy without an ideology. We cannot pretend that the enemy can be fought with only words or only weapons. America must have a strategy to do both - and a strategy that is based on an honest, fearless reckoning of the enemy's identity. Both the enemy and the Non-Interventionists benefit from such vacillation. The enemy wins from such straddling because America cannot get united in a cause to defeat it if it remains unknowable. The Non-Interventionists win because without an identified enemy, any military, diplomatic, or strategic global action can be condemned as not being in America's so-called "nationalist" interests. In these times that desperately require American political leadership on this subject, it is essential that Americans challenge those who seek to lead our nation on whether they can define the enemy, whether they can define the global strategy America must take against our enemy, and whether they can end the reactive-only operational tactics that have defined our efforts thus far. Americans must seek such specific commitments about Islamist terrorism and Islamism from those who aspire to national political leadership. Senator McCain identifies the enemy as "violent Islamist extremists" and seeks to defend America from "global terrorism and Islamist extremism". As previously discussed, the term "extremism" means different things to different peoples; "extremism" is a politically correct term that needs to be abandoned for something specific and precise. More important is Senator McCain's use of the term "Islamist", as referenced in the 9/11 Commission report discussing "Islamist terrorism". If Senator McCain views Islamism as the root cause of Islamist terrorism (per the 9/11 Commission Report findings), then he needs to state so clearly and unequivocally, and explain his strategy to deal with the growth of global Islamism itself. Merely recognizing the dangers to our nation from "terrorists" or "extremists" on a tactical and operational basis are the mistakes of the past. Senator McCain needs to step forward and break with that past to clearly define the enemy and its ideology, and work to develop the strategy to defeat them. Senator Clinton states that she can see "an America respected around the world again, that reaches out to our allies and confronts our shared challenges - from global terrorism to global warming to global epidemics." But surely she must understand that for any true respect, America must define its enemies and also define what the specific threat to "global terrorism" is. Unlike the Non-Interventionist Michael Scheuer, Senator Clinton states that she supports "Israel's right to exist", but this "support" doesn't mean much if she can't define our enemies and develop a strategy to combat them. Moreover, while Senator Clinton states "you can't lump all terrorists together" and "we've got to do a much better job of clarifying what are the motivations", she needs to start with identifying the enemy, and explaining what her strategy would be to fight the enemy. It is disturbing that Senator Clinton perceives the past tactical, operational focused approach to fighting Islamist terrorism as an "ideologically driven foreign policy that is not rooted in a realistic assessment of the world". Since this is her documented position, Senator Clinton needs to define what is "ideological" about a operational-centric position in fighting terrorism, and what her position is on the ideology of Islamism and its links to Islamist terrorism, as defined in the 9/11 Commission Report. While Senator Obama rails against "color-coded politics of fear", he needs to do much more in identifying the enemy other than identify a threat of "stateless terrorism" and of "violent extremists". Senator Obama states that "[j]ust because the President misrepresents our enemies does not mean we do not have them." If so, then it is Senator Obama's obligation to correctly represent our enemies. But while Senator Obama recognizes that enemy "seek[s] to create a repressive caliphate", Senator Obama fails to provide any more specifics. If Senator Obama seeks to represent change, the first change he must commit to is identifying the enemy and developing a strategy to defeating them, including his position is on the ideology of Islamism and its links to Islamist terrorism, as defined in the 9/11 Commission Report. As Americans, we have a choice in our political leadership. We must demand responsibility of our leadership in identifying our enemy, in determining the links between Islamist terrorism and Islamism, and a developing a global strategy to fight this anti-freedom ideology. It is never too late to do the right thing. Our choice is a choice that anti-freedom Islamists would deny other people in the world. Our choice is a choice that Islamists seek to wrench away from freedom-loving peoples in the future. And our choice in the determination of that future - whether it is one of hope in freedom or one of fear of Islamist tyrannies and terror - is a choice that we are empowered to make. Because we are Americans. And because America is all about freedom - it is who and what we are. It is a choice and a historical burden that we must make carefully. It is a responsibility for Americans to understand why we fight. Despite what the Non-Interventionist propagandists would argue, America is not founded merely on "nationalist" values but on principles and values broader and greater than any national boundary - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." That revolutionary ideology stated on July 4, 1776 - that is the definition of our American values, and they are more than merely "nationalism". It is this very ideology that defines the basis of who we are and what we stand for as Americans. As Abraham Lincoln expounded on this idea: "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it. All honor to Jefferson--to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression." America represents an ideology of equality to humankind throughout the world that challenges all tyrannies, all anti-freedom ideologies, all oppressors, and all those who would seek the surrender of human dignity. Understanding this fundamental truth about the identity of America and what American values mean around the world - must be an inherent part of being an American. American political leadership must do the right thing, no matter how costly and difficult, in clearly identifying its enemy, in clearly defining the links between Islamist terrorism and Islamism, and developing a blueprint strategy for all American use of resources to effectively combat this global enemy. Americans make mistakes, but whenever we remember who and what we are, we can correct them. Most importantly, the responsibility to change things and to correct our nation to get us on the right path to do the right thing is within our grasp. This responsibility in our American democracy lies with each and every one of us as individuals. We can and will make the difference. We can and will defy those who would have America surrender to anti-freedom tyrants. We can and will remain a light to all those in the world who seek freedom and hope. The future rests in our hands and in our determination to never forget why we fight.
Part Three of Three
Jeffrey Imm
3.6. The Non-Interventionist Demand for a Truce with Islamist Terrorism
4. Non-Interventionism and the Battle for the Identity of America
4.1. The National Ignominy of the Non-Interventionist Argument
4.2. Source of American Malaise: Exhaustion from Racing Globalism and Complex Challenges
4.3. The Depths of Despair in Confronting Global Threats
4.4. The Wakeup Call and the Failure to Develop a Strategy
4.5. The Desperate Need for American Political Leadership to Define the Enemy
4.6. America the Beautiful: Why We Fight
Conversion of muslims to Christianity is the only humane strategy I see for the future.
Unless they go back into their pre-1970 sleep mode, they have to be pressured back.
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