This article, in a little shorterform, of course, appeared in my local paper a couple months ago as a guest column, under my name. I've re-written it here and there and updated it a little, and so I've made it longer, but the main gist is still there. Sad thing is, I actually had a few people come up to me and thank me for writing it, because they said they'd never seen or read anything like it in their papers or on TV, or had even heard a lot of the information I included. The MSM and its template is dangerously negligent, and it will be to our terrible detriment.----RW
Radical, militant fundamentalism is a rapidly growing movement in the Islamic world; as we know, these people want nothing more than to kill the hated Christians and Jews, and the complete destruction of the US and Israel.
Indeed, they want to destroy all of Western Civilization, which they see as evil, a thing to be erased and placed under Islamic rule and law. In the end, they will settle for nothing less than a worldwide Islamic empire.
Can they do it? Do they have the means? At the moment, no; but as I say, they’re growing in strength, numerically, tactically and strategically. Estimates have placed their number at 10%-20% of the Islamic faithful. Other estimates are much higher.
With over a billion Islamists in the world, this could mean 100 million or more adherents; more than the military forces of all three main Axis Powers in WWII, combined.
It doesn’t really matter if they CAN actually do it, it matters that they WANT to do it; that they think their god says they HAVE to do it, and they are perfectly willing to kill untold millions in the effort. That’s what matters.
There is a greater, broader conflict coming, one that will affect us all. Some might call it World War Three.
I don’t know how or when it will fully manifest itself, but I think we all, especially those who are watchful enough, sense its approach, whether or not we actually want to acknowledge it. Many do not.
Not enough people in America seem to want to understand what is at stake in Iraq, let alone the Mideast as a whole. They don’t want to admit that Iraq is, in fact, another front in the war against Fundamentalist barbarism, just as much as Afghanistan. Iraq is a base from which we can strike at the Fundamentalists when the war comes.
Too many in America, including far too many in government, refuse---for whatever reason, political, personal, etc.----to see the danger posed to US security by these religious zealots. Some, wary and ashamed that America has actually taken steps to defend itself, in fact prefer to see us as the aggressor, imposing ourselves on harmless, weaker nations.
We’ve spent decades, watching mobs of angry Arabs burning our flag and shouting "Death to America". On 9/11, there was dancing in the streets across the Middle East. Is it really safe to assume that these people mean us no harm?
Many still think we should approach the Fundamentalist dictatorships in Iran and Syria; that we should "engage" them; even to invite them to assist in the recovery of Iraq. That would be putting dictatorships in charge of a fledgling democracy. What say we hire a couple weasels to watch the henhouse? The results would be similar.
Many say we should simply talk to these Radical Fundie savages…negotiate with them. This is futile. Islamic values traditionally see the deception of foreigners and non-Muslims as a virtue. By definition, you don’t get any more traditional than a Fundamentalist. In other words, they cheerfully lie to outsiders, and can’t be trusted, so it is useless, and dangerous, to try. Forget the olive branch, unless you intend to beat them with it; they respect strength and force, viewing our diplomatic "engagement", and our politically correct attempts at cultural understanding and compassion, as weakness. They are dangerous to us.
For some, it is not politically advantageous---or for that matter, politically correct---to admit that danger, or even to mention it, much less seriously support action to oppose it.
Make no mistake; the "progressive" concept of Political Correctness, along with its fraternal twin progeny, Multiculturalism and Ethnic Diversity, will be the death of our way of life, especially in the face of this particular enemy.
These concepts teach universal understanding and tolerance of all views, (often to the point of jettisoning common sense). Kind of sounds okay by Westernized, Judeo-Christian cultural standards, but Islamic radicals, unfortunately, do not adhere to these ideals. They want to kill you; they don’t care if you’re offended.
The PC, Multiculti ideal assumes that all cultures and their corresponding views are equal and valid with all others.
This view insidiously saps our ability to maintain---and even to feel---outrage, and thus our will to fight, when wronged. This is because, if all opinions, motives, and their subsequent actions are correct, who is incorrect? It makes us question our own motives and actions, even in the face of deadly opposition.
Europe, for example, is lost in a fog of Multiculturalism, happily, if desperately, trying to accommodate a hardheaded, and growing, Muslim minority that refuses to be assimilated into Western culture. Europe is in trouble.
Some with the Multiculturalist mindset think the U.S. deserved 9/11 and everything it gets thereafter, simply because of our "arrogance" in success as a nation and people. A lot of these like-minded people were voted into power last November.
Earlier this year, the Democrat-controlled House of (Closet Socialist, anti-American) Representatives passed the symbolic, Non-binding Resolution to oppose the troop surge. This was so wrong, on so many levels.
It did nothing but aid and give incentive to the enemy, while the morale of our own troops took a hit. That’s typical, though; the Democrats usually come down on the side of treason and/or inaction in the face of foreign threat, unless there’s something in it for them. Even then, their questionable actions are usually of negligible worth.
Keeping troops in the region and fighting the enemy in his own backyard keeps him off-balance and preoccupied, and thusly less able to strike here. The proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes. Even 6 years after the breathlessly predicted post-9/11 wave of terror attacks, I can still take my wife out to dinner and the movies, or go to Wal-Mart, without having to worry about suicide bombers. I kinda like that; and, I simply can’t ignore the fact that it’s American boots on the ground over yonder that seem to have had this positive effect here at home. For this reason, I support them, and the war as a whole.
Iran, a longtime, avid supporter of terrorism, has emerged as the true threat in modern times; their president is a militant nut with apocalyptic visions for himself and his nation. He has repeatedly called for a "world without America". Soon, they’ll even have nuclear capability. With forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, we at least have them bracketed.
All we need to do now is remove the handcuffs and let our military do as they were always intended: to break things and kill people. Many, many people; about 100 million. Let them fight….and let them fight to win, with and by whatever means. But too many in America don’t want that.
I’m just so sick of it all; for at least two years, the Democrats called for a troop increase, and now that President Bush has given it to them, they do everything they can, including a useless, revenue-wasting vote, to oppose it. In fact, they oppose, and have opposed, virtually every measure taken to ensure US security and victory, even when they asked for it. Any minor, perfectly sensible tightening of the belt is hysterically decried as an "assault on the Constitution" and our freedoms. God forbid things should be a little different now, when people are actively trying to kill us. I’m wondering how the liberals will defend the Ft. Dix Six or the JFK guys; after all, their rights were clearly infringed. Seems they’re just laughing them off, though; they were just buffoons, right? Yeah.....buffoons with plans to kill lot and lots of Americans. We should just ignore them, I guess.
Now, I don’t always agree with the President; in fact, I sometimes wonder how he can call himself a "conservative" without grinning slyly. But, as ham-handed as things have gone, I think he’s dead-on with the war. He at least gets it; he understands the greater implications of 9/11 and the previous attacks on our interests, as well as the likely result of our voluntary indifference as a people. He senses what’s coming. Sometimes I think he’s the only one in Washington who does.
The Democrats and their liberal allies have bet all their chips on our losing in Iraq. They have to be able to point to Bush’s failure, so they’re doing all they can to spin it into another Vietnam, whether or not it merits it, which it does not.
If the troop surge succeeds, as some indicators say it may, they could be left out in the cold come November 2008. This is not an option for them. For them to win the White House, America must lose in Iraq. So, they veil their eyes to an emerging, greater danger, and press onward anyway, essentially whistling in a dark alley.
To willingly put the people and nation you supposedly represent in danger, merely for political gain, is unconscionable.
Purposely ignoring, diverting attention from, or downplaying
a serious threat to national security---and interfering with the procedures and duties of the President and military in facing that threat, for reasons of political power or leverage---is traitorous.
Doing so for reasons of simple political payback (as in petty revenge for a "stolen" election) is despicable. The Democrats, allied with certain so-called "Republicans", have done all these things.
In order to face the coming conflict, or perhaps head it off, Americans must be willing to unite in purpose and action. There are people out there who blindly hate us, and want very much to hurt us and destroy our way of life, forcing their own on those who remain. They don’t hate us because of anything we have, do or did, but because of what we represent; freedom. Freedom of mind, will, and especially deity. That why they hate us. Ignore them, feel compassion for them, apologize for them, at your own peril.
We used to know how to handle people like that; resist them….kill them, when necessary. Have we forgotten how to do so, in the wake of Vietnam and 1960s radicalism? Of Watergate? Worse, have we forgotten what America stands for? We used to remember, but nowadays? I wonder sometimes. All that was back in The Day, when things and people still made, and had, sense. Principle hadn’t yet been completely replaced by politics, nor passion by apathy.
We are not the America we used to be. In the years since 1945, we’ve somehow allowed our ideals to be undermined; our vision has been diluted and confused, our spirit reined in.
Many people will not listen to this; they’ll read it, sneer dismissively, roll their eyes and think me a paranoid fearmonger, then go on about their business. That’s okay; it’s human nature….prophets of Doom are normally ignored until too late. I fear, however, that it will soon be too late.
We need a return to that old American Spirit, the one we glimpsed briefly on 9/11 and 9/12, just before the ACLU started spreading the word that they’d be taking hate crime cases from Muslims.
May the Lord God guide us, and save America……from itself.