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December 21, 2006
Why Are We Having To Deal With Radical Islam, And Why Now?
Take home message; we need to:... identify radical Islam as fascistic - without worrying whether some Muslims take offense when we will talk honestly about the extremists in their midst.... keep confident in a war in which our will and morale are every bit as important as our overwhelming military strength. The jihadists claim that we are weak spiritually, but our past global ideological enemies - Nazism, fascism, militarism and communism - all failed. And so will they. (link below)
In addressing the question of just why is it that the world is enveloped in what I'd refer to as an epic struggle for the survival of civilization in it's battle against radical Islamic fascism and Islamic terrorism, Victor Davis Hanson, writing at Real Clear Politics, cuts to the chase and by-passes all the PC crap by stating, "The ascent of radical Islam is, perhaps, the natural culmination of a century's worth of failed political systems in Muslim countries that were driven by morally bankrupt ideologies, led by cruel dictators, or both." He continues :
... Read any newspaper or turn on any news broadcast and you're bound to encounter stories of Islamic radicals fighting, killing and threatening each other - and just about everyone else.... While each conflict is unique and rooted in its own history, the common thread - radical Islam - is obvious. It's thus worth asking why this violent, intolerant strain of Islam has taken hold in so many unstable places - and at this particular time.
[... Radical Islam may be as totalitarian and as morally bankrupt as any of these past or mostly defunct "isms," but its current appeal isn't hard to figure out. Unlike fascism or communism, radical Islam is locally grown, and not plagued by charges of foreign contamination. Indeed, Islamists claim to wage jihad against the modernism and globlization of the outside, mostly Westernized world. Such a message resonates in stagnant, impoverished Muslim countries.
Of course, while the people of the region may be poor, the Islamist movement isn't. Huge oil profits filter throughout the Muslim world, allowing Islamists to act on their rhetoric. In today's world, militias can easily acquire everything from shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles to rocket-propelled grenades. With such weapons, and on their own turf, Islamists can nullify billion-dollar Western jets and tanks.
There is still another reason for the rise of Islamists: They sense a new hesitation in the West. We appear to them paralyzed over oil prices and supplies and fears of terrorism. And so they have also waged a brilliant propaganda war, adopting the role of victims of Western colonialism, imperialism and racism. In turn, much of the world seems to tolerate their ruthlessness in stifling freedom, oppressing women and killing nonbelievers.
In essence, we have brought much of the problem of Islamism on ourselves by our own passivity and naivite', not to mention the exuberant willingness of Western media and some politicians to play into the hands of the Islamic fascists - and fascists is exactly what they are.
So, as Hanson notes, aside from killing jihadist terrorists, can we defend ourselves against the insidious spread of radical Islam? Here are a few starting suggestions ...
Cross posted from Hyscience
Posted by Richard at December 21, 2006 11:45 AM
