That Other War: Revisited

Originally published by Political Grind - October 23, 2007
http://politicalgrind.com/2007/10/23/that-other-war/
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"Our enemies are not all we need to fear, we must fear those that refuse to name them".
-- Susan Duclos (Spree)
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A message from Radarsite: What have we learned about ourselves from this recent fateful presidential election? We learned that a majority of Americans have bought into the concept that America is the problem with the world. We have learned that if we attempt to protect ourselves or fight back against our enemies we will be condemned by the world as aggressors. We have learned that it is our inherent bigotry and racism that is the fundamental cause of the dangerous instability in this world. We have learned that the only way to combat this growing menace to world peace is to 'embrace the other' and elect a man of color -- regardless of his qualifications or character -- in order to make a statement to the world that we recognize our national historical guilt and that we are willing, no, determined, to change. To accomodate the world, we will change what it means to be an American. We will be less concerned with our American exceptionalism and more concerned with the needs of the world we live in. We have been guilty of gross arrogance and monumental hubris, and we are willing to make amends.

We have also learned that, for the majority of Americans, the fact that our enemies have not broken down our doors and attacked us in our homes for seven years now proves that they are no longer there. Or if they are there, that they no longer pose the threat to our existence that we once thought they did. 49% of Americans polled during this past election thought that the most serious issue facing this nation was the economy. The next most pertinent issue was terrorism, which was ranked at an inconsequential 9%. Now, the question is this. Does the existential threat to our nation diminish in direct relation to our acknowledgement of it? Have our sworn enemies become less dangerous to us because we refuse to look at them?

Although this article was written almost exactly one year ago, unfortunately it is still all too relevant. Some of the references are dated now. But the danger is not dated. If anything, because of the results of this historic presidential election, and the mindset it expresses, we are in more danger now than ever. - rg
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Western civilization is in the midst of a war for its very existence and we are losing this war.

No, I’m not talking about the ongoing wars in Afghanistan or Iraq. I'm not referring to those recent ominous clashes between the Turks and the PKK in Northern Iraq, nor even that increasingly dangerous, but seemingly inevitable confrontation with the terrorist state of Iran.

I’m talking about that other war, that larger, more deadly global conflict that nobody wants to talk about. I’m talking about that increasingly obvious and undeniable Clash of Civilizations, in which these bloody battles in the Middle East merely represent the most visible manifestations.

We have distorted the facts and ignored the evidence in our pathetic efforts to deny the very existence of this greater war, and to hopefully postpone that unavoidable day of reckoning.

While in Iraq itself some promising signs are emerging. In his creative counterinsurgency strategy (COIN), General Petraeus has found it expedient to reach out to those “moderate” Muslims in an effort to form working alliances against the insurgents and radicals, and thus far has achieved sosme remarkable success.
But can these successful tactics in the battle of Iraq be translated to that larger and more subtle battleground in that other war, that growing and already formidable Islamic onslaught against the West?
Unfortunately, no. In fact, almost the exact opposite is true.

It is estimated that within twenty years the population of Marseilles will be majority Muslim. Almost all of the liberal Western democracies are being overwhelmed by hordes of Muslim immigrants, mostly from North Africa, immigrants who bring their savage and backward culture (and their alarming birth rate) with them. The liberal Western societies have been attempting to deal with this growing menace with the pitiful weapons of tolerance and understanding. For the sake of embracing some feel-good, why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along-together concepts of multiculturalism and diversity they are in the process of losing their historical and traditional European cultures.

The industrial cities of northern England have become majority Muslim. London is fast becoming Londonistan. The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain — one by one, these European countries are awakening to the deadly peril which they have allowed into their midst. Little Switzerland, in its most recent elections, seems to be determined to fight back against this loss of its cultural identity. But is it too little too late? For some countries, the damage may have already been done.

It is a gross misrepresentation of the facts to refer to this monumental crisis that the West now faces as a War on Terror. For all of the terror that can be generated by some murderous and well-publicized attack, the most deadly threat to our existence comes, not from the terrorists, but from these ubiquitous cultural invasions, which we in the West — precisely because of our liberal and tolerant values — are woefully unprepared to counter.

The Islamic culture which is attempting, and in some cases succeeding in infiltrating and subsuming its welcoming democratic host countries is one of the most brutal cultures in history. It stands in direct opposition to everything our liberal Western culture holds valuable. It is a pitiless totalitarian theocracy which denigrates individuality and scientific progress. It is completely and utterly intolerant of any other point of view. It brutalizes and seeks to subjugate its women to the will of the superior male. It responds to criticism or dissent with a combination of intimidation and violence. Those few heroic journalists, authors and politicians who have dared to question or criticize Islam have either been forced into hiding or been murdered.

These barbaric invasions are being aided and abetted by our own liberal 'multiculturalists'. Under the dictates of multiculturalism and diversity we have been forbidden to even acknowledge the existence of these threats — let alone deal with them. We have even ceded the moral high ground to these medieval brutes, meekly acquiescing to the delusions of cultural moral equivalency — as though somehow the beheading of a Daniel Pearl equates with the embarrassment of a Britney Spears. If we even attempt to redress these issues we are immediately branded as xenophobic racists.

Consider for a moment the utter absurdity of this statement:
We are six years into this so-called War on Terror and we are still unwilling or unable to honestly identify our enemies and confront them for fear of being impolite.

Here is the hard truth and it’s time we faced it. Whether we went into Iraq or not, the war that we have had thrust upon us will continue. For it is not just about Iraq or Afghanistan; it is not just about Al-Qaeda. This war is not about what we have done or not done in the Middle East. This war that we are in is a war against a culture, the hate-driven 15th century, pride/revenge male warrior culture of the Arab/Islamic world (in which I include Iran). Whether we choose to see it this way or not, the facts remain that we are, indeed, in the midst of a Clash of Civilizations. There is nothing more dangerous in a time of war than underestimating your enemy.

For those amongst us who still wonder “why can’t we all just get along together?” I suggest that you remember once again that awful day in September. I suggest that you take out those pictures of the nineteen Muslim hijackers again and look closely at those faces. This is the enemy. They are implacable in their hatred towards us. They are willing to die to kill us. The civilized West is once again being besieged by savage barbarian hordes, driven by their brutal and uncompromising religion. And we don’t know how to fight back. All that we have learned that makes us civilized now works against us and to our enemy’s advantage.

If anyone seriously believes that we are going to defeat this ruthless, divinely-inspired enemy through gentlemanly dialogue and understanding, I suggest they remember the fate of Theo van Gogh. We will not overcome this fanatical fascist threat by attempting to find some common theological ground in the Old Testament, or by promoting some delusional multicultural vision of diversity. Our European neighbors have already tried this and failed, and their imperiled societies are suffering the consequences of their bad judgment.

Now this dreaded plague has arrived on our own shores. We can no longer afford the luxury of comforting ourselves with pleasant delusions and well-intentioned obfuscations. We will never defeat them with kindly platitudes or high-minded liberal idealism.

Finally, we must dare to be impolite, we must sacrifice some of our precious civility and have the courage to recognize our enemy for what he is and deal with him accordingly or we will most certainly lose this battle of wills, this unmistakable Clash of Civilizations.