Daniel Pipes - After defeating fascists and communists, can the West now defeat the Islamists? face of it, its military preponderance makes victory seem inevitable. Even if Iran possessed nuclear weapons, Islamists have nothing like the military machine the Axis deployed in World War II, nor the Soviet Union during the Cold War. What do the Islamists have to compare with the Wehrmacht or the Red? The SS or Spetznaz? The Gestapo or the KGB? Or to Auschwitz or the Gulag?
So far, more than a few analysts, including myself, worry that it is not so simple. Islamists (defined as persons who demand to live by the Sharia, the sacred Islamic law) may in fact do better than the earlier totalitarians. They could even win. That's because, however strong the Western hardware, its software contains some potentially fatal bugs. Three of them - pacifism, self-hatred, complacency - deserve attention.
Pacifism. The educated people are largely convinced that "there is no military solution" to current problems, a mantra applied in every Middle East - Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the Kurds, terrorism and the Arab-Israeli conflict. But this pragmatic pacifism overlooks the fact that modern history abounds with military solutions. What were the defeat of the Axis, the United States in Vietnam or the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, if not military solutions?
Self-hatred. Significant elements in several Western countries - especially the United States, Britain and Israel - believe their governments to be repositories of evil, and see terrorism as just punishment for past sins. This attitude of "we have met the Enemy. And the enemy is us "replaces an effective response with appeasement, including a readiness to give up traditions and achievements. Significantly, in this respect, Osama bin Laden celebrates by name such leftists as Robert Fisk and William Blum. The Western feeding self-hatred are significantly important due to their prominent role as shapers of opinion covered in universities, media, religious institutions and the arts. They serve as the Islamists' auxiliary mujahideen.
complacency. The absence of an impressive Islamist military machine imbues many Westerners, especially on the left, a feeling of disdain. While the conventional war, with his men in uniform, warships, tanks, planes, and its bloody battles for land and resources, it is easy to comprehend, the asymmetric war with radical Islam is elusive. Box cutters and suicide belts for suicide bombers make it difficult to perceive this enemy as a worthy opponent. Are many who, with John Kerry, terrorism as a mere "nuisance."
But the Islamists have formidable resources that far exceed the small-scale terrorism:
-A potential access to weapons of mass destruction that could devastate Western life.
-A religious appeal that provides deeper resonance and a greater guarantee of having more staying power than the artificial ideologies of fascism and communism. A
institutional machinery designed, funded and organized so amazing, that successfully builds credibility, goodwill and electoral success.
-A 'ideology capable of appealing to Muslims of all kinds: from Lumpenproletariat to privileged, from illiterates to those holding a Ph.D., from those who are well-adjusted to psychopaths, from Yemenis to Canadians. The movement almost defies sociological definition.
-A non-violent approach - what I call "lawful Islamism" - that pursues Islamification through educational, political and religious, without recourse to illegality or terrorism. The Lawful Islamism is proving successful in Muslim-majority countries like Algeria and Muslim-minority ones like the United Kingdom.
-A large number of people involved. If Islamists constitute 10-15 percent of the Muslim population worldwide, they number some 125 and 200 million people that they far exceed the total number of fascists and communists who ever lived.
Pacifism, self-hatred and complacency are lengthening the war against radical Islam and causing undue casualties. Only after absorbing catastrophic losses to property and human lives will left-leaning Westerners likely overcome this triple affliction and confront the true scope of the threat. The civilized world will likely then prevail, but belatedly and after paying a higher price than necessary.
If the Islamists were to become reasonable and not resort to the use of weapons of mass destruction, along the road instead of legitimate political and non-violent, and if their movement were to remain viable, it will be difficult to see what will stop them.
by www.danielpipes.org
0 comments:
Post a Comment