Replies

Young Mr. Walters may well wish to consider the other implications of Phares' thesis - the effects that this tendency toward radicalism may excite in the reactive West, particularly in the armed and aggressive population against which jihad has been recklessly declared. Frankly, the Arabs haven't fared particularly well against a determined American opposition, nor does it look likely that they will ever prevail in any straightforward encounter. The enlightened strategist might consider a certain circumspection to be in order here rather than outright confrontation, but the jihadists have settled on a suicidal approach that guarantees them a reward that is, actually, rather perverted even considering the generous standards of Islam.

It's a topic that has not as yet undergone serious analysis - what have the Islamists wrought? There is a comfortable pretense that the Americans started this by an endless laundry-list of grievances, and that's fine for the fantasists that the international left and the Islamists seem to have become, but the real world is much more likely to be faced with the results of an armed and activist West that is no longer content to sit there and take it, with the possible exception of the French, of course. And I have to ask Mr. Walters to consider exactly what the effects of this activism are likely to be.

First, of course, is the overthrow of the system of internationalism under which Islamic terror thrived. Where there is no longer a UN to be manipulated there is a major tool shattered not only of the Islamists but of the left as well. Is this wise from their point of view? That is precisely what is happening. A putative world order is being destroyed by the reaction of the United States, Great Britain, and their allies to an Islamism to which the left has reflexively allied itself.

This really needs to be examined. What is happening is a revolution all right, but not the one the left has hoped for.

This really needs to be examined. What is happening is a revolution all right, but not the one the left has hoped for.

Very perceptive.

An assertive West, led by an activist America, constitutes the geopolitical equivalent of the irresistible force.

"Regime change in Iraq" may be only the beginning...