Jihad, Islamism, and Non-Interventionism (Part 2 of 3)

3.1. Occidentalism and Non-Interventionists - Islamist Terrorism as a Reaction to U.S. Foreign Policy

In his book "Marching Toward Hell", Mr. Scheuer mocks those concerned about Islamism as "Cold Warriors" (p. 148), while adopting a Cold War mentality towards Islamism himself. In Mr. Scheuer's efforts to promote Non-Interventionism, his argument is that Islamist terrorism is exclusively a reaction to U.S. foreign policy. Since logical contortion is inconsequential to the larger Non-Interventionist cause of preventing America from recognizing an enemy, Mr. Scheuer does not care that such reactive thinking is indeed a Cold War mentality itself. Contradictions don't matter to the Non-Interventionist ideologue.

The term "occidentalism" is defined as "usually refer[ring] to stereotyped and sometimes dehumanizing views on the so-called Western world, including Europe, the United States, and Australia." In the case of the Non-Interventionist arguments, occidentalism refers to the views that western ideas such as western democracy, pluralism, and secularism are somehow destructive forces in the larger world, as viewed by non-western eyes.

So to understand Mr. Scheuer's Non-Interventionist views on American foreign policy, Mr. Scheuer's occidentalist views on democracy, secularism, and pluralism must also be understood. Non-Interventionist Mr. Scheuer echoes Islamist Osama Bin Laden in regards to his contempt for democracy. As previously stated, in Mr. Scheuer's book "Marching Toward Hell", he mocks offering democracy to Muslims as nothing more than a pointless effort "so Mrs. Muhammad can vote, vamp, and abort" (p. 254), and sees Islamist Bin Laden as "urging Muslims to liberate themselves from tyranny in order to attain life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in terms that are compatible with their Islamic faith" (p. 164). In addition, Mr. Scheuer decries the value of secularism as well, stating "in the Muslim world" (p. 139) that Muslims "regard secularism as inherently inferior to their way of life and an affront to their faith, indeed, as fighting words". (Mr. Scheuer sees no "hubris" himself in his speaking on behalf of "the Muslim world" or for all Muslims on this.) Moreover, Mr. Scheuer states that "[o]nly among the U.S. governing elite is multiculturalism an attainable goal" (p. 140).

With this occidentalist viewpoint, Mr. Scheuer provides a detailed argument that Islamist terrorism is the result of American foreign policy. In "Marching Toward Hell", Mr. Scheuer calls attention to six areas of "indictments" by Islamists regarding America's foreign policy (p. 149-150) that he insists on Americans keep "squarely in view":
"1. The U.S. military and civilian presence in the Arab Peninsula"
"2. Unqualified U.S. support for Israel"
"3. U.S. support for states oppressing Muslims, especially China, India, and Russia"
"4. U.S. exploitation of Muslim oil and suppression of its price"
"5. U.S. military presence in the Islamic world - Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc."
"6. U.S. support, protection, and funding of Arab police states".

The basic thesis of Mr. Scheuer's Non-Interventionist argument is that if America surrenders to Osama Bin Laden's demands on these "indictments", it will be spared from further Islamist terrorism. With such an argument, it is imperative for Mr. Scheuer to first completely deny the existence of any Islamist ideology or objectives, outside of a reaction to U.S. foreign policy, because the obvious question would be asked - what if the U.S. agreed to act on such "indictments", and Islamist terrorism continued and/or increased? Such occidentalist, Cold War thinking by Mr. Scheuer is essential to make such his Non-Interventionist argument sound plausible.

Mr. Sageman's book "Leaderless Jihad" makes a similar, although far less sweeping Non-Interventionist argument, that Islamist terrorism is the reaction of U.S. foreign policy, by ignoring the impact of Islamism on actual terrorist actions (p. 40), demanding that Americans lose their "sense of moral outrage" against Islamist actions, and insisting on "[w]ithdrawl from Iraq is a necessary condition for diminishing the sense of moral outrage that Muslims feel" (pp. 154-155).

American political leadership must never forget the following axiom: "It is never too late to do the right thing." Doing the right thing may be expensive, it may be difficult, it may even be embarrassing, but it still is always the right thing.

The Non-Interventionist argument is totally dependent on the unwillingness and lack of courage of America political leadership to do the right thing when it comes to Islamist terrorism and Islamism.

After the September 18, 2001 Authorization for Military Force and the initial military raids on Taliban and Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, the next immediate act of American political leadership should have been to unequivocally identify and define the enemy and its ideology, to further investigate the links between Islamism and Islamist terrorism (per the 9/11 Commission Report), and to develop a comprehensive global blueprint strategy on addressing both Islamist terrorism and Islamism. In recognizing that it was facing a global conflict against this global enemy, all U.S. military, law enforcement, financial, diplomatic, energy resource planning, and communications would be based on such a blueprint strategy to defeat the enemy. Any other military operations, in Iraq, or anywhere else in the world, would have to be evaluated and reviewed based on this blueprint strategy to determine if this was the most effective and appropriate use of resources to fight the defined global enemy behind Islamist terrorism.

The kernel of truth that the Non-Interventionist big lie is dependent on - is the fact that American political leadership has not taken such a blueprint strategy approach to Islamist terrorism and Islamism, but has instead had a series of reactive-only, sometimes contradictory, actions in both military operations and foreign policy. Some of these reactive, operations-centric actions have confused both the American public and our allies. Some of these have created unnecessary foreign hostility. Most damaging of all, without a clearly defined enemy and a strategy towards that enemy, a reactive military and foreign policy approach can, at times, be inexplicable in terms of justification -- because by definition - it is reactive, not strategically based.

In Afghanistan, as I have previously addressed, we have had one side of the American government launching military attacks on the Taliban enemy, while we have another side of the same government stating that efforts to mainstream the Taliban into Afghanistan politics would be desirable. We can't effectively fight an enemy without defining the enemy, defining the enemy's ideology, and developing a coherent strategy to defeat the enemy. An operational tactic that views the anti-freedom ideology of Islamism as compatible with democracy simply does not understand either ideology. There is no question that there are plenty of embarrassing tactical and operational activities in Afghanistan and in other parts of the world that provide fodder for the Non-Interventionist ideology.

But it is never too late to do the right thing, and disprove the big lie that the Non-Interventionist ideology is dependent on.

The Non-Interventionist argument sums up to a craven "since we can't figure out how to define and fight Islamist terrorism, lets withdraw from the world and make certain we don't do anything to further offend Islamists, and pray they will leave us alone." When facing an unknown Nazi Germany, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had the same idea and concerns in his day. As Neville Chamberlain wrote on September 27, 1938, "How horrible, fantastic, incredible, it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing!" (The Gathering Storm, p. 282).

By being so paralyzed with fear to determine what the right thing was to do, the British government went down a path of appeasement towards Nazi Germany, seeking "peace in our time". As previously mentioned, the British government was in part persuaded by the Non-Interventionist Charles Lindbergh, who attested to false propaganda as to the invincibility of the Nazi air force, convincing the British government that appeasement was necessary, at a minimum to stall for time (The American Axis, pp. 173-176). But even after the disastrous appeasement of Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister, and proved that it is indeed never to late to do the right thing.

In a twisted moment of irony, Non-Interventionist Michael Scheuer attempts to hijack the words of Winston Churchill to augment his argument for appeasement towards Islamist terrorism, quoting Churchill in September 1936 that "we have a great treasure to guard; that the inheritance in our possession represents the prolonged achievement of the centuries" (p. 270). Based on this, Mr. Scheuer makes his occidentalist argument that this proves how "American democracy and republicanism are unique and largely nonexportable", why American should take a Non-Interventionist position towards Islamism and Islamist terrorism, and why it should abandon its allies faced with this threat around the world.

In fact, Mr. Scheuer ignores that Winston Churchill actually addressed the challenge that Neville Chamberlain faced between appeasement and confrontation, war and peace, in dealing with the unknowns of such circumstances, and provided a guiding basis for future generations to consider when faced with these challenges.

In his 1948 book "The Gathering Storm" (pp. 286-287), Winston Churchill stated: "[t]here is, however, one helpful guide, namely, for a nation to keep its word and to act in accordance with its treaty obligations to allies. This guide is called honour." Churchill goes on to state that "the moment came when Honour pointed the path of Duty, and when also the right judgment of the facts at that time would have reinforced its dictates."

The Non-Interventionists would have Americans ignore the plain facts presented to us when our nation was attacked on September 11, 2001, and would instead try to convince Americans to believe in a Non-Interventionist policy of ignoring enemy anti-freedom ideologies that was craven even on September 11, 1939, when Non-Interventionist Charles Lindbergh tried to sell it. As Neville Chamberlain was paralyzed with fear in the face of what Non-Interventionists claimed was invincible Nazi military power, so Non-Interventionists would have us believe in 2008 that America should retreat in the face of invincible Islamist power.

Non-Interventionist Michael Scheuer writes that "[t]he geographical dispersal of our Islamist enemies also poses a daunting and nearly insurmountable obstacle to a U.S. victory", that "America could not field the number of military personnel needed to fight an offensive war in every place in the world troubled by Islamist fighters", that "the Muslim world outnumbers America by nearly five to one", and that "the American governing elite have bitten off far more than the country can chew" (p. 190). In fact, Mr. Scheuer's Non-Interventionist argument keeps inconveniently slipping in the word "enemy" in his writing, when in other paragraphs he keeps insisting that there is no enemy for America to fight.

In the end, a critical examination of Mr. Scheuer's Non-Interventionist argument shows that is reduced to nothing more than a craven appeal for surrender. But Mr. Scheuer does not merely seek America alone to surrender to Islamism and Islamist terrorism. Mr. Scheuer also seeks to get America to abandon its honor, and to abandon its allies around the world to Islamism and Islamist terrorism. Like Charles Lindbergh's well-earned Nazi medal, it is no wonder why Mr. Scheuer's Non-Interventionist propaganda has gained the praise of Islamist Osama Bin Laden.

In his book "Marching Toward Hell", Non-Interventionist Michael Scheuer argues in denial of an Islamist enemy to America, and he insists that those Americans concerned about Islamism are seeking "victory over a foe that exists only in [their] mind" (p. xvi). Mr. Scheuer argues that Osama bin Laden's declarations of war (1996 and 1998) against the United States were "a defensive reaction to specific U.S. foreign policies and their impact in the Muslim world" (p. xiv), and America's failure is in not changing its foreign policies to surrender to Osama Bin Laden's demands.

Mr. Scheuer claims on the one hand to be an ultra-nationalist stating "the only country I care about is the United States" (p. 222), while on the other hand "the United States has no more right to exist than does Israel, Palestine, Bolivia, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, or Russia" (p. 28). This careless viewpoint regarding the existence of nations, some of which are American allies, provides Mr. Scheuer with his Non-Interventionist rationale as to why there is no dishonor in abandoning American global allies to fight Islamist terrorism alone. Per Mr. Scheuer, "America is simply in the way of Islamist forces and so prevents the attainment of their goals in the Islamic world; that is, to destroy the family-owned and U.S.-supported Muslim tyrannies that have ruled the region since 1945 and to destroy Israel" (p. 250). Per Mr. Scheuer, "the United States is not the main enemy of bin Laden and other Islamists" (p.250), therefore Mr. Scheuer argues that a Non-Isolationist approach to Islamism, and abandoning American allies, is the best course of action to ensure that Islamist terrorists will leave America alone.

Mr. Scheuer summarizes America's terms of surrender to global Islamism, as America appeasing Osama Bin Laden on six Islamist "indictments": "U.S. presence on the Arabian Peninsula; military presence in Muslim lands; unqualified support for Israel; support for Russia, China, and India against Muslims; theft of Muslim oil; and protection of Muslim tyrannies" (p. 98). I will disprove each of arguments for these terms of surrender in the following paragraphs.

Regarding "U.S. presence on the Arabian Peninsula", Mr. Scheuer argues that American efforts to defend its ally Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War with staging of military forces in Saudi Arabia was an unforgivable affront to Islamists, due to defiance of "Muhammad's prohibition against the presence of non-Muslims on the Arabian Peninsula" (p. 41). Mr. Scheuer argues that whenever the U.S. can ignore the needs of an ally nation, on the chance that it might offend any Islamist, the U.S. should choose the dishonorable path of abandoning allies in hopes of Islamist appeasement. The reality is that such an Islamist indictment of Americans on the Arabian Peninsula based on actions in the 1990s is nonsensical. American oil companies have been active, and invited into the Arabian Peninsula since 1938. But Mr. Scheuer would have us believe in the nonsensical argument that defending an ally nation in the 1990s was an unpardonable lack of foresight on America's part in not taking Islamist sensibilities into consideration.

In terms of "military presence in Muslim lands", the fact is that Mr. Scheuer himself sought to provide military presence in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, while he was with the CIA. Mr. Scheuer states that he sought "to do all I could to help the Afghan mujahedin kill as many Soviet military personnel as possible" (p. 57). As a known historical fact, it was precisely because of such American military presence welcomed in Afghanistan that many Jihadists gained military training, which supported the organization of Al-Qaeda's organization. Mr. Scheuer asks Americans to accept an incredulous Islamist "indictment" by Osama Bin Laden that condemns the same "military presence" that benefited his efforts against the Soviet Union 10 years before Bin Laden's initial declaration of war against the United States. Moreover, the "military presence in Muslims lands" totally ignores the historical presence of Axis and pro-Nazi forces in Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, etc., not to mention efforts by Islamist leaders to create Nazi spy rings in the Middle East. The historical truth is that a foreign "military presence in Muslim lands" has been a reality for over 60 years. Islamists had no complaint or outrage when this military presence benefited them as in Afghanistan, or when they philosophically supported the ideology behind such a foreign military presence as with Nazi Germany. Mr. Scheuer's argument calling for American appeasement on this Islamist so-called "indictment" is clearly, on closer inspection, based on nothing more than a deceit and a fraud.

Regarding "unqualified support for Israel", Mr. Scheuer states that since "Israel's survival is not essential to U.S. security" (p. 56), it would be in America's interest to abandon Israel to appease Islamist goals "to destroy Israel" (p. 250). As Mr. Scheuer believes that the U.S. Holocaust Museum is a "clandestine" Israeli operation, his argument (repeated many times throughout his book) in favor of abandoning Israel is not surprising. Mr. Scheuer views that U.S. ally nation Israel has no "right to exist" (p. 28), and furthermore argues that American acceptance of any nation's "'right to exist' is especially ahistorical when it is advocated by Americans, as it is a 'right' that they have never insisted for their own nation" (p. 28). (Mr. Scheuer conveniently forgets about the July 4, 1776 United States Declaration of Independence.) However, Mr. Scheuer's baseline assumption that the United States provides "unqualified support for Israel" (p. 98) is simply false. This Islamist propaganda talking-point ignores the real facts: the United States has provided untold millions of taxpayer dollars to the Palestinian Administration and Palestinians, the United States has provided weapons for Palestinian security (some of which have been reported to be used in Palestinian operations against Israelis), the United States has allowed numerous charities, NGOs, and American groups to provide manpower, education and support for Palestinians, the United States has repeatedly attempted to broker peace efforts between Palestinians and Israelis, the United States has been critical of Israel government actions, and the United States has sought Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas as a "peace partner" - despite his history debating the extent of the Holocaust. The fact is that while Islamist nations and groups raise funds for Palestinians to kill themselves and Israelis, the American taxpayers and untold American charities routinely provide funds for the health, education, and peaceful welfare of Palestinians. How does that translate into "unqualified support for Israel"? It doesn't. What Non-Interventionist appeasers of Islamism seek to target is the fact the United States provides "qualified support for Israel" as an ally nation, the only democracy in the Middle East, as America would historically support any ally nation under attack. Once again, the Non-Interventionists depend on a false argument to appease Islamists.

Mr. Scheuer also parrots the Islamist "indictment" that America provides "support for Russia, China, and India against Muslims". Regarding India, Mr. Scheuer ignores that approximately 3,700 Indians were killed in terrorist attacks between January 2004 and March 2007, and reports of 62,000 Indians killed in terrorist attacks in the 15 year period prior to December 2002. If that is how America provides such "support" to India versus Islamists, one would obviously question what level of support that amounts to. How long would Americans tolerate a fatality rate to terrorism equivalent to the reported 65,000 dead in India? But America's level of "support" to India is clearly way too much here in the eyes of the Non-Interventionists. It isn't enough that India endured a massive, bloody war with Islamists and had to create Pakistan. It isn't enough that India has 20 times the terrorist death toll that America had on 9/11. It isn't enough that barely a month passes without another terror attack taking place or being foiled in India. Clearly that is not enough for the Islamists that we should further appease, according to Non-Interventionists like Mr. Scheuer. He further recognizes that neighboring "Bangladesh is set to become a regional hub for Islamist activities", which he shrugs off as something that "Washington can do little about" (p. 172).

Mr. Scheuer's repetition of the Islamist "indictment" against U.S. foreign policy with Russia - ignores the Islamist terror travesties such as Beslan school massacre. In terms of Russia, and its history of terrorist attacks by Chechen Islamists on its subways, buses, planes, trains, and schools, what level of "support" is the United States providing "against Muslims" in Russia? Would that be the U.S. State Department's complaints to Russia that "Moscow's black-and-white treatment of the conflict" has made cooperation in the war against terrorism more difficult? Beyond the Islamist rhetoric, the fact is that Russia has historically complained about America's handling of Chechen groups and uncooperativeness on the Chechen terror issue. That is a documented, historical fact that Islamist propagandists will continue to ignore. If anything, America should be doing more to help Russia with its Chechen terrorist problem, not less as Mr. Scheuer states. Mr. Scheuer recognizes the continuing threat of North Caucasus including the potential threat of nuclear component smuggling, but once again Mr. Scheuer shrugs off this challenge as "the United States will one day have to deal with a Russia whose diplomatic positions and national interests are defined in increasing measure by the demands of its Muslim peoples" (pp. 169-170). The defeatist nature of this Non-Interventionist ideology when it comes to a nuclear power like Russia is nothing short of suicidal.

Mr. Scheuer also claims that U.S. foreign policy is defective due to the Islamist "indictment" of U.S. "support for China against Muslims" (p. 98) as well as America's "support for the genocides... Beijing's against Uighur Muslims" (p. 231). It is hardly surprising that Mr. Scheuer fails to support such wild claims. Once again, the Non-Interventionist argument is based on a falsehood and an Islamist propaganda talking point. This falsehood would be readily apparent to any American who is aware that Communist China is anything but an ally and a friend of the United States, and that our political relationship with Communist China has long been "strained" at best. While Americans are rightly concerned about Jihadists in any part of the world, the U.S. is not supporting "genocide" against Chinese Uighur Muslims. The facts are that, during American fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the U.S. captured about a dozen Uighur Chinese Jihadists that have since been held at Guantanamo Bay. In 2006, the United States determined that five of these Uighur Chinese individuals were not terrorists, and they were transferred to a U.N. facility in Albania. The United States sent these Uighur Chinese to Albania rather than allow them to be returned to China for fear of their safety. The fact is that the United States repeatedly defied China's request for the return of these Uighur Chinese individuals, and as of November 2007, one of the Uighur Chinese individuals was reunited with his family in Sweden. But the Non-Interventionist argument on U.S. foreign policy denies all of these facts and would have Americans believe the Islamist canard that the U.S. is supporting "genocide" against Uighur Muslims. Like so much of the Non-Interventionist argument, once again it is based on a falsehood.

In Mr. Scheuer's condemnation of U.S. foreign policy based on the Islamist claim of U.S "theft of Muslim oil", Mr. Scheuer defends this argument as "many Muslims entertained visions of what might be possible vis-a-vis their standard of living if a barrel of oil was pegged at bin Laden's goal of at least $100 and the titanic thieving of their government could be reduced to the merely gross" (p. 150). Once again, this is more nonsense. Less than a month after Mr. Scheuer's book was published, the price of a barrel of oil was over $110. Will the high price of oil end Islamist terrorism? Or will it provide more profit to Wahhabists and Khumeinists to fund Islamism around the world? Notably when Wahhabists get such petrodollar-based donations from wealthy Saudi princes, their first instinct is not to improve living conditions for Saudis or improve the standard of living for Saudis; it is used by Wahhabists to further spread Islamism and Islamist terrorism around the world. With all of the petrodollar oil profit that Wahhabists have received from oil buyers around the world, not to mention zakat payments on Islamist finance, such familiar victims recounted by Islamists as the Palestinian people - could have the best schools, the best food, and the best living conditions. The choice of Islamists to invest petrodollar profits in suicide bombs, in propaganda, and in hate-mongering - that is the deliberate choice of Islamists, not the result of unfair oil prices or unfair access to petrodollar profits. Once again, the Non-Interventionist argument is based on another fallacy promoted by Islamists to deceive Americans.

Mr. Scheuer's final Islamist "indictment" in U.S. foreign policy is in regards to the claim of U.S. "protection of Muslim tyrannies". Notably, he leaves such so-called "Islamist republics" like Iran out of this discussion. For an individual who mocks American efforts to spread democracy to Muslims, as nothing more than efforts "so Mrs. Muhammad can vote, vamp, and abort" (p. 254), Mr. Scheuer manages to simultaneously condemn America for defending "Muslim tyrannies". Needless to say, Mr. Scheuer sees no logical contradiction in this. Mr. Scheuer also sees nothing but "failure" by the limited efforts at "democracy" in America's defeat of the Taliban government in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Yet Mr. Scheuer also argues that America is at fault for defending "Muslim tyrannies", as the American military overthrow (no matter how effective or ineffective) in Afghanistan and Iraq count for nothing towards challenging "Muslim tyrannies". Nor is Mr. Scheuer concerned about were America challenges such "Muslim tyrannies" like in Iran, where freedom is crushed, where women's rights are crushed, where human rights are doled out based on an Islamist Sharia interpretation, and where so-called elections are between anti-freedom Islamists. No, Mr. Scheuer is not concerned about that "Muslim tyranny" either. In Pakistan, the Pakistanis have just completed free elections, while continuing to struggle with Islamism and Islamist terrorism in that country. And certainly no educated individual would argue the prima facie nonsense that the United States is "protecting" Syria.

So this leaves Mr. Scheuer's condemnations about U.S. "protection of Muslim tyrannies" to nations such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. It is a fact that none of these nations are a democracy. The U.S. government has been urging all of these nations to introduce some level of democratic changes. As shown by Islamist Iran, voting alone is clearly not sufficient for a "democracy"; democratic values and freedoms along with free elections makes a nation a democracy. It is also a fact that in each of these nations, they have struggled with Islamist terrorists in their nations, and particularly in Egypt, it has been active in repressing Islamists from electoral participation. Clearly political Islamism is not an answer to the growth of these nations, and while America has frequently pushed for increased liberties in these nations, it is also cognizant that political Islamism would only replace one "tyranny" with another that is much worse.

However, in Mr. Scheuer's blind recitation of Islamist talking points as an argument for Non-Interventionism, he does not offer an alternative, other than his outrageous statement that Bin Laden's Islamism will "urg[e] Muslims to liberate themselves from tyranny in order to attain life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in terms that are compatible with their Islamic faith" (p. 164). In fact, it precisely that Islamist ideology lauded in Mr. Scheuer's statement which is the greatest threat of "Muslim tyranny" as clearly seen in the so-called "Islamic Republic" of Iran.

The challenge to the Middle East and America is to recognize that political Islamism is the root of such "Muslim tyrannies" and is anything but a solution to non-democratic nations in the Middle East. Not supporting an anti-freedom ideology that seeks to establish a "tyranny", whether it is Islamism, Communism, or Nazism - is not an "indictment" against U.S. foreign policy - it is a definition of who we are as Americans. The final Islamist "indictment" on U.S. foreign policy by Non-Interventionist Michael Scheuer is also revealed for the nonsensical falsehood that it is.

Part Three will continue with a discussion of the non-interventionist abandonment of the world to Islamism.

BULLCRAP!!! Islam is a religion based in the jealous hatred of two brothers from Book of Genesis in the Bible. Ishmael is the claimed ancestor of Mohammed. The United States didn’t exist. Just one more Buzzhead with a theory like Darwin.

2 posted on 03/20/2008 7:35:07 AM PDT by Kackikat (.)

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