Waging War On Islamism, The Totalitarian Tumor In The Moslem Faith

Self ^ | 9/27/2001 | Marvin Galloway

[MHGinTN]

Followup essay to The World Will Never Again Be As It Was 9/10/2001; It Can Be Better , http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bae2c543108.htm, by Marvin Galloway

Islamism (the barbaric totalitarian sub-cult seeking to radicalize one of the world’s great religions) has proven itself unable to co-exist with the more civilized faith of the Moslem world, much less the rest of the world’s great religions. The Islamicists’ terrorist acts, designed to instigate a worldwide war between Moslems and everyone else, are an ominous trend that cannot be tolerated by the civilized world. As greater destructive potential comes into the hands of these merchants of death and destruction, the terrorist acts will only grow in scope and body count. Note these excerpts from what Former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said before the U.S. House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, September 20, 2001 … Netanyahu has extensive experience dealing with these fanatics [http://www.house.gov/reform/statement_of_netanyahu.htm], regarding the peril before the civilized world:

What is at stake today is nothing less than the survival of our civilization. There may be some who would have thought a week ago that to talk in these apocalyptic terms about the battle against international terrorism was to engage in reckless exaggeration. No longer.
Each one of us today understands that we are all targets, that our cities are vulnerable, and that our values are hated with an unmatched fanaticism that seeks to destroy our societies and our way of life.
Some of you may find it hard to believe that Islamic militants truly cling to the mad fantasy of destroying America. Make no mistake about it. They do. And unless they are stopped now, their attacks will continue, and become even more lethal in the future.
When in 1996, I wrote a book about fighting terrorism … I wrote, the consequences could be not a car bomb but a nuclear bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center.
Well, they did not use a nuclear bomb. They used two 150 ton fully fueled jetliners to wipe out the Twin Towers. But does anyone doubt that given the chance, they will throw atom bombs at America and its allies? And perhaps long before that, chemical and biological weapons?
This is the greatest danger facing our common future. Some states of the terror network already possess chemical and biological capabilities, and some are feverishly developing nuclear weapons. Can one rule out the possibility that they will be tempted to use such weapons, openly or through terror proxies, or that their weapons might fall into the hands of the terrorist groups they harbor?</font size=2>

The civilized world must face down this new totalitarian threat, now, with an eye to ending the enmities that give rise to such fanaticism, thus the strategy for annihilating this violent nemesis must be designed in such a way as to leave the existing peoples of the nations involved with charge over those nations when the source of evil is obliterated. A campaign with two distinct claws, a military-economic-political assault accompanied by religious-philosophical assault, is called for. This campaign is somewhat like treating a cancer patient whose disease has metastasized once begun via ingestion of carcinogens: cancerous tissue is excised, chemotherapy begun, and the patient is sent home with directions for a new diet and exercise routine.

A Military-Economic-Political Assault

The military assault brought to bear against this insidious terrorism disease must have two talons, foreign and domestic. Yes, there must be a domestic war; sorry to all those worrying about giving up any liberties; there must be a military styled campaign, at least in the intel sense, to find and destroy the terrorists already here in America and in other nations who wish to exist peacefully; these liberties can and will be restored, especially here in America, if we the sovereign peoples remain vigilant and involved in the political process such that our elected representatives legislate as we direct through our insistent voices and out votes. Addressing this notion of America’s flexible liberties is the voice of no less than Johnathan Turley [http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bb21abb2aa2.htm]:

The Madisonian democracy was designed to handle bad, not good, weather. The Framers even inserted provisions into the Constitution to deal with extreme emergencies, including such drastic measures as the suspension of habeas corpus. We have a constitutional and legal system that can adjust to new threats better than any system on Earth. </font size=2>

The domestic talon of military effort will take the form of intelligence gathering, then the domestic law enforcement agencies can lop off the tumors. The foreign talon of military effort will take on more of a commando assault nature, rather than pitched battles with opposing armies arrayed in air, artillery, armor, and foot soldier displays, clashing over geography.
The president has warned us to not expect a great deal of detailed news regarding these efforts foreign or domestic—more because some of the methods employed must remain outside of public discussion than to hide the successes and failures. There will no doubt be new weaponry employed whose novelty will stun the enemy when used against them. We don’t need to know all about that methodology until the final assaults have been made in a wide variety of countries now harboring terrorists encampment/training facilities.

The economic assault on terrorists is somewhat self-evident. These monsters must have funds to operate within the various economies; their sources are more numerous than merely Osama bin Laden’s hundreds-of-millions. Monies are collected from front-charities and from foreign princes, sheiks and governments.
Freezing the banking assets of such fronts and the terrorist accounts is an essential part of the coalition of nations concept. Freezing out whole nations from the world economic community requires cooperation among all other nations, some of whose self-interests might run contrary to the effort for a time. The cooperation of practically every nation on earth is required to shut down the money flow to these terrorist cells. Forcing suspension of banking for these terrorists is a formidable task, but America’s economic impact on the entire world of commerce is strong incentive to garner cooperation.

The political aspect of our war on terrorism is more complex than the other two assaults in this process. Michael Novak, in National Review, stated the following regarding the political/social perspective of the Islamic base from which the terrorists draw their supplicants:

If I understand correctly, the Taliban are profoundly hated throughout Afghanistan, nearly as much as the Soviets were hated. … Many see in Islam resources for empowering economic growth. … Islam once inspired a great civilization that far outshone the Christian West (then submerged by barbarian invasions) in wealth, commerce, architecture, and the fine arts. This period of Islamic preeminence lasted from about the 11th through the 14th centuries. Its civilizing effects remain still a powerful social memory. That is why the rough barbarism and political nihilism of today's terrorists repulse and embarrass many. Bin Laden's is not the face of Islam that they love and cherish. And they would love to be free from the very real threat of terror in their own midst.
For the truth is that nearly every traditional institution of the Middle East is now under threat from the terrorists.
The motivation of the terrorists was not essentially religious, but only given a religious cover to serve political purposes — to incite a larger Islamic vs. Western war. They were trying to use Islam for their own destructive purposes. They were not trying to make Islam become better, greater, more beautiful, an ornament to the human race. Their aim was to destroy the United States and its friends.</font size=2>

What we face in warring against these usurpers of Islam is a confusion of ideological perspectives within Islamic culture, and a terrorist network pulling recruits from the mire of social and political anger that defies definition of cause and effect, terrorist leaders’ assertions not withstanding. The terrorists will assert that our backing Israel and/or our manipulations of the Middle East are source for their motivations, but the truth is less definitive … these fanatics hate US for our success socially, economically, militarily, and politically, because our very success proves their fundamentalist ideology fails to deliver to the human family.
If we were not interacting with the Middle East, the terrorists would turn to focus their hatred and terror upon any Middle Eastern regime not towing the fundamentalist line. Jordanians Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, and Lebanese fear terrorists, offering them some aid and support to curry their benign neglect. The terrorists cite erroneously their excuse for murder and mayhem, but we shouldn’t confuse those definitions with the larger body of Islamic faithful; our war must be waged against the extremists, anywhere we discover them. Our power must be surgically applied, even if it increases our casualties, because we are politically vulnerable overseas as much as we are physically vulnerable domestically. We might win the immediate war with overwhelming destruction, but eventually the root will blossom forth again, and in much more ominous reality of weapons and means for delivery.
The potential for political evolution in the Middle East is not so poor. Here is a thought material to the political reality, offered by Bernard Lewis, writing in Atlantic Monthly:

For a time the secret of Western success was seen to lie in two achievements: economic advancement and especially industry; political institutions and especially freedom.
Not all the ideas imported from the West by Western intruders or native Westernizers have been rejected. ... One such [idea] was political freedom, with the associated notions and practices of representation, election, and constitutional government. Even the Islamic Republic of Iran has a written constitution and an elected assembly, as well as a kind of episcopate, for none of which is there any prescription in Islamic teaching or any precedent in the Islamic past.</font size=2>

We must wage this war with an eye to the future. We will win this struggle and when we have won, we must have in place leadership arising from the indigenous people—popular, assertive, and ready leadership. Had he not been assassinated by the Osama thuggery, Afghani, Massoud, would have been one such leader for the future Afghanistan we will leave once the Taliban is crushed.

Defeating terrorism as issued from these terrorist organizations—and make no mistake, there are far more than just Osama bin Ladens fanatics to deal with—will require assaults of an economic, military, and political nature, but we must acknowledge at the outset, we cannot rule these peoples. They must rule themselves, if they can, and show they wish to co-exist, else we will have to destroy even the societies, because radical Islamism is a chronic threat, fed now by families raising their children to think in terms of suicide bombing and terrorist acts, as glorious!

In the next essay, we will seek to discuss the religious and philosophical nature of this war on terrorism, as it relates to Islam and Islamism. We shall seek to dissect the underlying belief system that fuels so much hatred and murder, contrasting that belief system with the underlying beliefs of Western societies.

[MHGinTN]

Ping-a-ling-a-ling

[XBob]

Religion may be the most volatile of cultural identifiers because it encompasses values deeply held. A threat to one's religion puts not only the present at risk but also one's cultural past and the future. Many religions, including Christianity and Islam, are so confident they are right that they have used force to obtain converts. Terrorism in the name of religion can be especially violent. Like all terrorists, those who are religiously motivated view their acts with moral certainty and even divine sanctions. What would otherwise be extraordinary acts of desperation become a religious duty in the mind of the religiously motivated terrorist. This helps explain the high level of commitment and willingness to risk death among religious extremist groups.

[Hugh Akston]

Nice work MHG. Looking forward to part III.

[MissAmericanPie]

Isn't this incredible and we are expected to just look the other way. How many out there have called your congressman yet? BTW you have mail.

[Reagan Man]

Thanks for the ping MHGinTN. I enjoyed it.

The Middle East exists in a time-warp of events that have long since past away, but continue to pop-up and cause trouble for mankind in the 21st century. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that even resembles an advanced society which promotes freedom and liberty for its people.

If the Arab nations of the Middle East can't control their own people, then it is the natural responsibility of the free civilized world, the "good guys", to take matters into their own hands.

If it means America fights terrorism on its own, then so be it! We shall see.

There are so many pundits out there spewing their opinions on such a complex issue, that it's diffcult for reasonable people to see through this haze of misinterpretation, misunderstanding and misinformation. All this rising from a complete and utter lack of knowledge that exists in the minds of so many influential people.

I'd rather see American's embrace the opinions, values and beliefs of people like Newt Gingrich, Benjamin Netanyahu, former NATO commander (General) George Joulwan, and insiders like Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and Condy Rice then listen to thre trash of the Jennings-Rather-Brokaw mentality.

[Pericles]

Keep going.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Good work. I think that what you've suggested is just what President Bush is doing. We have a few problems trying to convert the world by any kind of direct witnessing, however. First, even if the entire population of the US volunteered to spread out across the globe, we couldn't reach a quarter of the people. Look at Indonesia alone, a vast population spread out over a thousand islands. The Mideast is a tinderbox of nations joined by their distrust of America and their shared Muslim teachings.

Clinton and Co. especially used NGOs and other "relief agencies" as well as the UN to try to push Western values on foreign nations. He (and Congress) gave them permission, power, and US tax dollars and left behind a world resentful of our aggressiveness and corruptive influence, and many people made dependent on our humanitarian aid. The leftists in the media and the thousands of "relief agencies" have exploited international human rights abuses for their own agendas and to assuage their guilt.

I am awed by the job President Bush is doing in the face of immense pressure from Americans eager for retalliation and foreign nations suspicious of our motives. The alliance can only work if each nation's sovereignty is respected. That means we have to leave them to their beliefs and customs to insure cooperation in rooting out the real monsters in our midst.

I believe that we will all grow stronger in our faith. That the civilized world will not allow wanton murder of innocents for any cause, and especially across borders. We will have to respect international boundaries to keep this from exploding, IMHO. I am very grateful that President Bush is in office, and for faithful Christians immersed in prayer for our nation right now.

[Don Joe]

Today I heard a radio guy say something to the effect that some of these hijackers couldn't have known they were going to die because they went to strip clubs the night before and drank alcohol. The assumption being, of course, that if they had really been devout, they wouldn't have done sinful things if they knew they were going to die shortly and, I guess, risk going to hell. But if their ultimate act of dying as a martyr was going to gain them entrance to paradise, then their penultimate/antepenultimate acts of naked women and alcohol wouldn't have closed the gates of paradise to them.

The terrorist manual that these guys use tells them that they have to blend in, and tells them to shave their beards, etc. It tells them that they can break the rules for the jihad, and allah will accept it. The only two rules they are prohibited from breaking are pork and fornication. (Yes, utter hypocrisy, but that's the mentality.)

So, boozing it up at a strip joint would not be out of the question for these guys. Since they knew they were about to die, and "all was forgiven" (according to their training manual), they probably figured they'd whoop it up while they could.

[RJayneJ]

Thanks for the heads up! };^D)

[SauronOfMordor]

Any enemies of these are allies of theirs, even far-right fascist groups like the Taliban.

One widespread political fallacy is that fascism is a RIGHT-wing system, when it's actually LEFT-wing. What does fascism involve? A powerful central government which runs everything. What does Stalinism involve? a powerful central government which runs everything

Centralized control by the power structure (whether they call themselves the commissars or the imans) is LEFTism. The democratic, constitutional Republic of the founders is the true Right

[MHGinTN]

Your point is why I characterized the fanatic fundamentalism of the terrorists, the insanity that runs the Taliban as totalitarian, as in Islamism.

Iron Jack's statement, re, there's a god somewhere that likes murder committed in his name, is apropos ... there is such an one, Satan. Too many have come to think that's mythology, but what else could blind the minds of human beings such that they would slaughter even people from their own religion in the name of embarassing and striking out at another nation? The terrorists and the Taliban are, with their actions, screaming that Allah wants innocent blood to flow for his enjoyment, to receieve blessing from him. That is the description of the antichrist to be found in the Bible! Shouldn't we at least sit up and pay attention? At the very least, there's an enemy after US that wants nothing short of our extermination!

[Squire]

Centralized control by the power structure (whether they call themselves the commissars or the imans) is LEFTism. The democratic, constitutional Republic of the founders is the true Right

Exactly.

[Romulus]

I don't know what "modernity" means to you; for my part, my sympathies are with Christendom.

[habs4ever]

Western Civilization, even as debased as it has become.

[aruanan]

The only two rules they are prohibited from breaking are pork and fornication. (Yes, utter hypocrisy, but that's the mentality.)

So, Thou shalt not pork, huh?

[FReethesheeples]

bump

[Romulus]

"Western Civilization" has been opposing the Saracen for 1,200 years. "Modernity" (with its secular and technocratic aroma) is hardly the word.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Excellent essay, Marvin. Thank you.

I agree that Islam is the most violent and intolerant faith on the face of the earth. Their holy wars are based upon an intense hatred of the non-Muslim. And their history is riddled with violence and savage killing of their neighbors. Their desire is to force Christians of all denominations to convert to Islam or be killed or tortured. Thousands upon thousands of Christians have been first converted, and then sexually mutilated with kitchen knives and razor blades to make them conform to Muslim standards. Islam has a history of murder, terror, and subjugation to advance their cause of global conversion. Their hatred for America is sickening.