Posted on 11/06/2001 3:28:51 PM PST by moneyrunner
The Ramadan Pause.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. Since the Muslim and the Western calendar are not in sync, the month of Ramadan fluctuates from year to year. This year Ramadan will start on November 17th according to the Islamic Society of North America. Virtually since the US began its efforts to hunt down the terrorist responsible for the attacks of September 11, reporters and reporterettes have been breathlessly asking the Administration if it would stop the war in Afghanistan during Ramadan. That a major war should take a one-month “time-out” so that the enemy can fast, pray, refrain from sex – and regroup - is preposterous on its face. Yet, “serious” pundits and newsreaders all gave this unserious concept their rhetorical support. The question is why?
The 20th century has had its share of wars. At no time were wars halted for holidays. I’m sure there has been the occasional Christmas day lull in the fighting in Europe during past wars as both sides tried to give its soldiers a morale boost. But war is the most deadly serious business. It’s not a football game with timeouts and the opposing teams shaking hands as they head for the locker room at the end. Wars involved not only the deaths of individual soldiers, but can result in the death of cultures and civilizations. Treating it as a spectator sport reveals something about those who ask the question.
There are two reasons the silly concept of a Ramadan pause has gotten traction from the chattering classes. First, they really don’t believe they are in real danger. The second is Bill Clinton.
Let me explain.
While the news media does not believe in God, they appears to believe in an immortal and omnipotent United States. It is the secular faith that does not believe in God, but has an abiding faith in the State. And since this State is (as we have been told since the fall of the USSR) “the only remaining Superpower” they believe it is an optional war, like Viet Nam, the Gulf War or Bosnia. They – deep down – don’t believe that this is a war for civilization. And as long as it’s not serious, they can be neutral. That is the real meaning of ABC's David Westin’s comments regarding the attack on the Pentagon. Asked if the Pentagon is a legitimate terrorist target, he stated "I actually don't have an opinion on that, and it's important I not have an opinion on that." That is not the comment of someone whose society is in danger. It’s not the comment of someone who believes that the current war endangers him, his country and his way of life. It’s the remark of someone who believes, fundamentally, that America is destined to prevail at little cost and without his help.
And that’s the problem.
Because America can prevail, but only if we are united. The opposing forces are not a rag-tag bunch of sandal wearing camel herders half way around the world. The opposing forces find their strength in an anti-Western ideology and religion. They number in the billions. Their societies are armed with weapons of mass destruction – both nuclear and chemical – which they are willing to use they with utter ruthlessness, and they are willing to die for their beliefs. The same cannot be said for the many of the people on “our” side. Many in this country and in Europe have been taught to hate Western Civilization; it’s values and its accomplishments. When the fighting gets hot, we may find Civilization populated by conscientious objectors in the war against evil.
The second reason that this subject found traction was Bill Clinton. Wars involving Islamic states have always been fought without regard for Ramadan. Iran and Iraq, both Moslem states - one run by its mullahs – not only did not break for Ramadan, they used the month to instill greater fanaticism. Literally thousands of its young men went to their deaths - to bed their bands of virgins – during the holy month. Why then this particular sensitivity in the US?
The “no war during Ramadan” rule is a very recent, totally American, and quintessentially Clintonesque. The Clinton administration wanted no serious military adventures, but, in an effort to appear strong, went out of its way to use – and abuse - the military. The Clintons created faux military activity: send the Army to Haiti to support a murderous dictator, blow up aspirin factories as a fight against poison gas, bomb Bosnia from a safe altitude, send in the Army as “peacekeepers” in the Balkans, engage in “nation building” in Somalia and (in George Bush’s immortal phrase) “send a $10 million cruise missile to blow up a $10 tent and hit a camel in the butt.”
But there was a serious problem that Clinton had to contend with: Sadam Hussein’s Iraq. Unlike other foreign enemies, Iraq was considered a threat by the American people. The polls did not allow Bill Clinton to surrender to Hussein. This represented both a problem and an opportunity to Bill Clinton. In late 1998 Saddam Hussein kicked the UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq. At the same time, the House of Representatives was voting on a Bill of Impeachment. Saddam’s actions gave Clinton an opportunity to change the subject from impeachment to a foreign war. Ramadan created a golden opportunity and he took it. First he announced that bombing had to start immediately so that Saddam could be punished before Ramadan began. As a result, the House was forced to vote on articles of impeachment while our armed forces were in harm’s way. Once the vote was over, the need – in the eyes of the Clintons – for the war was over. Ramadan came along on schedule, and the end of the attack on Iraq. Clinton got his reprieve, the bombing distracted the country, and there was no need to follow through because of Ramadan. And following Ramadan, the issue never again surfaced. Of course, the issue was not war during Ramadan, it was how to get Bill Clinton out of a hot spot.
But it worked. The press, ever sensitive to Christian influences on American policy, found nothing wrong with calling a war to a halt because to mollify supposed Moslem religious practices. In sum, they bought it because of simple ignorance plus it’s just the sort of PC claptrap that fits their template. The American people were titillated by the stains on Monica’s dress and turned their attention away from Iraq. And Saddam went back to brewing more and better anthrax. The one enduring residue of this clever lie was the concept (held in the collective minds of the brain-dead, unconcerned and kneepad-wearing media) that America should not fight – at least not fight Moslems – during Ramadan.
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