WAKE UP AMERICA, “RADICAL” ISLAM IS CALLING
WAKE UP AMERICA, “RADICAL” ISLAM IS
CALLING, AND ITS CALLING CARD IS AN
INVITATION TO YOUR WAKE
by
Ken Eliasberg
In a previous column I referred to the current period as a possible 1938 redux, and please bear in mind that I am both positve and optimistic by nature and take a dim view of using melodrama, theatrics or hyperbole to make a point. Moreover, I don’t regard fear as my first (or even second or third) choice for motivating an audience. I have frequently pondered over how we are responding to this perceived danger. I can’t make up my mind whether this period most closely resembles Great Britain in 1938 or Rome in 475. That is, are we so deep in denial that we refuse to recognize the existential threat posed by Radical Islam, or too decadent to summon up the will, let alone the energy, to respond to it. For God’s sake, look around - the Middle East is, and has been for the better part of the last 30 years, a seething cauldron of hatred and violence that, after 9/11, has been spilling over into our hemisphere. Europe is rapidly deteriorating, on its way to being taken over by a culture suffering from an acute case of arrested development—and is itself too decadent to even acknowledge, let alone resist, this takeover. Iran (a Mullahcrocy) and North Korea (a screwballocracy) threaten the world with a nuclear capacity that each would more than willingly make available to terrorist groups. And America-hating (both from those within and without; the former, being particularly dangerous, divisive, and pernicious) poses a potentially fatal threat, for it prevents us from bringing our full potential to bare in responding to this external threat to our survival.
I am heartened by the fact that I am not alone in this perception of the danger to which I refer. A number of gifted columnists have picked up on this theme and done so quite capably. One, my favorite columnist and scholar—Victor Davis Hanson—has written a number of columns on the current situation, also, on occasion, using pre-WWII and the collapse of Rome as points of departure in framing the discussion. I recommend anything that Hanson writes, because, not only is he a scholar, a renowned history professor, and pundit, he has one of the most penetrating minds I have encountered. Moreover, his writing is both insightful and pleasurable (although what he writes about is hardly the stuff of pleasure). And, I intend to share the thinking of this group of scholars with you in my next column; here, I just want to share my thoughts with you—we are in serious trouble, and the left, in their zeal to regain power, is either (1) refusing to acknowledge it, or undermining our effort to deal with this trouble when they feel compelled to acknowledge that an effort may be in order, (2) busy trying to sweep it under the carpet by trivializing or minimizing the nature of the threat, and/or (3) so consumed by their thirst for power that they will not let a little thing like national security get in their way (how’s that for patriotism?). I’ve gone over the threat at great length (and I shall continue to do so in future columns; after all, things like social security, medicare, education, etc. really don’t mean much if you don’t have a country to give them context).
Let me just say at the outset—there is only one way to fight a war—TO WIN IT? Victory will not come as the result of protracted negotiations; it will be the result of destroying the enemy’s will to fight (by beating him into submission—not by talking him to death!!).
Our greatest threat is not Radical Islam; if we were united behind our leader, we would have no trouble dealing with a civilization that has barely made it into the 8th century—their brutality is a sign of their backwardness. They hate us not for anything that we have done to them but rather for what they have failed to do for themselves. Like what? Like evolve!!!!
Lincoln—you know our 16th, and possibly greatest, president made 2 observations during the years of his travail that I resonate with—(1) A House divided cannot stand, and (2) war is not fought by blowing rose water through corn stalks. I can’t recall any time in our subsequent history when those two observations were more appropriate and possibly telling.
I have never seen the country more polarized. Nor have I ever seen the raw hatred for a president—one who, in my opinion, is really quite likeable as well as a man of principle—that I see today and have seen for several years. Forget for the moment the rather trivial consideration that we are at war—the left’s seething hatred makes progress in any area almost impossible. In addition, the concept of political correctness has so invaded our consideration of any topic as to render it virtually impossible to look at its substance, i.e. we are so put off by form, that we cannot properly probe the substance of any issue, let alone one as important as our survival. As I have pointed out before, if, during the course of WWII, the right had been as vicious and divisive as the left is today, Americans would be speaking German and/or Japanese today. And, in my opinion, Radical Islam poses a much greater threat than Germany and Japan ever presented. Why? For 2 obvious reasons (1) the capacity to wage war today poses a destructive threat so great as to dwarf anything we were faced with in 1941, and (2) unlike the Germans or Japanese (including their kamikaze pilots), these guys are not only willing to die, they look forward to it (perhaps because their life here on earth offers so little in terms that we in Western civilization have come to take for granted—like opportunity).
In WWII, the country united behind FDR (even though there were many who were not Roosevelt fans). The populace sensed the danger, morale was high, and, given American grit and determination, the outcome was almost a foregone conclusion (although, admittedly, there were some dark days before such clarity was made manifest). But you could feel that everyone—or virtually everyone—loved his or her country, and it never entered his or her mind to do anything but pitch in. While we are at war today—again, one I believe even more threatening to our civilization than the threat of 1939—one does not get that feeling of unity. Hardly! Therefore, the outcome is in doubt. Again, as I have previously mentioned, we did not lose Vietnam on the fields of Southeast Asia; we lost the war on the streets of Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, etc. Just read general Giap’s memoirs to see how much reliance the Vietcong and the Northvietnamese placed on the left in this country to persevere until their ultimate victory. However, there is a major difference between this conflagration and that of Vietnam; as Rich Lowry pointed out in a recent column for National Review online, the Northvietnamese were quite content to take over the South and remain in Asia. If we lose this war, and we sure as hell do not seem to be fighting it to win it (although I wholeheartedly endorse most of Bush’s efforts in this cause), these guys will follow us home (and, as previously noted, many are already here). They want a world wide Caliphate—Israel, Europe, etc. will not be enough for them. They want the Great Satan! And folks, that’s a threat that we would do well to take seriously—a heck of a lot more seriously than we appear to be taking it.
We need the left on board to win, and the left seems to be so concerned with their regaining their lost power that they are standing in the way of America’s using its power to throttle a very dangerous enemy. I fear that, unless the left comes to its senses, there may be a real need to brush up on your Arabic. I’ll have a lot more to say about the left’s obstruction efforts in the future, but next week I want to share with you the thoughts of other columnists for whom I have considerable respect. In closing, please bear one thing in mind—WE CANNOT FIGHT, AND HOPE TO WIN, A POLITICALLY CORRECT WAR!