Maintaining Focus

Mary Katherine Ham remembers September 11, 2001, in visceral terms:

On that day, 19 young men--inhabitants of our country, recipients of our hospitality, beneficiaries of our prosperity, wearing modern clothes to cloak a primitive hatred--turned planes into missiles, passengers into war casualties, and a beautiful Tuesday morning into a day that changed the world forever. They were driven by a radical ideology, a charismatic leader, the funding of villains, and the protection of rogues. They killed 3,000 people that day.

Anna Quindlen remembers to takes advantage of the sixth anniversary of September 11, 2001, to attack Bush. As is the norm, she does so in haphazard fashion, but it was this bit that caught my eye:

Instead of trying to understand and therefore counter the mind-set of those who hate us, and to rally our allies in their communities, American jingoism has produced an ugly strain of anti-Muslim thought and chatter.

For myself, I'm tired of being told that I must try and understand Islamofascists, members of a cult of death. I'm tired of the moral equivalence. I'm tired of hearing the left cry that September 11, 2001, was our fault, that we somehow deserved it. Martin Amis, in remembering the day and describing those who cry for "understanding", writes:

We are drowsily accustomed, by now, to the fetishisation of "balance", the groundrule of "moral equivalence" in all conflicts between West and East, the 100-per-cent and 360-degree inability to pass judgment on any ethnicity other than our own (except in the case of Israel). And yet the handclappers of Question Time had moved beyond the old formula of pious paralysis. This was not equivalence; this was hemispherical abjection. Accordingly, given the choice between George Bush and Osama bin Laden, the liberal relativist, it seems, is obliged to plump for the Saudi, thus becoming the appeaser of an armed doctrine with the following tenets: it is racist, misogynist, homophobic, totalitarian, inquisitional, imperialist, and genocidal.

We are engaged in fighting World War IV. Iraq is not the war, it is a front within a larger conflict. It is no more the entire war against terrorism than the Mediterranean front was the entire conflict during WW II. WW IV is nothing but asymmetrical warfare and it involves ideologies. It is not a case of state versus state, as in WW I, II, and III, but rather it is truly a conflict of civilizations.

On one side is the dark ages proposed by the Islamofascists, as described above by Amis: racist, misogynist, homophobic, totalitarian, inquisitional, imperialist, and genocidal.

On the other is everyone else, which includes Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc., and even atheists, and all their attendant values and beliefs.

September 11, 2001, was not the opening shot of the conflict. Islamofascists had been striking against the west for at least 30 years leading up to 2001. September 11, 2001, was, however, the loudest shot. It was and should remain a clarion call, a brilliant flare revealing the true nature of civilization's dark and loathsome enemy.

I do not have to denigrate Islam to identify the radical ideology hiding within its folds; the villains trumpet their sick interpretations daily. I do not have to invent the hideous nature of the enemy; he reveals it daily with the horrific methods he uses and the innocent targets he selects. I do not have to fabricate his motives; I just have to read his own writings, listen to what he says.

This is nothing new for western civilization, or the United States in particular. There were serious doubts we would prevail against Hitler, yet we did. President Kennedy cautioned about the "long twilight struggle" against Communism, and it was a long struggle, yet in the end, Communism collapsed.

I believe we will prevail again. If we quit Iraq, however, victory will be a long time coming because we will have handed the forces of darkness a tremendous victory. And then one day, be it next year or next decade, they will deliver another blow against our country, something that matches or exceeds September 11, 2001. When that happens, if you actually listen to the Islamofascists, you will hear them say how inspired they were by their defeat of the United States in Iraq.

I wish many of our popular icons would look beyond their hatred for President Bush, the United States, and capitalism in general, and see this. I will not hold my breath waiting for them to open their eyes.