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Jewish World Review
Jine 1, 2004
/12 Sivan, 5764
How We Will Lose the Islamo-Fascist War
By
Greg Crosby
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
Please bear with me this week as I share some of my thoughts with you concerning the war on terror. I warn you, my mood has not been particularly upbeat lately. I am troubled with what I detect as an anti-war sentiment slowly welling up in our country instigated primarily, although not solely, by the mainstream media. It is depressing to me since I believe that we are engaged in a war that we absolutely cannot afford to lose — but we may indeed lose it, if things don't change.
Some have made the statement that our present enemies are no more evil, ruthless, nor determined than was Hitler's Nazis, and since we succeeded in defeating the Nazis, the thinking goes, we will, in time, defeat the Islamic terrorists too. Nice try, but I don't buy the comparison; in fact I submit that the Islamic fascists we are up against today are by far a more formidable enemy than were the Nazis. Here's why:
First, there are many more radical, Western-hating Muslims in the world today than there were Nazis in Germany during World War II.
Second, they are virtually a stealth enemy; no uniforms, no one country of origin, no central headquarters.
Third, they believe they are driven to this holy war by Allah. They believe their religion commands the slaughter and eradication of all who do not think as they do.
Since they adhere to no normal rules of combat, they are far more ruthless than were the Germans. The Islamists kidnap and murder civilians, use guerrilla tactics, hide in mosques, blend into the civilian population, and have no problem in killing their own people or blowing themselves up. In short they will stop at nothing to destroy us. They literally live to kill us.
They're not bound by Geneva Convention criteria, nor world opinion, nor political correctness, as is America.
The Islamists have a long memory and a deep-seated hatred. Their blood feuds go back centuries. They're still fighting the Crusades with a determination and rage that is incomprehensible to westerners. Conversely, Americans have a short attention span and an even shorter memory. It hasn't even been three years since the 9-11 attacks and already much of us have seemed to have forgotten it — moving on to other priorities such as banning second-hand smoke, watching Donald Trump fire people on TV, and following all the latest celebrity court cases. About half of our country is ready to quit the war on terror altogether.
Political correctness could keep us from winning this war. Our society is so overly-sensitized to this PC doctrine that our government can't even officially call our enemies by their true name — we use euphemisms such as "terrorists," "evil doers," and "enemies of freedom" instead of calling them what they are, and there are several good names — Islamo-fascists, Muslim militants, Islamists, Islamic-jihadists.
To say we are engaged in a "war on terror" is to give the impression that we are fighting against some relatively small ragtag band of crazy religious zealots, sort of like Jim Jones, or the Branch Dividians. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Islamic-jihadists have networks throughout the world and their followers may well number into the millions. We are fighting World War III, and I wish somebody in our government would say so. The Islamists have declared a holy war on us and they are prepared to fight us to the death no matter how many years it takes. Any yet there are many Americans who still believe we can somehow negotiate with them or treat them as though they are just a few misguided criminals. As one political pundit has so clearly put it, "How can we expect to win when they're willing to die for their cause — but we are not willing to even kill for our survival?"
I fear our leaders are losing resolve. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Iraq Governor Paul Bremer has said that American troops would leave Iraq if they were asked to do so by the new ruling government — WHAT? After everything we've been through, after the sacrifices made by our soldiers, how can they say such a thing? It's a weak statement for Americans to hear who want to see Iraq tamed and hopefully put out of the terrorist business once and for all. And it is the wrong message to send to the moderate Iraqis who want to feel protected and supported by us against the militant factions, not to mention the message it sends to the enemy that we got our runnin' shoes on and we're ready to split.
Following the brutal murders and desecration of the bodies of 4 American contractors, we proclaimed to the world that the guilty will pay. We threatened and we didn't make good on those threats. We gathered at Fallujah, saying that we would "pacify" the town and then we stalled. We said we would go after the militant leader, Muqtada al Sadr and bring him to Justice and we haven't. Just as Bush needs tough determined rhetoric, we also need some follow-through, folks. We need some battlefront victories so that Americans are convinced that we know what the hell we're doing over there. We need to win the battle in Iraq before we can win the larger war. There will be other fronts on the larger war, they're waiting for us now, but we can't address them if we get mired in Iraq by attempting too hard to "do the politically correct right thing."
Bush has gotten weak of late in the things he says and does. The strength and resolve he showed after the 9-11 attacks has been replaced with parsing words, stuttering, and political correct phrases. And the American people feel it. Most of us want to sense that our President knows what he must do and is committed to doing it. With the ongoing drumbeat in the media over the photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Americans, made to feel ashamed in the eyes of the world, are beginning to doubt whether the war in Iraq is worth it at all. Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfield travel around the world apologizing to all Arabs who'll listen. The more protracted and extensive the apologies get, the more people will become convinced that the abuses that took place in that Iraqi prison must have been torture of such a horrific level that it ranks among the world's worst atrocities — along side the Gulags, and Nazi death camps. And the more the media digs into it, the more they will find, and the more they find, the more they'll harp on it.
The incessant press and television coverage during the Vietnam War helped to turn Americans against it. The very same thing will undoubtedly happen with the war in the Middle East. If enough dead American names are read on ABC's Nightline, if enough prisoner maltreatment is uncovered and reported on, if the media continues to make the Islamist Jihadists the victims, if the anti-war protest marches and rallies continue to grow in number and continue to get extensive daily television coverage, and the Democrats continue to jump on all of this to bring down Bush, then the wearing-down effect will happen — Americans will slowly but surly start to forget why we are fighting in the first place and the general sentiment will be to "bring the troops home."
When that happens, watch for John Kerry (who up until the prison abuse story broke had been sounding moderate to almost hawkish in his campaign speeches concerning the war) to take a sudden, yet decidedly anti-war stance. He will proclaim that if elected he will end the war and "bring our young men and women home" and he will win. After he takes office he will make good on his promise and begin the extrication of our forces from the region — leaving the place to the terrorists in much the same way that South Vietnam was left to the North. When this happens we are done for. It will be exactly at that point in time when we will have lost the war to the Islamic Terrorists.
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JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a
letter to his congressman. A freelance writer in Southern California, you may contact him by clicking here.
Greg Crosby Archives
© 2004, Greg Crosby
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