Response to "sTs"

Submitted by Melvin A. Fechter (United States), Jun 23, 2008 at 14:04

Thank you for disclosing your point of view. I will be blunt.

The only future for Israel you would truly be content with is its ultimate destruction, extinction, and obliteration. Since you are a "reasonable" man, however, you know that is not available today, and therefore are willing to offer an interim solution that will include your solemn promise of "peace." I will ignore the absurdity of your solemn promises but will otherwise address some of your interim solutions briefly:

The 1948 borders. Sorry, you missed that opportunity in 1948.

The 1967 borders: Sorry, you missed that opportunity in 1967.

Today's borders: Sorry, you are in the process of missing that opportunity today.

Islam will live with this reality of history and of warfare: Those who make war risk losing land as well as have the possibility of gaining land.

For the Middle East you envision a monolithic Islam upon which Western Civilization's concepts of freedom, liberty, equality, and justice, including for women, do not intrude, and certainly not Israel. You would be delighted, I dare say, with a single Caliphate over the entire Middle East, under the Koran, ruled by a single omnipotent Saladin, but since you are a "reasonable" man, you know that is not available today and would be prepared to content yourself for the moment with a handful of, as you rightfully call them, "butchers," each over a region of the Middle East, such as Iraq. But the influence of America in the Middle East, and of Western Civilization, and of its concepts of liberty, justice, and freedom for all? No way! The Middle East must become and remain monolithically Islamic! That's the way it was (almost) for hundreds of years, and to that condition it must return. (So you think.)

All other nations you perceive as ripe plums, ready for Islam's plucking. It may intrude its concepts upon them, you feel, but they may not return the favor.

My friend, I have news for you. We truly now live in One World. The perceptions of the West will intrude upon the East, the perceptions of the East will intrude upon the West, and nothing either you or Usama bin Laden can do will stop it. Nothing, that is, short of an Armageddon that will virtually destroy civilization throughout the world and reduce it to scattered regions such as the one in Aldous Huxley's Ape and Essence.

The War of Civilizations is already well underway. It is fought at the level of abstractions, at the level of armaments, and perhaps one day will be fought even at the level of nuclear bombs. It is not a matter of merely a "war for Oil and Israel." It is a war over Man's perception of Man and which is more worthy, that of Western Civilization or that of Islam.

The perceptions of the West will continue to intrude upon those of the East, and of the East upon those of the West, and the more worthy will ultimately be the survivor. Who do I think that will be? It will be the West because the concepts of Enlightenment are more worthy than those of Darkness and Repression.

Meanwhile, Israel will continue to grow in strength, and it will continue to address the needs of humanity and will contribute one hundred times what might seem likely for its numbers. And Islam, too, if you have your way, will meanwhile continue on its course under regional "butchers" of seeking Israel's destruction and ultimately a universal Caliphate.

You speak of the miseries inflicted upon the Iraqis. War is hell, certainly, and it is not easy to separate the truths from the lies, but if valid statistics were available, I believe they would show something like this: 80% of the deaths inflicted upon the Sunnis and the Shiites they have inflected upon each other; 99.95% of the rapes you speak of were inflicted by Muslim upon Muslim. Ahmadinejad, and those he has incited, have roared into Iraq to perpetrate their murders upon whomever, Muslim, American, whatever.

But they are in check and soon enough in checkmate. Iraq will have its representative government. From a historical perspective, it is not at all surprising that it is taking a little time.

You, my friend, I do not doubt, live off the "fat of your land" – your nation's oil – and have much time to write. I will not respond to anything further from you unless it is clearly new. To others, I have observed, not in your responses to me, you have defended the equality Islam has extended to its gentler gender, its adoration and respect for women. Pardon my laughter.

But the world will proceed on its course, each element vying with its antithesis. Freedom will vie with repression. Freedom of Religion will vie with the One True Faith of Islam, Israel will vie with Islam, Light will vie with Darkness, and the devil will take the hindmost. It is a pity Islam did not accept Shimon Peres' vision in The New Middle East, but it has been and will by far be the greater loser.

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