Still not connecting the Strategic Dots?

Submitted by Ron Thompson (United States), Sep 10, 2011 at 21:13

I relate strongly to Daniel Pipes saying he felt safer after the attacks, because he thought Americans would finally wake up to the threat of 'Islamism'. I did not think in such terms in 2001, although I did within weeks begin to wonder what would have happened if we had had a President who was aware of the threat posed by bin Laden before the attack.

But I do think in those terms now - are we safer because of all the attention given to this somber anniversary? I'm not sure, because it seems that we still have not identified our strategic enemy. We still assume that 'Islamism' is some sort of mutant strain, or that it has "hijacked" the 'true' Islam, rather than asking ourselves whether Islamism is the logical apotheosis of Islam. Jave the jihadist "hijacked" islam, or are they the true children of Mohammed's message, and of whom he would be proud?

When we have the religious capitol of Sunni Islam, Saudi Arabia, practicing the most intolerant form of islam for the past 250 years, and the religious capitol of Shia Islam, Iran, pursuing nulcear weapons with all their might, and talking repeatedly, in religious terms, about 'wiping Israel off the map',and of a 'World without America', you might think that the only possible, rational reaction would be for Westren leaders and thinkers to debate whether our strategic enemy was ... the religion itself.

But we're still not there yet, so it's hard to feel safer despite this heightened attention to the anniversary.

Last night i heard Tom Brokaw refer to "perpetual instability" in the Middle East. Now I wouldn't expect a mainstream figure like him to take the next logical step, but since most Moslems everywhere believe, or are incessantly told by their leaders that the most important element of their personal and collective identity is their religion, you .... might .... think that the conclusion, or at least the strong speculation, would be that perhaps ... just perhaps, it is Islam that is the cause of this "perpetual instability."

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