Dec 8th vs Sept 12th

Submitted by Ron Thompson (France), Jun 13, 2014 at 11:01

This article is crowded with important facts and suggested interpretations. But I remain baffled by Dr Pipes discussion of millions of "alienated" Muslims. Does he mean they are yearning for a "tactically cautious" Islam? But If the "extremists" are simply "applying Sharia law in its entirety" how can this be "extremist"?

Consider the following: On Dec 7th, 1941, the US suffered a major tactical blow. On Dec 8th, FDR and the US declared war on Japan and promised a total victory. On Sept 11th, 2001, the US suffered a major tactical atrocity. On Sept 12th, Bush Jr, with no significant dissent, declared that Islam is a "religion of peace". I submit that this statement inflicted on the US a strategic defeat that neither he nor Obama have reversed, let alone gone on to achieve a strategic victory. If our enemy remains the totalitarian entity and ideology of Political Islam, then it is more powerful, in both its Sunni and Shia form, than ever before.

So how much longer can we go on failing, after 13 years no less, to identify the strategic enemy of the US, Israel, the West generally, and, as Pipes puts it, " millions of alienated (from Islam?)Muslims"?

Ron Thompson

ps. If we use the phrase Political Islam, we can maintain the fig leaf pretense that we're not confronting Islam itself, but only Islam-in-politics. This is disingenuous, as Islam is inherently political (can't be otherwise as long as Sharia law is part of the religion)' but the use of the adjective gets around the Left and the otherwise muddle-headed, and allows our Arab and Muslim "allies" to save face.

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