Thank You Daniel Pipes - This is Indeed The Grand Illusion

Submitted by Larry Stratton (United States), Dec 18, 2002 at 16:00

The Grand Illusion

Western civilization has dominated the world largely based on its commitment to democracy and capitalism, and understanding that evil ideologies can be stopped through the threat -- and occasionally the use -- of force.

But we have reached a new juncture in history.

Since the end of World War II, we have believed that the best way to combat evil is with goodness. So we have established laws and even a sort of morality for modern warfare. We call those who violate these laws "war criminals."

Until recently, we had good reason to believe that the stigma of "war crimes" would be enough to deter the forces of evil from crossing the line.

But on 9/11/01 we discovered that there is an evil in our world that has been gathering strength for nearly a decade. It is an evil force that not only doesn't pay heed to the laws of warfare -- it revels in violating them.

Yet the West continues to operate on the assumption that no battle is worth fighting unless it can be fought according to the rules.

We are facing an enemy that operates in the shadows. We are facing an enemy that makes death and destruction an end in itself. We are facing an enemy that is happy to violate our laws of war and sees our unwillingness to do the same as our Achilles' heel.

We in the U.S. have lulled ourselves to sleep. We did away with the draft. We developed the most advanced defense technology, and convinced ourselves that a lean, all-volunteer military force equipped with technology would be enough to win any future battle. We have convinced ourselves that we can fight wars with surgical precision.

In a nutshell, we have fooled ourselves into believing that profound evil is extraordinarily rare and from here on out the bad guys can be contained through what looks more like a police action than the battle of Stalingrad.

The terrorist attacks of the last few days are another wake up call. While the US Congress has been debating whether to give President Bush authorization to use military force against Iraq only, Islamist terrorists have struck in Finland, Israel, Chechnya, Indonesia, off the coast of Yemen, and very probably in the Washington, DC area.

Our initial reaction, more often than not, is to not "rush to judgment." We don't want to believe that the DC area sniper is a terrorist. We don't want to believe that the anthrax attacks were a well-planned "second punch" following the WTC massacre. We didn't want to believe that a subsequent plane crash in New York was the work of terrorists. We didn't want to believe that a French ship off the coast of Yemen was blown up by terrorists, even though the captain of the ship reported immediately that his ship had been attacked by a small, explosive-laden boat.

Our government insisted that the deadly assault on the El Al counter at LAX by an Egyptian national was a "personal" matter and not an act of terrorism.

At some point, we must come to grips with reality. The 21st century equivalent of Nazism has emerged, and it has declared war on the West. Pretending it doesn't exist, refusing to identify who and what is behind it, (Islam and Muslim Terrorists) and failing to muster the will to fight it in earnest will only result in more terror and is in fact suicidal.

Hopefully, Western civilization will come to understand what it's going to take to defeat this evil before the death toll climbs much higher. Obviously 3,000 dead Americans isn't enough and again, I ask the questions of the "Anti-America" - "Anti-War" pacifists crowd both here and abroad:

•What does the number of dead Americans have to be before the "Anti-America" - "Anti-War" pacifists would agree that we have to enact military action and go on the offensive in order to defend ourselves? Give me your number? No side-stepping, what is your number?

•When will we address the fact that over 80% of the Mosques in this country alone are funded by the Saudis, spreading hatred and death for all "non-believers" in Islam, and are also functioning as recruitment centers for young male terrorists to be sent to terrorist training camps with the goal of returning to kill us. When are we going to close down this terrorist machine masquerading as a religion and deport all those involved with these operations? And when are we going to put the necessary pressure on Canada to do the same?

•When will we stop the madness of accepting young Arab men into our Universities? The "student visa" program needs to be shut down pronto. Many of them get their scientific education here and then go back and build the tools necessary to kill us, or remain here and join with terrorist cells to do the same, so when are we going to clamp down on the INS to shut this door to our own death?

•When will we deport the professors currently teaching "Middle Easter Studies" in our own Universities? Many of which are actually spreading the propaganda of the Islamist terrorist agenda and furthering the goals of the Islamist terrorist organizations. Many are involved in raising money for terrorist organizations, and spreading the word, the cause, the hatred and the racism of Islamism and the "Arab National Movement". The ultimate goal of which is the spread of this debased ideology or the killing of as many of the "non-believing Infidels" as possible. So when should we start really investigating these lying dogs and getting them deported?

•An finally in regard to the Iraqi situation – Do you honestly believe that the success of inspections today will be any different than the total failure of the inspection process of the 1990's? The real question regarding Iraq is - If not now, when? And if not us, who?
I would especially like to get answers to the aforementioned from Jim McDermott, Dem-WA 7th District and now traitor to his country based on his recent behaviors and his speech in Seattle this past weekend. And also from Jessie Jackson & Louis Farrakhan who in my opinion are both traitors to their country and should be shot, as prison is not an alternative, as prisons in America have been turned into Islamist training and recruitment centers too.
Islamist terrorists are bent on killing as many people as possible. 9/11/01 was just, in their sick minds, the warm-up.

Can anyone doubt that these monsters would shy away from killing millions of "infidels" when they find a way to pull it off? And they will given enough time.

I predict that the West is going to have to form an army of millions. The West will be forced into a position of having to eradicate Islamism and crush the will to spread this cancer and have to do so on a worldwide basis. Possibly all nations that support and harbor terrorism will have to be given the ultimate ultimatum, rid yourselves of dictatorial Islamist governments, eradicate any and all terrorist activities or face the onslaught of a military might that will show no mercy and crush your will as we did the will of the Nazis. It's not clear that this can be done one country at a time. The Islamists can up the ante any time they want, as we have been asleep at the wheel for so long now most westerns don't even know what is going on. It is most unlikely that any of these Arab Nations and/or Islamist countries will reform themselves merely in response to threats and one or two isolated "examples." The enemy is not rational.

And we will need to go further: we must put irresistible pressure on every country on earth to adopt and implement a policy of zero tolerance for terrorism and terrorists.

In the U.S., we have drawn a line between Islamists who are resident aliens and Muslim citizens of the U.S. even though most are separatists, they don't and won't assimilate, they consider themselves superior to any and all "non-believers" and they all consider themselves "Muslims first and Americans second" And this in itself is a huge problem, as they are prone to aid and abed their more radical brothers for fear of being killed if they don't. This of course leaves us with an enemy that will not observe our hopeful ideas about who is or is not likely to be a terrorist here on our own soil? Once again proving that they laugh at our stupidity, they mock our naïveté which is now nearly invincible. They use the openness of our society, our liberty, our justice system, our freedom of speech, and our democratic way of life as part their weapons arsenal and most of us in the west are unaware of what they are doing and certainly don't know why. We here in the U.S. are still busy blaming ourselves, feeling guilty about being big boys on the block, feeling guilty about all the previously botched foreign policy decisions over the past 40 years, feeling guilty about the Anti-War talk, feeling guilty about possibly inflaming the Arab street. While we sit here twiddling our thumbs, listening to all this whining they are very, very busy working on ways to kill us and destroy our society, and I for one believe that they can and will turn the world into a very, very different place. A place where no non-Muslim will feel safe, anywhere, at anytime and this could go on for 100 years if we don't put a stop to it right now and do so decisively.

We must immediately suspend all Islamic "charities" that send funds overseas, here in the U.S., in Canada and in all countries in the West. This is the only way we can be sure these funds are not channeled to terrorists.

We must tell our Islamic community to either get serious about fighting Islamist terrorism or endure wartime suspension of rights. And we must do this TODAY!

We must tell our Islamic "allies" overseas to either get serious about fighting Islamist terrorism TODAY, or be known NOT as allies, but as enemies.

Defeating fascist and genocidal Islamists is not going to be easy. It cannot be done with one hand tied behind our backs. It is going to require fierce determination, a willingness to answer their jihad with a "jihad" of our own, and most importantly the understanding that they are not going to be stopped by attempts to reason, implore, or shame them. We have no chance to engage in a battle against Islamists and terrorists using more peace as our weapon. One only needs to look at the Israel/Palestine situation. This is a prime example of a circular, never ending negotiation. The Islamist Palestinians have never for a minute had anything but the removal of all Jews from Israel as their goal. All the rest has been simply maneuvering for time to build weapons, acquire money to support the purchase of more weapons, support the overall efforts of the PLO, train terrorists, and promote and carry out terrorist attacks.

Only brute force can put these barbarians out of business. And somebody had better take a stand and start making this point to our leaders and our population, or we will have a death toll here in this country from a single terrorist attack that will be in the 100-K's to millions.

We had better get this message across or this will indeed become a reality and it will happen sooner than anybody thinks, rather than later.

Simply talk to Dr. David Kay of the Science Applications International Corporation. I am sure you know that Mr. Kay was the United Nations' Chief Nuclear Weapons Inspector and led many inspections into Iraq to determine their nuclear weapons production capability during the post Gulf War era. Also have a chat with Dr. Richard Spertzel, retired Army colonel and former Deputy Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick. Dr. Spertzel is an expert on biological weapons. He served as the head of the United Nations Special Commission Biological Weapon Inspections team in Iraq from 1994 to 1998. 30 minutes with either of these gentlemen is more than eye opening.

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