The Million Dollar Question

A reader (thanks, Ken!) wrote the following in response to my blog entry entitled “It's Wrong.”

No doubt, Islamic fundamentalist ideology from hezbolah, hamas and similar organizations is WRONG, and indeed poses a serious threat to the values of the western world. What concerns me the most is the wide spread support for hezbolah from the 'man on the street' in Lebanon. I keep hearing reports that despite the violence and destruction that hezbolah has brought to Lebanon by their actions against Israel, at least 70 percent of the people support hezbolah, and feel that hezbolah is fighting for the Lebabon people. Strangely, many of the Arab governments actually support Israel's efforts to eliminate hezbolah, yet it is the vast majority of arab population that supports these terrorists!

How do you ever combat a situation like that, and maintain a lasting peace?

Ahhhh .. the million dollar question.

The Arabs in particular and Islamofascists in general (e.g., Iran) can't be talked out of their support for Islamofascism. In fact, they revel in it.

-- Addressing their grievances won't work because their grievances keep shifting (if Israel disappeared tomorrow do you honestly believe that OBL or Nasrallah would begin singing Kumbayah with us);

-- appeasement won't work because they really do want to kill the kafir (infidel);

-- treaties don't work because the Arabs have never honored any peace treaty (with the West) that they've agreed to in modern times;

-- the UN won't work because it is rife with corruption, anti-Western, and ineffective by any historical measure;

-- internal influence by Arab "moderates" won't work because (1) there aren't enough of them and (2) anyone with the courage to speak again Islamofascism is shouted down or killed;

-- changing economics within Islam won't work because many Islamic countries have no real economy (except oil) and no short- or mid-term hope of achieving one;

-- education won't work because much of the Islamic education system teaches hate.

I could go on, but the list is already sufficiently long.

So ... to your question ... what to do? Since the stated goal of terrorist groups and the states that support them is to kill us, we should take them at their word. They are making direct threats ... they want to kill us. Since the terrorists cannot survive without the direct and indirect support of a significant slice of the population in Lebanon (as an example), we have to view that significant slice as complicit in the terrorist cause. Maybe the populace doesn't do the killing, but they aid and abet the people who do. Since the government of Iran (as an example) sends millions in support of the terrorists, we have to view it as complicit as well.

But none of this answers your question. How do we combat this? I have enough humility to say I simply don't know.

But I have a strong feeling that in the not-too-far distant future, our Islamofascist enemy, whose worldview is disconnected from all reality and reason, will make a terrible mistake of aggression. I call it a "mistake" because any rational actor would realize the consequences and demur. This mistake of aggression may occur in Israel, in Europe, or in the USA, but it will occur. It will be so profound that it will unleash a firestorm of extreme violence, directed at Islamofascists and those that are complicit in their cause -- violence so horrible that it forces those that are complicit with Islamofascism to confront the true cost of their support for barbarism. Violence so complete that I shudder to think about it.

The violence will NOT be our fault, but rather our legitimate reaction to the deaths of tens of thousands or millions of our people. The result may be a profound change in Islam and a rejection of Islamofascism or it may simply result in more of the same.

I sincerely hope my "strong feeling" is without merit and that none of this comes to pass, but my instincts have been pretty good throughout this sad saga.

It's all very disheartening.