What They Want

Americans are becoming more and more concerned about the feckless approach to radical Islamic terror offered by the Obama White House and foreshadowed by Hillary Clinton's refusal to even name the enemy. As a consequence, Leftist elites have gone into overdrive in an attempt to maintain control of their narrative that (1) Islam is "a religion of peace," (2) that "gun violence" is at the core of these problems and that gun control should dominate the conversation, (3) that Obama's catastrophic mistakes in the Middle East have not been a contributing factor to the growth of radical Islamic terror, and (4) that any attempt to control immigration from countries that harbor significant numbers of radical Islamic terrorists is bigoted and "racist."

As their control begins to slip away, the Leftist elites have become "memesters." Over the past few weeks they have floated memes (through their many supporters in the media) that I have called the motives meme, the gun control meme, and the anti-anti-Muslim immigration meme, the fear meme, and now, the "only we know what they want" meme

On this Sunday's news shows, a parade of "experts" on ISIS and the middle east breathlessly suggested that any attempt to name the enemy, declare war on ISIS, act on the declaration and fight ISIS on the ground, or suggest that possibly Islam itself is at least partially responsible for the rise of radical Islamic error, "plays directly into the hands of ISIS."

"After all," they claim, "those moves are exactly what ISIS wants."

Let me try a somewhat less nuanced explanation of what ISIS and other radical Islamists want—(1) they want to establish a global caliphate driven by Sharia law, (2) they want to force every infidel (Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddist ... the list is very long) to convert to Islam and abide by Sharia; (3) they want to subjugate or kill any infidel who refuses; (4) they was to subjugate or kill any Moslem apostate who refuses; (5) they want to dismantle democratic freedoms (of governance, of expression, of gender, of sexuality) and replace them with a ruthlessly rigid system of restrictions. They want their totalitarian ideology to dominate the world. That's what they want, and it appears that the Leftist elites in the USA are more than happy to follow the lead of the leftist elites in Europe and allow Islamists to travel down that road until it is too late to stop them.

But who are we to question the elites—after all, they "know." Interesting that what ISIS wants is remarkably coincident with what the elites want—no military intervention, the imposition of insane PC restrictions when considering policy relative to Islamic immigrants, horror at any mention of the culpability that Islam may have some role in all of this.

On one Sunday morning show, the author of a book on ISIS put on his serious face and intoned [paraphrasing from memory]: "the last thing we want to do through our actions is to force Muslims to make a choice between the West and the Islamists." The news moderator smiled at this sage wisdom and nodded his head.

What abject nonsense! Why is it a bad thing to force Muslims to make a choice? Those who choose western freedoms will become allies that can work with us to eradicate radical Islamic terror. And those who choose ISIS? At least we know where they stand, and we have a better handle on the size of the threat.

Like many things that Leftists believe, they don't see the irony in their many memes. In the case of the "only we know what they want" meme, Leftists demonstrate their latent fear that every Muslim is on a knife edge, and that if the West does anything at all that is aggressive, un-PC, or otherwise provocative, we will drive all Muslims into the waiting arms of Islamists. That's soft bigotry—something that is common among the elites.

It appears that those of us who suggest a harder line have far more faith in Islam than the elites. In my view, the majority of Muslims will reject Islamic barbarism, totalitarianism, and aggressive anti-Western propaganda and join us in the fight. But only if we show we're in the fight to win it.

And for those Muslims who migrate to the dark side? That simply broadens an already target rich environment.