Our leaders have failed to answer the evil moral ideal of Islamic totalitarianism with a rational ideal of our own.
Five years into our "war on terror," the Iraqi insurgency is raging, with no apparent end to the new recruits eager to wage jihad against the West. Support for offensive action has faded among a disheartened American public, while the terrorists are growing in number and in boldness.
Where have our leaders gone wrong? What kind of leadership failure can demoralize a whole nation of honest, productive citizens, while leaving suicide murderers stirred to righteous action?
The power that inspires righteous action — and which, by its absence, breeds discouragement — is the power of moral idealism. What has brought us to our present state is our leaders' moral weakness in response to the jihadists' moral zeal.
Observe that what draws the recruits to terrorist cells is a powerful ideal: the advancement of their religion. The jihadists believe fervently that Islam is the revealed word of Allah, that selfless submission to Allah is the purpose of life, and that all individuals should be subjugated to Islamic law under a theocracy. They believe in spreading the rule of Islam worldwide, and killing any "infidels" who stand in their way. They are morally outraged by the American ideal of individual liberty and regard our this-worldly, capitalistic culture as an evil that must be destroyed.
America can only defend itself against such a zealous, militant movement if we have moral confidence in our own ideals — and fight for them. We must repudiate the Islamists' "ideals" of other-worldliness, of blind faith, of renunciation and suffering, of theocracy, and proudly uphold the superior, American ideals of reason, freedom, and the pursuit of worldly happiness.
But our leaders have not shown such moral confidence.
When the terrorists of September 11 struck in the name of Islam, President Bush did not identify them as Islamic totalitarians and condemn their murderous ideology and its supporters. Instead, he painted the hijackers as a band of isolated lunatics who had "hijacked a great religion." (Only recently has President Bush even acknowledged that our enemy is Islamic, with his use of the term "Islamic fascism.")
In response to Muslim denunciations of America’s secularism, our leaders did not defend this attribute of America, but instead stressed Americans' religiosity. A mere two weeks after September 11, with the ruins of the World Trade Towers still smoldering, our planned Afghanistan campaign, "Operation Infinite Justice," was renamed to appease Muslims protesting that only Allah can dispense "infinite justice."
Unable to defend America intellectually, our leaders are unable to defend her militarily.
Have our leaders acted consistently against terrorist regimes? Consider our policy toward Iran, the primary state sponsor of terrorism. Refusing to identify Iran as the fatherland of Islamic totalitarianism, our president initially beseeched its Mullahs to join our "war on terror." And he has consistently answered their chants of "Death to America" and their quest for nuclear weapons with negotiation and spineless diplomacy.
Have our leaders asserted that they will use America’s formidable military to secure our way of life by whatever means necessary? No. Lacking the moral confidence to defeat our enemies, they have instead squandered our military resources and sacrificed our brave soldiers in a futile quest to spread "democracy" around the globe — as though bringing the vote to Muslim mobs sympathetic to Islamic totalitarianism will somehow end the terrorist threat.
The reason the terrorists and their state sponsors are not demoralized is that our leaders have failed to demoralize them. Our leaders' words and actions have signaled that we are not as morally committed to our lives and freedom as the terrorists are to our destruction.
We must make it clear to the jihadists that we will destroy anyone who takes up arms for Islamic totalitarianism. No one wants to fight and die for a hopeless cause. The jihadists will continue to be emboldened and to attract new recruits until they are convinced their goal is unachievable. They must see that we have the moral confidence to defend our lives — to answer their violence with an overwhelming military response, without pulling punches. They must see us willing to visit such crushing devastation on them that they fear us more than they fear Allah.
It is often said that we must win the "hearts and minds" of supporters of totalitarian Islam. Indeed we must: their hearts must be made to despair at the futility of their cause, and their minds must be convinced that any threat to our lives and freedom will bring them swift and certain doom.
The ideologues of totalitarian Islam have seized the power of moral idealism in the service of our destruction. It is time we reclaimed that power in defense of our freedom.
Shortly into this reading, I thought, “Great, more anti-Bush drivel”. But with further reading, I see that you make a good point: this is a war, and should be executed as a war, political niceties be damned. I would like to believe that our administration and others inside the Beltway who have our nation’s best interests at heart would like to take the definitive action needed. Unfortunately, the anti-war crowd and others with their OWN political fortunes at heart have continually worked to undermine our efforts, permitting only this politically-correct “nice” warfare we are currently engaged in.
At this point, some of you may think invoking WWII is cliche, but I will do it anyway. How did we defeat Japan? We herded up all the suspected spies and sent them off to camps (where any damage they could do was negligible), and then we proceeded to utterly destroy Nagasaki and Hiroshima. You might say there were a few civilian casualties upon those occasions, but you know what? It worked, and we won. And I might add, I doubt we would have expected the Japanese to spare civilians if they had also been nuclear-capable. There were many Japanese who were more than happy to die for there country (think Kamikaze pilots; sound familiar?); we were merely obliging them in a way that minimized our own losses.
I certainly don’t think our leaders have the guts for it yet, but I wouldn’t regret seeing mushroom clouds over Tehran. That, I think, would be a good start to show the nation of Islam that we are “in it to win it”.
Like the poster above, I started out with the idea that this article was going to be a sob story about how America needs to fight a political war instead of a military war, and reach the hearts and minds of Islamic terrorists with our our superior ideals. Instead, this article hits the nail directly on the head. We cannot be involved in a war when we refuse to win. Though there is absolutely no stopping the ideas of Islamic terrorists, we can make those ideas painful so that the idea of subjugating the United States as part of an Islamic world state becomes so obviously impossible that we reduce their morale. What we are doing now is all but surrendering. We’re telling the world we’re too scared to deal with the most immediate military threats to our sovereignty. It’s only a matter of time before someone capitalizes on that weakness.
TJ,
I, also, agree with you in reference to the comment that “…this is a war, and should be executed as a war, political niceties be damned.” Something else is needed, though. An official Declaration of War. This would give the President, whoever it is, the Constitutional,legal and political support to execute it as it should be executed! We were attacked horribly on 9/11! We need not apologize for defending ourselves!
Why are we losing hearts and minds, because we keep dropping bombs and firing bullets on whoever happens to get in our way!
Because we invaded a defenseless country for strategic gain, and killed tens of thousands of people in the process.
Because we let the real terrorists get away and killed thousands of innocents in their place.
Because the American government supports brutal dictatorships all around the world and condemns only those that defy Washington’s imperialist agenda.
Because America is itself a state sponsor of terrorism, in South American, the Middle East and across the globe.
Because there is no such thing as righteous premeditated killing.
I don’t know, ask a silly question…