We Are Losing the Global War on Terror

by Roger W. Gardner

What is the Global War on Terror?
The Global War on Terror. Why does the very name we have chosen for this monumental global conflict contain the seeds of our coming failure? The answer is simple. The name itself is prima facie evidence of our inability, or our adamant refusal, to face the hard truth about the real nature of this war. It is yet another example of our willful ignorance and our moral cowardice. Who are we fighting? Who are our enemies? Are we fighting some mysterious group of anonymous terrorists? Who has declared war against us, against the entire Judeo/Christian West? And finally, if we are afraid to even mention the name of our sworn enemy, how on earth can we ever expect to win this bloody war?

The unnamed enemy is Islam. Not some small fanatical group of Islamists, not some zealous band of religious extremists, but just plain, old-fashioned Islam. Islam has unequivocally declared war on the infidels. And we have unequivocally decided to deny the existence of this declaration. By conveniently defining this to be some amorphous "War on Terror", we have deluded ourselves into thinking that it is something altogether different, something far less dangerous and pervasive than it really is. We have denied the existence of the monster who threatens us, and therefore we firmly believe that the monster ceases to exist.

Am I the first to remark on this cowardly game of semantics? Of course not. But despite all these prescient admonitions and warnings, has anything actually changed? Have we become more, or less, willing to honestly confront our enemies? To honestly name the name, Islam, bloody Islam?

On the contrary. As time has passed we have become ever more entrenched in our shameful state of denial. From the President on down we have steadfastly refused to name our adversaries for fear of upsetting them. Consequently, our adversaries grow stronger every day and they mock our weakness and our indecision. Now, ironically, for fear of making waves, we are facing a catastrophic Islamic tsunami.

Where is the War on Terror?
Where is the center of this so-called War on Terror? Iraq? Afghanistan? The entire Middle East? A legitimate case can be made that the center of the War on Terror today is in Gaza. Hamas, the semi-hidden face of Islam, is the personification of the real enemy. The rockets that fall daily on Sderot are the chosen weapons of this war. And how have we in the West chosen to support this War on Terror? We have shamefully blamed the victims. We have publicly admonished the Israelis for fighting this proxy War on Terror for us. We have condemned their efforts in the sanctimonious halls of the EU and the UN. We have passed innumerable resolutions naming the Israelis themselves as the real threat to peace. Yes, if ever there was a perfect paradigm for this War on Terror it must be in Gaza. And we have abandoned our only true ally in this entire blood-soaked region and taken the side of the enemy.

Do we really hate the Jews that much? Is the world's eternal historical antisemitism so pervasive, so potent, that we would rather see Hamas and Hezbollah win? Do we secretly desire to see Israel "wiped off the map"? Do we hate the Jews so much that we would prefer to see Ahmadinejad actually get the bomb? Is our Western Civilization really that crazy? Is there some other logical explanation for our pathetic behavior?

The center of the War on Terror
Islam is the unnamed enemy we have refused to engage. Instead, we seek conciliation and accommodation. We offer compromise and denial. Anything to avoid confrontation. We will go to any lengths to avoid naming Islam as the enemy. This, then, is the true center of our War on Terror. Right here, in the heart and soul of our inglorious Western World. This is our Ground Zero. This is where the great battle has already been fought and lost. Here, in our prestigious halls of government and our great courts of justice, here in our liberal ivy-league universities and our self-congratulatory myopic media. Here, in our recent inexplicable election, an election wherein 49% of the electorate poled firmly believed that our most threatening problem was the economy (stupid), and an incredible 9% believed that it might actually be the threat of terrorism.

The question is no longer whether or not we have the will to prosecute this War on Terror, this War against Islam; we have already proven to our undying shame that we do not have the necessary will. Our only major concern now in this War on Terror has been how to get our troops back home. Exhibiting an adolescent impatience, we don't want to hear about the cost of our withdrawal. We don't want to hear about the consequences of our cowardice. We don't want to hear what the enemy thinks about all this. We just want them home.

Have we truly become a generation of cowards? Do we really fear war more than we fear subjugation? Have the leftists in our midst really won? Have they finally succeeded in producing a generation of self-loathing anti-patriots, America-bashers, who find more in common with our enemies than with their own nation?

Unfortunately, oh, so unfortunately, thus far, all of our actions and inactions, culminating in the moral travesty of our recent elections, seem to say, Yes. - rg
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A note from Radarsite: It seems that I am not alone in my assessment of Islam. In a poll on Radarsite's sidebar titled "Is Islam itself the problem?", 83% of the respondents (414 of 498) answered "Yes." - rg