Angry Islamists – Updated
By Lex, on Mon – May 24, 2004
I took a little heat in comments for this entry * .
Looks like I’m not quite an island , entire in itself. Bill Whittle of Ejectejecteject ** (finally) comes out with a (long) entry that has this to say **:
“Finally, consider this: Muslims are angrily at war with Buddhists in East Asia. Muslims are at enraged with Animists in Africa. Of course, none of this approaches the sheer hatred that Muslims bear towards Hindus in the South Asia peninsula. And this foaming hatred blanches compared to the white-hot fury Muslims feel to the Christian American Crusaders. And this fury is but a candle to the incandescent, boiling, supernova of murder they feel toward the Jews…
… everywhere I turn in the world today, I see Radical Islam — and not the United States — at war with everybody. And I have no choice but to conclude that this is not a blip or a hiccup. It is a growing threat. And it needs to be met head-on. Right now.
Have I slandered 1.5 billion people? I don’t know. Have I? I speak of Radical Islam. I speak of people determined to kill and terrorize to impose their religion on the rest of the world. If you are a Muslim who is against these practices, you have my respect and admiration. And, as with all other religions in the United States, I will as passionately defend your right to practice your faith in harmony and goodwill as I attack those who may carry the Crescent far, far away from your peaceful and devout beliefs. But I will not pretend I do not see and hear what I see and hear every single day, just because you may not like to hear it. That is not something I or millions of my countrymen will submit to. Accept, or at the very least, understand that right now. I say this for both our sakes. More on this later.
The philosophy of Radical Islam is at war, not only with America and the West, but with everything that is not Radical Islam. So, do they hate us? Yes they do. Judging from their street demonstrations, and the rhetoric issuing from their madrassas, does anyone seriously doubt that if millions were given a button that would wipe us from the face of the earth, they would push it?”
What do you think, Eric?
For my part, I think it’s not just the radical Islamists that hate us – many of the every day Iraqis probably do too. And they’ve got good reason, frankly. Saddam’s terror was a part of their daily lives, had been for forever – it was just the way the world was. Not being able to end it themselves, there was no doubt a large amount of shame and humiliation that someone else had to come and end it for them. Plus we bombed the living hell out of them in 1991, and in a low-grade fever kind of way all through the 90’s. We finally destroyed or waved away their armed forces, the “centralized management of violence” which defines the state’s existence early last year.
How would you like us, so far? Maybe not so much.
But Americans always want to be liked, if not loved. We get desperately unhappy when other folks don’t like us. We don’t understand. We either a) blame ourselves for our manifest sins and wickedness (while overlooking the shortcomings of our adversaries), or heave a collective “fork em,” and move on.
But neither approach is going to bring us any satisfaction. We’re the 800 pound gorilla in the world’s romper room – everyone is aware of us, and no one is particularly grateful for us being there reminding them to be aware. They might like us a little better if we agree with them that our impact on the environment is dreadful or that our view on the nuanced world of geopolitics is simplistic, but they’ll hide their contempt behind a smile that looks like a lot like a sneer. But the contempt will be ever-present in either case.
But why should we care, really, what France (for example) thinks? If they had our role in this world, could they do better? Did they do any better, when they could?
Perhaps. Perhaps better at diplomacy, the French (for example) are wonderful at diplomacy. But maybe that’s because it’s the only tool of power left to them, these days. If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail, and all other tools look awkward, even contemptible. The problem is that when you deal with regimes whose only real goal is regime survival, your diplomatic leverage to ask them to absent themselves from the political stage is pretty trivial. And that’s before you get to civilizational challenges to your existence.
We should care what we think. Just like everyone else does. And then, in the way that we always have, try our best to do our best for the greatest number of people. Starting with ourselves. Because (as I wrote in an earlier post today), ultimately the state’s responsibility is principally its’ own survival.
If the acts that we do can withstand our own reasoned scrutiny, I am content that they will stand the judgment of history. We’re pretty hard on ourselves.
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Updated: (I got in a rush at the dinner bell last night)
I think that we can end up doing the right thing in Iraq, and never get any credit or appreciation for it. Not from the Iraqi’s themselves (whom I think will be as happy, on balance, to see our backs as we are to leave), nor from the “world community,” whatever that means. But having freed them from the tyrant’s boot at their windpipes, having had a thorough look around for those WMD’s Saddam at first admitted producing, declared he had destroyed and then for which act he declined to provide evidence (as he was required to do), and put postage paid on no few terrorist martyrdom envelopes, we will still have done an objectively good thing.
My dad once told me that moral integrity was doing the right thing, even when no one was looking. Perhaps also when no one else cares.
*07-01-18 A Lex post that is gone – Ed.
** 07-01-18 Website is gone – Ed.