THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 28, February 11, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE TROUBLE WITH PEACE
By Alan Caruba
THE FOURTH WORLD WAR: THE ISLAMIST WAR TO CONQUER & DESTROY THE U.S.A. & WESTERN CIVILIZATION --
AN ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENT FOR THE WORLD'S FUTURE PEACE & SECURITY: THAT AMERICA,
ISRAEL, & THE WEST CONQUER & ANNIHILATE THE EVIL & DEADLY FORCES OF ISLAMIC BARBARISM -- IF U.S. PRESIDENT
GEORGE W. BUSH DECIDES TO REDUCE LARGE PORTIONS OF BAGHDAD TO RUBBLE & OBLITERATE BIG CHUNKS OF IRAN,
HISTORY WILL LIKELY SAY HE WAS RIGHT TO DO SO
FULL STORY:
A lot of people, attributing the current conflicts in the Middle East to either religion or oil, believe they don’t really have a dog
in the fight. What cannot be ignored however is that a paroxysm of religious strife has broken out in the Middle East and it is
exporting death and terror in the name of Allah.
Still angry over (1) the defeat in 732 A.D. at Poitiers, France, that stopped their northward conquest of Europe and (2) the
Crusades that followed from 1095 to 1291, the Arabs of the Middle East have taken the temperature of the West today and
concluded that it’s time for a big comeback. Either through birthrates in Europe or the use of terror from Bali to Manhattan,
they have concluded it’s time to try once again to be the ones who run the world.
Considering how little previous generations of Arabs and other followers of Islam have contributed to modern civilization,
this seems astonishingly arrogant. The modern world is entirely the creation of the West.
The West of today, wanting only to purchase the latest ingenious new gadget and wishing to avoid warfare at all costs,
cannot ignore a declared war, even if it wants to.
The “Neocons” have been disgraced and some have been driven from office. The incumbent Republican President has been
chastised by the loss of his party’s power in Congress and the Democratic Party leadership is in full cry to abandon the war in
Iraq.
In blunt terms, it cannot be done. We live our lives forward, not retreating into the past. As such, men who we entrust with
power have no choice but to exercise it today with the hope it will work out tomorrow.
Tomorrow, in the case of the Middle East, is going to be a very long time. The region operates out of a medieval mentality, a
tribal allegiance, and a religion that has not changed since its inception in the seventh century. We are not dealing with
modern men, even if they employ modern technology.
America wants to rest from a war it did not start and wants to end. We have discovered that we need to build up our troop
strength. The reluctance of several previous presidents to engage the enemy has cost us many American lives, 3,000 in the
Islamist attacks of September 11, 2001, and quite a few in the years leading up to 9-11.
We have reached a point where we continue to ignore the millions of Mexicans and others from south of the border who have
literally been invading our nation for years. We’re Americans. We want to buy a new car, a flat-screen television, a worldwide
warehouse of stuff! Why won't they leave us alone?
We are tired of hearing and reading bad news out of Iraq because our news media will not give us any good news. We’re
Americans. We want and expect a happy ending. Just like in the movies, but this isn’t the movies. It’s realtime, real people;
it’s real life and death.
Iraq, like the whole of the Middle East, is just one giant sinkhole of all our expectations. So we want to leave, but we can’t
because, if we do, some astonishingly evil people might end up in charge. They cut off people’s heads. They have been
doing this since the days of Mohammed, the self-proclaimed final prophet of God.
The Jews of Israel understand this like no other people on Earth, and, yes, they too are weary of the Arabs who surround
them, howling for their blood just as they howl for ours every time they shout “Death to America! Death to Israel!"
It was only the decisive victories in war that protected Israel, the lone Western outpost in the Middle East. The last big one
was the 1967 Six-Day War against Egypt. Since then, guerrilla wars of attrition have been the choice of battle by the
Palestinians. The peace accord that returned the Sinai to Egypt is seen as a great “victory” by that nation and it occasioned
the “Intifada” by Yassir Arafat’s Palestinians.
After a sixteen-year occupation of southern Lebanon to deter the rockets of Hezbollah, the Israeli withdrawal in 2000 led
directly to the war of 2006. The withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 has seen an increase of rocketing from that territory and a civil
war between Fatah and Hamas to determine which group leads the destruction of Israel.
A U.S. withdrawal from combat in Iraq will be hailed as yet another “victory” for our enemies. Realistically, we are likely to
move troops to safer ground, which means the Kurdish region and border nations such as Kuwait.
That move is likely to be followed by a bloodbath between the Shiites, the majority sect in Iraq and Iran, and the Sunnis, the
majority sect in the rest of the billion-plus world of Islam. It doesn’t matter whose side we take or if we take no side.
Humanitarian behavior is not high on the list of priorities for Arabs, whether they are Islamists or not.
The difficulty of achieving peace is that it requires everyone to agree to it. Wars, whether initiated by a religion or the naked
desire to acquire land, resources and power, are still wars. Winners are determined by who is willing to resist and, beyond
that, to destroy the will of the enemy to continue.
Failure, for America, Israel, and the West is literally not an option. Like the canary in the coal mine, what happens to Israel
will happen to us.
The great empire of Rome discovered what happens when citizens do not want to defend what they have. They began to
rely on armies made up increasingly of people they called barbarians. Tired of endless conquest and occupation, the citizens
of Rome discovered one day those barbarians were at their gates. They sacked Rome. The Dark Ages followed.
I do not know what the President will do in these final two years of office, but, if George W. Bush decides to reduce large
portions of Baghdad to rubble or obliterate big chunks of Iran, history will likely say he was right to do so.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
North Africa -- The Arab States of Islamic North Africa
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
National Strategy for Victory in Iraq
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
Egypt, Arabs, & the Middle East
Tunisia, Islamic North Africa, & the Arab World
The Middle East & the Problem of Syria
The Middle East -- Lebanon as a Geopolitical Problem
Turkey, the Middle East, & the U.S.A.
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
American Foreign Policy -- Constitutional Democracy:
U.S. Promotion of Constitutional Democracy in Foreign Countries
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2007
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity