A World War?
In the comments section to Israel Strikes Back, frequent commentator Sarah Canuck asks the following:
I very strongly believe that this is indeed a world war, and I believe that it's World War IV. I believe that the Cold War was World War III; it had bona fide battle fronts in Korea, Southeast Asia, and Cuba, among many others; although the primary players (the Warsaw Pact nations and NATO) never took open shots at each other, it was a global conflict lasting from 1945 to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
As for the current conflict, I believe it takes a great deal of naivete` to believe that it's confined only to a couple of places, call them Iraq and Afghanistan. In reality, the battle fronts are worldwide, and they're all part of the same conflict: Islamists versus everyone else. There have been attacks in New York, Washington D.C., Madrid, London, Mumbai, Istanbul, Kabul, Baghdad, Bali, and Jerusalem. It's been going on for decades, beginning as late as the Iran Hostage Crisis, or as early as the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. These conflicts were united previously by the ideology and tenacity of the aggressor; al Qaeda has merely unified many of the major players.
People have tried to claim that Shi'is and Sunnis (for example, Iran and al Qaeda) wouldn't work together, or that religious and secular muslims (like bin Laden and Hussein) were incapable of working together. I wondered at some point if there might be truth to this, but I've become more and more convinced that it's absolute nonsense. There's proof that Hussein and al Qaeda were in cahoots, even if the Hussein regime didn't play a hand in 9/11. Iran, a predominately Shi'i state, and Syria, a predominately Sunni (and largely secular) state, allied in a mutual assistance pact last year. According to Shadow War by Richard Miniter, there's evidence that bin Laden has received assistance, possibly even asylum, from Iran. They may not all be directly on the same team, but there's a tangible connection throughout the axis of Islamist terrorism. From Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, to al Qaeda throughout the Middle East, to Hamas in Israel, the terrorist groups are connected through a common goal: the destruction of the decadent, apostatic, heretical West. Various Middle Eastern countries, for various religions and/or political reasons, support this goal, in both philosophical and material forms.
And in fact, the alliances go beyond just Islamic and Middle Eastern states. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is known to have ties with rogue states; Chavez blamed the growing violence in the Middle East on American support for Israel; and Venezuelan officials have claimed that North Korea has a right to test ballistic missiles. As for North Korea, they've had their fair share of cooperative relationships with known terrorist states. For example, when Libya saw the writing on the wall and surrendered its WMD programs to the West, it revealed that it had imported missile components from North Korea. The Axis of Evil is not confined to Islamist states like Iran and pre-2001 Afghanistan; the Islamists are willing to deal with whoever they need to deal with in order to acquire their supplies.
It should be noted, also, that there are Muslim-majority states that are not working in conjunction with the Axis of Evil. Nations like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, and Kuwait have proven themselves time and again to be outstanding allies. As I mentioned above, ties between the West and states like Libya are strengthening. Other nations have provided the United States with what support they can; these include nations such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan.
A world war is a complex thing, and I could spend the rest of July discussing the various motivations and causations for this war. I could also spend the same amount of time expounding upon the political motivations of various states: why did Libya come clean on their WMD programs and decide to start playing ball with the international community, or why does Saudi Arabia straddle the fence between supporting the West and breeding Wahhabism? And of course, the answers "Islam is the problem!" or "It's all about the oil, baby!" are as intellectually lazy as claiming that World War II was caused entirely by Hitler's invasion of Poland.
Bottom line? From Iraq to Afghanistan to New York City to Jerusalem, the fight between Western Civilization and Islamism is a world war, and has been a world war for decades. The sooner we all realize this, and stop playing politics with our response, the sooner we can band together as free, democratic, and reasonable nations and confront our aggressor. The Coalition took a big first step in 2001 in Afghanistan, and another big step in 2003 in Iraq; Israel is taking another big step as we speak. The time has come to defend ourselves and take the fight to the enemy.
It's pretty scary the stuff that's happening over there. What do you think? I mean... it's not that different from the Ferdinand incident that sparked WW1, is it? Do you think that this has World War written on it?
Our Prime Minister just committed billions of dollars to beefing up our military, so I'm sure we'll be there.
I very strongly believe that this is indeed a world war, and I believe that it's World War IV. I believe that the Cold War was World War III; it had bona fide battle fronts in Korea, Southeast Asia, and Cuba, among many others; although the primary players (the Warsaw Pact nations and NATO) never took open shots at each other, it was a global conflict lasting from 1945 to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
As for the current conflict, I believe it takes a great deal of naivete` to believe that it's confined only to a couple of places, call them Iraq and Afghanistan. In reality, the battle fronts are worldwide, and they're all part of the same conflict: Islamists versus everyone else. There have been attacks in New York, Washington D.C., Madrid, London, Mumbai, Istanbul, Kabul, Baghdad, Bali, and Jerusalem. It's been going on for decades, beginning as late as the Iran Hostage Crisis, or as early as the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. These conflicts were united previously by the ideology and tenacity of the aggressor; al Qaeda has merely unified many of the major players.
People have tried to claim that Shi'is and Sunnis (for example, Iran and al Qaeda) wouldn't work together, or that religious and secular muslims (like bin Laden and Hussein) were incapable of working together. I wondered at some point if there might be truth to this, but I've become more and more convinced that it's absolute nonsense. There's proof that Hussein and al Qaeda were in cahoots, even if the Hussein regime didn't play a hand in 9/11. Iran, a predominately Shi'i state, and Syria, a predominately Sunni (and largely secular) state, allied in a mutual assistance pact last year. According to Shadow War by Richard Miniter, there's evidence that bin Laden has received assistance, possibly even asylum, from Iran. They may not all be directly on the same team, but there's a tangible connection throughout the axis of Islamist terrorism. From Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, to al Qaeda throughout the Middle East, to Hamas in Israel, the terrorist groups are connected through a common goal: the destruction of the decadent, apostatic, heretical West. Various Middle Eastern countries, for various religions and/or political reasons, support this goal, in both philosophical and material forms.
And in fact, the alliances go beyond just Islamic and Middle Eastern states. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is known to have ties with rogue states; Chavez blamed the growing violence in the Middle East on American support for Israel; and Venezuelan officials have claimed that North Korea has a right to test ballistic missiles. As for North Korea, they've had their fair share of cooperative relationships with known terrorist states. For example, when Libya saw the writing on the wall and surrendered its WMD programs to the West, it revealed that it had imported missile components from North Korea. The Axis of Evil is not confined to Islamist states like Iran and pre-2001 Afghanistan; the Islamists are willing to deal with whoever they need to deal with in order to acquire their supplies.
It should be noted, also, that there are Muslim-majority states that are not working in conjunction with the Axis of Evil. Nations like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, and Kuwait have proven themselves time and again to be outstanding allies. As I mentioned above, ties between the West and states like Libya are strengthening. Other nations have provided the United States with what support they can; these include nations such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan.
A world war is a complex thing, and I could spend the rest of July discussing the various motivations and causations for this war. I could also spend the same amount of time expounding upon the political motivations of various states: why did Libya come clean on their WMD programs and decide to start playing ball with the international community, or why does Saudi Arabia straddle the fence between supporting the West and breeding Wahhabism? And of course, the answers "Islam is the problem!" or "It's all about the oil, baby!" are as intellectually lazy as claiming that World War II was caused entirely by Hitler's invasion of Poland.
Bottom line? From Iraq to Afghanistan to New York City to Jerusalem, the fight between Western Civilization and Islamism is a world war, and has been a world war for decades. The sooner we all realize this, and stop playing politics with our response, the sooner we can band together as free, democratic, and reasonable nations and confront our aggressor. The Coalition took a big first step in 2001 in Afghanistan, and another big step in 2003 in Iraq; Israel is taking another big step as we speak. The time has come to defend ourselves and take the fight to the enemy.
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