[lit-ideas] Re: Radical Islam: The Primer
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 19:35:19 -0600
I hate to tell you this, Brian, but I think that President Peter Wehner has
penned a pithless piece (what's he president of, btw). This is all just John
Birch Society psychosis updated. Why is the Right so in love with Armageddon?
What delight you guys take in announcing that the barbarians are at the gate.
It gets you going like Fox News gets me going, I guess.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: Brian
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 4:54 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Radical Islam: The Primer
The information front in the war against the Jihadis has been sorely
neglected and Deputy Assistant to the President Peter Wehner has penned a
primer on the basics concerning radical Islam. There are still far too many
people who don't get the nature of the enemy we face:
It is the fate of the West, and in particular the United States, to have to
deal with the combined threat of Shia and Sunni extremists. And for all the
differences that exist between them -- and they are significant -- they share
some common features.
Their brand of radicalism is theocratic, totalitarian, illiberal,
expansionist, violent, and deeply anti-Semitic and anti-American. As President
Bush has said, both Shia and Sunni militants want to impose their dark vision
on the Middle East. And as we have seen with Shia-dominated Iran's support of
the Sunni terrorist group Hamas, they can find common ground when they confront
what they believe is a common enemy.
The war against global jihadism will be long, and we will experience success
and setbacks along the way. The temptation of the West will be to grow
impatient and, in the face of this long struggle, to grow weary. Some will
demand a quick victory and, absent that, they will want to withdraw from the
battle. But this is a war from which we cannot withdraw. As we saw on September
11th, there are no safe harbors in which to hide. Our enemies have declared war
on us, and their hatreds cannot be sated. We will either defeat them, or they
will come after us with the unsheathed sword.
All of us would prefer years of repose to years of conflict. But history will
not allow it. And so it once again rests with this remarkable republic to do
what we have done in the past: our duty.
What if, instead of an Office of Homeland Security, the president had created
an official post that developed a strategy for countering Islamism on the
ideological front?
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