Muslim Savage Terrorists Rely On Intimidation And Deception... We Must Resist
claysont...@mail.net
Evil’s strength lies in its ability to intimidate. I saw this truth
play out during my two tours in Iraq, as al-Qaeda dominated the spirit
of Anbar’s Sunni population. The mighty Sunni Awakening movement
represented the rejection of the oppression and intimidation the
population had been enduring at the hands of al-Qaeda. As Sheikh Abdul
Sattar Abu Risha said of his movement, “We Sunnis had to convince
ourselves.” After all, their instincts and traditions had told them
that we were the outsiders and therefore had to be worse than
al-Qaeda’s Muslim operatives. They first had to understand the evil
that we—and they—were confronting, and then they could take
responsibility for their lives and act decisively.
Our Islamist enemies can’t win when confronted directly with the truth
because they are essentially hollow. As in Iraq, they will eventually
wither. Their false jihad often relies on deception, bribery, and
drugs to gain recruits and compel attacks. Their movement is founded
on lies, as seen in the propaganda used to indoctrinate new followers
to to the culture of hatred. They oppose freedom and individual
liberty, and reject the value of each human life, and therefore are at
odds with the self-evident Truths that govern our existence.
It is imperative to recognize the central characteristics of our
enemy’s ideology in order to expose its ontologically false
foundation. As Americans observed in our struggles against the Soviet
Communists and the Nazis, with the understanding of the threat comes
an understanding of the necessity of a sufficient response. While such
a response can be costly and difficult, such efforts can be powerfully
exerted when fueled by the truth. Our enemy knows this, and strives to
cloud our understanding and prevent us from exposing the reality. It
is our reluctance to confront such enemies that emboldens them, allows
them to perpetrate evil on the world, and causes extraordinary
suffering. This is not merely a philosophical point.
I have spent the last two weeks in Israel trying to understand what
exactly is going on here and what it means in the broader context of
the global war on terror. I find myself dwelling on the question: Why
do democratic and liberal nations condemn Israel for fighting against
terrorists who deliberately target civilians?
The usual answer—anti-Semitism—is certainly justified in some cases,
but I reject it as the categorical cause of this illogical (or
pathological) but common response to Israel’s efforts to survive. No,
the fundamental answer to this question is that we, as democratic and
liberty-loving societies, are afraid to identify candidly the defining
nature of our common enemies. Whether knowingly or through tragic
manipulation, Westerners who attack Israel in effect join, support,
and propel a force that makes this world worse. This force degrades
humanity by denying the value of the individual human life, the
essential basis for liberty. It is a force for evil that desecrates
the holy, defiles the innocent, and denigrates those values that
uplift the human spirit.
Israel has no choice but to confront the threats against its
existence. When one is pushed into such a position, one must either
fight back or die. Israel is unique as the only democratic, non-Muslim
country that is continually confronting the brutal realities of
radical Islamic terrorism within its borders. Because it is unique,
Israel is constantly pressured by Western opinion makers to respond
only to those threats that are immediate, and to define those threats
through a limited and local perspective. This way, the world’s other
democratic nations can maintain their distance and continue to promote
the lie that Israel’s fight against terrorism is somehow completely
different from everyone else’s. Certainly we would all be more
effective at confronting this threat together, with a shared
understanding of what we face and the determination to defeat it. So
what are we afraid of?
Studying this fear is like peering uneasily into the dark after
hearing an unusual sound. If we don’t have to, we’d rather not. Why
are we afraid of candor? I see two connected reasons: 1) an honest
understanding would require decisive action; therefore 2) it would
make us feel weak. It would make us feel weak because we would sense
that we were being compelled to do some unpleasant things in the
belief that doing them would improve conditions enough to make up for
the doing. We despise being coerced to do what we don’t really want to
do, especially when it requires sacrifice and suffering. In this it is
not only our love of liberty but also our love of comfort and leisure
that causes our disquiet. The longer the period of sacrifice and
concentrated effort is likely to be, the stronger is the resistance
and hence the more troubling are the feelings of weakness.
It is common, even natural, for an individual to feel weak if he or
she is afraid. The perception of helplessness translates into a loss
of self-confidence, which is then processed in diverse ways. One
popular defense mechanism is to convince oneself that the threat
doesn’t exist. This allows the individual to ignore the unpleasant
reality, embrace blissful ignorance, act as if there is nothing to
worry about, and keep a false self-confidence intact. If you doubt
that this process really occurs, I encourage you to look in on a
women’s self-defense class. Instructors constantly preach awareness
and preparation, and always emphasize the danger of giving in to the
desire to pretend that the world is a safe place. These instructors
know that too many victims are unprepared to meet real threats because
they refuse to accept that the threats exist. In a society where
self-confidence seems ever more important, but ever harder to attain,
it is unsurprising that our minds would develop ways around such
conflicts.
Of course the problem is that the illusion of strength is not
strength, it is weakness. It allows fear to keep us from doing what it
is right. True strength is doing what is right despite the fear. Do
not give in to the temptation to ignore what is true and real because
it threatens you and makes you feel weak or helpless. Recognizing evil
is the first and most essential step in defeating it. Once you
accomplish that feat, nature impels you on your course, and you have
but to continue as you have begun, with strength and virtue. Let us
confront our enemies with the knowledge that Truth is with us, and the
recognition that they stand arrogantly on ice, denying the sun,
awaiting the thaw.
Be not afraid, for fear will be our undoing.
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Gabriel Ledeen is a senior fellow with the Vets For Freedom
Educational Institute. He served two tours in al-Anbar, Iraq, as an
officer with a Marine infantry battalion.
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