Thursday, January 15, 2015

What Must Be Done... The Reality When Someone Says He Will Kill You And Yours.. Even Though You Did Not Provoke Him


What Is To Be Done
The title of this missive is disquietingly reminescent of Lenin's 1902 pamphlet of the same name, itself inspired by Chernyshevsky's 1863 social-utopian novel, again of the same title. Lenin's work, however, was an interrogatory, a philosophical pleading written almost two decades before the Revolution. The West is too far advanced in existential struggle against militant Islam for philosophical tracts exhorting the common man to overthrow his tormentors. We are all the common man now, and our tormentors arise not from our own one-percenters (lucky though they be), but from foreign nihilists aspiring to worldwide medieval bloodlust.
No, the wretched fact is, and remains, that the West has been at war with militant Islam, off and on, for 1,400 years. As has the Caucasus, the Subcontinent, and Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa. It was not until the defenestration of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the Great War, in fact, that Balkan peoples could sleep without a weapon by the bedside and a weather eye turned south. Indeed, 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by the Turks in the very midst of that Great War. Fully half their population destroyed in a genocide many still refuse to name. Islamic aggression has surged and ebbed over the centuries as necessity dictated, but every opportunity for conquest has historically been exploited; it is a thirst that continues to this day.
The greater history of medieval to modern Europe is painted upon a canvas of Islamic aggression, interspersed by internicine quarrels, and ultimately two world wars. We can not put that away, therefore it must be dealt with, and in the larger context of Western civilization as a whole, including the Western Hemisphere. From The Crusades to Charles Martel at Tours in 732 to the Fall of Granada in 1492 to the Siege of Vienna in 1683 the West's interaction with militant Islam was all of a defensive nature. Islam was a savage interloper. A brutish scourge to be repelled.
A brief reflection on anti-semitism: a vile and ancient fault, it appears to have accompanied the arrival of diaspora Jews as they fled the Saracen blade. Just as Muslim rage erupts metronomically in Europe, so does anti-semitism. It is as if the superstitious Europeans have always cast a jaundiced eye upon Jewry as the cause of their Islamic problems. As if, perhaps, the Jews had brought ancient Near East rivalries to the heart of Europe itself. The clamoring Musselmen surely could not want to attack the Europeans for no good reason. They must loathe us because we harbor their ancient foes the Jews.
So much for the pop history lesson. That was mere table-setting, and uncontroversial stuff. Facts are not prejudiced, history is not a bigot. And I do have point, which I shall address directly, but first one more point: the "moderate" Muslim.
I for one have no doubt that the majority of Muslims are not allied to terror. They are as most humans have been since the beginning of time: hunkered souls trying to keep roof above head, food upon table. That has been man's lot forever, and it shall not change in our lifetimes. Having said that, the average Muslim must be assessing his/her situation, and prospects. I'm sure they generally despise radical Islamism, however what are their options? The vaunted saviors of the West are far beyond the horizon, no aid to kith and kin, and exhibit traits of fear, self-loathing, and impotence. In bin Laden's assessment they seek the strong horse, or at least do little to incite the strong horse. The Islamists, after all, are in their countries. In their provinces. In their neighborhoods. Who would assail that on a bet from a feckless and confused and self-doubting Western nation?
If ISIS is running your neighborhood you are likely a mute soul. Even if the Palestinian Authority runs your neighborhood, or Hamas, you are likely a mute soul. It's a tough slog from self-preservation to courage. We all cannot make that trip. Self-preservation is hard-wired into our DNA. Courage is a learned aspiration, ephemerally floated upon the air of a tribal fire. The pen might be mightier than the sword to essayists, but the scimitar always beats paper and scissors. There is no need to demand all of Islam to decry the Islamists, however it would be wise if they got out of the way.
Which brings us to the nub: What is to be done. No question mark adorns this phrase. What is to be done must be done. And there is no soft way to say this:
First we kill the clerics.
Western apologists insist that Islamic terrorism does not represent Islam. Yet all of the radicalized Muslims, be they "lone wolves" or ISIS or AQAP, were radicalized by some of the most powerful religious leaders in Islam. The imams preach the hate, run the madrassas, and foment violence on a daily basis. If terrorism is not a central tenet of Islam why do the most prominent imams preach it, while the other imams remain silent?
Islamic nations that observe sharia law have no real civic institutions. The clerics rule all, and the warrior caste are their enforcers. Rule of law, property rights, due process, and social behavior are all administered by the imams and ayatollahs. The mufti determine what is Islam, who are blasphemers and apostates, and what punishment is ordained. The clerics incite the warrior caste, creating shock troops that enforce prescribed behavior among the population, and wage terror against the rest of the world. The clerics are just as guilty of conspiracy to commit murder as Charles Manson, and this is why they must be confined or killed. They are the head of the serpent. This is neither cruel nor barbaric; it is merely the acknowledgement that crimes carry penalties, and punishment must be served to preserve the scales of justice.
As the imams are dispatched so must the shock troops be annihilated. They are immune to reason and rationale, and operate as Terminators. The West must also operate as Terminators to defeat them: large, vicious strikes, great destruction, and tactical retreat. No long-term boots on the ground, no nation-building, no prisoners. Special forces with air support without standing armies. Strike and leave, repeatedly. Destroy them all, one battalion at a time.
There are likely 50,000 to 100,000 active jihadists in the middle east. Although this appears to be a vast number, they are as susceptible to destruction as any other army. It took only five months for the Soviets to capture the entire 107,000 man Sixth Army at Stalingrad. The jihadis congregate for strength, which is also their weakness. Should the West truly have the resolve to destroy them, they are easily found. The sorrow of collateral damage is mitigated by the fact the jihadis are slaughtering the innocent anyway. Brute force will actually lessen the victim toll, in what one might consider collateral mercy.
There is no reason to believe the West will stiffen and respond to Islamic terror for any number of reasons: multiculturalism, cowardice, appeasement, denial. But What Is To Be Done must be done, otherwise Europe will become an enormous, radicalized Muslim ghetto a decade hence, and America will eventually suffer calamities far greater than 9/11. War is rotten business, and no one should exult in the obliteration of others, but war is already upon the West. It is in our neighborhoods, our stores, our military bases, our campuses. War is here, and without strategy and willpower there looms only defeat.
http://www.velociworld.com/Velociblog/Oldvelocity/004098.html

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