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July 08, 2005
The Same Old, Same Old . . .
An anatomy of the London bombing.
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
The British may react very differently than the Spanish did after
Madrid - by doing nothing rather than by retreating from Iraq.
In the corrupt West these days, that is something.
We all know the score of this war now in the near four years since
September 11. The London bombings should remind us how the old tired
game works.
Causes
Failed states in the Middle East - autocratic, statist, unfree,
intolerant of women and other religions - blame the West for their
self-inflicted miseries. Sometimes they are theocratic, like the late
Taliban or the current Iranian mullahs. But more often they are
dictatorial like the Syrians, Pakistanis, Saudis, or Egyptians, who
all, in varying degrees and in lieu of reform, have come to
accommodations with the terrorists to shift popular anguish onto the
West and the Jews.
That is the Petri dish of Islamic fascism, an evil that will only
disappear when the dictatorships that allow it or nourish it do as
well. Whether the jihadists are in Iraq, the United States, or
Europe, they all share a sick notion that someone else (the decadent
Western oppressor and unbeliever) is responsible for their own
poverty and backwardness rather than the fundamentalism, corruption,
bias, and intolerance endemic to the Middle East.
Propaganda
In WWII we didn't care much whether in fighting Bushido some thought
we were in a war against Buddhists. We weren't, and that was enough.
We knew the enemy were Nazis, not simply Germans, and didn't froth
and whine to prove that distinction.
But not now.
To criticize Islamic fascism is supposedly to be unfair to Islam, so
we allow on our own shores mullahs and madrassas to spread hatred and
intolerance, as part of our illiberal acceptance of "not offending
Islam."
It is not that we don't believe in Western values as much as we don't
even know what they are anymore. The London bombings were only a
reification of what goes on daily with impunity blocks away in the
mosques and Islamist schools of London.
The enemy knows that and thrives on it. That refuge in religion is
why imams shout that "Islam doesn't condone such things" - even as
bin Laden has become a folk hero on the Arab Street. Jihadists sense
that even here at home more Americans are more concerned about a
flushed Koran at Guantanamo Bay than five Americans fighting for the
Iraqi jihadists or Taliban sympathizers in Lodi, California.
As long as there is not any price to be paid for Islamism, either by
governments abroad or purveyors of its hatred in the West, the
propaganda works and the killing will go on. But when a renegade
Saudi Prince, Pakistani general, London imam, or Lodi mosque leader
screams out to the jihadist, "Stop that before those crazy Americans
really do go to war," the war, in fact, will be over and won.
Methods
Terror is the signature of the Islamist: hit, back off; hit, back
off - hoping in a few years to erode the will and nerve of affluent
and leisured Western countries.
Bin Laden has so far only made one mistake: He took down the entire
World Trade Center rather than the top floors, and had the misfortune
of having George Bush as president. Thus he lost Afghanistan and
ended up with democratic reform from Iraq and Lebanon to the Gulf and
Egypt. Train bombings in Madrid and bus explosions in London, like
the carnage in Iraq, are preferable, since they are enough to terrify
and demoralize the Westerner but not quite enough to knock sense into
him that only military resistance and victory will save his
civilization.
So the attacks will never quite be of such a stature to convince
Western voters that one more such explosion will destroy their
societies. The trick is instead to wage war insidiously,
incrementally, and stealthily to avoid an overwhelming response. A
cooling-off period in between 9/11 and 7/7 in which Western
apologists, pacifists, and Islamist sympathizers go to work is
essential for the terror to continue.
Second, the denial of culpability is equally critical: a Syria,
Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia must always be able to profess that it
deplores terrorism, and that to its knowledge no jihadists are in
transit on its territory; bin Laden & co. are not in its country; and
its royal family are not funding killers. Within Europe itself, a
madrassa that indoctrinates directionless youth, or an imam who
shouts hatred to his audience, must always simultaneously when called
upon "condemn" terrorism, and then seek victimhood when the rare
scrutiny of an outraged public nears.
Finally Western self-loathing and guilt is essential: A fascist
agenda of the jihadist - religious persecution, gender apartheid,
racism, militarist autocracy, and xenophobia - all that must be
embedded deeply within the postmodern landscape of the oppressed. A
non-Christian and non-Western "other" can mask his venom only through
victim status, grafting his cause to the same exploited groups that
seek from Western society benefaction and compensation.
Aims
The jihadists expect that Westerners will slink out of the Middle
East, allowing fascist fundamentalists to gain control of half the
world's oil and thus buy enough weapons to blackmail their way back
to the caliphate.
Destroying Israel, killing Christians in Africa, running Westerners
out of the Middle East, Pakistan, Indonesia, or Bali, all that is
mere relish. In Europe, the goal for the unhinged is the creation of
another al Andalus; for the more calculating it is enough
intimidation and terror to carve out zones of Muslim sanctuary, where
millions can live parasite-like, within the largess of Western
society, but without its bothersome liberal agenda of freedom and
equality, in hopes of implanting the universal law of sharia.
So here we are. Even though the killers profess revenge equally for
Afghanistan (the so-called "right" war), they expect Westerners to
scream "Iraq."
Even though such bombings are predicated on infiltration, careful
stealthy reconnaissance, and long sojourns within London, expect
cries of anguish and worrying about the stereotyping of Middle
Eastern males.
Look for the same scripted crocodile tears and "concern" from the
Middle East's illegitimate leaders, even as much of the Islamic
Street takes a secret delight in the daring of the jihadists, and the
governments sense relief that the target was Westerners and not
themselves.
Anticipate Western leaders condemning the terrorists in the same
breadth as they call for "eliminating poverty" and "bringing them to
justice" - as if the jihadists and their patrons are mere wayward and
impoverished felons.
In the short term, Bush and Blair will appear as islands in the storm
amid an angry and anguished public. But as 7/7 fades, as did 9/11,
expect them to become even more unpopular, as the voices of
appeasement assure us that if they just go away, maybe so will the
terrorists.
It is our task, each of us according to our station, to speak the
truth to all these falsehoods, and remember that we did not inherit a
wonderful civilization just to lose it to the Dark Ages.
C2005 Victor Davis Hanson
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