We are almost five years past the horror of 9/11. We are reminded of the event by movies like Flight 93 and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center. Last May Day we saw Islamic protestors in London carrying signs with various slogans, like, "EUROPE: YOU WILL PAY. YOUR EXTERMINATION IS ON THE WAY." Another sign stated: "EUROPE IS THE CANCER, ISLAM IS THE ANSWER." And another sign: "ISLAM WILL DOMINATE THE WORLD." And another: "FREEDOM GO TO HELL." The followers of the Prophet Mohammed chanted slogans in praise of the "magnificent" 9/11 hijackers. In response to these provocations, the Western world remained calm and undisturbed. Christians did not marched in Cairo or Tehran because Islamic countries do not cultivate the same tolerance found in the West.
On Wednesday the U.S. media broadcast newly released 9/11 tapes. I happened to hear Melissa Doi's call from the 83rd floor of the World Trade Center. Trapped by flames, Melissa said she could barely breathe. Fire was everywhere and it was getting hotter and hotter. "I feel like I'm dying," she said. The emergency operator tried to calm her. "It's going to be fine." But Melissa died in an inferno created by the followers of the Prophet Mohammed - the "magnificent" 9/11 hijackers (according to London's May Day marches). She was a 32-year-old financial manager. Many feelings are possible on hearing Melissa's last words. But who dwells on such things? The shopping mall regime continues, and so does the great shopping spree. America is at war, but only the military and their families are sacrificing (and a few others, besides). The Bush administration's strategy has gradually lost the public's confidence. Former Centcom commander, General Anthony Zinni, thought the president's advisors "didn't understand the region and were going to create havoc there." According to Zinni, "These were dilettantes from Washington think tanks who never had an idea that worked on the ground." And now it looks like Zinni was right.
The masterminds of 9/11 wanted to trigger a war between Islam and America. They wanted to mobilize militant Islamic confidence. Perhaps they wanted to provoke the United States into a colossal military blunder. If that was their objective, then maybe they are confident of further successes. The United States has failed to win the hearts and minds of the Muslim world. Such a winning was never possible because America is an infidel power and Muslims are taught to despise infidels, and to thwart the authority of infidel power. Helping to overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan was a necessary step in going after Osama bin Laden. Overthrowing Saddam Hussein may have been morally justifiable, but the Bush administration didn't have a workable long-range plan. They set out on a journey without a map, not knowing where they were headed.
The first American journalist killed in Iraq, Stephen Vincent, saw the battle in moral terms, especially as a struggle against the ignorance and violence of a majority sect. It was the violence of that sect that killed Vincent - and makes democracy in Iraq problematic. The very concept of democracy, in Islam, has nothing to do with Western ideas. Freedom of speech, for example, is utterly incompatible with Islamic teachings. "On the surface," noted Vincent, "Iraqis are wild for democracy." Unfortunately, they don't understand what democracy signifies. As a resident of Basra told Vincent, "Don't be fooled, Steve. Tribal groups just see democracy as a new way to get women and money." Democracy cannot be attained without hard measures from President Bush, but these hard measures would accelerate the violence. The White House isn't going to push for women's rights in Iraq because the tribal and religious leaders of the country would strongly oppose America's presence. The White House cannot even establish free speech in the region, or religious tolerance, because any speech in opposition to Islam is punishable by death (according to Islamic law).
And then there's the confused response of the peace activists. Their feminism has been neutered by their multiculturalism. The Left will not support the emancipation of Muslim women. It is a comical situation, to be sure. The Left ignores the brutality of Islamic law, its oppression of women and its incompatibility with basic freedoms. Instead, the Left obsesses over the "imperialist" crimes of America. One has to wonder where their old ruthlessness has gone? They once shrugged off the "harsh" methods of Lenin and Stalin as necessary for raising a backward people from ignorance and superstition. Today their position reveals the Left's deepest, most profound impulse: passionate hatred of America, first and foremost.
On its side, the administration is sufficiently intimidated by the Muslims and the Left to allow Muslims to make democracy their own way. But what will they make, in the end? One needs only refer to the statement of General Vinni, who said the president's advisors "didn't understand the region and were going to create havoc there." And havoc is what we have. How can democracy evolve among people whose traditions are authoritarian? "The patriarchal culture of that region," wrote Vincent, "is so irrational, so debilitating, so self-destructive - and so morally objectionable - that one senses it is no longer politically or historically sustainable." And yet, there is no clear path from patriarchy and Islam to equality and democracy. If America made feminism the centerpiece of its Middle East Policy, the entire region would mobilize against President Bush - and that is what we have to look forward to. Regional democratization means feminism and feminism means the eradication of Islam. And so, you see, the democratic project in Iraq is an undeclared war against Islam. Only President Bush doesn't realize the implications of his own policy.
So what can we expect in the future?
A badly contrived policy comes to a bad end. The violence will continue with U.S. troops caught in the middle. Furthermore, there is no peaceful solution to the conflict between Islam and the state of Israel. Peace is something that Israel achieves on a temporary basis, through a series of judicious (or injudicious) compromises. And there is nothing for a massive invasion of the entire Middle East, on an unprecedented scale, to force an end to a medieval culture incapable of true modernization. At the same time, Islam isn't likely to leave the West alone. One must remember the promise of Islam, that Europe will be exterminated and Islam will be triumphant. It is not the expression or feeling of all Muslims, but it is the teaching of the region's leading celebrities.
