Lessons Learned from London

Disrupt the G8, bring down Tony Blair, get the Brits to withdraw from Iraq. How to make a convincing argument for such radical policy changes? By bombing civilians, of course. Randomly slaughter as many innocents as possible on their way to work. That will induce such fear into the infidels that they will bend to our will. Such is the mindset of our enemies, radical Islamist jihadists.

Barbaric terrorism can be effective. Egypt just pulled its embassy from Baghdad after its ambassador was kidnapped and murdered. The Philippines withdrew its small, mostly symbolic contingent to ransom hostages. Most egregiously, the Spanish election was flipped by terrorists who then were rewarded for their disgusting killings by immediate withdrawal of Spain’s military contingent in Iraq. Fortunately these are exceptions. More commonly, random terror attacks steel the backbones of the target population. America came together after September 11, 2001 just as it had after Pearl Harbor. Israel has endured decades of pounding but remains stalwart. Expect London and the entire United Kingdom to be one of the tougher nuts for the terrorists to crack.

In many ways the fundamentalist Islamic terrorists fall victim to their own propaganda. They have been fed the line of the “decaying, corrupt West,” of “decadent Crusaders” so much that they have come to believe that through one push, one spectacular or particularly brutal attack, they can cause the entire rotten structure of Western civilization to implode upon itself. This is part of the expectations for 911. This motivates them to continue use of random terror attacks. Admittedly they achieved some tactical success, but terror as a weapon has proved to be a strategic disaster for the Islamist movement internationally. But don’t expect the stark fact that they are losing the war to subdue them. Failure, processed through the mindset of the Islamofascist zealot will only drive them to greater fanaticism. Only by their deaths will this war be won. Despite this reality many in the West have yet even to acknowledge that we are at war.

Recite the dismal laundry list of terrorist attacks that have taken place globally since the late 1990s. We have read the names so many times that we have almost become jaded to them but we can’t let that happen. We need to remind ourselves of Lebanon, the Achille Lauro, Munich, Israel, the World Trade Center, Iraq, Oklahoma City, East Africa, Somalia, Sudan, Bali, Madrid, Holland, the USS Cole, Lockerbie, Philippines, Egypt, Libya, Teheran, Pakistan, India, Bosnia, Chechnya, and Afghanistan. Now we can add London to that sad list. We must recognize a stark fact that too many of the self-styled intelligentsia seem not to comprehend: regardless of what we do the terrorists are coming after us. They are coming not to negotiate, not to seek accommodation or understanding, not to learn how to work together: they are coming to kill and destroy.

Unless we grasp the enormity of that fact, accept it, and hold it close we will lose this war. For war it is. Not crime, not misunderstanding, not something than can be resolved on a psychiatrist’s couch or with an anti-depressant medication. From time to time we drift away from our purpose, forget what started this war in the first place. We get ourselves bogged down in meaningless semantics. We argue over whether a particular Islamist terrorist organization really is a member of al Qaeda or not, as if that fact makes it less dangerous or mitigates its actions. We use all of our prodigious, misguided legalistic skills to parse the relationship between dictators like Saddam Hussein, Bashar Assad, Kim Jong Il, and the Iranian mullahs to terrorist organizations and leaders, as if they are in the docket at a criminal trial instead of loading the gun that others will hold to our heads.

Worst of all, we pretend that this war is somehow a war against “terror” rather than a brutal war to the death against rabid ideologues who have declared the war against us and intend to destroy us and our way of life. This is not a war against Islam per se, but as Paul Marshall notes “the root of this wave of terrorism is extremist religion.” These terror leaders have said that they intend to impose their twisted version of Islam upon us. We need to listen to what these people say and be candid in our own thoughts and speech. No longer can we go to ridiculous lengths to avoid offense, or to deceive ourselves that we are dealing with a “religion of peace.” Ayatollah Khomeini said, back when all this began in earnest, “we did not create a revolution to lower the price of melon.” More recently Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah, made terrorist intentions clear: “We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.”

The wave of attacks in London ought to have been a wake up call – again! How many of these will we require before we act against the root cause? So far we in America have been fortunate. Our Muslim immigrants have for the most part been professionals eager to assimilate into our society and become Americas in thought as well as in citizenship. European experience stands in stark contrast. On the Continent as well as in the UK a significant number of Muslim immigrants are workers and peasants. They are not educated, are held in ignorance and poverty by their religious leaders, and are proselytized mightely on the need to remain “pure to their faith” and by perseverance “overcome the infidel.” In other words, they come to Europe not to assimilate but to conquer.

Fundamentalist mosques across Europe have become platforms for terrorism and revolution directed against the host countries. To date the British, the French, Dutch, Germans, and others have pretended that these threats don’t exist. They cover up the Islamist rhetoric with politically correct rhetoric of their own despite the overheated climate in the mosques and ghettos. London attacks did not occur in a vacuum. They were no doubt encouraged by al Qaeda leaders abroad, perhaps even assisted with funding and training, but they could only have taken place in an atmosphere of growing hostility to the West.

Fortunately the terrorist attack in London will not rattle the majority of Britons nor will it shake the American-UK alliance. For a brief time at least, we are again tragically reminded that this is war. But how many wake up calls do we need to galvanize our will? Will it require a nuclear, poison gas, or biological attack before we at last have the moral courage to recognize our enemy for who and what he is? If the London attack can produce that result then the lives will not have been spent in vain.