Who Are We Really Fighting?

You hear about it on the news, the radio talk shows, and among friends at work. There have been books written on it, both for and against it. At some time or another the war on terror has been on everyone's mind. Each of us have our own opinion on how we should fight it. We all have an opinion about the war in Iraq. It is good that we are thinking about it, but how many of us truly understand what this war is all about? Think about it for a moment. Are we at war with the country of Iraq? Iraq never provoked us, other than their violations of the no fly zone. The President calls it the war on terror. So what exactly is terror?

Terror is defined as: 1) Intense, overpowering fear 2) One that instills intense fear 3) The ability to instill intense fear 4) Violence committed or threatened by a group to intimidate or coerce a population, as for military or political purposes.

So if we look at our war against terror, using the abovementioned definitions, we will find that we are at war against fear, someone who makes us afraid, or a group that is trying to intimidate us.

We cannot be at war with a word. Terror, itself, is something that we cannot combat on a national level and win. It is an internal reaction to a stimulus and therefore the only way to defeat terror is to become brave. So if we are truly at war, we must be at war with the cause of terror; someone who instills fear or a group trying to intimidate us. When applied to our war on terror, both of those definitions have humans, or groups of humans, as the root cause of terror.

So who are we at war with? Is it Osama Bin Laden? If we were to capture or kill him, would the war against terror be over? I don’t think so. Do you? If not, than the war against terror is not against one individual. The war is against a concept, or a belief system that causes these terrorists to hate us so.

I know it is not politically correct to say this, but this war on terror is against a politically motivated form of radical Islam, it is a religious war that pits their beliefs against ours. Their religious beliefs and those of the western world do not agree. Their belief is that we must be totally annihilated or converted. There is no middle ground. The sooner Americans accept this fact, the better off we will be. Until that happens we will never know who and what we are fighting.

The war in Iraq is a prime example of the misguided way in which we are fighting this war. If this war is truly part of the war on terror, will establishing a democracy in Iraq do away with radical Islam? No, the radicals will still be there, and they will still hate us.

When President Reagan was in office he sent bombers to Libya to bomb Tripoli after finding out they were responsible for bombing a nightclub in a terrorist attack. He did not invade Libya and try to install a democratic form of government. Yet Libya got the message and behaved themselves afterwards. We should be doing the same now, let them know we mean business when we say don't mess with the U.S. To invade a country in the name of a war on terror, to try and force political change and instill western views in their society will only bread new terrorists and the war will go on forever.

If you think we can win this war by defeating individuals and installing a democracy you need to read these quotes.

Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Sudayyis, of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, said,
“The most noble civilization ever known to mankind is our Islamic civilization. Today, Western civilization is nothing more than the product of its encounter with our Islamic civilization in Andalusia [medieval Spain]. The reason for [Western civilizations] bankruptcy is the reliance on the materialistic approach, and its detachment from religion and values. [This approach] has been one reason for the misery of the human race, for the proliferation of suicide, mental problems and for moral perversion. Only one nation is capable of resuscitating global civilization, and that is the nation [of Islam]”

That quote alone is arrogant in itself in that it basically says we are nothing, they are everything, our ways are morally corrupt and bankrupt while they are righteous and rich in values. They feel morally and culturally superior to us. That does not show much tolerance from a religion that claims to be peaceful.

Another quote, taken from the diary of a suicide bomber states the extent to which they disagree with western values.

“We cannot live in the same world with the West. Western democracies have created a world in which we cannot exist, because in our world, the only thing to which we look forward to is the afterlife. This is just a temporary status, and we are moving on to something greater, and if we allow democracies, Western civilization, to survive, it will essentially turn the heads of all our people and turn their heads away from the joys of the afterlife and the joys of this life. Therefore, we have to set ourselves on a path of destroying Western civilization”.

That is their viewpoint, that we must be destroyed down to the last man, woman and child. Again, not very tolerant, are they? Yet we, in the west, are much more tolerant of others religious views. We have ‘freedom of religion’, inasmuch as the ACLU and the courts will allow it. So to look at things, we are much more vulnerable and weaker on this front than they are. We allow freedom to worship as you please, and by that fact alone we allow members of their faith to practice their beliefs within our borders. But if their belief claims that they must destroy all others, how can we allow this to go on while saying we are at war with terror?

All faiths believe that they are correct in their path to salvation. However, most proselyte peacefully through fellowship or missionary efforts. The followers of radical Islam believe in the concept of convert or be killed. They will not accept any other condition.

Many of you have heard the term jihad before. I am not sure that you realize that it also means struggle, whether it be spiritual or other. It does not always apply to a religious war, although that is often the way it is understood in the west.

However, when a jihad, or holy war is declared, the followers of Islam dedicate themselves to the cause. So, if they declare a jihad against the west, all of the faithful who are Muslim are then dedicated to carrying out their goal of eliminating everyone from the west, even though we have never met or done anything to them to make them hate us. It is because we are westerners and their faith has declared war on us that they strap on suicide vests and blow themselves up in the midst of their 'declared' enemies.

So, if we are fighting a war on terror, again I ask, who are we fighting? Are we fighting the Iraqi citizens who strap on suicide bombs? That is like playing chess and thinking you can win by capturing all the pawns. Helping instill democracy won't help, but that appears to be the goal of our current administration. So we are left now with a civil war within Iraq, as well as insurgents who wish to see Americans killed as well. Quite a mess.

Islam is rapidly spreading throughout the world, and along with it the cancer of hatred for all things western. How are we to know who it is that lives amongst us with such hatred in their hearts that they are plotting to carry out terrorist attacks? Who is to say that one day they will live among us in such numbers that we will live in constant fear of terrorist attack?

It is politically incorrect to stereotype all Muslims, but that fact of the matter is that it is Muslims who have committed most of the terrorist attacks against us? It wasn’t Catholics, Protestants, or Baptists. It wasn't Chinese, Russians, or Germans. It was Muslims. Before we can win this war we need to put aside politically correct thinking, the misguided concept of multiculturalism, and we need to focus on who our enemy is and how we are going to deal with them.

I leave you now with a quote from Sun Tzu from his book "The Art of War".

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy or yourself, you will succumb in every