Against Terrorism -- But
for What?
By Patrick J. Buchanan
January 23, 2015 "ICH"
- Following the Charlie Hebdo
massacre, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said
that France “is at war with terrorism,
jihadism and radical Islamism.” This tells
us what France is fighting against.
But what is France
fighting for in this war on terror? For
terrorism is simply a tactic, and arguably
the most effective tactic of the national
liberation movements of the 20th century.
Terrorism was used by the
Irgun to drive the British out of Palestine
and by the Mau Mau to run them out of Kenya.
Terrorism, blowing up movie theaters and
cafes, was the tactic the FLN used to drive
the French out of Algeria.
The FALN tried to
assassinate Harry Truman in 1950 at Blair
House, shot up the House of Representatives
in 1954, and, in 1975, blew up Fraunces
Tavern in New York where Washington had bid
his officers farewell. The FALN goal:
Independence from a United States that had
annexed Puerto Rico as the spoils of war in
its victory over Spain.
What did the FLN, FALN,
Mau Mau, Irgun and Mandela’s ANC have in
common? All sought the expulsion of alien
rule. All sought nations of their own. All
used terrorism for the same ends as Uighurs
do in China and Chechens do in the Caucasus.
Osama bin Laden, in his
declaration of war upon us, listed as his
casus belli the presence on the sacred soil
of Saudi Arabia of U.S. troops and their
“temple prostitutes.” He wanted us out of
his country.
What are Valls’
terrorists, jihadists and radical Islamists
fighting for? What are the goals of ISIS and
al-Qaida, Boko Haram and Ansar al-Sharia,
the Taliban and al-Shabab?
All want our troops, our
alien culture and our infidel faith out of
their lands. All seek the overthrow of
regimes that collaborate with us. And all
wish to establish regimes that comport with
the commands of the Prophet.
This is what they are
recruiting for, killing for, dying for. We
abhor their terror tactics and deplore their
aims, but they know what they are fighting
for. What are we fighting for?
What is our vision that
will inspire Muslim masses to rise up,
battle alongside us, and die fighting
Islamists? What future do we envision for
the Middle East? And are we willing to pay
the price to achieve it?
Comes the reply: America
is fighting, as always, for democracy,
freedom and the right of peoples to rule
themselves.
But are we? If democracy
is our goal, why did we not recognize the
election of Hamas in the Palestinian
territories, or of Hezbollah in Lebanon? Why
did we condone the overthrow of the elected
regime of Mohammad Morsi in Egypt? Why do we
not demand democracy in Saudi Arabia?
But hypocrisy is the least
of our problems. The real problem is that
hundreds of millions of Muslims reject our
values. They do not believe all religions
are equal. They do not believe in freedom of
speech or the press to blaspheme the
Prophet. Majorities in many Islamic
countries believe adulterers, apostates, and
converts to Christianity should be lashed,
stoned and beheaded.
In surveys, the Muslim
world not only rejects our presence and
puppets, but also our culture and beliefs.
In a free referendum they would vote to
throw us out of the region and throw the
Israelis into the sea.
For many in the Mideast
collaboration with America is a betrayal.
And our presence spawns more terrorists than
our drones can kill.
This week Valls conceded
there are “two Frances,” adding, “A
territorial, social, ethnic apartheid has
spread across our country.”
Have her five million
Muslims become an indigestible minority that
imperils the survival of France? Have France
and Europe embraced a diversity more
malignant than benign, possibly leading to a
future like the recent past in Palestine,
Cyprus, Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Ukraine?
T. S. Eliot said, to
defeat a religion, you need a religion.
We have no religion; we
have an ideology – secular democracy. But
the Muslim world rejects secularism and will
use democracy to free itself of us and
establish regimes that please Allah.
In the struggle between
democracy and Allah, we are children of a
lesser God. “The term ‘democracy,'” wrote
Eliot, “does not contain enough positive
content to stand alone against the forces
that you dislike – it can easily be
transformed by them. If you will not have
God … you should pay your respects to Hitler
or Stalin.”
Germany used democracy to
bring Hitler to power. Given free elections
from Morocco to Mindanao, what kind of
regimes would rise to power? Would not the
Quran become the basis of law?
If Charlie Hebdo were a
man, not a magazine, he would be torn to
pieces in any Middle East nation into which
he ventured. And what does a mindless West
offer as the apotheosis of democracy?
Four million French
marching under the banner “Je Suis Charlie.”
Whom the gods would
destroy …
Patrick J. Buchanan is the
author of the new book "The Greatest
Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat
to Create the New Majority." To find out
more about Patrick Buchanan and read
features by other Creators writers and
cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at
www.creators.com.