I’ve come to fully expect talk on television about the ‘War on Terror’ to end up being less than honest, less than exact, less than educated and less than inspiring. So, I wasn’t holding out much hope for Ted Koppel’s report on the Discovery Channel called ‘Our Children’s Children’s War’. It’s a good thing I’m always prepared to be non-plussed, because the show did almost exactly what I anticipated — it put out a warning but draped it in ambiguities and nebulous talk. Luckily for you, I already knew I was going to write this reaction piece.
So, let’s get right to it.
The show wasn’t a complete let-down. It did bring into the public spotlight the ‘Long War’ concept, even if it did marginalize it and not go into the detail you can find if you know where to look. In fact, I’m going to tell you where to look if you haven’t already, right now. Look in my sidebar for a ‘box’ containing files, for instance. One of the downloads there is named ‘jcslongwar‘, for “Joint Chiefs of Staff Long War”, I suppose. It’s a PowerPoint presentation put together by our U.S. military leaders. Save it to your hard drive. Print it out. Show it to your friends over coffee sometime. Pass it along. Tell them to look for repeats of Koppel’s show on Discovery to supplement their newfound understanding of what the ‘Long War’ is about.
Then send them here to the Anvil, to read what I’m about to say, and maybe stay awhile to read and watch and learn even more, if they can stomach it.
Here’s the problem with what we say and don’t say about this conflict, ‘The Long War’, and it isn’t obvious to most people because they don’t ever hear or read these things if they are busy raising kids, watching Disney movies and working hard in politically correct environments like so many parents and ordinary Americans do; the problem is never hearing who the “enemy” really is. And people wonder why there is so much apathy when it comes to the “War on Terror”? Ordinary people can’t wrap their arms around the concept of fighting “Terror”. It’s like asking us to fight the ‘Wind’ or the ‘Sky’, and it’s not even poetic. If you’re going to fight a ‘Long War’ you need to know what the hell exactly it is you’re fighting.
Well, if you watched and listened closely to the talk on the television show last night, you heard one word more than any other: ‘extremist’. I counted it used at least five times. You’ve heard similar words in the news every day of your life since 9-11: extremist, insurgent, militant, terrorist, etc. My favorite and most hated term of all: ‘Tiny Minority of Extremists’. Remember that one? You didn’t hear that term last night though. Wonder why?
You didn’t hear ‘tiny minority of extremists’ last night because it would be ridiculous. How does a ‘tiny minority’ end up pulling the Earth’s only Superpower into a conflict that “will last generations”, right? It obviously can’t. And yet, we never hear who the true “enemy” is in this “Generational Conflict”. In fact, at the end of the program, Koppel himself says “the Enemy” — as if it’s some ideological bogeyman that can’t be named.
I’m sure those who come to the Anvil more than once know exactly where I’m heading with this editorial this morning, but I will continue to build it from the talking points I jotted down while watching ‘Our Children’s Children’s War’, because I want to make sure this point strikes home for everyone — because frankly, you won’t hear this straight talk in many other places other than right here, so allow me to indulge myself, if you might. Here are some key points as to why the concept of fighting ‘terrorists’ and ‘extremists’, ‘tiny minority’ or not was made absolutely implausible by Koppel’s report last night:
1) The U.S. military is “stretched thin” and has been working with ‘private contractors’ like the mercenaries from the Blackwater company. News to me last night, in fact, is that over 800 of these mercenaries have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. How many of you knew that? I certainly was surprised.
2) Almost all the active and actual U.S. military personnel in the conflict are on their second, third and some even fourth tours of duty.
3) The National Guard has supplemented our ground forces since day one.
4) 5 1/2 years in Afghanistan and almost 5 years in Iraq. Both conflicts outlasting World War II and still going. And now we are told of the ‘Long War’ as a preparation of the American people for the idea that this ain’t over and won’t be over anytime soon and many of us will never see it end.
So, you see, it’s utterly insane to imply that a ‘tiny minority of extremists’ could be pulling the United States of America and all its power into a conflict that is outlasting the full might of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. But that is still what many parties would prefer you to believe.
I counted how many times the word ‘Islam’ was used in the show. Zero.
What words even came close to naming Islam?
“Islamic state” was uttered 1x. “Muslims” also 1x. “Janjaweed” 1x. And that was it.
Words you never heard: Islamist, Islam, Islamofascist, jihad, Sharia, Koran, Muhammad or even ‘fascist’.
And now I’m to the meat and potatoes of this editorial, where my frequent readers sensed I was going to end up, but for you new people, now you’re going to get the picture the way Koppel should have ended the program. This ‘Children’s Children’s War’ or ‘Long War’ is a war of ideologies. General John Abizaid even touched on that concept very briefly, almost like it was a ‘hot potato’ but it was obvious from the U.S. military being focused on the tribes around the Horn of Africa and in Ethiopia, the idea of winning “hearts and minds” isn’t going to stop. And it should not, but let us at least say who the “Enemy” is, general.
The “enemy”, the bogeyman that Koppel wouldn’t name is Islam itself. Obvious by now, don’t you think? If not, go back and look at those four quick points I typed out. This is no war with a ‘minority’ that never seems to run out of ’suicide bombers’. It’s a bottomless ideology that is bent on — what exactly? That’s another key point that was left out of the show: the reason for the “terrorists and extremists” attacking the world is what? We were told that they want us to agree with them, but agree on what?
Well, the “terrorists” want you to accept ‘Allah’, duh! Propaganda groups like ‘Voice of the Caliphate’ are heard from — even as recently as yesterday, in fact. Al Jazeera, the Arab news outlet, was called one of the worst problems by General Abizaid, and I’m sure it’s in no short supply of video footage from groups in support of Al Qaeda and the jihad. The news from Al Jazeera is more respected by far in the Middle East than anything the United Nations or the United States has been able to pump over the air waves. And of course it will be considering that it supports the jihad elements, has in its employ jihadists and undoubtedly has members that even know the whereabouts of people like Osama bin Laden. Do we yank Al Jazeera off the air though? No. For the same reason that the word ‘Islam’ was not uttered once on Koppel’s television show last night: fear of the obvious ideological enemy.
If we dare not name our enemies and if we value every hair on our heads so much that we can’t bear the idea of getting them upset, then we are obviously going to fight a prolonged war that’s going to cost us far too much. I’m here this morning to give you a way around this ‘Long War’ and shorten it.
Name the damn enemy!
Islam is the problem and has been. I’ve said so now since I first came to my senses some 4 years ago. We need to shut down the Islamic schools across the United States. Cease all Muslim immigration. We need to do, in fact, what our own people strived so hard to do prior to World War II when it wasn’t the smart move, and that is to adopt a ‘Fortress America’ mentality. Now is the time for such a choice.
No more student visas for Muslim students.
No more financial handouts to Muslim countries.
No more medicines, volunteers, aid stations, roads built, schools constructed.
No more help, sweat, or blood from Americans anywhere in the world for Muslims until Islam is held accountable. And who in their right mind even believes that this is going to happen in one generation?
We certainly can not fight a “generational war” versus ghosts! We can’t stop terror until we strike the source, and the source is the Qur’an and the teachings of Muhammad. Still don’t believe that? Then you’ve never read the book or even taken time to watch a video like the one I produced last week.
If we are going to win this war and not fight it for generations plural, then we’re going to have to start talking about the enemy of Islam and stop pretending, appeasing and lying to ourselves. Most of all, we need to stop this charade that Islam is somehow equal to our own American ideologies. It is not. It is the antithesis of everything we hold dear as Americans, regardless of what religion any of us profess. It is a fascist ideology at its heart. Islam is a bigoted ideology, a hateful one, a sexually-induced and misogynistic pariah of a belief system. It is a lie and a mythology cultivated by a madman bent on his own personal vision of messiah-hood back in the 7th century. Why are we so intent on allowing it to pull us into a war that will supposedly last at least one generation because we can’t bear to name it?
Strike the sources of the terror. Cease the population expansion of Muslims in Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States. Cease our ridiculous thirst for oil. Dig more of our own where it might pain us a little at first (i.e. Alaska or the Gulf of Mexico), find alternative fuel sources, create synthetics, build better refineries, whatever it takes, but cut the chains that bind us to the very enemy that is striving to usurp our ideals, our laws and our nations. Enough of this lemming-esque acceptance of our Fate as infidels fighting the “terrorists” — the enemy is known to us or should be.
The ‘Long War’, our ‘Children’s Children’s War’ is with Islam and any Muslims that seek to perpetuate a Caliphate, terror, beheadings, suicide bombings, Sharia Law, an overturning of the U.S. Constitution, a perpetuation of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan with the sole goal of inciting anarchy and causing American deaths, states like Iran and Syria and their nuclear ambitions, Saudi Arabia living in luxury at the highest levels while the people live like dogs, all Middle Eastern states that would rather use slaves or foreign workers to do their “dirty work” rather than lift a finger for themselves because they believe they are “superior in the eyes of Allah” — to all these Enemies I say today, you are seen, I at least am naming you and I will continue to do so every week of my life until I either see a victory in this ‘Long War’ or I lose my own head.
So, there you have it this morning to put beside your toast and jam — all the bits that should have been added to the television report last night by Ted Koppel and so predictably were left out.
The Enemy is the same as it was yesterday and the day before that and the hundred years and a thousand before that — the enemy is still Islam. Own it, despise it, fear it if you have to, but for God’s sake quit running from it.
And that ends my effort for today.
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