Alan Caruba / Mar 31, 2002

It now appears that the Bush administration has decided to support Israel fully in its desperate need to protect itself against its enemies. The reason is simplicity itself. The enemies of Israel are the enemies of America and the West. The enemy is the worldwide Islamic Jihad.

The Islamic Jihad, if one takes note of the headlines, was waged this passed week in Jammu, India, when Muslims attacked a Hindu place of worship, and, of course, against Israel. The Jihad is being waged in the Philippines, in Indonesia, in Russia, and lies just beneath the surface in nations that include England and throughout Europe.

The war is not about a "Palestinian State" because Israel is a sovereign nation and there is no need for it to cede its own land, much of it won in battles against besieging neighbor nations, in order to justify its existence.

Moreover, Israel is simply America's and Europe's "front lines" in the Middle East. Our front lines at home can be found at "Ground Zero" and in the rebuilt Pentagon. Our front lines represent every target the Islamic Jihadist has targeted for destruction. Our front lines are those defeatists who would thwart our ability to achieve a higher level of energy independence.

There is no reason why a democratic nation should not exist in the backward region of the world called the Middle East, run entirely by despots of every description. If Turkey can achieve a modern state, despite its Islamic faith, than this can and must be achieved everywhere. The Palestinians are merely the tip of the sword.

In the century that followed the death of Mohammed, Islam was spread by the sword, enslaving all of the Middle East, all of northern Africa, all of northern India, and spreading up into Spain. We owe a great debt to those Europeans who turned away the Islamic hordes. Now it is our turn! This is the great war of the 21st century.

That is why Israel, roused finally to its own defense despite the intense pressures of Western nations to yield to the Muslims, is showing the West why we cannot and must not yield. One would think this lesson was learned on September 11, 2001, but sometimes it takes time for people to sort out the real message from the horror that surrounds it.

In passed weeks, I have vacillated between despair for Israel's future and our own failure to face the harsh reality of a new world war for the survival of freedom, but now I feel encouraged that Americans, as have previous generations, will rally to the battle for a future that will end the threats posed by those like Saddam Heussein, the Saudi Arabians, Libya's dictator, and most evidently, the Iranian ayatollahs.

The Islamic Jihadists have been waging war on America since the late 1970's, taking our diplomats hostage, blowing up our embassies, attacking our warships, destroying the World Trade Center, and killing American journalists like Daniel Pearl. The enemy has invaded our nation and is living among us. Islamic-American organizations oppose our government's actions to find these terrorists, jail or deport them.

President Bush's "Axis of Evil" was right on target, but until the butchery of the passed week, we all witnessed his vacillation. His calls for Arafat to do something, anything, to alter the threats to Israel began to sound empty and impotent. Only when it became obvious that appeals to any Arab leader and promises by any Arab leader were a useless exercise that the harsh reality arrived with the message that we are at war!

Let us not be swayed by the whimperings of those who doubt our military might, our capability to wage the war that has been foisted upon us by a 7th century warrior cult that calls itself a religion. No religion sacrifices its children as living bombs to kill its enemies. No religion makes war a holy sacrament. No religion applauds mass murder. Islam is, in the eyes of the modern world, totally discredited as a "religion." All that Islam offers is the darkness of ignorance, submission, and endless war.

Those of us old enough to remember World War II know that it was waged against military and civilian alike. The bombing raids over Tokyo killed more civilians than either the Nagasaki or Hiroshima A-bombs. Those final bombs did, however, end the evil dreams of Japanese warlords, setting that nation, under American guidance, on the path of peace. So, too, the bombings of German cities ended the Nazi threat to Europe and Russia.

Do not look to the United Nations to aid America and the West in this effort. It is a cabal of those who would enslave us all in the name of "global government." It has a long history of hostility to Israel. It is composed of nations that would take our wealth through global taxation schemes, impose its own world court on us and other nations, create a huge military to suppress freedom.

A friend, an expert on military affairs, told me that the US would never use its tactical nuclear weapons. I think we will because we will have to. Here again, a threatened Israel may demonstrate that need. Middle Eastern nations are reportedly moving their troops in anticipation of their engagement. The Israelis have the capability and they are determined not to repeat the errors of the past when Jews were marched in the millions to the gas chambers. Their call, "Never again!" must be our rallying call as well.

The desire for peace is strong in the hearts of Americans and others around the world, but a peace that comes only with surrender is an intolerable answer when faced with millions of Muslims who require that only Islam rule the world.
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Alan Caruba is the author of "A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam", available exclusively from www.anxietycenter.com, the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center

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