The Immature War
Feb 06, 2008
Cafe Alpha provides this link:
Sixty years later the lessons from the era of Japanese reconstruction have been ignored entirely following the US-led military interventions in Afghanistan, now under the post-Taliban Karzai regime, and Iraq, after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Indeed the post-World War II paradigm of neutralizing Japan’s bellicose, religio-political creed of Shintoism, has been turned on its head with regard to Islam, and the theocratic Islamic legal code, Shari’a—imbued with jihad, and completely antithetical to modern human rights constructs.
The core problem is that the West still doesn't comprehend (or refuses to acknowledge) the true nature of the enemy. If Islam is a religion of peace which is being "perverted" by a few psychotics, then we don't have to worry about the influence of Islamic law in Afghanistan and Iraq. Reality, however, doesn't jive with this premise.
It is because of Islam that an ex-Muslim was a few days away from death in Afghanistan. It is because of Islam that Jews are not welcome in Iraq. Islam is the problem.
To be fair, our job is far tougher. Japan was and is one nation. Islam infects dozens of countries with over a billion people. If we come out and bluntly say that a state has no business implementing sharia, then this will put the West in an explicit war with the majority Muslim world. The Bush Administration has tried to avoid this scenario. They'd rather co-opt the "peaceful" majority and defeat Al Qaeda and its ilk.
The problem would still remain, though. What Al Qaeda won't gain through terror, the "peaceful" majority will achieve through demographics. The West will eventually have to broaden the scope of this war in all spheres -- in objectives, strategy and tactics.
Japan unconditionally surrendered:
We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese Armed Forces and all Armed Forces under Japanese control wherever situated.
Posted by: David Boxenhorn | Feb 06, 2008 at 12:06 PM
"What Al Qaeda won't gain through terror, the "peaceful" majority will achieve through demographics."
I am not so sure. From what I have been reading lately it seems that, while illiteracy is very high in Arab and Islamic nations, it has been dropping and when combined with urbanization has been having an effect on Muslim demographics. And while sub-Saharan birth rates are dropping too they are far higher than Islamic North African nations. Sub-Saharan people with marketable talents and enough money to pay the human traffickers have been seeing North Africa as a viable primary destination or at least a good second choice if they fail to get to Europe. The North African nations are starting to bow to pressure from Europe to end the trafficking and they will likely want to stop their own people from leaving if their populations are beginning to age while sub-Saharans are moving in.
The population of European Muslims rose quickly in the 1970 to 1990 period but that growth rate began dropping quickly there after so that the time it would take to double as a percentage of the total population is now over a century and rising. Birth rates are falling and sending nations are sending fewer people. Even moderate economic and employment gains in the North African/Middle East nations due to increases in cellphone and Internet access could add to that trend while making them even more attractive destinations for sub-Saharans.
Even the report the article links to which says that Palestinian birth rates are rising may be overestimated. Israeli policy of land for peace has been based on a belief that Palestinian birth rates are astronomical and that their total numbers are higher than they are (they counted Jerusalem Arabs twice and made other false assumptions) so Jews should draw in the borders to maintain a Jewish majority. The Palestinians also never corrected these original errors and they add on the overestimated birthrates to come up with new statistics.
The great demographic weapon may not be loaded and even a small trend towards apostasy could cause Islam to start decaying. Not to preach complacency but defeat is not necessarily imminent.
Posted by: Saul Wall | Feb 06, 2008 at 12:39 PM
"The great demographic weapon may not be loaded ..."
Keyword: may.
Canadians and Americans will get to see how this demographic shift affects Europe in the coming years. That'll tell us just how lethal this weapon is.
Posted by: Isaac Schrödinger | Feb 06, 2008 at 02:26 PM
Turkey is comprised mostly of Muslims but they are determined to have a secular government ... if the stupid EU will let them.
I think we could and should have been much more direct in seeing that the constitutions written for Afghanistan and Iraq enshrined religious freedom and rights for women. When Abdul Rahman had to flee Afghanistan because he'd become a Christian, I was beyond disgusted.
Posted by: Laura(southernxyl) | Feb 07, 2008 at 09:59 PM