New Century, New Year, New Wars
By Alan Caruba (01/17/03)
Does anyone recall the celebration of the new millennium and century in 2000? Oh, brave New World! We would put war behind us, united by global communications, the Internet, expanding trade. And then came September 11, 2001.
An attack on the World Trade Center had, of course, occurred earlier in 1993, but had been dismissed as the work of a handful of Islamic lunatics. The war in which we find ourselves engaged began much, much earlier. Some may trace it to the overthrow of the shah of Iran in 1979. The Islamic government imposed back then is now being opposed by a new generation of Iranians. That is a hopeful sign.
One can go back to the establishment of Israel in 1948, a Western and democratic nation created in the midst of Islamic, authoritarian states and attacked on the day it declared its sovereignty. No people are more hated by Muslims than Jews. And now, daily, Christian martyrs join Israeli ones. The Jihad, of course, intends to bring both under the tender mercies of Islam. And it should be noted that Hindus in India have been suffering the same fate too.
One can go further back in time to the League of Nations following World War One. It carved up the former Ottoman Empire, creating nations like Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, putting them under the mandate of the British and French. History teaches that the decisions of the League led inevitably to World War Two. Sixty million died in that titanic struggle between authoritarianism and freedom. And still people talk about the United Nations as if it, too, will end wars. It will not! It can not. Its members are among those threatening their neighbors.
I would argue that war is a natural condition of mankind. In the brief history of so-called civilization, it has been war and war and war that has determined the success or failure of nations and movements. Peace has only been the brief intervals of time between wars, large and small.
So we greet 2003 on the brink of yet another war; this time to effect a regime change in Iraq. History suggests this is a wise move. The spread of weapons of mass destruction has left the world less safe than ever before.
Parenthetically, this is the problem North Korea represents. Like Iraq, it too is under the domination of a single dictator. It is testimony to the failure of Communism to even feed people. The notion the US can 'negotiate' any kind of 'peace' with its current dictator is ludicrous. Perhaps a military action, such as the destruction of their nuclear facilities, will be required to bring down this Communist house of cards.
But first, Iraq. It is a supreme irony that our action against Iraq will in fact protect Saudi Arabia, the nation that furnished the key players of al Qaeda and the former Taliban. It is a nation that provides us the oil we need to power our economic engine while, at the same time, funding thousands of mosques and schools worldwide that militate against the West. With our dollars!
We will prevail in Iraq. No one doubts that. The unknown factor is how our actions will affect the future of other Middle Eastern states. The unknown factor is whether we will energize or undermine the global Islamic jihad? I predict it will be the latter.
The only thing we know for sure, then, is that America will be at war again in the traditional sense of tanks, artillery, planes, bombs and troops. The other thing we know is that America is no longer invulnerable to attack in our cities and everywhere else.
It is not just a new century and a new year in which this war will be waged, it is a different world. It is war that must, as always, be waged against nation-states. The notion that we are waging war on something as nebulous as 'terrorism' or the 'shadowy' al Qaeda does not address the fundamentals of war, nor does it address the reality that this is a religious war being waged in the name Allah. Realistically, it is also a war about who controls the world's second largest reserve of oil. There is nothing wrong in that.
Oil is a factor, too, in another possible military action waiting around the corner. Venezuela has been taken over by a Fidel Castro wannabe. In time, we will turn our attention to him as well and, if need be, we will liberate the Venezuelans who are currently in the streets protesting Communism in the backyard of the US.
The support this current generation of Americans has shown for our President to do whatever is necessary to fight the forces of evil in the world is encouraging.
Welcome to 2003! Welcome to the new wars that must be fought!
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