Politics

Osama Bin Laden is Dead, and We Are Still Losing the War

… because we are still acting like police and social workers while our enemies are fighting a war, and because our political leaders still do not recognize the enemy: Islamists, especially Islamic governments.

The evil monster Osama Bin Laden has been killed (shot in the head) by American military heroes. Good. But centuries from now, if civilization survives or is reborn, historians will write of this event as follows:

Even in announcing America’s killing of the leader of the particular terrorist organization that had committed the September 11 massacre, America’s President Obama reiterated and emphasized two notions that would lead to countless more American deaths. The first notion was “that the United States is not—and never will be—at war with Islam. (I’ve made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam.)” The second notion, derivative of the first—but one that even the ineffectual apologist for Islam, President G. W. Bush did not hold—was that the fundamental enemy of America was al Qaeda.

The non-conceptual, concrete-bound mentality that believes that America’s fundamental military enemy is al Qaeda is the same kind of mentality that on September 10, 2001 thought that everything was hunky-dory. Al Qaeda is just one of numerous terrorist organizations supported by Islamic governments—above all, Iran—and other Islamists. And terrorism is just one thrust of these Islamists in their fight to conquer the world for Islam.

In 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini declared a fatwa—a holy war—calling for the execution of Salmon Rushdie (author of The Satanic Verses) and, by implication, his publishers and booksellers. As a result, American bookstores and an American newspaper were bombed, and American publishers needed expensive private security in response to death threats. Recognizing this attack on Americans’ freedom of speech as an act of war, Leonard Peikoff (long-time associate of Ayn Rand) placed an advertisement in the New York Times calling for strong military action against Iran. I am proud to have been one of the signers of the ad, publicly endorsing Dr. Peikoff’s statement.

Al Qaeda was founded just around the time of the fatwa against Rushdie, and was undoubtedly emboldened by America’s non-response to the fatwa. Had America heeded Peikoff’s advice, and had America destroyed Islamist governments including Iran and Saudi Arabia, there never would have been a 9/11 attack. Nor would there exist the Islamist threats we face today.

Though America has killed Osama Bin Laden, we are much worse off against the Islamists than we were on September 12, 2001. Ten more years of wealth from oil assets robbed from the West have given Iran, Syria, Saudia Arabia, and its allies more power to kill Americans and our allies. Our enemies have grown and spread terror networks and insurgencies. Iran’s nuclear weapons program is much farther along and much more widespread. Islamist ideas—in the form of Sharia law—have infiltrated into Western governments. Our enemies have advanced in the Middle East, in Europe, and probably even within America’s borders.

As in domestic policy, and his protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, President Obama in foreign policy is essentially the same as his predecessor Bush, only worse. (See my youtube presentation from 2008.) Regarding the threat from Islamists, this article of mine, written in 2003 shortly before America invaded Iraq, is still timely today. I predicted the outcome in Iraq, and the only thing I got wrong is the name of the boiler-plate Democrat who succeeded George W. Bush as President. Some of my predictions still lie in the future, unless we change course. Most importantly, my analysis of—and solution for—the ongoing problem remains unchanged:

America’s problem with Islamic fundamentalists began when Americans, failing to defend their rational self-interest, put the fruits of rationality in the hands of the irrational by letting Islamic savages nationalize Western oil properties in the Middle East. For centuries, Middle East Muslims had been killing each other, but were not a threat to anyone outside their region until the West enriched, emboldened, and empowered them by letting them rob this wealth and spend it on wider-range killing. America could have ended the problem any time before its fall if it simply had the moral self-confidence to use its military might, including its nuclear arsenal, to crush the evil governments, seize the oil properties that the savages were using to finance their military and terrorist operations, and make the territories of the Islamic Middle East into American colonies, thereby enabling American adventurers to exploit and civilize this new frontier just as American adventurers had exploited and civilized the American West in the 1800s.

(See also this post, which I read while finishing my own.)

One thought on “Osama Bin Laden is Dead, and We Are Still Losing the War

  1. Ron, two things:

    1) This will make you sick:

    http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5htP9exjYygc2NRhKYNjIL-MGlJPg?docId=CNG.627b7372f3acc13c7f531216bc315790.3d1

    US forces administered Muslim religious rites for Osama bin Laden aboard an aircraft carrier Monday in the Arabian Sea, an American official said after the raid that killed the Al-Qaeda leader.

    “Today religious rights were conducted for the deceased on the deck of the USS Carl-Vinson which is located in the North Arabian Sea,” a senior defense official said.

    “Traditional procedures for Islamic burial were followed. The deceased’s body was washed and then placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag.

    “A military officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat-board… (and) eased into the sea.”

    The ceremony began at 0510 GMT and ended some 50 minutes later aboard the aircraft carrier which is stationed off the coast of Pakistan to help US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

    2) What do you think our policy should be regarding Muslim immigration? Wherever Muslims aggregate in large numbers they agitate for Sharia. I have seen disturbing images of Europe including one recently of masses of Muslims kneeling in prayer in the city of Rome. It doesn’t look like a European city. We are seeing the same thing in Deerborn Michigan (“Deerbornistan”). Objectivists usually advocate open borders immigration but in today’s context, especially with Muslims, that policy seems suicidal. You are and have been one of the best Objectivist commentators on Islam. I remember your 2003 article and I thought it was awesome then (even though some Kelleyites called you a warmonger). That’s why I ask your opinion on immigration. I fear a large contingent of Muslims growing in America.

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