Years ago I lived in the Middle East, saw the perennial Israeli-Arab conflict first hand and experienced both cultures on the street level, unencumbered by a military uniform or haircut. To stay alive, I often had to pass myself off as a Canadian. Luckily, few Arabs have a knowledge of where Jasper, Alberta is and no one checked passports, and that I had spent some time in Jasper so knew the place. Once, I knew a moment of sheer terror when an Arab street merchant, after I got something from him, said “Good-bye, my American friends.” All on that street were Arabs. It was a long street. He had alerted them that Americans were in their midst. I might not have made it to the end. I kept my cool, though, and returned to that shopkeeper, stood before him, and pointed out rather forcibly that I was a citizen of Canada from Jasper. Whether I convinced him, and them, or not is an open question, but it worked enough so that both I and my girlfriend then (she was Jewish) made it out of there with our throats uncut. Such is their hatred for the red-white-and-blue.

I remember how a commentator said during the Vietnam war that we were fighting to give a society freedom that did not even have a word for it in their vocabulary. We are doing it again in Iraq, for whatever dubious notions Bush gave as a reason for the war. Middle Easterners think so much differently than we do. They have no consciousness of freedom such as we know it. They cannot possibly understand this thing called liberty or a constitution. Instead they have a memory tens of thousands of years long and a complex social and political system of allegiances, family, honor, religions, revenge, tribal customs and hierarchies, and so on. It is the reason for the sunni/shiite rivalry, and the rest of the confusing medley of factions fighting each other.

Our neo-cons greatest mistake in Iraq was to think that our armies could blast a few tyrants out of the way and then they would be free. Bush/Cheney, have this city on the hill attitude about it. They got caught. Over 3,000 of our soldiers and counting have died. Incidentally, Iraq has some untapped oil that our companies greatly need to make more billions at our expense; halliburton needs more taxpayer dollars to rebuild the place, despite its tendency to misplace billions of dollars for nothing done.

They also know that Saddam was once our ally, that we supported him, and old Rummy even shook his hand.

The rightwing argument about islamofacists coming over the Atlantic in waves to destroy us is completely absurd. As someone here said how can they. They can hurt us once in a while when we let our guard down such as the horrific and unimaginable bungling of 9/11. What will destroy us more is the corporate practice, backed by this current administration, of shipping all of our jobs, our manufacturing, everything to countries for the cheap labor and governments that have little compunction about killing restless and underpaid laborers. That will destroy us first, not to mention our own greed.

Where do I start? You assert that “Islamofascism” is a “grave threat” to our liberty. How so? Are you suggesting that a small group of Muslim extremists with miniscule funding, no air force, no navy, can invade America using rifles and home-made bombs and impose Sharia law? This is patently absurd.

“Islamofascism” only exists in the minds of those propagandists that invented this term and those who have bought into this nonsense.

The definition of fascism you posted does not resemble the Islam you describe. Fascism is first and foremost an economic system. This is not practiced in Iran or under the Taliban – no more than practiced here in America.

You assert:

“Women are executed for being raped or for being seen in public without a male escort who is a relative.”

This is hogwash and I challenge you to source this information – don’t bother with using Daniel Pipes or Bernard Lewis as they have been discredited over and over for their hysterical fearmongering.

Women have been killed by members of their OWN FAMILIES after being raped in various primitive regions of various Muslim nations, including Pakistan and India, but this is generally not government policy. The Taliban punishment for being in public without a male escort is generally to whipped with a silly switch – not execution. Again, this is generally something found in primitive areas.

Back to “Islamofascism” – fascism consists of a vertical command and control system. Islam has no central authority and the fatwas of any particular imam have no significance to those who study under other imams. The whole al Qaida thing is more a state of mind or general philosophy rather than an organized group with a coherent mission statement and common goals.

Various al Qaida type groups, which are Sunnis, have different political goals and have different strategies for achieving their goals. They seek self-determination as do most people. One does not have to agree with these religious fanatics to understand what their motives are.

However, consider that the U.S. has been meddling in the Mideast for over 50 years and have made many enemies in the region for no particular purpose that benefits the average American – in fact this meddling has cost Americans a great deal over the years for little benefit.

It is hardly surprising that the enemies we have made in the Mideast wish to do us harm and wish us to leave the region. I have no interest in propping up the House of Saud, or the leaders of Jordan or Egypt, just as I had no interest in propping up Saddam during the time he was an ally of the US.

We have tried to play both sides of the Israel/Palestinian struggle and have done a horrible job bringing stability to that conflict. Israel, with the world’s 4th largest army, is quite capable of taking care of itself. As many Israelis will tell you, a political solution is required – not a military solution as envisioned by the Likud and their supporters in the Bush administration.

I would suggest that you quit listening to the neoconservative hawks and talk radio shock jocks and do some real research into the matter before you promote an endless war against “Islamofascists”.

I agree that the comparisons of the US to nazi Germany are tiresome – so are the comparisons of Iraq and Iran to nazi Germany.

If Tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
- James Madison

It would be a shame if this foreign enemy was one that poses no existential threat to the US

We lack the political will, leadership and resources to do Iraq right. It would be wiser to move the War on Terror into another theater that is near 100% Sunni with a high concentration of the Salafis power.

We should have attacked Saudi Arabia. They are funding. Saudi Arabia financed the Salafis so they could spread their stupidity across the globe. I hope this article isn’t right about Bush Administration supporting Salafis.

Salafis are one percent of the Muslim population. There has to be a better way to kill them all. We need to find a more economically reasonable way to kill them but the war profiteers would be against that. We need to focus on social engineering the disenfranchised Muslims so they can find something better to do than commit terror. We need to figure out what is the best tool for each attack on Salafis and use it (even if it isn’t politically correct). We also need our immigration laws enforced and tweaked unless we want Shariah Law or lose the southwest. It is stupid to allow people in with philosophies of violence against Americans because some fat cats want low paid workers.

Our soldiers are fighting to protect freedom in this country and we should be protecting the Constitution as bravely as they serve to protect the Constitution. Our soldiers took an oath to protect the US Constitution against foreign and domestic threats. We have an open border, importing gangs left and right. Our government is allowing violent groups to enter this country and the average citizen is being punished with a police state. The only reasonable argument for open borders is so everyone can escape if it comes to that. If an American is labeled as an enemy combatant they lose their constitutional rights. We have allowed our worst due process.

I don’t see how going after secular Baathist and Shiites have anything to do with hunting down and killing all of the Salafis. It is like confusing Liberal Protestants and Catholics with the Army of God (anti-abortion terrorist).

I agree with much of what you are saying about how America should move forward. Hindsight is 20/20. I once believed the notion that all humans yearn to be free. I no longer believe this. I believe that many humans yearn to be free but I also believe that most people desire to control others. This desire is even stronger than the will to be free. It seems that many of the warring factions in Iraq, with this new found freedom want to subjugate the other factions to their will.

I also like your thinking about introducing more capitalism into Iraq. We could call it “Operation X-Box”. Actually, I think a lot of these things are happening already. While there are a lot of discouraging things happening in Iraq, its not all bad. There is this wonderful blog called “Iraq the Model” that gives a more complete picture than the MSM is willing to show. ITM gives the good, the bad, and the ugly and has links to other blogs and news sources from people who are actually there. Here is the link: http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

Tom:

Where do I start? I respectfully have to disagree; Islamofascism is a grave threat to our liberty. I agree that while our own government is the greatest threat to our liberty, it’s by no means the only threat (unless you want to say that government’s incompetence to protect us from outside forces is also part of the threat).

There is no such thing as Islamofascism? Where have you been? Maybe I did not do an adequate job of defining the term so here it is:

The “Islamo” part obviously refers to the religion of Islam. By no means am I saying that by being a Muslim one is an Islamofascist no more than I would say that all Christians believe that Pat Robertson is a bright person. The “Islamo” part is an important description because it identifies the type of fascists we are talking about (if we were talking about Christians who used terror tactics to bring about a government under Christian law, we would rightly call these people “Christofascists”).

For the “fascist” part, I refer you to the following definition I found at dictionary.com:

Fascism:
1.(sometimes initial capital letter ) a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

2.(sometimes initial capital letter ) the philosophy, principles, or methods of fascism.

3.(initial capital letter ) a fascist movement, esp. the one established by Mussolini in Italy 1922–43.

The first definition applies with what is going on in places like Iran and is the governing policy of the Taliban. Women are executed for being raped or for being seen in public without a male escort who is a relative. Anything that goes against the ruling party’s Islamic doctrine is in violation of the law. This is fascism—Islamofascism.

Whether or not I used emotional propaganda arguments or reason and facts, I’ll let the readers decide. You don’t think your side uses “paid propagandists” and “hysterical fearmongering”? I am quite capable of drawing my own conclusions and I suspect that you are too.

How about explaining why “islamofascism” is a threat to America in terms of facts instead of personal feelings and unfounded predictions.

These Muslim extremists you are so worried about do not have the means to destroy our country or “our way of life” – unless you regard “our way of life” as having some inherent right to occupy and/or meddle in their nations. They do seem to be doing a pretty good job of intefering with America’s interventionism in the Mideast which has gone on for over 50 years.

Perhaps you should read Pape’s analysis on terrorism that shows the terror stops when invaders/occupiers leave. Perhaps you should also research the liklihood of non-state actors to carry out a nuclear attack. It is almost nonexistent.

Preventive wars are a real non-starter for me, especially when the psychic neocons who predict the future have never had one of their predictions come true.

It might also be helpful to revisit the Barbary pirate situation and learn to distinguish between gangsters and people seeking political self-determination. Regurgitating the received wisdom of paid propagandists for the war party is no substitute for rational thought.

Hysterical fearmongering is the same technique used by anyone who is unable to persuade others through reason and fact.

Much of what you say is true, and Saddam certainly had no moral justification for remaining in power.

However, I still think invading Iraq was a bad idea: You can’t force people to be free, and many actively resist it (uh, seemingly many Americans, but that’s another story.) My (admittedly secondhand) knowledge leads me to conclude that most Iraqis would rather fight for a return to fascism than for a free state. And even if that isn’t true, I think it is self-evident that the cost, in lives and dollars, along with the distraction from finding and killing Bin Laden, means the downside of the Iraq War has been far greater than the benefits.

Now, I don’t think we should leave immediately, but I do think if we started by admitting that we didn’t get what we wanted in Iraq, and that we might not EVER get it, then we might be in a position to figure out how to withdraw from Iraq while minimizing the cost to both the Iraqis and Americans.

And in the meantime, we could start codifying a more rational approach to opposing Islamofascism: one where force may be acknowledged as morally justified, but also one where it is recognized that bombing targets with TV’s, X-Boxes, and similar trappings of consumerism (capitalism) just might be more effective (and less costly).