The Weekend Web
Just when the United States began to make progress in the war on terror, particularly in Iraq, Washington now faces the frightening scenario of Pakistan erupting into full-scale civil war. President Bush and Congress have insisted that President Pervez Musharraf—an American ally in the war on terror—hold democratic elections, even to the point of threatening him with sanctions. Then the U.S. encouraged opposition leader Benazir Bhutto to come out of exile and to get involved in the “democratic” process.
She did—and now she’s dead. As Greg Sheridan wrote in the Australianyesterday, “The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a catastrophe for Pakistani democracy and society. It is also a savage setback in the larger war on terror.”
At the National Review, Andrew McCarthy reminded us of Osama bin Laden’s 46 percent approval rating in Pakistan, compared to President Bush’s pitiful showing of just 9 percent. “If you really want democracy and the rule of law in places like Pakistan, you need to kill the jihadists first,” McCarthy wrote.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Fox News: “I think the notion that by bringing Benazir Bhutto back to Pakistan we could facilitate moving to a Democratic system has obviously turned out to be incorrect.”
Robert Baer, former cia operative assigned to the Middle East, wrote, “Since 9/11 there has not been a single country in that region that has had peaceful and successful elections. Hamas’s victory in Gaza, the stalemate in Lebanon, elections in Iraq and now Pakistan—none of them have led to the stability, modernity and civil society this administration promised us.”
At theTrumpet.com, we have been writing about the “demise of democracy” for a number of years. Just one year after 9/11, for example, we wrote about how the democratization of the Middle East would result in an Islamic backlash:
That [democratization] has coincided with the massive export of American-produced television programs, music and other entertainment is more than coincidental. Human beings are generally not moved by logic or reason. It is imagination, emotion, feelings that motivate the masses of mankind. The appeal of “the good life”—typed by everything from its subculture of entertainment and national laid-back uniform of jeans, sweatshirt and sneakers to its voracious American-style consumerism and promotion of free and unmitigated choice within an economy of plenty—has been a powerful magnet to those in foreign lands. The simple equation in most minds is, “Democracy equals all of this.”
There is a problem in this idea, however. As America has dumbed down its culture—its taste in all things from food to dress, from music to sitcoms—the quality of life and the fruits thereof are painting a very different picture of the results of democracy to the rest of the world from that which our Founding Fathers envisioned. Family breakdown, a huge drug subculture, rampant sexual perversion, violent crime—all these bitter fruits now being reaped by an Anglo-American society in decline are being perceived by undemocratic, religiously zealous, reactionary regimes as dramatic proof of the failure of the great Western dream. This perception has contributed to the Islamic backlash. It is, right now, exacerbating relationships between the U.S. and Europe. It is destined to have a horrific effect, ultimately, on the U.S. and Britain and its dominions.
The problem with spreading the democracy doctrine, we went on to write, is that it is predicated on this false assumption: that everyone else thinks like Americans.
In the June 2004 print edition of the Trumpet, we featured “Exporting Democracy” on our cover and asked, “Can it work?” Here is what we wrote:
The greatest fallacy in Western minds, perhaps, is that democracy in non-Western countries will spawn pro-Western administrations. This rarely happens, as Samuel P. Huntington wrote in The Clash of Civilizations. He called this the “democracy paradox,” saying that “adoption by non-Western societies of Western democratic institutions encourages and gives access to power to nativist and anti-Western political movements.” Elections in Islamic countries like Algeria and Turkey have placed Islamist, anti-U.S. politicians at the helm.
Muslims tend to see Western democracy as the antithesis of Islam. As one Sunni sheik in Iraq put it, “[E]verything that is happening in our country is because we strayed from our religion. We strayed from Islam and took the democracy of the infidels and the freedom of the infidels. There is no solution except Islam, and stability will never come back without it. So insist on Islam” (Asia Times, March 23, 2004). The U.S. is facing those in the Middle East who believe Islam cannot remain pure if mixed with America’s version of democracy.
Nothing highlights this ideological clash—or the sheer lunacy of attempting to democratize jihadists—quite like the cnn poll linked to above. Instead of backing Musharraf who, for all of his flaws, is at least fighting terrorists and protecting Pakistan’s nukes, American policymakers are consumed with the idea of imposing democracy on a nation where Osama bin Ladin would trounce President Bush in a general election.
Wake-Up Call for European Leaders
Blogger Scott Ott had an interesting angle on the Bhutto assassination, saying it served notice to leaders in Europe.
Your secularism, your democracy will not stand. The growing Muslim populations in your own lands that you have done so much to tolerate, protect and celebrate, will soon rise up against you. Sharia law shall become your law. The Caliph shall rule you.
It remains only for you to choose submission or assassination.
We have been following Islam’s demographic assault on Europe for some time now because of the prophesied clash to occur between radical Islam and a Vatican-led Euroforce. Here is what we wrote three weeks ago:
Too few are prepared to consider the fundamental forces at play in the Muslim-related crises occurring in Europe, such as [November’s] brutal riots in Paris; or the Danish cartoon crisis; or the multiple terrorist plots that have been foiled across Europe; or the emergence of sharia suburbs in European cities; or the anti-European, anti-Christian vitriol spewing from the mouths of Muslim preachers in Europe, even the moderate ones; or the network of Islamic radicals stretching from Bosnia to Britain, Spain to Germany; or the rapid construction of hundreds of minarets across the European skyline, indicative of a swelling Muslim tide.
The War Against Narcissism
Entrapped in political correctness and uncomfortable with any unfavorable portrayals of Islam, America’s leaders have defined its worldwide struggle as a “war on terror.” Terror, though, is not an enemy—it’s a tactic. Failing to clearly identify Islamist extremism and its chief sponsor nations as the enemy is like defining World War ii as a “war on blitzkrieg” so as not to directly implicate Germany.
In Britain, now even the words “war on terror” are considered inappropriate. According to Britain’s chief prosecutor, the UK government will no longer use the language “war on terror.”
Sir Ken Macdonald said terrorist fanatics were not soldiers fighting a war but simply members of an aimless “death cult.”
The Director of Public Prosecutions said: ‘We resist the language of warfare, and I think the government has moved on this. It no longer uses this sort of language.” London is not a battlefield, he said. ”The people who were murdered on July 7 were not the victims of war. The men who killed them were not soldiers,” Macdonald said. “They were fantasists, narcissists, murderers and criminals and need to be responded to in that way.”
Possible Iranian Embassy in Egypt
As our regular readers know, we have been closely following the thaw in relations between Iran and Egypt, two nations that have had no diplomatic ties since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. What a remarkable transformation there has been in their relationship over the past several months. Last week, a European news website reported this:
“If Egypt declared its readiness, we would even today be ready to reopen our embassy in Cairo,” Ahmadinejad said after the weekly cabinet session in Tehran. …
Currently the former secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, Ali Larijani, is in Cairo on an unofficial visit which is believed by observers to be another effort to resume ties. Ahmadinejad termed Iran and Egypt as the two main pillars of the Islamic world, but said there were “still some considerations” before upgrading ties with Egypt to ambassador level.
Elsewhere on the Web
New home sales in the U.S. plunged to a 12-year low last month, according to a new report. In response to the report, the dollar posted its biggest weekly drop against the euro since 2006.
This article will update you on the situation in Lebanon regarding its still-vacant presidency and the restocking of Hezbollah’s army.
And Finally …
According to a new climate model, global warming may be speeding up the rotation of the Earth, resulting in the shortening of days. According to this report, however, global warming actually slows the Earth down, causing the planet to take just a wee bit longer to make a full rotation on its axis.