75 years ago Europe erupted in warfare as Hitler invaded Poland with the aid of his new “cooperative partner” Stalin. Just days before, on August 22, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a 10-year non-aggression and trade agreement. The secret protocols divided Eastern Europe into zones of conquest for each power. Russia was given half of Poland, and a free hand in the Baltic states and Finland. Germany was given her share of Poland and a free hand in the West. Both powers knew they would one day go to war…but for now they were allied against the forces of democracy.
While these totalitarians oppressed Europe, Japan was expanding her conquests in China and eying much of the South Pacific. Her military rulers felt it was their destiny and right to rule a vast portion of the East. Japan was allied with Germany and Italy. To lovers of democracy and the Judeo-Christian tradition, the world had gone mad.
For a decade before these events, the Western powers tried to ignore the warning signs and pretend that appeasement and decency could convince dictators to limit their ambitions. There own ambivalence was rooted in elitist rejections of traditional values joined with colonizing much of the developing world under the guise of League of Nation “mandates.” Voices such as Churchill’s were drowned out by anti-war advocates and men like Neville Chamberlain who were convinced that a little humility and a willingness to understand Germany’s historic grievances would maintain the peace.
Germany’s invasion of the Rhineland in 1936, her absorption of Austria and negotiated capture of the Sudenten part of Czechoslovakia in 1938 convinced Hitler that the West had no moral or military stomach for confrontation. Japan felt the same as she pillaged and raped the populace of China. Mussolini took Ethiopia and set his sights on Libya. Protests were made, but little done on the part of a West weary of war and an America comfortable in isolation and wrestling with years of economic depression.
In 2014, the dynamics are the same, with a new set of implacable foes of freedom. Radical Islamic terrorism confronts a civilized world with religiously-fueled absolutism, intolerance, misogyny and violence. “Moderates” in Islam (like historic German conservatives, Japanese Royalists, Italian nationalists and cooperative “euro-socialists” in the West in the 1930s) are so invested in anti-Western narratives and fearful of reprisal that they refuse to see the danger. The pagan-secular Left in the USA and West are blinded by their anti-American ideology and residual historical guilt. They willfully refuse to change their “narrative” and confront their mortal enemies with moral and military strength.
Hamas, ISIS/ISIL, Hizbollah, Al-Queda, the Taliban and the host of other groups have one goal in mind: a new Caliphate in the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe (reliving the glory days of 632-732 and the 14th-15th centuries) and eventual world conquest for Islam. Their hatred of Israel and the USA knows no bounds. Their contempt for Western civilization is total. Jihad is not moral struggle or defensive warfare. It is conquer, “convert or die” and destroy. Beheadings, rape, mass executions and deportations are policy, not accidental consequences of conflict.
Such evil must be opposed with all the moral, political and military strength the civilized world can muster. While President Obama plays golf and calls for “managing” such opponents, China expands her influence in the Pacific and Russia eyes new conquests in Eastern Europe and beyond.
Academics, media personalities, public intellectuals and politicians in the West must wake up and recognize that these enemies of liberty are much worse that any imperialism of the West or the Israeli governance of the West Bank. It is easy to protest against democratic Israel. No lives are lost and she cares about public opinion. It is easy to advocate for radical social causes in the USA – our freedom of religion, assembly, redress and speech open the doors to all kinds of expression that would destroy someone in the 57 nations under the thumb of Islam.
The troubles in the Islamic world today are no longer the fault of Western colonialism. There is enough oil money to eliminate poverty. No Western nation wants to conquer and occupy a Muslim land. The problems in the Arab and world are their own making. Iran is ruled by apocalyptic mullahs willing to subjugate a cultured, intelligent people.
What is the allure of radical islam? Male power and resentment of the West. Religious ideology that sanctions violence against all who disagree is appealing to young men from all walks of life.
What is the way forward?
Compassion and courage. Without losing our highest ideals and deep sympathy for the victims of structural injustice, the West must demonstrate moral and military strength. Peacemaking and negotiations must be reinforced by a willingness to strike back with overwhelming force, not half-hearted gestures.
Israel, NATO and the USA are natural allies in this struggle to preserve the hard-won freedoms of the past three centuries. It is time for conservatives and liberals, religious and secular, women and men of all cultures to unite against foes that desire our destruction. While we (necessarily) argue over principles and policies within our nations and communities, we must come together as lovers of liberty and call on all Islamic moderates to join us in peacemaking, compassion and military and political actions.
The next generation will determine whether liberty becomes a memory or an expanding influence. The choice is ours.