Winning the long war

The United States has never been in a war like the current war against terrorism. In previous wars, the enemy could be clearly defined, measured and defeated. In the current war, the enemy has not yet been clearly defined or measured. Whether the enemy will be defeated is an open question.

The enemy is much more than the people who blow themselves up to kill infidels. The enemy is the reason these people are willing to blow themselves up. The non-Muslim world cannot comprehend any justification for this self-destructive behavior; the Muslim world delights in the opportunity for martyrdom. The enemy is not yet defined.

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There is substantial disagreement as to whether we are fighting a small segment of Islamic fanatics, or if "kill the infidel" is a basic tenet of Islam. It is clear that the people who blow themselves up arise from Islam, but there is no accurate measurement of how many soldiers the enemy has.

The Pentagon has produced a report that says if only 1 percent of the Muslim world is attracted to al-Qaida, there could be as many as 12 million terrorist soldiers ready to blow themselves up, to kill the infidel. Iran has announced that it is conducting classes to teach terrorists how to make and use suicide bombs most effectively.

These people cannot be targeted like the enemy in previous wars. They wear no uniforms. They are not assembled in a single nation. They look like ordinary citizens, and they are scattered across the globe, ready and willing to strike any infidel target.

And they just keep coming; and they will keep coming. The enemy is not clearly defined, nor is it measured. But the enemy is measurable and the measure is frightening.

What is clear is that the enemy arises from the Muslim world, and the Muslim world is growing, while the non-Muslim world is shrinking.

For more than a generation, the Western world has been reducing fertility rates. A fertility rate of 2.1 is seen to be the rate required to maintain a stable population. The fertility rate in the U.S. is 2.06. It is even less in Europe and Canada. Compare these fertility rates to those of Muslim nations. Muslims are breeding like rabbits, while non-Muslims are actually declining in population. In a long war, the sheer numbers of Muslims will overwhelm the infidels.

In view of this reality, it is imperative that Americans realize that this enemy must be defeated. Failure would condemn future generations to sectarian tyranny – or worse. The war against terrorism must be fought on two fronts simultaneously: the military battle is essential, but the ideological battle must be fought just as aggressively.

No ideology that teaches the slaughter of innocent civilians can be considered a religion. If Islam is not willing to recognize and accept this as a fundamental principal, then the rest of the world must consider Islam to be the enemy of civilization. If Islam does accept this principle, then Islam must disassociate the religion from the ideology of the fanatics and join the war to eliminate from its midst the al-Qaida belief system and practice.

The Western world should unite around this requirement and exert diplomatic and economic pressure to squeeze the fanatics into isolation and oblivion. The political reality, however, suggests that the Western world will not unite. Spain crumbled in intimidation when terrorists struck the trains. Russia, Germany and France looked the other way while Saddam extracted billions of dollars from the oil-for-food program and openly rewarded the families of homicide/suicide bombers.

The United States is likely to bear the weight of war against terrorism on both fronts. If the next generation of Americans is to have any hope of freedom, the current generation must recognize that victory in war against terrorism cannot be measured by the withdrawal date from Iraq. Iraq is a crucial battleground for both the military and the ideological war. The suicide/homicide bombers will continue to crawl out of their hiding places until the Iraqi Muslims decide whether they want to be a part of the civilized world, or a haven for fanatics.

Many nations in the Muslim world are just beginning to realize that they, too, will have to make similar decisions. America cannot falter in its will or its leadership. Freedom is too precious to let it be extinguished by our own apathy, impatience or fear. Americans must speak up and support those who demand that Islam join the civilized world by helping to exterminate the terrorist fanatics.