Bush’s choice
In September 2001, President Bush faced a critical decision, how to characterize the attack on the WTC and the Pentagon. Given the long history of Islamic terrorism and violence against the US and the West, President Bush could have declared a hot war on Islamic terrorists and their supporters, and a cold war on radical Islamic ideology that seeks to impose sharia — by violence, intimidation or otherwise — on America and the West. He did not; instead he famously said on September 17, 2001, that “Islam is peace.”
History will be the judge of whether that remarkably ahistorical statement was the correct course at the time. For today’s purposes, we have been thinking about why President Bush chose to go that route, and marginalize and ignore the robust ideology that motivates tens of millions Muslims worldwide. We can think of several reasons: (a) such a stance probably made it easier for the US to enlist the aid of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Islamic nations for the invasion of Afghanistan and the rounding up or killing of Islamic terrorist suspects; (b) it probably made domestic espionage somewhat easier; and (c) importantly, most Americans would have had no clue what he was talking about on September 17, 2001 if Presdient Bush had attempted to address comprehensively the underlying issues of the war.
President Bush’s first priority was no doubt a practical one: ensuring that there were no further attacks on American soil. He pretty much accomplished that goal, except for a dozen or so freelance jihadists around the country. But the cost of achieving that practical goal was a lack of plain speaking about who our enemy is, which is creating unnecessary problems today. It is long past time to address in explicit terms the West’s ideological war against the spread of sharia to the West.
February 24th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Coincidentally, Baron Bodissey has a superb post on Islam at ‘Gates of Vienna’ today. The post covers Martin Luther’s (the founder of the Protestant creed of Christianity) views on the Koran and Islam. While Martin Luther’s observations apply specifically to the Ottoman version of Islam, the underlying principles of his critique are still applicable today. I highly recommend reading the post.
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2007/02/martin-luther-on-jihad.html