The long, long trail of appeasement , capitulation and death

We are at war.

We, the people of the west are at war with people who wish to destroy us.

It's a different war than we're used to, an asymmetric war -- a so-called fourth-generation war -- so some folk still don't recognise we're in a state of war (or don't want to recognise it), but we are under sustained attack and have been for some time.

That's not scare-mongering. That's just the way it is. Like it or not, we are at war. We didn't start this war, but a litany of appeasement by those under attack has fanned its flames, encouraged the attackers and emboldened the growth of violence.

It's not caused bthe war in Iraq, US foreign policy or oil. It was started by Islamo-totalitarians who by their own admission "worship death" as we in the west worship life; who want the prosperous, freedom-loving west dead, as dead as their own dark souls; and who see the cowardly west as easy prey.

On this last point at least, they're right. There is an essential difference between the essentially individualistic, prosperous, freedom-loving civilisation of the west and the stone-age culture that has declared war on it. Said Osama bin Laden on behalf of those who declared war:

“We love death. The [west] loves life. That is the difference between us two.” 

On that, we agree. In the name of those who do love life and who treasure the life-loving civilisation of the west, on this anniversary of the most visible attack on the west and all it stands for, consider all that led to it: a series of snubs, trial balloons and atrocities, the tepid and pathetic response to most of which emboldened those who love death to even greater atrocities, and the supporters of the death-worshippers to even greater support, both financial and logistical.

Just as it did in the thirties, appeasement led not to peace but to escalation. Both the perpetrators and the succourers smelt the fear and they smelt the cowardice, and if they know anything at all they can tell that smell, and like cockroaches of fear they know how to feed off it--and for over fifty years they've had an awful lot of food to sustain them and make them stronger:

• Seizure and nationalisation of American and British oil fields in the Middle East -- oil fields developed and owned by British and American companies -- and the subsequent capitulation of Truman and Eisenhower (1940s and 50s)
• Seizure and nationalisation of Suez Canal, and the subsequent capitulation of Eisenhower (1956)
• Seizure of US Embassy and taking of hostages in Tehran, and the craven capitulation of Carter (1979)
• Shooting of police-woman Yvonne Fletcher from Libyan Embassy in London (1984)
• EgyptAir 648 hjacking (1985)
• Bombing of Beirut's marine barracks (1983)
• Bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie (1988)
• The fatwah on Salman Rushdie (1989 to present).
• EgyptAir 990 (1990)
• World Trade Center Bombing (1993)
• Embassy Bombings (1998)
• Indian Air 814 (1999)
• Project Megiddo (Dec 31, 1999)
• USS Cole (2001)

Each of these direct attacks on the west was met with appeasement, apology and capitulation. Each of them resulted in the (correct) assessment that the west was morally weak, that there would be no negative consequences for either perpetrators or supporter, and emboldened further escalation. The attacks on September 11 and after saw the culmination of this attitude, and an outbreak of massive, violent and orchestrated attacks on civilians.

• Anthrax attacks (2001)
• Richard Reid (2001)
• Dirty Bomb Plot (2002)
• Charles Bishop (2002)
• French Tanker (2002)
• Bali bombing (2002)
• Morocco bombing (2002)
• Daniel Pearl (2002)
• Ricin threats (2003)|
• Riyadh Bombing (2003)
• Beheading of Paul Marshall Johnson beheading (2004)
• Murder of Theo Van Gogh (2004)
• Murder of Fabrizio Quatrocchi (2004)
• Beheading of Nick Berg (2004)
• Beheading of Eugene Armstrong (2004)
• Beheading of Jack Hensley (2004)
• Beheading of Kim Sun-Il (2004)
• Beheading of Kenneth Bigley (2004)
• Beheading of Shosei Koda (2004)
• Madrid bombing (2004)
• Sharm-el Sheikh bomb (2004)
• Murder of Margaret Hassan (2004)
• London tube attacks (2005)
• Cairo bombing (2005)
• Ongoing Threats
• Plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners
• Ongoing Iranian plans for nuclear weapons, and two fingers to UN nuclear inspectors, Israel, US and entirety of western world
• Ongoing Iranian-supported Shi'ite bombings in Iraq
• Ongoing Iranian funding and supply of Hezbollah paramilitary organisation

It's not a matter of the western countries or western leaders deciding now to declare war on Islamo-totalitarians--although that should have been done on Day One. It's a matter of recognising that the west, like it or not, is already at war with Islamo-totalitarians. Fighting them isn't a matter or law enforcement, with all the strings around such a battle; it is war, and we're already in it. As SOLO Chief executive John Gagnon said, "The words of Patrick Henry are as applicable today as they were in 1775: 'Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace – but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!'"

How to fight such an asymmetric war against an enemy like this?

• Consider this: No terrorist organisation can survive without the oxygen of financial, logistical and materiel support. They need weapons to deliver, places to train and recruit, and money with which to fund their campaigns. It takes a government either willing to help, or willing to turn its back to provide this. It's hard to track down terrorists, but not so hard to identify those who give them succour -- what's hard is having the balls to so something about it once you do while the terrorists' 'useful idiots' and other allies bleat at home about anything that's done.
• Consider this: this is as much an ideological war as it is an actual hot war. For the blood-soaked voices from the stone age the free and prosperous west is a personal affront; their war on the west is the last gap of the Dark Age they've submitted to themselves and wish to impose on the rest of the world. Their own ideology has failed at everything but the production of penury and death, and now it's all they have left. "They know how to die." Meanwhile, the ideological war on behalf of the west has yet to even be fully engaged, and in most of the west is undercut by the voices of "useful idiots" from the academies who use the freedom of the west only to attack and undercut it. A principled, rational, consistent, philosophical defence of the ideas that support freedom and western civilisation is long overdue; the ideas of reason, of individualism, of property rights and capitalism must be defended against their ideological attackers, but how many even know where to start? As Ayn Rand pointed out in defending those ideas herself so eloquently, "A political battle is merely a skirmish fought with muskets; a philosophical battle is a nuclear war." It is a battle that her philosophy of Objectivism makes the philosophical warrior very well-equipped to fight. But time's a'wasting -- as the antics of Ahmedinijad make clear enough, a real nuclear war is not entirely an impossibility.
• And consider this too: Is it already five minutes to midnight in that particular war?

And finally, meditate on this; "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." Wilful blindness is not an argument. It's an evasion. And evasion hasn't worked. Never has.
 
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