By Jonathan Ariel
August 8, 2006
Western civilization is currently facing an implacable enemy, fundamentalist Islam, which poses one of the greatest existential threats it has ever faced, since its foundations were respectively laid on the Judean mountains, the Greek islands and the mouth of the Tiber.
The first was the Persian threat to Greece. Had Darius and Xerxes succeeded, what we know today as western civilization would have died in historical infancy. The second threat, which turned into reality, was the fall of the Roman Empire. This dragged Western civilization into a 500 year long tailspin called the Dark Ages. It took approximately 1,000 years to recover from this disaster, by 1500 CE it had climbed back to where it had been in 200 CE. We can only speculate how much more advanced humanity could be today if there had been no Dark Ages.
The third was the Mongol invasion, which destroyed the center of the Moslem world, then the Western world's most advanced civilization. The Islamic world descended into its equivalent Dark ages, from which it has still not fully emerged.
The fourth and most recent threat was Nazi Germany, which, if victorious would have extinguished the light of western civilization, making the previous Dark Ages seem like a picnic.
Now we fact a new threat, Islamic fundamentalism. Like the barbarians who conquered Rome, and the Mongol hordes who laid waste to the Caliphate, the forces of Islamic fundamentalism seek to destroy modern civilization. They have no compunction about dragging the world back 10 centuries, if that means they will rule it.
This threat should not be taken lightly. Although the actual armed strength of Islamic fundamentalist forces is puny, they command a significant degree of popular support throughout the Arab and Moslems worlds. The massive pro-Hezbullah demonstrations that have taken place in ostensibly pro-western countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia prove beyond any doubt that large portions of the Moslem world sympathize with the fundamentalists, rally behind them and share their goals.
This means that the Moslem world at large, including civilian populations bear as much culpability for the actions of Hezbullah and other fundamentalist terror organizations, as the German civilian population did for the acts of the Nazis .
It took total war to defeat Germany. This included the systematic destruction of much of the country, with massive civilian casualties. History does not consider this to have been disproportionate or unjustified, to use the current catchwords.
It is clear that in order to defeat fundamentalist Islam, no less than total war will be required. There is no reason why Moslem civilian populations that support Hezbullah should be exempt from the same kind of retribution that has always been considered historically just and right in similar circumstances.
This is a war the West cannot afford to lose. An Islamist victory would plunge the world into a new Dark Age, as benighted as that which the Goths and Vandals brought down on civilization 1,500 years ago.
The war in Lebanon is an inherent part of an ongoing battle. On one side, Western democratic civilization rooted in its Judeo-Christian values. Arrayed against it are the forces of reactionary Moslem fundamentalism. We have to do whatever it takes to win, since what is at stake is nothing less than the soul and fate of humanity. If this means total war, so be it. Better Beirut become another Dresden, then the light of Western civilization be extinguished.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
