The Emerging Reality of the Middle East

UPDATE: Lawrence Auster at View From the Right sums it all up quite accurately and succinctly today. He writes:

1. Islam is the problem.
   
2. However, we do not have the ability to destroy Islam.
   
3. Nor do we have the ability to democratize Islam.
   
4. Nor do we have the ability to assimilate Islam.
   
5. Therefore, the only solution is to separate ourselves from Islam.

Diana West at Townhall.com has written a great speech for President Bush, a speech he should give but never will. Through her fictitious Bush speech, West advocates what Serge Trifkovic did in his last book on Jihad: the de-islamization of the West, not the democratization of the Middle East.

Personally, I think Bush is wrong in his belief that all people in all cultures yearn for "freedom," i.e. democratic forms of government, tolerant, liberal and pluralistic societies. Clearly, most Muslims do not yearn for that. They yearn for the restoration of the Caliphate and the institution of sharia throughout the world.

We all see reality through our own cultural lens and it is easy to believe that our own prejudices and preferences are the laws of nature. They aren't. Conservatives make that mistake when they believe all cultures will welcome pluralism and democracy. Liberals make that mistake when they believe hostile cultures can be pacified through sweet talk, trust and understanding.

The current effort to bring democracy to the Middle East will fail as long as Islam is the dominant ideology in that part of the world. Removing this deeply ingrained mindset would be very difficult and take many decades.

West argues that when dedicated Muslims have the vote, they will vote in sharia law under which women have second class status and other religions are suppressed and subject to dhimmitude. That is what is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq right now. Democratization, without first forcibly removing Islam, is a fool's errand.

Do we want to forcibly remove Islam from the world? Would it be worth the cost in blood and money? No, at least not in my book, not at this juncture in history. I would prefer to cut them off and let them die on the vine.

A better strategy is to isolate Islam so it cannot harm us. That means stopping all Muslim immigration into the West, and in the case of Europe, massive deportations of those already there. It means achieving energy independence in practical ways, i.e., by domestic drilling for oil in Alaska and off our coasts, by building many more oil refineries, and by building many more nuclear power plants. Leave the hydrogen cars and switch grass for long-term, future development: radical new energy sources are not a practical solution for the forseeable future.

When the Muslim nations no longer have our oil wealth, they can't buy expensive military hardware and munitions and they can no longer blackmail us economically. Let them eat sand.

Having a forward base in the Middle East to deter Islamic aggression is a good idea, but it doesn't have to be Iraq or any of the Muslim nations. Let's move our military forces out of Korea and Europe and Iraq and base them in Israel.