A HINGE OF HISTORY
This article originally appears in The American Thinker
As I recline in my virtual hammock this lovely Midwestern midsomer’s day, feeling the warm, gentle breezes as they waft across my face (”God’s air conditioning” we call it out here), my thoughts turn to the currents and eddies of history that are churning just below the placid surface of the mundane, the day to day happenings in the world. Another war here. Some kind of dust-up in Africa. Is there no end to Asian “economic miracles?” And old man Europe, grown senile and oblivious to all but its ever growing number of pensioners, waits patiently, almost willingly, for the sword of Allah to smite them.
It is what’s happening behind history’s curtain that is actually what matters. Demographers call them “trends.” Historians might refer to them as “underlying forces.” Judging by what these trends or forces are telling us, there is absolutely no reason for an American living at this time in history to be optimistic about much of anything.
It could be that my “black dog” has a hold of me today and that tomorrow I’ll wake up and take a deep breath, ready to go out and face the dragons again with a sneer and a smile. Or it could be the melancholy thought that summer is nearly over and the prospect of facing another Chicago winter depresses me. (I used to wonder why older people in the Midwest moved to Florida and Arizona when they retired. No longer.).
But upon reflection, I think not. This is more than a passing wave of unease, more than a troubling flutter in the pit of my stomach. The world is changing in ways we can barely grasp. We are unable to discern the true nature of our discontent because in a way, it is hard to believe that things could change so quickly that our perceptions about events have become either obsolete or laughably false.
When in doubt, blame Bush. But truthfully, what is happening below history’s radar has been in motion since before the Berlin Wall fell. Some decisions we’ve made in the last decade and a half have exacerbated our dilemma. Others have simply put off the inevitable. All told, where we are today is the result of many things beyond our control - birthrates, political changes in other countries, an aging population in the west, and a flexing of political and military muscle by an emerging reaction to modernity itself. The world in the 21st century is moving too fast, leaving too many behind. And the rush to catch up is going to get very bloody.
We are not just facing Islamic fundamentalism as a foe. We are also fighting the unrealized expectations of most of the planet’s inhabitants. Those expectations have been raised to stratospheric heights largely as a result of the accomplishments of the west. In some quarters, this has bred resentment, a belief that our success has come at the expense of others who are more worthy, more deserving in the eyes of Allah. In many, these expectations have fueled dreams of freedom and a belief that anything is possible if you are brave, work hard, and have faith in the future.
I regret to say there are many, many more of the former than there are of the latter. As I write this, it has becoming enormously hazardous for the freedom seekers to preach their gospel of change and hope.
In Lebanon, the Cedar Revolution is becoming a distant memory. The coalition of well meaning but ultimately weak politicians were unable to face the prospect of confronting the evil in their midst. They thought that they had all the time in the world to deal with Hizbullah, to try and fit them someplace into their crazy quilt patchwork of a confessional society - not realizing that somewhere, a clock was ticking and that their ever vigilant and determined neighbor to the north could only allow so much provocation before taking matters into their own hands in order to insure their own survival.
Now as they survey the wreckage of their country and of their revolution, dark hints from Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah point to a post-war Lebanon where opposition to the terrorists means signing you own death warrant. How that drama will play out is anyone’s guess.
In Iraq, hope has turned to despair as a bloody cycle of revenge killings is spiraling out control, aided and abetted by the anti-American, pro-Iranian zealot Muqtada al-Sadr. The agony of the Iraqi people has been made worse by a strange paralysis that has gripped the government who seem unable and unwilling to disarm the militias and stop the killing.
Both Nasrallah and al-Sadr are being goaded on by the Iranians and their crazed but canny leader President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Caught with his hand in the nuclear cookie jar more than once, the world still seems unwilling to take the steps necessary to keep the most powerful weapon in the world out of the hands of the most irresponsible leader in the world. If ever a recipe for unmitigated disaster was staring us right in the face, it is a nuclear capable Ahmadinejad and his unhinged hatred for Israel and the United States.
In Somalia, where a group calling themselves the Islamic Judges is systematically turning that forlorn and war torn land into a future base for jihad to Darfur where the slaughter continues unmercifully, to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, - good and decent men everywhere seem to be in the grip of some horrible debilitating disease that saps their strength and steals their hope.
Then there are the deliberately self deluded who are either too stupid or too cowardly to recognize the evil in the first place. With a cognitive dissonance that would be laughable in less serious times, they blame the violence on those who are responding to the violence. Perhaps the apogee of this phenomenon occurred when the Secretary General of the United Nations opined that it appears that the State of Israel had committed a war crime by accidentally bombing a building in Qana, Lebanon killing 28 civilians while never mentioning that Israel’s enemy gleefully launches barrage after barrage of murderous rockets at Israeli cities deliberately trying to kill as many innocents as possible.
Hizbullah and other terrorists are actually being cheered on by people all over the world who view both Israel and the United States through the same darkened prism of hate and envy. Thanks to the wonders of modern media, they see how those who practice the secular religion of western freedom and tolerance live apparently without want, without cares. Their own desperate poverty and hopelessness seems more a product of conspiracy carried out by those so much better off than the result of their own wretched politics and economic choices. In an almost childish way, they seek to graft 21st century western miracles onto the back of their 19th century lifestyle. The inevitable disappointment when the graft doesn’t take only enrages them further.
Just about half of the United States wishes to confront this evil head on. The numbers are much less elsewhere. And we are finding in Iraq and everywhere else that our military sophistication isn’t enough to bring victory. We can vanquish armies. But we can’t snap our fingers and rid the world of hopelessness and envy. It seems the more we do to protect ourselves and try to help others face the threat, the forces arrayed against us gain strength and influence.
The war in the Middle East could be a hinge of history that opens a door to reveal an entirely different world than the one we are living in now. It could be that the confluence of a perceived Israeli defeat at the hands of Hizbullah and the defeat of Republicans in November thanks in no small part to what is happening in Iraq could presage a much more cautious approach to dealing with our enemies.
I can think of nothing more disastrous. Our foes will not vouchsafe us breathing room to try and figure out what to do next. He will in fact redouble his efforts in Iraq and elsewhere, going for the kill, believing quite rightly that he has us on the ropes. What we will congratulate ourselves for - our forbearance and “understanding” - will be seen as weakness and a lack of resolve by the enemy. It will do nothing to deter him and will in fact embolden him in ways we can only dimly perceive.
The crisis in the Middle East has shown us that the enemy is playing for keeps. And if we are to safely cross the threshold of this doorway to a new world, we are going to have to remember that one salient fact. Otherwise, our enemy will remind us of it in ways that are too horrible to contemplate.
Just saying,
Things didn’t look too rosy in the spring of 1943 either–how did it work out?
Comment by cryinginthewilderness — 8/9/2006 @ 10:11 am
Reality check: In 1943, the United States was united in the belief that both the Germans and the Japanese should be utterly defeated.
No one had a cow everytime something bad happened. Contrast that with today’s America and I’m sure you see what I mean.
And I apologize for being so negative in that article but given the coming struggles, I am just not optimistic that we can face them. We are more likely to try and finesse them which would be disasterous.
Comment by Rick Moran — 8/9/2006 @ 10:15 am
Rick: as always, a great post.
I know, I agree; sometimes I wake up and thing the whole world has gone to shit!
As a father of three daughters, I wonder, did I do the right thing by brining them into a world that seems out of control, and one rushing headlong to it’s premature end!
But the only reason I have hope, is that all the statistics show, that the world, today, as crazy as it seems, is “safer”, and more peaceful, than at any time in the past 100 years.
I’m too young for WWII; one can only imagine what our parents, or grandparents, must have felt, waking up during the dark days of WWII, and how they thought of the future at that time!
Bottomline Rick, is you’re right; we are in a GLOBAL WAR; actually, we are in Several “wars” right now; and it’s going to be a struggle.
We are, and have been, since 1977, in a slow, simmering, slowly building war, with the forces of Radical Islam.
Part of the problem there, as I continually try to educate people, is that Islam is at war with itself, and the the war WITHIN Islam, greatly impacts non-Muslims as well.
Since 1977, and the fall of the Shah, Shiaism and Sunnism have been in an ever heated competition, for the hearts and mind of the “Dar al Islam”, the worldwide “faithful”.
For a brief while, and almost overlooked, Qadhaffi tried to invent a “Third Way” type of Islam, for which he was promptly branded an Apostate by the Wahabbi Imams of Mecca; but we had, from about 1977 until the mid-90’s, a three way competition between three brands of Islam: the Shias in Iran/Syria/Lebanon vs. the Wahabiyyah/Salafiyyah/Al Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood types, with Qadhaffi leading all the “revolutionary” types with his “Third Way” type of Islam, in places like Sudan, Chad, Yemen, etc.
Qadhaffi, never really recovered from the pounding that Regean gave him, and dropped out of the race, by the mid-90’s; but the ascent of the Salafiyyah-type Sunnis, in places like Algeria, and Afghanistan, with Al Qaeda after the Gulf War, temporarily put the Shia’s on the backburner.
However, when the Israelis expelled a bunch of Palestinian radicals from the West Bank and Gaza, into Lebanon, back in the late-80’s, it gave a chance for Hezbollah to “adopt” them, teach them suicide tactics, truck bombings, etc., and when they were allowed to return by the Israelis ten years later, it gave Hezbollah a unique chance, to temporarily bridge that Shia-Sunni Gulf, gain major influence within Hamas and the Palestinian community (helped by the fact that the Shia Imad Mugniyeh, Hezbollah Public Enemy #1, “joined” Fatah in Lebanon in the 1970’s, and was seen subsequently as a “member” by both the Palestinians and Hezbollah!), and the Intifada was soon launched.
That, ultimately, is what lead to where we are today; with Iran/Syria now fighting Israel by “proxy” in not only Lebanon, but also via Hamas.
And of course, the Sunni Salafiyya, resurgent ever since the first WTC bombing attempt in 1993, cannot let the Shia “win” the hearts and minds of the worldwide “faithful”, so we have to have things like 9/11, the USS Cole, etc., to show their Jihadi anti-Western bonifides!
On top of that, and if that wasn’t bad enough, we are, frankly engaged in a “war” ourselves, in the US, and Europe, between the secular/”progressive” forces, and our own Religious forces, in a battle over the very “soul” of our societies!
The “secular” forces, in the West, lead by secular Jews, and anti-Christian “Christians” (atheists, nihilists, anarchists, unreformed and unrepentent Communists/Socialists, and just plain “hippies”, “progressive” forces such as pro-gay rightits, etc.), are allied against the Conservatives and Religious communities in the West, in a battle over our Schools, Acadamia, the futures of our children, the courts, our legal systems, immigration, the environment; it’s a coordinated assault of moral equivalency and relativism, designed to absolutely destroy any and all vestiges of morales, ethics, values, standards, and any Religious values, all in the name of “Progressive” values!
It’s not a pretty sight!
It’s bad enough, trying to get our act together, to fight a real “Clash of Civilizations” against Radical Islam, which is what we are, in fact, up against.
It’s even worse, when you are engaged in what is in essence, a Civil War at home, within our Society; on one hand, those trying to rally to fight the worldwide Islamic threat, and on the other hand, the Jacobin “Left”, in the US and Europe, whose solution to the “problem” it so surrender as quickly as possible, and just “hope” that they value us for our so-called “Progressive” values, and left us alone to live in blissful Dhimmitude forever!
It’s a self-deluded Pipedream, of the worst order!
So, I reiterate, my same tired refrains:
1) Churchill said to Chamberlain, after he tried to surrender to Hitler: “You had a choice between War, and Shame; you chose Shame, and you shall have the War all the same!
The deluded Left in the US, and Europe, would best pay attention to Churchill!
2) A Nigerian Bishop, from northern Nigeria (mainly Muslim) said it best, after a lifetime of having tried to survive living with his Muslim “neighbors”: “When Muslims are the minority, they are best neighbors around; when they are equal to you, they are aggressive and in your face; and when they outnumber you, they try to kill you!
LISTEN up DELUDED Leftists!
3) You’re right Rick; the Left suffers from Cognitive Dissonace, as well as:
Category Error: they refuse to correctly Define, what the problem is! i.e., instead of correctly defining the problem as Radical Islam, define it as something else: Western Oppression, Colonialism, rich, white people, etc., etc.
If you can’t correctly define something, how can you fight it??
Psychological Displacement: when you lash out at something else, than the obvious cause of your discomfort, in order to avoid the “truth”. So, 9/11, becomes a Conspiracy Theory by Bush/Cheney/Halliburton, to control the world, because otherwise, you might have to admit the fact it was carried out by Radical Muslims! (See Category Error above…..!)
Stockholm Syndrome: is a psychological response sometimes seen in a hostage, in which the hostage exhibits seeming loyalty to the hostage-taker, in spite of the danger (or at least risk) in which the hostage has been placed. Stockholm syndrome is also sometimes discussed in reference to other situations with similar tensions, such as battered person syndrome, child abuse cases, and bride kidnapping.
Since the entire Left views itself already as “victims”, they act like this anyhow!
Taqiyyah: A Muslim practice, sometimes said to be maily Shia, but other certainly use it; that basically gives you the “leeway” to lie, dissemble, obfruscate, etc., if you feel that revealing the “truth” would endanger your life!
In otherwords, it’s okay to lie, if you feel you’re in a minority, and might be attacked for your views, beliefs, etc.
Wow, how convenient. In the strictest sense, for Salafiyyah Sufic types like Al Qaeda, and Shias, this means, that it’s not a “sin” to lie to an “infidel”!
Now, I have a rhetorical question? How can you EVER negotiate, ANYTHING with a Culture, that teaches it adherents, that it’s okay to LIE to some who is NOT of your religion?
You do the “math” on that….
The sad fact is, the Left in the West, may not articulate Taqiyyah per se, but they certainly recognize it, and since the Left has transformed itself into a collection of persecuted “minorities” (black, female, gay, lesbian, left-handed, ADD, LMNOP….ad nauseum!); it does resonnate with them! Look at their “Fake but accurate” defense, used these days in everything from Rathergate to Plamegate to the Qana/Reuter’s photoflap!
The sad thing, about the Left’s headlong rush to committ societal suicide, like a flock of lemmings headed for the cliff, is what happens after they succeed in surrendering to the Jihadis, and Sharia is imposed on the world, and we live in Dhimmitude?
Do the “Progressives” (I HATE that term; as if their nihilisitc view of society and the world is SUPERIOR to ours, the arrogant bastards!) the Salafiyyah will let them live in PEACE! Because Islam is a religion of PEACE???
Well, the “Progressive” community contains a large number of Gays and Lesbians, correct? The punishment for that, under Sharia, is DEATH! CRUSHED by a Brick/Stone Wall; for examples, do some research on the Internet, to see how the Taliban handled Gays, and what happens in Iran these days!
The “Progressive” community contains a large number of Atheists, Agnostics, etc., correct? All those people who sue to remove the Commandments from Court Houses, etc.?
Well, anything other than a FIRM belief in God, is APOSTASY, under Sharia, and punishable by DEATH!
One reason why Dhimmitude communities in the past, under Muslim rule, made SURE to display their Religiosity!
The “Progressive” community contains a lot of leftwing Politicians; correct?
Well, under Sharia, there is NO Politics! The ONLY Law allowed, is Allah’s Law! No “political” parties, none! They dont’ have any in Saudi Arabia! They don’t have any in Qatar! They didn’t have any under the Taliban; the Hezbollah ONLY had the “Party of God”!
The “Progressive” Community has a lot of “Democrats”, correct?
Guess what? Under Sharia, there is NO SUCH THING as “Democracy”!
How do we know? Ask Bin Laden! Ask Zawahiri! IF Zarqawi wasn’t dead, you could ask him! Ask any former Taliban members! Ask Ahmadinejad!
They’ve all made it clear, in MANY statements, in many times!
DEMOCRACY is a Western “invention”; there is ONLY Allah’s law, Allah’s will, Allah’s “Democracy”; which isn’t the same as ours!
The “Progressive” community contains a lot of people who like to parade around with tatoos, in tank tops, go to topless beaches, drink alcohol, smoke a little of the “weed”, etc., etc.!
Guess what! ALL punishable by DEATH, under Sharia! Hope Madonna, and Brittany Spears enjoy those BURQA’s
Women driving?? DONE! Women travelling Alone?? DONE Women Voting?? DONE! Little bit of extra-curricular sex?? DONE! A little bit of fun, intimate sex with your wife? DONE! They cut their genitalia off when they’re little girls, so they won’t “enjoy” it!
Soccer and other organized sports, such as Football, Baseball, etc.? Just see what the Islamists did in Somalia last month, the EXECUTED people for WATCHING World Cup soccer on TV!
You know, the more I write, the more I think maybe the best thing we could do, for the “Progressive” Left in the world, IS to encourage them to continue to surrender to the Salafiyyah; maybe after about half of them were executed, it might WAKE THEM UP!
People, I’ve lived in the Middle East, for half my teenaged and adult life; I speak Arabic, I’ve eaten with them, lived with them, travelled with them, gone to school with them, worked with them, and even slept with them; I’ve studied them, analyzed them, and alternately admired and despised them!
I’m telling you; you do NOT want to become like them!
I hope to whatever diety, or not, that you hold dear, that you wake the HELL up, before it’s too late!
Trust me on this one…..
Dale in Atlanta………
Comment by Dale in Atlanta — 8/9/2006 @ 10:50 am
Rick,
America has seen darker days than these, and it’s incumbent on all of us to maintain our faith in the ability of a free country and a free people to overcome these kinds of challenges. American leftists, if they ever had such faith, lost it long before this war began. It’s up to people like us to ensure there’s going to be United States for their kids to hate when they grow up.
One wonders if this isn’t the reason they appear to be siding with and/or actively conspiring with enemies of the United States. Perhaps they’re hedging their bets, so to speak, on the possibilty that America will be playing second fiddle on the world stage to a union of islamofascist states when this war ends.
Regards,
-the Canine Pundit
http://caninepundit.blogspot.com/
Comment by Sirius Familiaris — 8/9/2006 @ 1:25 pm
Canine: going at least back to Sacco & Vanzetti, the “anti-war” Left in this country, has not only been “anti-war”, but they’ve been anti-American as well!
But, they’re only “anti-war”, when it’s America at war; when it’s one of their favored worker’s “paradise’s” war’s, like the Soviet Union, Cuba, etc., that’s okay.
Now, Sacco & Vanzetti, were supposedly, NOT communists, but were anarchists/radicals.
But their supporters, especially the Liberals/Leftists of the times, in the elite bored aristocracy of New York, San Francisco, and the left-leaning MSM of the day, did have many Socialists and Communists among it’s cliche.
These people later metastized into supporters of the Soviet Union, joined the Civil War in Spain against Franco; argued against the US joining WWII and were pro-Soviet Union; their kids becames supporters of Castro in Cuba, and grew up to become the radicals of the 60’s; and their grandkids now, are people like Sean Penn (research his family history…!); Al Franken (his as well….), etc., etc.
In otherwords, for One hundred years now, we’ve had at least three generations of these Leftists, who’ve been anti-American from the start; it’s a “religion” with them; America the Evil, tear it down, etc., etc…
It’s like a generational, mass-pschosis type of thing; self-hating, destructive, and delusional; they literally don’t know any better; it’s been passed down from their parents, and grandparents, in some cases!
They’ve infected the MSM, Acadamia, etc.
I hate to feed into their victimhood complex, but it is like a disease; one that is hereditary….
Comment by Dale in Atlanta — 8/9/2006 @ 2:03 pm
Wow, Dale, tell us how you really feel, I had to get up and use my visine on that one, but it was a great post.
The progressives are here to stay, we can’t do anthing to get rid of em except maybe murder and I don’t want to go to jail.
We just have to defeat them at the polls.
I can’t help but feel there are more sane people in the US than insane lefties unless you wanna count the illegals that the dems are trying to get registered to vote, we gotta get a handle on that.
This country is so divided I’m not real sure we aren’t heading for another civil war. (Ain’t no damn yankee gettin my house, ya hear). I am serious, this has got to calm down cuz these loons, if they get into major power are gonna KILL US ALL.!!!!!
And would someone tell Michealbigassmoore to shut his pie hole, he is now threatening any dem that has ever supported the war. If I were a black rapper, I’d write a song about puttin a cap in his head.
Comment by Drewsmom — 8/9/2006 @ 4:19 pm
Nice essay.
I admit to not being any sort of expert on the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism, but what I’ve read tends to identify key personae and events going back only a few decades (for the most part) with fewer details of the figures of the “movement” going back to the late 19th century.
My question is: Given the longish history of Islam (actually, among the world’s major religions, it’s still got that new car smell), why now? Since the collapse of the Caliphate, and in general around the world, muslims can be said to be trailing behind western or oriental cultures in many aspects. Why does this movement appear to be gaining such support and sympathy now as opposed to the period 1745-76 or 1932-37 or whatever?
Discuss among yourselves….
Comment by 2 cents — 8/10/2006 @ 5:25 am
Quick Roundup
Because I have to go watch my wife’s ballroom dancing recital.You think I am kidding.I still think this is a psy-op, but the Israeli Cabinet made a decision. 30,000 troops will be used.The security ca …
Trackback by Chris At Home — 8/10/2006 @ 6:30 am
Submitted for Your Approval
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher’s Council for this week’s vote. Council li…
Trackback by Watcher of Weasels — 8/16/2006 @ 2:03 am
Hi Rick,
I know it’s tempting, but don’t be so down. Things are progressing, slowly but surely.
When I started my site in September of `05, I was one of the few people referring to what’s going on as a War Against Jihad, and using terms like Islamic fascism. You rarely heard terms like that on talk radio or in the media…everything was the `War on Terror’. Now things have changed considerably, where even President Bush has dropped the `Religion of peace’ schtick.
Read up on the appeasors and isolationists in the 1930’s and you will find that the division you speak of was just as prevalent in the US prior to 1941 as it is now. There’s virtually no difference between what
Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan are saying today and what Father Coughlin and the Cliveden set were saying then.
The problem, essentially is jihadi Islam and more and more people are aware of it - seen the polls lately in Europe and America on favorable/disfavorable view of Islam?
One of my chief problems with President Bush was that he allowed the country as a whole to fall asleep again after 9/11, because he got caught up in the whole Islamic democracy nonsense.
Now, five years later, people are waking up.
The politicians are simply behind the curve, here and in Europe, but as Muslims in the west become more arrogant and terrorism in the West increases, that will change.
We will be victorious, both here and in most of Europe because the alternative is simply too horrible for most of us to contemplate, and we have something precious to lose. It’s merely a question of how many of us will have to die first.
The quicker we arise, the less the figure will be.
FF
Comment by Freedom Fighter — 8/16/2006 @ 4:21 am
[...] Right Wing Nut House, “A Hinge of History” [...]
Pingback by The Glittering Eye » Blog Archive » Eye on the Watcher’s Council — 8/16/2006 @ 11:58 am
The Council Has Spoken!
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… the winning entries in the Watcher’s Council vote for this week are A Questionable Assumption by Shrin…
Trackback by Watcher of Weasels — 8/18/2006 @ 2:28 am
[...] The Watcher’s Council has announced its picks for the most outstanding posts of the preceding week. The winning Council post ShrinkWrapped’s post, “A Questionable Assumptionâ€. Second place honors went to Right Wing Nut House for “A Hinge of Historyâ€. The winning non-Council post was Eteraz’s must-read post (my nominee), “Muslim Musings on British Muslimsâ€. The second place non-Council post was The People’s Cube’s gallows-humor “Flat Fatima—Revolution in News Photographyâ€. Grief and outrage can be trivialized and even feigned. This will inevitably lead to hardness of heart and cynicism. For a complete list of the results see here. [...]
Pingback by The Glittering Eye » Blog Archive » The Council Has Spoken! — 8/18/2006 @ 8:36 am
The Council Has Spoken!
The winning Council post this week was my post on A Questionable Assumption. In second place was Rick Moran’s foreboding post on A HINGE OF HISTORY. The winning non-Council post was by Ali Etaraz, who offered Muslim Musings on British
Trackback by ShrinkWrapped — 8/19/2006 @ 9:01 am
Of the council and carnivals
The Council has spoken and chosen A Questionable Assumption by Shrinkwrapped as the top council post of the week and Muslim Musings on British Muslims by Etaraz as the top non-council post of the week. The former rejects the notion that anything other …
Trackback by Soccer Dad — 8/20/2006 @ 7:54 am