Compare Democracy to Islamists
Caelestis is one our deployed soldiers in Iraq. I wish him the best of luck on his mission.
This morning he does a comparison between us and the Islamists:
Their coalition is built upon the belief that all men and women are NOT created equally, that slavery is not only accepted but encouraged, especially if your slave is an infidel. Their beliefs are based on their interpretation of religious texts that they believe gives them permission to behead innocents, to kill women for the way they dress, and to attack children who receive candy from infidels. They rage against us and say we are committing holy war upon them, but which coalition quotes religion at every turn? Which coalition talks about peace and freedom and which one talks about destroying all infidels? Our coalition values and respects life, we believe in the freedom of the individual to make his own way in life, to make mistakes and learn from them, they believe that certain mistakes must be punished by death. The Coalition of the West and its allies are a culture of life, love and freedom, the Coalition of Islamic Fascists is one of death, hate and oppression. Yet in their eyes our love of life and freedom is the very thing that makes us so hated, in their eyes our freedoms are tools of Satan, and we are the agents of Satan come to pollute the purity of what they believe Islamic culture should be. How twisted must one’s mind be to believe that the freedom to make ones way in life is evil. What kind of god do they worship that believes killing innocents is acceptable and encouraged? What have they become to be so enraptured with death and hate?
The relativists on the Left would have us believe that if we just pulled out of Iraq, then everything would be fine. They have yet to accept that this is a clash of cultures. There is but a handful of ways that this can be resolved: we cut-and-run, we destroy the Islamists, or Muslim culture destroys them from within. The latter is obviously the preferred way. However, if money alone were to do it, then Saudi Arabia would be the most modern democracy in the Middle East. Reform will only come when individual rights - not religious doctrine - become the dominant school of thought.
We will be in Iraq and the Middle East for decades. We must accept that much as we accepted being in Europe during the Cold War. Europe doesn’t need us anymore, and the Department of Defense is making a wise choice in shutting many bases in Europe down. Eventually, those forces will be in the Middle East instead. I do not believe that we will be on the offensive at all times as we are now. It may take years to help Iraq settle into a real democracy - it took the US twelve years to go from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution we use today - and Iraqi people need support. It is in our interests and theirs to be there. Our interest is not oil, and not even necessarily freedom directly, but to hopefully prevent the day that the Islamists gain the resources to use more terrible weapons against our society.
