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| CUCULLU |
Showdown
by Gordon
Cucullu 9/6/06 |
More and
more people are asking if the Israeli-Hezbollah war was really
a proxy war between the U.S., representing the West, and an
Iran-Syria axis representing a devil’s handshake between
two factions of Islamofascism. The short answer is yes, but
there is much more involved in the fight than that toxic bilateral
alliance, though it is key. In a London Times piece Amir Taheri
declares that “this is a war between the West and what
one might describe as ‘The Rest’, this time represented
by radical Islamism.” But the umbrella shading our enemies
extends wider than even this definition. Given that the primary
enemy can be defined as Islamofascist terror groups and their
sponsoring states, who exactly are The Rest?
Contributor
Gordon Cucullu
Former
Green Beret lieutenant colonel, Gordon Cucullu is
now an editorialist, author and a popular speaker.
Born into a military family, he lived and served
for more than thirteen years in East Asia, including
eight years in Korea. For his Special Forces service
in Vietnam he was awarded a Bronze Star, Vietnamese
Cross of Gallantry, and the Presidential Unit Commendation.
After separation from the Army, he worked on Korea
and East Asian affairs at both the Pentagon and Department
of State as well as an executive for General Electric
in Korea. His first major non-fiction work, Separated
at Birth: How North Korea became the Evil Twin,
is based in large part on his extensive experience
in Korea and East Asia as a governmental insider
and businessman. [website]
[go to Cucullu index]
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Among other scholars Newt Gingrich has properly called this
fight World War III. One can nitpick the numbers. If you consider
the Cold War number three, then this is number four. No sweat.
The issue is not the suffix but the context: we are in a global
conflict, one that without exaggeration exceeds its predecessors
in vitriol, intensity, and potential for destruction. While we
waited for the Soviets to attack with devastating nuclear weapons,
political leaders on both sides accepted the doomsday strategy
of Mutual Assured Destruction as a reasonable deterrent. For
the years of the Cold War it was fought primarily with surrogates
in backwater places like Laos, Vietnam, Congo, Angola, El Salvador,
and Nicaragua. An occasional flare-up like Korea brought the
superpowers perilously close to direct conflict, a situation
that both sides pretended was not happening rather than admit
and be forced to confront.
But in the war against
Islamofascists and their allies and supporters the equation
has changed drastically, and not in our favor. This
war is as Taheri notes not over territory but rather “an
ideological battleground between two rival camps with global
ambitions.” The U.S.-led camp looks to free market democracy
and open societies as a solution to the world’s issues.
The other sees itself under the flag of a resurgent, conquering
Islam, sweeping the globe in a new order that aims to impose
a new Caliphate upon heretics. Not only is the MAD strategy not
applicable, but in the instance of Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad such global destruction would be welcome, even desirable,
as a door-opener for the 12th Imam to reawaken and lead the hosts
of Islam against the infidel foe. Laugh at such visions only
at your peril.
Meanwhile petty dictators, devoid of scruples, driven by boundless
ambition, plot to bring about the demise of America. Thugs like
Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and Kim Jong Il gleefully assist the
Islamofascists who ironically have marked them too for ultimate,
later destruction. But they survive and prosper, unthreatened
for the moment, ignorant of their dhimmitude, as long as they
add value to the Islamofascist movement. And they are doing exactly
that.
In his recent stopover
in Teheran, after leaving Moscow where he placed whopping weapons
orders, Chavez seemed to stop just
short of accepting Islam as The Only True Religion. All smiles
and hugs, Ahmadinejad presented him with the Islamic Republic
Medal, Iran’s highest award, as a reward for his “support
for Iran’s stance on the international scene.” That,
of course, included not only Iran’s sponsorship of Hezbollah
which is attacking America’s ally Israel, but more to the
point in appreciation for Chavez’ vocal “opposition
to a resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency.” Translated:
Ahmadinejad was thanking Chavez publicly for objecting to UN
pressure on Iran over nuclear weapons development. Later Chavez
embraced Iranian “supreme guide” Ali Khamenei, pledging
eternal friendship with the Islamic Republic while boasting that
together they must “save the human race by finishing the
U.S. empire.” He later echoed the same sentiments in Damascus
where he snuggled up to Bashar Assad, vowing that “together
we will overthrow the American imperialists.”
Chavez has lots of company in his hatred for the U.S. Fellow
dictator Kim Jong Il of North Korea also is tight with the Islamofascists.
Desperate for oil and money, Kim has dispatched scientists and
engineers to both Teheran and Caracas in order to forge an alliance
and trade misused talent for assistance. His early July missile
tests were bought and intended primarily for Iranian military
use but can only have impressed Chavez. Possession of these missiles
would allow him to dominate the Southern Hemisphere and threaten
his sworn Yankee enemy to the North.
Kim and Chavez delude
themselves that they are using the Islamofascists for their
own gain. On the other side, the Islamofascist groups
and states are only too happy to watch America tweaked in the
Western Hemisphere and in Northeast Asia by these infidel dictators.
Meanwhile, Iran and Venezuela distribute oil and money to North
Korea in return for missile and nuclear technology and they all
gain in strength. In the long term the non-Islamic players are
teeing themselves up for eventual annihilation. But such a fight
would come only after we in the West were conquered, so the thought
of an “I told you so” from the grave affords meager
solace for a lost civilization.
There is more bad
news. Somalia is morphing into an al Qaeda base state on the
tried and true model that Afghanistan was under
the Taliban. The chief of the Supreme Islamic Council, Sheik
Hassan Dahir Aweys, a fundamentalist and al Qaeda supporter,
applauded the fact that non-Islamist members of the Somali cabinet
were resigning under pressure. “This is a great step forward,” he
said as rival armies squared off waiting for a flashpoint to
ignite another round of the endless bloodshed that mars that
poor country. Meanwhile, al Qaeda organizers from Yemen, Saudi,
and Sudan are “welcome,” according to Sheik Aweys, “to
join the Islamists to participate [in] rebuilding peace in Somalia.”
On the west side of
the continent Nigeria, though only 47% Islamic, is rapidly
converting itself into a Sharia state. In a manner
similar to other ideologically teetering states Nigeria is being
flooded with Islamofascist activists who hope to establish a
second African beachhead. Freedom House fellow Paul Marshall
notes in understated language that “as with other countries
where extreme Islam is growing, the Saudis are active in Nigeria.” The
country is burning with Sharia fever as radicals appear to be
successfully pulling off a religious coup. Marshall correctly
fears a return of bloody civil war. An Islamofascist regime with
a welcome mat placed out for al Qaeda would make that bad situation
even worse. Al Qaeda is desperate for a new base. Terrorists
without a firm base in a supporting state are relatively helpless,
reduced to amorphous cells operating clandestinely and communicating
at their peril. By replacing Afghanistan with Somalia and maybe
adding Nigeria, al Qaeda would receive a huge boost of credibility
and strength. Neither can be permitted to happen unchallenged.
So the conflict that
Amir Taheri properly sees as between the West and The Rest
is growing – and not in favor of the
West. As more oil states join the anti-American coalition and
cynics like Russia and China stand aside expecting to pick up
the pieces, the showdown between Islamofascist forces and their
supporters and the West grows nearer. Iran threatens openly to
trigger this Armageddon, some fear by detonation of a nuclear
device. Ahmadinejad tells us that Muslims can expect to hear “very
good news” about the jihad directed against America. Does
that comment portend a radiological strike against the U.S.?
Quite possibly.
We are at the showdown. It is necessary now to fight on many
fronts and we may soon be required to fight on several others.
It is well to recall that when faced with global catastrophe
in the past we fought in every corner of the world. We are sliding
into that kind of conflict. Yet even in the face of dire threats
Americans remain blind to them, preoccupied with political power
struggles at leadership levels or self-absorbed in materialistic
narcissism in the general population. Pearl Harbor and even 911
gave America time to react. Will this next strike? More importantly,
are we going to be foolish enough to wait for it? CRO
copyright
2006 Gordon Cucullu
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