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 Back
To September 10
My gloom...
[by
Daniel Pipes] 12/22/05
The attacks
of September 11, 2001, made me feel more secure, unlike most
Americans. Finally, the country was focused on issues that
had long worried me.
"The FBI
is engaged in the largest operation in its history," I
wrote in late 2001. "Armed marshals will again be flying
on US aircraft, and the immigration service has placed foreign
students under increased scrutiny. I feel safer when Islamist
organizations are exposed, illicit money channels closed down,
and immigration regulations reviewed. The amassing of American
forces near Iraq and Afghanistan cheers me. The newfound alarm
is healthy, the sense of solidarity heartening, the resolve
is encouraging."
But I agonized
whether it would last. "Are Americans truly ready to sacrifice
liberties and lives to prosecute seriously the war against
militant Islam? I worry about US constancy and purpose."
And right
I was to worry, as the alarm, solidarity, and resolve of late
2001 have plummeted lately, returning us to a roughly pre-September
11 mentality. A number of recent developments leave me pessimistic.
Within America:
Contributor
Daniel Pipes
Daniel
Pipes is director of the Middle
East Forum, a member of the presidentially-appointed
board of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, and a prize-winning columnist
for the New York Sun and The Jerusalem
Post. His most recent book, Miniatures: Views
of Islamic and Middle Eastern Politics (Transaction
Publishers) appeared in late 2003. His website, DanielPipes.org,
the single most accessed source of information specifically
on the Middle East and Islam, offers an archive and
a chance to sign-up to receive his new materials as
they appear. [go to Pipes index]
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The USA
Patriot Act, a landmark of post-September 11 cooperation
between the military and law enforcement, passed in the
Senate 98-1 in October 2001. Last week, the same bill
stalled in the Senate.
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The mainstream
press does not take Islamist
aspirations seriously and sees the war on terror basically
as over, as shown by Maureen
Dowd's comment in the New York Times that the
Bush administration is trying "to frighten people with
talk of Al Qaeda's dream of a new Islamic caliphate."
-
Harvard
and Georgetown universities each accepted $20 million
for Islamic studies from a Saudi prince who overtly promotes
his government's Wahhabi outlook, Alwaleed bin Talal.
-
A Florida
jury somehow managed to overlook the massive evidence of Sami
Al-Arian's leading role in Palestinian Islamic Jihad
and acquitted him on this charge.
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One leading
Islamist organization, the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, boasts an endorsement from Wells
Fargo Bank, an invitation from Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice, and a letter of congratulations
from the president's
brother, Jeb Bush. Another, the Muslim
Public Affairs Council, hosted representatives of the
departments of Justice and State at a conference last week.
Then American
foreign policy:
-
Fixated
on the goal of perfecting Iraq, where no major danger remains,
the Bush administration seems to be allowing the Iranian
regime to build nuclear weapons, stipulating only that
the Russians carry out the uranium enrichment, an ineffectual
safeguard.
-
Pursuing
its democracy campaign to its logical conclusion, Washington
is signaling a willingness to deal with Islamists in Lebanon,
the Palestinian
Authority, Egypt,
and elsewhere, thereby bolstering radical Islam's power.
Then international
setbacks:
-
Elite
opinion ascribes the French intifada only to faults
in French society, such as unemployment and discrimination.
When one leading intellectual, Alain
Finkielkraut, dared bring Islam into the discussion,
he was criticized savagely and threatened with a libel
lawsuit, so he backed down.
-
The July
transport bombings in Britain seemingly highlighted the
dangers of homegrown Islamism. Five months later, however,
lessons learned from this atrocity have been nearly forgotten.
For example, the Blair government appointed an Islamist
banned from entering America, Tariq
Ramadan, to a prestigious taskforce; and it abandoned
efforts even temporarily to close
down extremist mosques.
-
As Israel's
population lurches leftward, led by a defeatist
government ("We are tired of fighting, we are tired
of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired
of defeating our enemies," Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
declared), it forgets the lessons of Oslo, appeases its
enemies, and virtually invites more violence against itself.
Rudolph
Giuliani worries that we are "going backward in the fight
against terrorism." Andrew
McCarthy concludes that "the September 10th spirit
is alive and well." Steven Emerson tells me that "pre-9/11
political correctness has reasserted itself."
And I worry
that not even a catastrophic act of terror will return a desensitized
West to its post-September 11 alarm, solidarity, and resolve. John
Kerry's notion of terrorism as a nuisance similar to prostitution
or gambling has taken hold, suggesting that future acts of
violence will be shrugged off. And, even if mass murders do
awaken the public, a next round of alertness will presumably
be as ephemeral as the last one.
If there
ever was a crisis, it is over. Life is good, dangers are remote,
security appears adequate … sleep beckons.-one-
This article
first appeared at New York Sun
copyright
2005 Daniel Pipes
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