The Suicide of the West
Many years from now, history (if there is any) will conclude that Western democracies were not capable of waging preventive warfare. Only when their existence was threatened did the great democracies set aside their social fantasies and confront the pure evil of totalitarianism. Even now, in the middle of the battle, a pattern has emerged. Korea, Cuba, Central America, Somalia, the Balkans, and the Middle East demonstrate that we only want the problems to go away, and will take the most expedient route to stalemate or even defeat.
During the Cold War, it appeared that the threat of nuclear annihilation prevented the United States from exerting the necessary force required to resoundingly defeat evil in regional conflicts. What would the Soviet Union have done if we had occupied Syria in 1973, thereby strategically altering the Middle East for the foreseeable future? Nothing except complain. Would the Soviets have come to Castro's aid had Kennedy committed larger forces to the conquest of Cuba? No. Did either China or Russia do a thing when we launched a massive attack against a far inferior foe in Iraq in the first Gulf war? No. They only laughed when we stopped short of Baghdad and effectively doomed ourselves to years of anxious avoidance of the inevitable.
Our half measures have cost more in American (and enemy) lives than would have been lost expending the full fury and might of our nation against the threats at the edges of democratic empire. Look at the carnage in Korea which continues to this day. Look at the tragedy of Indochina and the killing fields in Cambodia. Our inability to respond with power and authority has only emboldened the totalitarians. They smell weakness, just as the foes of Rome tested the borders of the empire until the darkness finally descended on civilization.
It was never the threat of nuclear war which stayed the hand of the greatest military the world has ever known, backed by the most powerful economic engine the world has ever known. Nor did we lack the strategic vision and the moral authority to do what needed to be done to push back the totalitarians. So, what prevents the United States and its allies from acting with firm conviction in the face of forces which threaten to destroy the civilized world? Lassitude, self-doubt, expediency, the natural human desire to take the path of least resistance - all these play a role in neutralizing the will of the West, but there may be a simpler and perhaps more sinister explanation for the thickening fog.
In a world of incalculable comfort and leisure, dominated by media and abstraction, the reality of poverty, war, social misery, crime and imminent danger fade beneath the day to day yearning for entertainment. The fear and consequent alertness of the watchman on the ramparts has been replaced by a vague but incessant anxiety, an anxiety relieved by drugs, food, and recreation. The Western mind is daily saturated with images of distant and artificial death and danger, but these are only images on a screen, only words and pictures, unreal, easily changed or ignored. We get our news and philosophy from comedians. We exercise our emotions with movies. The party goes on, the drinks and drugs get stronger, the music louder, the food richer, the games and sex more risky, and the laughter deafening. We have become "comfortably numb".
Our radical Islamic enemies have a single minded hatred for what we call civilization, and would like nothing less than the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah for our decadent cities. In a sense, they see more clearly than we do because they instinctively reject the narcotic influences which deaden our awareness of physical and moral reality. Unfortunately, they have chosen a more deadly path, a mixture of nihilism and utopianism which will lead to nuclear world war.
Only in a self deluded society such as ours would 911 be perceived as a singular act by a group of zealots, rather than as a threat to Western civilization sponsored by the oil rich fiefdoms of the Islamic caliphate. The average American who wants to nuke Mecca in response is actually closer to understanding the reality of our danger than those who seek to understand why "they hate us." But nuking Mecca will not hold back the jihad, nor would such a malicious action serve any good purpose. Nevertheless, the West will ultimately be faced with either acting ruthlessly in our self defense, or choosing dhimmitude. The longer we fail to neutralize the threats from Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and the Saudis, the fewer and more horrible will be our available choices of action. There is no middle way and there has never been one. The failure of the "Bush Doctrine" was not a failure of the doctrine, but rather a failure to consistently implement the doctrine.
Our civilization is dying, not because we are under attack, but because we are in a self induced stupor. Only a trauma like 911 can jolt our system enough to raise our level of awareness, and then only for a short time, a year at best, and that has proven to be insufficient. Perhaps it is inevitable. Certainly history predicts it. Spengler predicted it almost a century ago.
During the Cold War, it appeared that the threat of nuclear annihilation prevented the United States from exerting the necessary force required to resoundingly defeat evil in regional conflicts. What would the Soviet Union have done if we had occupied Syria in 1973, thereby strategically altering the Middle East for the foreseeable future? Nothing except complain. Would the Soviets have come to Castro's aid had Kennedy committed larger forces to the conquest of Cuba? No. Did either China or Russia do a thing when we launched a massive attack against a far inferior foe in Iraq in the first Gulf war? No. They only laughed when we stopped short of Baghdad and effectively doomed ourselves to years of anxious avoidance of the inevitable.
Our half measures have cost more in American (and enemy) lives than would have been lost expending the full fury and might of our nation against the threats at the edges of democratic empire. Look at the carnage in Korea which continues to this day. Look at the tragedy of Indochina and the killing fields in Cambodia. Our inability to respond with power and authority has only emboldened the totalitarians. They smell weakness, just as the foes of Rome tested the borders of the empire until the darkness finally descended on civilization.
It was never the threat of nuclear war which stayed the hand of the greatest military the world has ever known, backed by the most powerful economic engine the world has ever known. Nor did we lack the strategic vision and the moral authority to do what needed to be done to push back the totalitarians. So, what prevents the United States and its allies from acting with firm conviction in the face of forces which threaten to destroy the civilized world? Lassitude, self-doubt, expediency, the natural human desire to take the path of least resistance - all these play a role in neutralizing the will of the West, but there may be a simpler and perhaps more sinister explanation for the thickening fog.
In a world of incalculable comfort and leisure, dominated by media and abstraction, the reality of poverty, war, social misery, crime and imminent danger fade beneath the day to day yearning for entertainment. The fear and consequent alertness of the watchman on the ramparts has been replaced by a vague but incessant anxiety, an anxiety relieved by drugs, food, and recreation. The Western mind is daily saturated with images of distant and artificial death and danger, but these are only images on a screen, only words and pictures, unreal, easily changed or ignored. We get our news and philosophy from comedians. We exercise our emotions with movies. The party goes on, the drinks and drugs get stronger, the music louder, the food richer, the games and sex more risky, and the laughter deafening. We have become "comfortably numb".
Our radical Islamic enemies have a single minded hatred for what we call civilization, and would like nothing less than the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah for our decadent cities. In a sense, they see more clearly than we do because they instinctively reject the narcotic influences which deaden our awareness of physical and moral reality. Unfortunately, they have chosen a more deadly path, a mixture of nihilism and utopianism which will lead to nuclear world war.
Only in a self deluded society such as ours would 911 be perceived as a singular act by a group of zealots, rather than as a threat to Western civilization sponsored by the oil rich fiefdoms of the Islamic caliphate. The average American who wants to nuke Mecca in response is actually closer to understanding the reality of our danger than those who seek to understand why "they hate us." But nuking Mecca will not hold back the jihad, nor would such a malicious action serve any good purpose. Nevertheless, the West will ultimately be faced with either acting ruthlessly in our self defense, or choosing dhimmitude. The longer we fail to neutralize the threats from Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and the Saudis, the fewer and more horrible will be our available choices of action. There is no middle way and there has never been one. The failure of the "Bush Doctrine" was not a failure of the doctrine, but rather a failure to consistently implement the doctrine.
Our civilization is dying, not because we are under attack, but because we are in a self induced stupor. Only a trauma like 911 can jolt our system enough to raise our level of awareness, and then only for a short time, a year at best, and that has proven to be insufficient. Perhaps it is inevitable. Certainly history predicts it. Spengler predicted it almost a century ago.
posted by moleses | 5:27 AM
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