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by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
December 20, 2005
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
From www.danielpipes.org
| Original article available at:
www.danielpipes.org/article/3218 |