Great post. Surprisingly a lot of people refuse to be informed by history. Today’s Islamofacists are simply following in the footsteps of their ancestors. When Mohammed’s followers conquered the Middle East they did so with the Koran’s blessing. Entire nations were put to the sword. Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus and all pagans were killed, forced into exile or forcibly converted to Islam. The few that remained survived in Dhimmitude, a permanent status of legally and socially enforced subservience to Islam. Islam was spread by the sword, not by missionaries. It spread as far as France and Austria, and was only stopped by military force. Anyone who thinks we can resist a resurgent Islamic militancy by retreating to our shores and burying our heads in the sand needs to read the history of Islamic expansion, the writings of our self proclaimed enemies and the Koran itself.

Actually, the Islamofacists are worse than the Nazis. Unlike Hitler, they can legitimately claim a religious mandate to do what they are doing. A Manifest Destiny to conquer the entire world is clearly spelled out in the Koran and supported by the Hadiths and Islamic tradition. Similarly, any weakness or hesitancy on our part is described, IN SCRIPTURE, as an opportunity for them to further the cause of Islamic ascendancy.

Fortunately, most Moslems want to live in peace. Most want to enjoy the blessings of freedom and prosperity just as we do. The forces of religious totalitarianism are who we are fighting in Iraq, those who would put the whole world under the heel of a global Taliban. The majority of Afghans rejoiced to be free of the Taliban and most Iraqis were glad to be free of the secular dictator Saddam. The average Moslem is no more content to live under despotism than anyone else. But like the Japanese, who had also never tasted liberty prior to 1945, they need a chance to build something better. If we cut and run now we are not only condemning hundreds of millions to the darkest of tyrannies, we are inviting that tyranny to marshal it’s forces until it is strong enough to come after us.

We all like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists. But when push comes to shove most of us are sheep who do what we are told. Worst of all, a lot of us become unpaid agents of whoever is controlling the agenda by enforcing the current dogma on the few rugged individualists who actually exist.