The way I see it, there are just a few threats facing us (U.S.) in today's world.
The foremost threat is that there are millions of people of a certain religion who hate us and want us dead or in servitude to them. No one has been able to place an exact number on those who really want to defeat us through "jihad". But if you look at news accounts of cheering crowds on the "Arab street" after 9/11, and read materials from those who have studied the subject and monitored the mosques and Islamic groups of all kinds, you might get the idea that it is pervasive in most of the world's Muslim population.
I think that if you look at the history of Islam, beginning with the initial spread of the religion which was accomplished by the wielding of the scimitar, all we are seeing today is the revival of that religion's core beliefs. They believe that Islam is supreme, their goal is a worldwide Caliphate, (i.e. World Rule by Islamic sheiks based on Sharia Law.)
In my opinion, this is the same kind of threat we faced in WW2 and the Cold War. The Nazis sought world domination of the "superior Aryan race" over all other countries. (Interesting that much of the Muslim world was allied with Hitler at that time, isn't it?) The Soviet Union sought world domination of the Communist ideology over all countries. The so-called "Radical Islamicists" seek world domination today.
There are those of my countrymen and women who somehow do not see the threat as real or imminent. 3,000 souls dead on September 11, 2001, bombings in the Bali nightclub, the Spanish commuter train, the London underground, and countless other attempted and/or thwarted attacks since, are not enough to convince them that there is an existential war, a clash of civilizations. Truly, though, it is a clash between our civilization and their barbarism.
I suppose many of my fellow Americans have had the luxury of being able to live in denial, since we have been "safe" for these six years since 9/11/01. Yet, that day still has the most profound effect on our national psyche. Everything changed on that day. Those who refuse to see the threat, who deny its import, seek every day to live in a September 10 world. Until we are victorious, that world is gone. If we allow ourselves to be defeated, (Vietnam syndrome), or give up because "it's too hard", or "it's not worth the loss of life", that world will be gone . . . forever.
Bob's My Uncle
I’m Dead!
1 year ago

