Democracy. Freedom of ideas. Human rights. Eventually, even America. All will perish if free nations do not prevail.
The goal of radical Islamism could not be clearer. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unambiguously articulated its goal: “a world without America” and the destruction of Israel.
Eager for a new haven from which to launch attacks against the United States, our interests, and our allies, al-Qaeda and Iranian-backed militias have made Iraq the central front in the war on terrorism. To succeed, they must first drive the United States out of Iraq and topple Iraq’s fledgling democracy.
America has a chance to strike a serious blow against al-Qaeda and Iran’s proxies in Iraq. By contrast, the defeat of the United States in Iraq would embolden terrorists, consigning the people of Iraq and the Middle East to a perilous future and making the world more dangerous for Americans.
Our nation’s invasion of Afghanistan devastated al-Qaeda’s base there. The group’s core leadership survived, however, and appears to be reconstituting in Pakistan’s frontier provinces. Pakistan, now in a period of political upheaval, is questioning its commitment to the fight against al-Qaeda, raising fears of a takeover by the radical Islamists.
Motivated by an ideology of destruction impervious to conventional deterrence, Iran continues to develop nuclear weapons and mocks world pressure to stop it. While crushing domestic dissent by arresting and murdering those Iranians advocating democratic reform, women’s rights, and minority rights, Iranian rulers support the killing of American and Iraqi soldiers and civilians by terrorist organizations and militias.
In Africa, often called the “forgotten front” in the global war on terror, radical Islamists seek to impose Taliban-like theocracies. In the Sudan, the genocide of black Muslims by agents of the Arab Islamist government in Khartoum continues unhindered. In Nigeria, radical Islamist activity targets Christians, threatening national unity and spreading death and destruction.
Meanwhile, here at home, apologists and enablers for radical Islamist regimes and anti-democracy movements spend hundreds of millions inculcating their beliefs into our universities, underwriting advocacy organizations, and hiring lobbyists to influence the U.S. government and American public.
On college campuses, they fund student groups, train activists, and supply speakers who advocate ideologies that justify terrorism and disdain democratic ideals. These funds are not gifts; they are investments. Appeasers of and apologists for Islamism increasingly dominate Middle East and national security studies.
And radical left-wing groups such as MoveOn.org, which ran media ads attacking General Petraeus as “General Betray Us,” are once again holding sway over many on Capitol Hill.
The battlefield is global. The enemy is relentless. The apologists are pervasive and persuasive. Much work remains to be done.
Dr. J. Peter Pham,
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, is Senior Fellow and Director of the Africa Project at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York City. He also holds an academic appointment as Associate Professor of Justice Studies, Political Science, and African Studies at James Madison University ...more
