Obviously, something has gone wrong.
We wake up in the morning and the TV tells us more Americans have been shot in the back by Afghan security policemen. The Afghans are killed immediately, but that doesn’t seem to make any difference. Are we missing something? Absolutely.
Neither the Republicans or the Democrats understand this situation. We are in essentially the same position Great Britian was a hundred years ago. They were the top dogs and couldn’t be bothered with funny little rebels like Gandhi. Unfortunately for the Brits, the Mahatma was the new reality. Today England doesn’t rule India or the world.
Winning World War II and prevailing in the Cold War took us to the top. We assumed we could fight two wars in two different nations at the same time and easily win. Wrong. We are making the same mistake the British did.
What we don’t understand is that the entire Middle East is swept up in what is essentially a religious war. We think we’re fighting a traditional military conflict. We’re not. And the longer we misread the reality, the greater will be our losses.
The exploding reality in the world today is change.
Every 500 years, the entire global society radically shifts. Go back 500 years and you find the Renaissance and Protestant Reformation beginning. Absolutely ended the Middle Age and brought radically political revolution! The year 2,000 marked the start of a new alignment in every area from politics to religion.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle East. The rising force is not an enlighted Islamic faith, but a radical right-wing fundamentalism than has no problem in dying for what the mullahs decree. The West places a paramount value on preserving human life. They don’t. Ben Laden got one thing right. If they keep us fighting in the Middle East, they will eventually drain our bank accounts down to nothing. Isn’t that where we have gone in the last ten years?
Turkey has shifted into a more religious mode. The Egyptian Brotherhood pushed Mohammed Morsy into office with their radical agenda. Who knows what will end up in Syria? No one appears to be asking what is the motivation that they all share in common. At the core, it has to do with Islam.
For example, Obama believes we can negotiate Iran into a compromise. A couple of days ago, the head mullah told the people to hunker down because Iran wasn’t backing away from muclear capacity. Between the lines, we can read the fine print. Iran’s position is neither defensive nor rationally. Iran has messianic designs on the entire Middle East with a religious motivation carrying an ingrained sense of Persian historicial entitlement. In addition, they want to annihilate Israel regardless of the cost. Take a long at the Old Testament. It’s all there.
Because we didn’t pay attention toVietnamese thought patterns and resuppositions, we lost the war. Today, we aren’t paying attention to how fundamentalist Islam thinks. The result is that they are outflanking us. So, where do we go from here?
The time has come to cast the old molds aside and think with new clarity. Can we win a religious war with bullets and missiles? No. And Iran won’t be stopped at the negotiating table. The only country who seems to grasp this reality is Israel.
If we don’t pay attention to this situation, we’re going to be sailing down the river in the same boat with the Brits … headed for the water fall.
Question: How can we change this course of events?
Dr. Robert L. Wise 