(by Clifford D. May, Townhall.com) – For more than a generation, a war was fought against the United States. Most Americans, however, didn’t know it. And even those who did may have been puzzled about whom it was we were fighting.

The war began in 1979, after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in Iran and his followers, chanting “Death to America,” seized our embassy in Tehran and took our diplomats prisoner. But we did not interpret that to mean we were at war with Iran.

In 1983, members of the same movement bombed our embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, killing hundreds. But we did not consider ourselves to be at war with Hezbollah or its sponsors.

In the 1990s, adherents of the same ideology — totalitarian, supremacist, anti-democratic — attacked Americans repeatedly: office workers in New York City, diplomats at embassies in Africa, military personnel serving in the Middle East. And in 1996, a wealthy Saudi living in exile published what he called a “Declaration of War Against the Americans.”

But even as we suffered these attacks, we did not acknowledge that a war was being waged. In fact, most Americans believed they were living in a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity. There was even a “peace dividend” to be spent.

The horrific attacks of September 11, 2001 were a wake-up call – but the nation remained groggy. Since hijacking planes and crashing them into in the World Trade Center was an act of terrorism, we set about to fight a “war on terrorism” – as though there were no movement driving terrorism and no ideology justifying the violating of the age-old taboo against intentionally murdering women and children. 

The label persisted from that time until last week when President George W. Bush, in an address to the National Endowment for Democracy, made a conceptual leap. Linking attacks against civilians from New York to Casablanca, Sharm el-Sheik to Netanya, Mombasa to London, Istanbul to Beslan, Beirut to Bali, he argued that such massacres “serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil, but not insane.”

He added: “Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; still others, Islamo-fascism.”

Bush was careful to distinguish this ideology “from the religion of Islam,” adding that it both “exploits Islam” and targets Muslims who aspire to live in freedom, choose their own leaders and embrace pluralism. He noted that “most of the victims claimed by the militants are fellow Muslims.”

Osama bin Laden and other militants murder in pursuit of a dream — of conquest and domination. It is a vision, Bush said, that is openly stated “in videos, and audiotapes, and letters, and declarations, and websites.”

To achieve it, requires ending “American and Western influence in the broader Middle East – Second, the militant network wants to use the vacuum created by an American retreat to gain control of a country, a base from which to launch attacks and conduct their war against non-radical Muslim governments.”

Deprived of their base in Afghanistan after 9/11, they’ve set their sights on Iraq. Bin Laden has stated: “The whole world is watching this war and the two adversaries. It’s either victory and glory, or misery and humiliation.'”

The President also quoted bin Laden’s commander in Iraq, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi: “We will either achieve victory over the human race or we will pass to the eternal life.”

Does the United States have both the will and a way to stop such ruthless and determined ideologues? Bush revealed more than he has before about the progress made to date by the U.S. and its allies against Islamo-fascism:  “We’ve killed or captured nearly all of those directly responsible for the September the 11th attacks; as well as some of bin Laden’s most senior deputies; al-Qaeda managers and operatives in more than 24 countries; the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing, who was chief of al-Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf; the mastermind of the Jakarta and the first Bali bombings; a senior Zarqawi terrorist planner, who was planning attacks in Turkey; and many of al-Qaeda’s senior leaders in Saudi Arabia.

“Overall, the United States and our partners have disrupted at least ten serious al-Qaeda terrorist plots since September the 11th, including three al-Qaeda plots to attack inside the United States.”

Toward the end of the speech, Bush posed a question to those who argue that America should settle for less than the defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq. “Would the United States and other free nations be more safe, or less safe,” he asked, “with Zarqawi and bin Laden in control of Iraq, its people, and its resources?”

And he offered his answer: “Having removed a dictator who hated free peoples,” he said, “we will not stand by as a new set of killers, dedicated to the destruction of our own country, seizes control of Iraq by violence.”

Surely, that is a point on which there ought to be broad and bipartisan consensus.

Clifford D. May is the president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

October 14, 2005.  Reprinted here with permission from Clifford D. May and Townhall.com.  Visit the websites at Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Townhall.com.

Questions

1.  Mr. May’s states:  “For more than a generation, a war was fought against the U.S.  Most Americans, however, didn’t know it.”  Do you agree with his premise?  Explain your answer.

2.  What kind of an enemy are we fighting?  Why do you think that some Americans don’t agree that we are in a war?  Explain your answer. 

3.  President Bush, in his speech on Oct. 6 said: “…militants murder in pursuit of a dream of conquest and domination…”  What do they want to conquer?  Who do they want to rule?
(To read President Bush’s full speech, click here.)

4.  This is a very serious article, but not discouraging.  Why can you feel encouraged by this article?

5.  This U.S. News article details some U.S. strategy for beating the Islamofascists.  Why do you think that our government and military do not publicize all of the plans they have for doing so?

6.  Blogger ‘Top Mustang’, a National Guardsman stationed in Iraq had this to say regarding President Bush’s speech (read the full posting here):

If what I believe is true, then this war is the most just and necessary war the United States has fought since the Second World War.  We have a plan to win.  It’s not easy and it won’t happen quickly.  But we will win. 
By applying a combination of military, diplomatic, economic, humanitarian and educational strategies worldwide, we will destroy both today’s active terrorists and tomorrow’s potential terrorists… Not just Iraq, but worldwide.  Not just Al Qaeda, but Islamic extremism.  This war is bigger than 9-11, but some people just can’t see the bigger picture.  We are not at war to bring the perpetrators of 9-11 to justice.  We are at war to prevent Islamic extremists from taking over the world.  We have been fighting this war since the creation of the PLO in 1965, only we didn’t know it.  We continued to run around denying the significance of the threat in the face of the Iran hostage crisis, the Beirut barracks bombing, hijackings, kidnappings, assassinations of Americans, and attacks on our own soil.  Most of America is now aware of the reality of the threat.  Unfortunately, many of our countrymen can’t think in terms beyond that of a 10 second sound bite…

How do his words inspire you and give you hope? 

SOME ADDITIONAL QUOTES TO THINK ABOUT:

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
–Edmund Burke

“If you want peace, prepare for war”. (“Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum”)
–Flavius Vegetius Renatus. Roman Military strategist. c. 390. A.D

“The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave…”
–Patrick Henry

“Victory belongs to the most persevering.”
–Napoleon Bonaparte

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
–John Stewart Mill