The Face of the Enemy Old and New

It is the inherent nature of man, in the Darwinian struggle of survival of the fittest, that will always create those who would want power, to be the strongest. The problem within this struggle, this striving, the same as in the evolution of humans, animals, plants, etc, is that there will always be those that are exposed to something, pollution, poor or thin soil, shallow places in which to grow roots, that will mutate into a gross representation of the original.

And, as in nature, these mutations will often take over the other life in the area, eventually strangling or destroying everything around it. Therefore, I believe it is always necessary to seek out these mutations and pull them out like weeds, lest they succeed in their aims of destruction.

This enemy is much like the old. I am not speaking of 9/11 per se accept to refer to the new enemy as those that perpetrated the act. The "old" enemy is tyranny, fear, dictatorships, belief in the omnipotence of the state over the people instead of for the people. I am referring to men such as Hitler, Stalin, etc. and all of the things they stand for. These kind of men have existed through out history, as far back as we, in our feeble memories, can re-call it. These kind of men, mutations, have never been swerved from their ambitions by the offerings of peace, but rather spit upon it and laugh as they go one their merry way conquering and destroying.

The new enemy is not just some men who attacked the US on 9/11 or any other countries before or since. If I believed that, I would still be calling for them to be brought to justice in our courts. The new enemy has an ideology like the old enemy: subjugate the people to the will and power of the state (in this case, some twisted idea of Islam); the people must bow to the will of the state, not the other way around. It is plainly spoken in their manifesto.

They believe that they can only perpetrate this ideology if free societies do not exist or are too weak to oppose them, lest the people have hope. 9/11 was not just the murder of 3000 people. It was the first strike by which they hoped to change the face of the world as we know it. To knock off the most powerful free society in the world. By their own admission, they feel that once the US is gone or too weak to respond, the rest of the free societies will retreat and leave them to their madness.

And these men are succeeding in this aim to some extent. Many free societies are refusing to recognize their intent. They believe them not to be so much an enemy of freedom to be defeated, but as criminals or murders. A small group of people, a cult, who, once hunted down, will be eradicated, no longer something to fear and they can go on with their life.

The problem here is that this ideology is wide spread in the middle east. The development of the ideology, the implanting into men's minds that only submitting to the literal words of the Qu'ron, to the judgment of a few men considered "righteous" and thus the only ones able to interpret and apply the word (of Allah), is accomplished daily in the madrassa's and the mosques of the region. It is institutionalized within the governments of these states as "Departments of Vice and Virtue". The addition of poverty, lack of economic and social growth, gives it the legitimacy in cries for. That the sinful or hedonistic life people have led (real or perceived), allowing the infiltration of western decadence, is the reason why they suffer.

This gives the enemy a wide base from which to pull their "soldiers". For the last 30 years, these beliefs have been confined to separate groups, who have only inflicted them on their own people. But like the Nazis and the Communists of the last century, it only takes one strong leader to take this ideology, these separate groups and turn it into a "cause", a nationalistic endeavor.

And like Fascism and Communism, this ideology will not be satisfied with only consuming it's immediate environment. Once it has felt it's full power, it will seek to destroy or take over all of the places and people that it can reach.

This is the aim, the danger, of the enemy. Not the small acts of terrorism, murder and mayhem that they perpetrate now, but the future horrendous acts of a totalitarian and destructive state. A state, by it's own ideology, that believes only those who believe as they have the right to live and all others are to be destroyed. That any of their own who deviate in anyway or fail to meet their exacting standards are to be beaten, tortured or killed to serve as an example to the rest (of the sheep). And who will judge the "righteousness" of the people? A few men who claim to know the word of "Allah"? Only they can interpret this word? Only they can create the laws?

If you can understand this concept, you can understand the purpose of Iraq. It is no simple war of aggression. Not for oil, not for land, not to end the undeclared continuing Gulf War, not for economy, not to knock off lingering enemies or a few dictators, and sadly, not just to free one group of oppressed people in Iraq or just to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

It is all of these things rolled into one concept: Freedom. That the way to defeat this enemy is to take away the base from which he can recruit his followers; from which he can claim legitimacy. The way to defeat him is to replace his weak and destructive ideology with a strong, constructive, prosperous society that gives hope for the future. That does not rub the salt of self loathing, shame and guilt into the wounds of poverty and hopelessness, but gives them the means to heal the wound, creating new hope and prosperity.

This is the greater purpose of Iraq.