Je Suis Charlie: World War
III
By
Leonard Zwelling
WWI was the war to end all wars. The American use of two
atomic bombs to end the Pacific campaign of WWII in 1945 surely would put at
end to global conflict. The victory of the West over the Soviet bloc had to
mean the end of global hegemony by dictatorial states.
Wrong!
We are at it again and I dare an American Presidential
candidate to say so.
For better or for worse, for truth or fiction, for political
reasons or religious ones, a small, but significant portion of people who claim to be Muslims (I really have my doubts. I think they are just thugs.) believe that another holy war is inevitable and they have no intention
of negotiating or losing.
A satirical French magazine’s editorial meeting was stormed
by three armed gunmen January 7 and at least 12 people were killed in Paris,
including police officers. You don’t think we are at war (and I don’t mean
9/11)? We are.
9/11 was never war. It was a criminal action by a few Saudis
(not Afghanis or Iraqis) to scare the hell out of America. Rather than fall on
our long held belief of dealng with criminals using police, we sent in the
military and billions of dollars later we got bupkis!
ISIS,
Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and a number of other violent lunatics want the world
transported back to the Stone Age under a caliphate that would enslave women
and send men to their deaths. This is war.
The US would do well to lead this war (although France might
consider the role), but not with troops only. In the manner fashioned by
President Bush 41 during the Gulf War, a coalition of those who embrace
freedom, democracy, and human rights (or at least Capitalism) must resist all
attempts by the forces of evil that wish to take these privileges from all of
us. (I have to unfurl a large tent here because for Europe Marx and Lenin means Karl and Vladimir for Americans it’s Groucho and John).
Pick the spot. It could be Ukraine where crazy Puti decides
who lives and dies even 35,000 feet up.
It could be in what was laughably called Iraq or Syria by
having coalition forces go toe-to-toe with ISIS and then reconfiguring the land
distribution along ethnic lines unlike what occurred after WWI. (The British
can have no part in the border drawings because they screwed it up so badly in
1918. Too stupid and greedy to NOT fail.)
It could be any number of sites in Africa where disease rages,
blood diamonds continue to come out of the ground and most people have never
remotely tasted freedom let alone Coca Cola.
We, the West, are in a war for our existence against a
fierce enemy of barbarians who understand only power. You’re gonna have to
convince me there’s a dime’s worth of difference between ISIS and the Nazis. If
they want their post-mortem virgins, let’s give them what they want. Now.
Before it is too late.
If the UN stands for anything (a legitimate question) it
should be for freedom and ISIS is the antithesis of freedom. It should matter
little whether the evil clothes itself in black flags and kafeeyahs or jackboots
and swastikas. Woody Allen is right: “bricks and baseball bats, not satire,
when it comes to Nazis.”
