America's defeat in Afghanistan, dragging our NATO and other allies along for the ride with nary a thought for them, is a flashing warning alarm of our need to renew our faith in America--the country apart from the politicians who vie with each other to run its government.
Indeed (via Instapundit):
The West’s post-9/11 bluster was continually undermined by the West’s broader descent into moral relativism. How can you assert the civilisational authority of Western values when your entire educational and university system is devoted to questioning and demeaning Western civilisation? You cannot partake in a clash of civilisations if you loathe your own civilisation.
As I asked some time ago, why do we hate us?
This endless debate about "why do they hate us?" never ends well because so many people here--including the man we elected to lead us in the war against our jihadi enemies--answer the question with some variation of America as the culprit.
As if who we are--whether it is our freedom of speech, the freedom of women to expose their skin in the sunlight, or the existence of gay nightclubs--should be something we must change to placate jihadis who hate everything.
And add little boys who love soccer to their list of what deserves hatred.
No. The better question we need to debate is why do we hate us?
Ever since 9/11, some of us have asked "why do they hate us?" We really need to ask why some of us hate us.Which Mark Steyn echoed shortly thereafter:
In the case of an enfeebled West at twilight, the fault is wholly in us. After Sept. 11, 2001, many agonized progressives looked at America and its allies' relations with the Muslim world and argued that we need to ask ourselves: why do they hate us? As Brian Dunn, a Michigan blogger, put it, a more relevant question is: why do we hate us? After all, if all our institutions, from grade school to public broadcasting to Hollywood movies to Canadian "human rights" commissars, operate from the basic assumption that Western civilization is the font of racism, imperialism, oppression, exploitation and all the other ills of the world, why be surprised that the rest of humanity takes us at our word?As I commented in that post:
Really, I don't blame our enemies for hating us. They are slime. Why wouldn't they hate us? But honestly, can't we in the West appreciate what we have and have the backbone to defend it?
Honestly, if we were a unified society proud of our achievements and what we represent, I really wouldn't worry about a bunch of pathetic cave dwellers who fantasize about destroying the West. We'd butcher them before lunch and be on with our lives.
But the sad fact is, many in the West would kneel before their beheaders and feel privileged to be killed by the jihadis.
I think that we will prevail before our Guilty Americans and their fellow travelers in the Western world can surrender in our name. But that confidence is based in part on the knowledge that writers such as Steyn are out their pointing out our suicidal tendencies.We have built a country we can all be proud of, whether you are conservative or liberal, straight or gay, or whatever. We should have the confidence to defend our country against the scum like Mateen who can't enjoy what we built or tolerate what is disagreeable to him.
America didn't build the hate that led to 50 dead Americans in an Orlando nightclub and more than 50 wounded. And if we can't unite to defend ourselves against slime like Mateen, we are doomed to lose this Long War.
Let's get our heads out of our collective backsides and get on with killing jihadis and helping those in the Moslem world who reject the Islamist version of Islam that the jihadis want to impose on all Moslems.
Too many of us still hate us despite our ability to see what evil our enemies are capable of. How is that possible?
And how is possible to think there won't be consequences for letting jihadi killers win? You effing think?!!
The rapid collapse of the Afghan government left American officials increasingly concerned about the potential for a rise in terrorist threats against the United States.
Remember, after the fall of Saigon the North Vietnamese didn't follow us home to continue the war. South Vietnam was their objective. Do you really think jihadis who began the war by attacking us at home won't follow us home after we "ended" the Afghanistan war?
Will we fight our enemies over here any more resolutely than we fought them over there? Our lax treatment of the Antifa/BLM riots in our cities doesn't fill me with hope.
UPDATE: Via Eric, there are good reasons America fights the jihadis and America deserves to win against these scum. More of us should be confident of those realities.
Of course we have allies in this fight. But American power is so great that without America the fight is harder. Which means many allies might not fight.
And worse, many Moslem nations that side with America may see the jihadis as the strong horse and not worth resisting. Which we saw in Afghanistan.
