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By William Butler Salazar
(Published
January 8, 2002 by the San Juan Star)
Beginning four thousand years ago bearded hordes thundered
across Europe and Asia to trample long established, thriving, peaceful
civilizations. Their tactics and secret to success have been similar and
basic: unite under a single banner, infuse the warriors with an intense
desire to die for their cause, suffer no mercy, and follow orders from a
single strong charismatic leader. This epochal drive, today in the hands of
a cunning and widespread band of dedicated men, has now leapfrogged the
Atlantic Ocean and threatens to overwhelm the democracies of the Americas.
The driving force behind this latest threat to world peace
emanates from Muhammed’s critique of the conduct and attitudes of the rich
merchants of the 8th century from which he forged among his
followers a sense of brotherhood together with a bond of faith. True then,
as now, the principal players involved descend, by large, from well-to-do
environments, are generally well educated and reject the thriving social
environments into which they were born and raised. Today’s feisty militant
terrorists, nothing but gangsters conveniently disguised under Islamic garb,
have set as their goal, wild as it may be, the conquest of the entire world
and have elected to use their own brand of radical Islam as the main driving
tool. They have targeted not only the non-Muslim world but all of the
Non-Islamic States. Their stated goal is to forge a world Islamic ethos
where the spiritual and temporal aspects of life are one where all people
are governed by Islamic Law in an Islamic State that controls every
institution that governs society. But in reality these gangsters are out to
create a world dictatorship by destroying civilization as we know it today
and replace it with a world in total subjugation to their wild whims.
We must learn from lessons past and act decisively. Should we
fail to unite to combat this menace we will be overrun. Terrorist cells are
active in every country of the world. Many will remain dormant until the
struggle ripens. We must rethink our method of warfare. We need new radical
tactics not only in military activities, but within the civilian population.
Entire nations must be infused with the tenet that they are engaged in a war
to the death that will be fought by their heirs who will necessarily
continue this struggle much after the natural deaths of all of us alive
today. Each and every American must be infused with the desire to fight to
the death with every facet of America united as one.
The great bearded one once called out “Man’s greatest good
fortune is to chase and defeat his enemy, seize his total possessions, leave
his married women weeping and wailing, ride his gelding and use the bodies
of his women as a nightshirt and support” With this call, the author,
Genghis Khan, 3800 years ago overran most of the civilized world. This same
call has been echoed in this new millennium.
In 1870 a disorganized clutter or rag-tag mini states ruled
by comic opera princes overwhelmed and annihilated the mightiest army on the
continent led by no other than Napoleon. They then marched triumphantly down
the main streets of Paris. The upstart nation that accomplished this was
Germany.
The moral to these stories is one. Never be complacent about
barbarians. Yesterdays overlooked mob is often the ruler of tomorrow. This
happened to England in the Century past when, when the smoke cleared from
the two World Wars, two backward nations whose inhabitants had usually been
regarded just one small step above the primitive, ended up dominating the
world, the United States and Russia.
To combat this threat we must unite, we must combat
this scourge at its roots, and we must support moderate Muslim groups.
We need to remain united as the nation felt and acted
immediately after September 11. Today, four months later, the great
majority, polls show 75% plus, of the peoples of the United States of
America are closely knit in their approval of the conduct of the war against
the terrorists. We need to convince the remaining 25%, the media, Hollywood,
Corporations, all of the “peaceniks” that we fight peoples who have sworn to
overwhelm us, and who will accomplish their goals unless we unite. We need
to be resolute to the very end. Pacification will not work for our
enemy.will see it as a definite sign of weakness.
Saudi Arabia uses their immense riches to construct and fund
schools and mosques throughout the Muslim world, a most honorable objective
except for the fact that the great majority of the mullahs who lead these
schools are radicals who use their position to seed the minds of students
with extremist terrorist objectives. We must support moderate leaders in the
Muslim world in their efforts to eliminate the political overtones in the
learning process.
We must cooperate with Muslim thinkers in their effort to
sort out the Muslim world of the future. They have, rightly so, rejected the
tenet that to modernize means to westernize. They need to sort out the right
parts of the western model and drop the parts that will not work. Jordan,
Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Turkey have succeeded. Businessmen and traders need
to be heard and take hold of the agenda, now in charge of Islam extremists.
Lest us not forget lessons learned over the millenniums:
today’s superpower is tomorrow’s conquered state. Yesterday’s overlooked mob
is often the ruler of tomorrow. We need to remain united, focused, and
prepared for a long struggle… or our great grand children will live enslaved
in poverty. The tactic and secret to success will be as laid out by Genghis
Khan: unite under a single banner, infuse our warriors with an intense
desire to fight for their future generations, enforce our laws forcefully,
and follow orders from a single strong charismatic leader.
William
Butler Salazar is an engineer, author and ocean navigator.
January
4, 2002
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