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August 03, 2006

Can I be forgiven...

...for wishing this dude was my president? Because he's about a thousand times more literate than George W. Bush.

In the end, even the issue of Israel is just part of the same, wider struggle for the soul of the region. If we recognised this struggle for what it truly is, we would be at least along the first steps of the path to winning it. But a vast part of the Western opinion is not remotely near this yet.

Whatever the outward manifestation at any one time - in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Iraq and add to that in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, in a host of other nations including now some in Africa - it is a global fight about global values; it is about modernisation, within Islam and outside of it; it is about whether our value system can be shown to be sufficiently robust, true, principled and appealing that it beats theirs. Islamist extremism's whole strategy is based on a presumed sense of grievance that can motivate people to divide against each other. Our answer has to be a set of values strong enough to unite people with each other.

This is not just about security or military tactics. It is about hearts and minds about inspiring people, persuading them, showing them what our values at their best stand for.

Just to state it in these terms, is to underline how much we have to do. Convincing our own opinion of the nature of the battle is hard enough. But we then have to empower Moderate, Mainstream Islam to defeat Reactionary Islam. And because so much focus is now, world-wide on this issue, it is becoming itself a kind of surrogate for all the other issues the rest of the world has with the West. In other words, fail on this and across the range, everything gets harder.

I mean, you're allowed to disagree with that if you see fit. You're even allowed to loathe the tactics that have been employed in that effort if you see fit. But you can't tell me that argument isn't clearly and coherently made, and provides a compelling purpose. Which pretty well trumps, um, anything the W has said since late 2001.

Just saying. Again, if I've blasphemed, so sorry.

(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.)

Posted by Chuck at August 3, 2006 12:28 AM

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