The Laughing Wolf

The War: What Happens Now

By Our Actions Shall We Be Judged. Judgment is a thing most fear, and that time is upon us and we should be afraid. For what happens now, for good or ill, is up to each one of us. We have looked at the past, at what lies beneath it, and at where we are right now. Now is the time to look at the options that are open to us, for the decisions we make will shape the world for some time to come.

The fact is, we must learn from the past without becoming bound to or by it. Too strong an adherence to tradition and traditional modes of thought can be just as damaging as blind adherence to radical thought just to be different. There are lessons here that stand forth, and provide some starkly defined choices.

The fact that cannot be ignored in all of this is that we are at war. There are people out there who have sworn to destroy all who do not believe as they believe and all that they feel is profane. Since this includes most of modern civilization, from hygiene to music to art to abstract ideas such as freedom and individual choice, it is a war against civilization. These followers of a fantasy ideology want to return the world to a simpler time, a time of hunger, brutality, savagery, and worse. A time in which they rule, and all who live – especially those who were or are infidels – live to serve them. Make no mistake that we are at war.

The fact is also clearly evident that this is not a law enforcement matter. Law enforcement has been tried for decades when one considers the case of Israel, and it has failed. It has failed in all cases to stem the tide and provide safety and viability for civilization as it currently exists.

The fact is, we have returned the favor and entered into war. Two governments are down, and the umbrella organization is pursued on many levels. A new government is forming in Iraq, a counter to Iran and the Afghanistan that was, and the winds of change are blowing across the Middle East as a result.

The fact is, that Iraq was not made a peaceable land of milk and honey overnight, and no one ever said it would be. This is a project for years and decades, perhaps even centuries, not of mere days. The good fairy what sits in the sky is not going to magically wave its wand and make everything right: it is going to take hard work and sacrifice by everyone.

The question before us is simple: What do we do now? The answers are not simple ones, nor are they easy. There are three basic answers and they entail risk, heartache, destruction, and more. One of them leads to peace and prosperity in the shortest time, but with a high cost. One leads eventually to peace and prosperity, but comes at an even higher cost. The final one leads to the fall of civilization as we know it, and the highest cost of all.

We will start with the highest price of all: the choice of surrender. That choice is ours to make. We can look at this war and its costs, and we can despair. It can be decided that the price is too high, and the choice made to hand victory to the other side. They can establish their theocracy and make the fantasy ideology the law of the world. Social, scientific, and all other progress can be stopped. We can return to an effective stone-age level of existence, slavery, and all that entails in hopes of saving lives and showing respects to the beliefs of others.

Such thought automatically assumes that there will be reciprocity, and that other beliefs will be respected. Yet, in every area where this fantasy ideology has been allowed power, the opposite has been shown. There has been no respect, no tolerance, nor any other norm of civilized behavior. Women become as property, to be controlled and used and abused. Those of other faiths or beliefs, or who dare challenge in any way the mullahs and leaders, are killed. There are mass graves in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran to prove this.

Nor would all the millions of deaths be acts of direct violence. Returning to this simpler time means the elimination of modern farming, animal husbandry, and food distribution. We are talking the most basic of agriculture and herding after all, and this will not be sufficient to maintain populations as they currently exist. Stalin and others have proven that famine can kill troublesome populations just as neatly as a bullet, and at far less cost. This is not a lesson that has been lost by our enemies. Factoring into this also is the loss of medical advances and research, as well as the modern medical establishment. The latter depends heavily on the very infrastructure targeted for destruction to work. Think about that a bit.

So, we do have the option of surrender, of giving up our freedoms and becoming slaves in the hope it will save lives. Yet, there is also the certainty that ultimately this will not work and will have an extremely high body count, if not the highest count of all.

There is a middle road for those who hate to make a firm decision. We can return to a law enforcement approach with very limited military action. We can withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq, and abandon the people there to whatever fate awaits. We can refuse decisive action for the most noble of reasons, try to establish international good will, return to the game of old and all the old ways and corruption. The old ways that saw hundreds of thousands die, the rape and torture of as many more, and the degradation of millions. The ways of Stalin and Hitler, the gulags and the death camps, the whip and the pistol.

We can once again let despotism flourish within safe havens, and fire yet again the mighty guns of U.N. resolutions and endless talk. We can watch as our enemies not merely return to previous strengths, but grow. We can watch as they finish the race to develop nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and deploy them in a unified fashion.

Most of all, we can count on continued attacks. 9-11, 3-11, and everyday attacks like those in Israel will be the rule, not the exception. The temptation will be great to give up freedoms for the illusion of safety, and we will gain neither. We will destroy ourselves from within, and in so doing grant victory to the other side. We can do so until such time as someone finally says enough, and moves to end the problem once and for all.

Or, we can do that now. We can say “ENOUGH!” and finish the fight. We can do all that is needed to end this madness right now. We can stay the course and do the work of decades so that Iraq and Afghanistan become beacons of democracy despite the naysayers and those who oppose such out of simple venal greed. We can apply our military, we can apply our aid, we can allow private organizations and private enterprise to enter the fray as well. We can commit to total war as our enemies have done.

Our version of total war is different however. Where necessary, we apply overwhelming force of whatever type is needed. Where our enemies murder the innocent, we will eradicate the murders. We will succor the wounded. We will build schools and teach not just ideas, but ideals. We will unleash the cruelest and most horrendous thing known in the world: hope. For hope denied is suffering unimaginable. Yet, hope fulfilled is the greatest gift of all. Hope is never easy, but then again neither are great things.

Yes, we will see soldiers die. We will see the innocent suffer. The difference in these futures, however, is that if we fight we will limit the damage by ending the threat once and for all, in the most expedient means possible. Total war is the shortest and least costly route to peace. We will give comfort to those afflicted, hope to those with dreams, and most of all we will give them the intellectual and physical tools needed for them to build a better future for themselves.

Therein lies the key. You see, in the first two choices given, we make the choice for not merely for ourselves but for the world. In the final choice, we make the choice simply for us, not for anyone else. For you are either with us, or against us. You are either for freedom and prosperity, or you are for the terrorists. If you are a terrorist, you will be destroyed. If you are with us, we are your friends and we will stand by you. We give the ultimate gift to the world, freedom; and, we let them choose what to do with it. All we can and should do is provide them the tools, all else is up to them.

If you read the writings of those from Iraq, you can already see this process starting. If you read the writings of those from Iran, you see the hope building that they too will have a future of freedom. Hope is already spreading.

In the days ahead, think upon the three choices. Take the time to explore them and consider the options between them. Then think some more. The choices you make in the days ahead will decide which choice is made, and thus the future of this world. The future is in your hands. Choose wisely.

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