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Recent Publications by New English Review Authors
In Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas
by Theodore Dalrymple
Defending The West:
by Ibn Warraq
Nations, Language and Citizenship:
by Norman Berdichevsky
Romancing Opiates
by Theodore Dalrymple
Which Koran?
by Ibn Warraq
Our Culture, What's Left of It
by Theodore Dalrymple
What The Koran Really Says
by Ibn Warraq
Life at the Bottom
by Theodore Dalrymple
The Origins of the Koran
by Ibn Warraq
Why I Am Not Muslim
by Ibn Warraq
Spanish Vignettes: An Offbeat Look Into Spain's Culture, Society & History
by Norman Berdichevsky
Leaving Islam
Edited by Ibn Warraq
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Prager On Iraq

Dennis Prager writes at Frontpage:

Whatever misgivings an American has about invading Iraq and removing Hussein, the facts are that America is winning now;

This is a remarkable statement. Winning needs to be defined in a way that makes sense and justifies our enormous sacrifice in both men and treasure to the American people. Simply to assert things like "violence is down" right now doesn't define victory satisfactorily.

that Iraq is becoming the first free and democratic Arab country;

Another incredible statement. Freedom has not been defined vis a vis Islam. We have stupidly and short-sightedly enshrined the system of Islam as the ultimate legal authority over the Iraqi Constitution thanks to "experts" like Noah Feldman. How, then, is Iraq a "free country"?

that Islamists are losing what they themselves call their most important war; and that, as a result of their barbaric cruelty in Iraq and their losing the war now, their popularity among Muslims (except Palestinians) is in decline.

Islam is undergoing a world-wide resurgence - see Malaysia, see Indonesia, see Thailand, see Kashmir, see Western Europe, see the UK, see the United States. How can it be said Islam (or the carefully undefined "Islamism") losing popularity anywhere? If some Sunnis in Iraq are fighting some other Sunnis in the form of al-Qaeda, how is this evidence of Islamic decline everywhere except among the "Palestinians"?

Do most Americans really prefer Obama's and the Democrats' pledge to leave Iraq to the Republicans' pledge to win this war? No matter how horrific, even potentially genocidal, the consequences would be to Iraqis?

Yes.

No matter how adversely it would affect potential U.S. allies who will no longer trust our commitments to them?

What about our ability to trust them? That, it seems to me, is the issue.

And no matter how much it would weaken America's domestic security, given an Islamist victory in Iraq? If so, we are in deep trouble as a nation.

Not if, through our experience in Iraq, we begin to understand that we can have no real Muslim allies no matter what we do. American domestic security with regard to Islam is directly related to how many Muslims are in our country and has nothing to do with Iraq. It would be better to have jihad opportunities galore in Iraq as a result of a low-level Sunni-Shi'a war, than to have Iraq in a state of peace and jihadis turning their sights on us and looking to cause carnage here. We have no interest in preventing Muslims from fighting each other - quite the opposite, in fact, as Hugh Fitzgerald has pointed out innumerable times since early 2004.

Posted on 7:03 AM by Rebecca Bynum
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