“An appeaser is someone who feeds a crocodile…hoping it will eat him last.”

~Winston Churchill

“The Middle Rim of this small planet, from the borders of Pakistan to the North African tents of Kedar, is in full retreat from reason. The mirrors of the Arab street, and of Arab chancelleries, reflect that imposition of theocratic tyranny, opposition to western liberalism, and restoration of Islamic hegemony are not radical fringe doctrines but rather the central tenets of the message and metaphor of the masses.”

~ “Wake-Up Calls From A Dangerous Time-Zone”

For those of politically correct persuasion who still refuse to recognize the true face of the enemy in the global war on terror, the past few days should have produced some epiphanies and revelations. If they don’t get it by now, they’ll only get it when the enemy is at our gates.

The working assumption in polite circles has always been that radical Islamists represented the fringe elements of the Arab Islamic world. That the majority of Moslems, and indeed of Arab Moslem governments, strove for peace, sought reconciliation and understanding and had no ambitions for territorial or theocratic domination. Events have given the lie to that theory. And the confluence of so many events in such a concerted period of time have demonstrated once again the depth of violent dictate and the degree of vituperative doctrine. The Middle Rim of this small planet, from the borders of Pakistan to the North African tents of Kedar, is in full retreat from reason.

Last week began with Iran toying with the United Nations pretending to acquiesce to the terms of reference proposed by that august body to curtail its nuclear development program. When the U.N. seemed to get serious about sending inspectors again, Iran quickly reneged on all the terms of reporting and restraint that had seemingly been under negotiation.

Several days later the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, which had been making pleasing sounds about restraining the murderous Janjaweed militia in its government-sponsored program of genocide against the African-Sudanese population, did a quick about face when it seemed as if the international community wanted to send in observers. And not just any about-face at that. The Minister of Foreign Affairs launched into a tirade about the violation of Sudanese sovereignty and a defence of the Janjaweed as being the misunderstood victims of a global campaign of racism against Arabs and Arab culture.

In Iraq, the suicide bombers, remnants of the Saddam regime now linked to, and ranks swollen with, Al-Qaeda’s killers, and following the fanatical cleric Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sadr who preaches to 500,000 people every Friday, targeted Christian Churches for the first time, killing and maiming dozens. A quick perusal of the European media showed that many apologists and Arabists had been left flat-footed since they could not, even in their contorted mentalities, connect these attacks on anything related to Israel.

Finally, news coming out of Saudi Arabia indicates that the ruling Royal Family, while making cooing and billing sounds to their Western clients about moderation and modernization, is close to finalizing a compact with the fundamentalist Wehabbi clerical establishment that would see more power and money going their way. In addition to their current control of education, religious affairs and the Interior Ministry, the Wehabbis would be given an almost free hand, safe from any government oversight, to cement and expand their alliances in the Islamic world, which today already includes an intimate faith and funding relationship with Al-Qaeda.

The good news from the past ten days is that western leaders are beginning to say in public what they have until now kept in their council rooms apart. Candour and clarity often presage strengthened purpose and resolve.

The 9/11 Commission released its final report and clearly expressed, for the first time from even American officials, the likelihood that Islamists, radical fundamentalists, may not be the fringe elements of the Islamic world but may indeed mirror and mimic the true sentiments of the Arab street and of Arab chancelleries. That imposition of theocratic tyranny, opposition to western liberalism, and restoration of Islamic hegemony are the true drivers of this enemy’s heart.

The prestigious Council on Foreign Relations highly anticipated report on Iran’s nuclear development program hinted at the same conclusions. That the goals of the program had been tied to the ambitions of the Iranian mullahs and that the same fanatical mentality that sent 1.5 million Iranian children under 15 years of age to their deaths in the war with Iraq was alive and well and now seeking new methods and messages to place Iran at the head of the Islamic armies marshaled against the West.

Sen. Joe Lieberman speaking to the Democratic National Convention candidly equated the fight against “Islamism”, using the word for the first time referring to the 9/11 Report, with the struggles against Nazism and Communism.

Our hope must be that our country begins to “get it”. To realize that words of cautious clucking disapproval pull no weight with Iranian dictators and won’t help get the body of Zarah Kazemi back to her son in Montreal. To understand that our back-channel morally equivalent foreign policy failed, and resulted in Canadian citizen Abdullah Almaki spending two years in Syrian torture cells and last week being conscripted into the Syrian Army. To comprehend that our fidelity to cultural relativism has been interpreted by Arab groups as free license to attack anyone even remotely questioning their means and motives as evidenced by the legal assault of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada against David Harris, a former Director of Strategic Planning for CSIS, who dared  to suggest on a radio talk show that given U.S. Senate findings that CAIR U.S. had ties to terrorist groups it might be appropriate for CAIR Canada’s chairman to “…at least clarify where exactly CAIR Canada fits in this larger picture.”

Let us guard against becoming fodder for beasts and remember Churchill’s admonition that “An appeaser is someone who feeds a crocodile…hoping it will eat him last.”

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