It seems customary these days to compare our current War on Terrorism to America's previous great struggles in World War II and the Cold War, despite the ample evidence that they share little in common. One of the key differences between the terrorists and the Axis powers of World War II is that that the Germans, Italians and Japanese were very clear-cut enemies. They had militaries, borders, civilians and clear division of responsibility, well-defined roles in the war against America and her allies, and of course, there was as clear point where victory could be declared. Take over the territory of an Axis power, and the war has been won, even if the peace is still up for grabs.
The terrorists that we faced today, on the other hand, are not so clear cut. They have no uniforms, have no conventional divisions to throw at the United States Army and Marine Corps. They have no borders, and in fact Al Qaida in particular is an internationalist armed group. What do they look like? An Arab, a Pakistani, a Malaysian, a Frenchman and even Americans, white and dark-skinned Hispanic so far. They are a shadow army, who when successful, hits us in a spectacular way that leaves the public shocked. We are left with periods of complete peace and normalcy punctuated by moments of extreme carnage. The embassies in Africa, the USS Cole and finally, the twin towers and the Pentagon. They are an entirely new threat, and one that we cannot prepare for unless we abandon old methods and analogies and adopt an unapologetic willingness to defend our people at the expense of our enemies, not our own country's freedoms.
Even if we overthrow all of the state sponsors of terrorism, that will not be enough to stop the terrorists because of what they represent, namely expansionist Islam. I prefer to use the phrase expansionist Islam, as I feel it is a more appropriate way of grouping together not just the radicals, but anyone in the Islamic world that is sympathetic to their aims. It's a mistake to assume that secular words can win a war of ideas against the words that zealots believe come straight from the mind of God.
Time and again, Western civilization has been under assault by the forces of expansionist Islam, and it is time that we consider the possibility that there is a fundamental flaw in Islam itself as a religion. We can explain away radical Islam as some bastard child of revolutionary Marxism and Islamic religiosity, but how does that explain the Islamic conquests of Egypt, Spain, much of Eastern Europe, Persia and India, all of which happened before the time of Marx? Surely there is something deeper here than mere mixing of radical left-wing politics and religion.
Using force to "jump start" a culture of freedom and democracy is ironic, as coercion is not something that should mark the beginning of a new, (classical) liberal order. Kern seems to forget that Japan and Germany are staunchly collectivist societies today and that Italy has been a royal mess among Western democratic states for most of the time since World War II. Simply saying the words "French Revolution" suffices to demonstrate that outside of the Anglosphere, even the Western democratic states have a long history of failed attempts at democratic, liberal government. The only reason that America's revolution was successful was that the culture was already in place and the revolution was a nature outpouring of that sentiment.
As a libertarian hawk, I sympathize with Kern's desire to liberate others, but do not share his optimism, given the difference betweens between our past conflicts and the one we face today. The War on Terror is not another Cold War, rather it is another chapter in an ancient armed struggle between expansionist Islam and the rest of the world. What we fight today is not a political ideology, but a religion, and religions are an entirely more difficult beast to defeat than a popular political ideology that can collapse simply due to an inherent inability to produce the promised goods.
Heaven on Earth was what the leftist Nazis and Communists offered on this side of eternity, and that's why they failed. Expansionist Islam offers Heaven on the other side of eternity, and that is an idea whose roots go back to the heart of mankind in the darkest regions of antiquity shrouded in the mists of time. We won't be able to win a few, humane battles against them and cause them to collapse as they see their economies fail to produce on par with our more efficient capitalist methods. Rather, I fear that we may end up having to so thoroughly crush our enemies' faith in their god that they abandon him once and for all if we are going to end this war once and for all.