Hiding behind the wall...

Looking at New York Time's columnist Thomas Friedman's new column, `The Energy Wall' is valuable, because it articulates what's become a very common, if mistaken mindset among the American public...especially since it's become all too evident how the Bush Administration squandered a brilliant military victory in Iraq and how poorly our national interest has been served.

Friedman starts out by saying that the way out of the mess in Iraq and the Middle East is to examine the Israeli-Arab conflict and emulate the tactics used by the Israelis, namely the Gaza withdrawal and the constuction of Israel's security wall.

Friedman's simple proposition, boiled down to one sentence is this: let's get out of Iraq and the Middle East as soon as possible, become energy independent and build a `virtual wall' between the region and ourselves. In Friedman's words, `a wall of energy independence that will enable us to continue to engage honestly with the most progressive Arabs and Muslims on a reform agenda, but without being hostage to the most malevolent.'

Friedman and people that think like him are deluding themselves, just as the Israelis were.

The idea of a withdrawal and a virtual `wall' against the Islamic fascists won't work any more than Israel's withdrawal and physical wall has. I'm amazed that Friedman, presumably an intelligent and informed man, can advocate for the US the very tactics that have failed in Israel. Perhaps this self-styled `expert' ought to spend some time in Sderot.

Here's why a `wall' won't work : the beast is no longer merely confined to the Middle East, but here among us, and will be even if we never import another drop of Arab oil. The toothpaste is already out of that particular tube.

Here in America, we have allowed the virtual takeover by the Saudis of almost every mosque and madrassah in America through the Saudi funded front, the Islamic Society of North America. They appoint the imams, fund the mosques, pick the texts and teachers for the madrassahs and above all push the wahabi hardline agenda, thus doing whatever they possibly can to create a generation of Muslims in America and the West with large groups of what Daniel Pipes has aptly called `cultural jihadists', people who symphathize with and support jihad even if they're not actually strapping bombs to themselves or plotting terrorist attacks against their supposedly `native' country.

The Saudis and UAE also fund CAIR, the MSA and the MPAC, perhaps the only instance in America of political lobbying groups being openly funded by foreign governments since the bad old days of the `China Lobby'. Aside from open lobbying of congress and lawsuit intimidation through these groups, the Saudis and the UAE also have a practice of buying well connected government figures as their personal lobbyists...like ex-president Clinton, ex-senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole, Brent Scowcroft, James Baker (his lawfirm, Baker-Botts is the Saudis' legal representative in the US), Jimmy Carter,(who receives $10M per year for the Carter `Peace ' Center), and soon, if not already, this fella..

On the other side of the equation, Iran's proxy Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas have a number of cells and symphathizers already existing here in America..anyone who doesn't realize that should read what Steve Emerson or Robert Spencer have had to say about it.

In order to truly `build a virtual wall', we would have to expel a whole bunch of people from the US, control access to the country and make a few laws reminiscent of the ones FDR put in place during WWII to deal with enemy aliens, sabotage, sedition and domestic surveillance. I have a feeling that Friedman and his fellow isolationists would be screaming bloody murder at any attempts to actually secure the home front. And even while such steps might be necessary and desireable, they would hardly eliminate the problem in an age of nuclear armed jihadis.

It's not about oil or even Israel. We are dealing with people who feel they have nothing to lose and Paradise to gain. The OG Mohammed told them so, when he commanded them to fight the unbelievers until they either died, converted to Islam or paid the tribute willingly and `feel themselves subdued'.

They aren't going away just because we ignore them.Not while a single part of dar harb remains to be conquered.

Energy independence is fine, and I'm all for it...but it will have zero impact on funding jihad. Oil is fungiable and the Arabs will simply sell their oil elsewhere. And continue to use the profits to wage jihad against the West.

Islamic fascism is exactly like the 1930's variety. It will have to be militarily defeated AND humiliated at its source nations before the slate is clean and there is any chance of reform or peace.

As much as it would be comforting to simply wash our hands of the matter and take a vacation from history, we simply don't have that option. A smoking crater with the charred remains of 3,000 of our countrymen was the price we paid the last time we tried it. The price will be much higher if we avoid our responsibilities to our posterity and our country.

The sooner we realize that and take on the task at hand, the better and less costlier it will be.





Hat tip to the old general, Giv Cornfield for sending me Friedman's original piece.