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COMMENTARY
August 9, 2006
Stage two
Not all my readers appreciate that we are seeing now, in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, and across swathes of Afghanistan and Iraq, a harbinger of our future. The war with fanatical Islam is spreading, and must come to us. It already has, in its terror phase. We have huge police and security forces working around the clock to prevent terror attacks from happening in Canada; all convinced that such attacks are inevitable.We cannot know how the war will develop; only that it will. It will be quite unlike previous world wars. We can only observe that we are now in transition from the terrorist stage, to the guerrilla warfare stage. I can only guess, but would think the next threshold will be crossed when a country, most likely Iran, brings true “weapons of mass destruction” into play. The word “threshold” could mislead. Each new stage adds another layer, so that the terrorism will continue, joined to guerrilla war; and then both will continue, with WMD added. Does that sound alarmist to you? If so, I can only reply, wake up, gentle reader. The very people who guard you in your sleep are alarmed on your behalf. On the other hand, there are many little signs that an awakening may have begun. In Israel itself, there has been a procession of “peace activists” before Israeli media, saying they were wrong to think any good could come of “land for peace” appeasement. And I think of a Canadian -- a lady half my age, and twice as intelligent -- who wrote me from Germany the other day. She said it had been, “The Day of the Dead Child Picture, when it graced every front page in the U-Bahn. And I wondered if enough photos of poor dead (and blond) German children might have stopped the U.S. from entering the war -- and Hitler from being defeated.” The fact someone so young (I know most older Canadians get it) could see through the propaganda, even without suspecting fakery behind it, fills me with hope. The photo in question was extremely suspicious -- the photographer, Adnan Hajj, has since been dismissed from Reuters, for he was caught “photoshopping” by bloggers. Some 920 pictures by Mr Hajj, many of them played prominently on front pages, are now under review. The “dead baby” in the Qana picture was real enough. But we already know that the circumstances in which the child was killed, and was inserted through Western media into the world’s living rooms, was part of a crude Hezbollah propaganda stunt. Even more hope, from a letter forwarded through email on the weekend, across our country electronic hand to hand, from a “FOO” (forward observation officer) on the ground at Kandahar. Like most allied soldiers currently writing from the field in Iraq and Afghanistan (I see a lot of this mail), he is utterly disgusted with media misreporting, but in no doubt why he’s in Afghanistan. He gives a detailed account of two weeks’ action, in which -- almost unmentioned in our media, except for the casualties -- Canadian troops participated in their biggest firefight since the Korean War. In the “Battle of Panjawai”, we played a leading role with our allies in demolishing a large, well-armed, and well-organized Islamist guerrilla force. After vividly describing the hellish combat, blow by blow, he concludes: “We soldiered hard and long and showed the enemy that messing with Canadians is a really bad idea.” The good news, from examples like these, is that fewer and fewer people in the West are allowing emotional trash to sap their morale. And even some of our more “liberal” journalists have been taken aback. We have had such startling performances as that of Dan Rather, the retired CBS anchor, on Fox TV. He admitted that the media are reporting Lebanon without factual and historical background, that what “doesn't get reported is the bigger picture”. “It's a problem that those of us in journalism have been reluctant to address. I do not exclude myself from this criticism. Reluctant to address that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, committed to the destruction of Israel. It isn't committed to trying to just gain territory. It's committed to its destruction.” And he could add, committed to our destruction. Israel is facing the same enemy all free peoples in the West are facing -- and that we, Canadians, are fighting in Afghanistan. And if we do not support Israel, we do not support ourselves. For this expanding war cannot end until the Islamic fanatics know they are beaten. They know perfectly well they cannot defeat Western armies in open battle. But so long as they have any hope that we will capitulate, from fear of them, and from our moral reticence to strike through their human shields -- they are not beaten, and we can only look forward to stages three, and following. David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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