WW IV didn’t start on September 11^th, 2001 . It could be dated to the first attack on the Twin Towers by Islamists in ’93.  It may have started in ‘79 with the Islamist takeover of Iran .  It may be ’72 with the Islamist terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics.  Perhaps, it was the genocide of the Jewish village of Qurayza   by Mohammed in 627 – five years into the era of the new religion of peace.  For America , WW IV starts for real on 9-11.  Now, five years have passed and WW IV is still fighting.  WW II didn’t take this long for the U.S.   That’s because WW IV will be like our Indian Wars, not WW II.

 

The ideologies motivating ruling cabals of the WW II nation-states Japan and Germany were destroyed when their governments and their military were defeated.  Likewise, Saddam Hussein’s Baathist party was destroyed when his military was defeated.  If Operation Iraqi Freedom must be compared to our WW II, then what was almost four years in the 1940s took about 6 weeks in 2003.  But, it’s the wrong comparison. 

 

There is a world war because of the scale and scope of the Islamist enemy.  If 10% of Muslims are Islamists then there are 120 to 150 million Islamists.  Yet, the world war isn’t against a nation-state.  The world war is against an ideology which is a naturally-occurring outgrowth of a civilization and culture based on Islam which is so far behind that it is barbaric to Western Civilization.

 

Instead of the dreaded clash of civilizations, this world war is, today, a clash of one sub-culture against the world.  Someday, it could become a full blown clash of civilizations but that reckoning is years or decades to come.  The decision to make the enemy Islam more than just the Islamists will be made by Muslims, not the West.

 

Our Indian Wars were a fight between American Civilization and many sub-cultures of Indian nations.  They started in 1607 and ended in 1890.  283 years.  That’s the kind of war we are in now.  American Civilization had a Magnificent Destiny to spread the American ‘Empire’ across a continent.  The Indian cultures (they hadn’t risen to civilizations yet), based on a Neolithic culture was so barbarian that Indians are referred to as ‘savages’ in our Declaration of Independence.   Indian tribes and American Civilization could not co-exist in the same place and time.

 

Today, our Munificent Destiny is to protect the golden goose of capitalism and flame of freedom in our country and the Allies of the Willing.  Our imperial responsibilities without imperial ambitions are to maintain zones of peace and security – which may become zones of prosperity and freedom.  Unlike occupying a continent, our mission is to keep the Islamists out of our continent.  Also, the U.S. must attack and destroy the Islamists on a case by case basis.  Containing them in the Muslim world is vital until, and if, Muslims have their own Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, and, maybe, Great Awakenings.  Or, until they convert to Christianity.  This is a mission for decades, if not centuries.

 

The regime change to get rid of Saddam Hussein was necessary to eliminate a clear and present danger to the U.S.   The failures to properly occupy the country and plan for occupation lay squarely on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.  The buck stops at the top with President Bush for not knowing the difference – and for Vice-President Cheney for not giving him the good counsel which was lacking.  

 

The future of Iraq is up to the Iraqis.  Iraq is many battles at once.  Killing thousands of Islamists who come to Iraq to kill Americans is best done in Iraq .  This is why the Iraq War is central, at this time, in the World War against Islamists – our WW IV.  The self-determination of Iraq will be settled by Iraqi arms and will against one another, not by purple-fingered votes.  It may take years.  Once this war is over, it could all come undone quickly.  This is the Middle East .  Its understanding of democracy and the Rule of Law is about where England was when the Magna Charta was signed in 1215.

 

The future of WW IV will be raids and occasional regime changes as needed.  Eventually, our Homeland security will fear less about racial and religious profiling and focus more on criminal identification.  Yet, as that simple issue shows, the domestic conflict between Liberals who will surrender – eventually – and Conservatives who will never surrender – ever - will worsen.  Eventually, our domestic struggle, a Second American Civil War, will get resolved and one worldview will become our consensus culture.  Until that day, America stands divided, and potentially as weak, as Rome before the Barbarians.