DOUBLE DRIBBLE: AFGHANISTAN

Let's get a few things straight here. Attempting to transform the wild west of Afghanistan is much too expensive, much too depleting, of Western resources—perhaps not as much as the fiasco in Iraq, but it is simply the same kind of misguided belief in the mutability of Muslim man that pays insufficient attention to the permanent hold of Islam, and what it means for the West.

Resources are limited. Men of valor, war and peace material, morale. They have been squandered, in Afghanistan, as in Iraq. The belief that Afghanistan must be occupied directly by Western troops, that it is a choice of either of keeping those troops, and at the same time curing poverty or remaking, at horrific expense, the hopelessly backward unrepentant country of Afghanistan, or validate the terrorists.

We should not confuse the smooth Karzai, with his Western experience and connections, or a handful of others at the top, with the tribes of Afghanistan. And we should not avail the Afghan-Americans who are involved in "reconstruction" hopes and schemes and dreams who are similarly entirely unrepresentative of the real Afghanistan that Infidel countries must keep steadily in mind.

America should have as little to do directly with Muslim states as possible. No more messianism. No more spending of American or NATO funds. Let Saudi Arabia fight its own battles and be forced to share with the less fortunate Afghani Muslims, fellow members of the Umma. Let the Camp of Islam take care, if it so chooses, of its own. America should stop enouraging the Karzais of this world to talk wistfully of how they wish they could have that $300 billion spent in Iraq spent, rather, on them—tell them to stop counting on the Americans or other infidels, and if they wish, to go hat in hand to fellow members of the Umma.

Long live Afghanistan, but there is little need to patrol the entire country on a fool's errand. In fact, the extreme mountainous terrain and fractured nature of its tribal peoples make these logistics an impossible task. Despite the recent resurgence of Taliban forces, the notion that somehow the place is indispensable to Al Qaeda is nonsense.

Al Qaeda operatives can train, and are training, in Pakistan, or for that matter, Al Qaeda sympathizers, those who have the same goals, prompted by the same texts, can train with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, or with Hamas in Gaza, or with Jemaah Islamiyya on this or that Indonesian isle, or with Gemaah Islmayyah in a village in Lower Egypt, or with Jaish-e-Muhammad almost anywhere they choose in huge Pakistan. The American government seems to believe that because Al Qaeda once had camps in Afghanistan, this is the only place it can have camps. And it further seems to believe that Al Qaeda is the only or main terrorist threat. But they are all threats, and furthermore, terrorism is not the most effective weapon in the Jihad.

All of this needs somehow to penetrate the seemingly impenetrable skulls of official Washington.

Fight From Afar—Telemachy—should be the motto. Supply first this ruthless warlord, and then that. When necessary, enter the country intermittently, keeping enemies under surveillance and always off-guard. This has been America's foreign policy mistake over for fifty years. The US once backed Saddam Hussein, then turned on him. The US once backed Manuel Noreiga, a former strong ally who worked for the CIA, then turned on him. Yet the US has propped up many a dictator who agreed the do our bidding. No wonder theere is so much distrust of American motives across the globe.

According to Kamram Memon a civil rights attorney writing for the "Muslims For A Safe America" website, "For decades, the U.S. government has provided economic and military aid to dictatorships in the Muslim world, on the theory that dictators would provide stability and protect American interests in the Muslim world. When Muslims tried to pick their own leaders, the U.S. government was unsympathetic. The CIA helped overthrow the democratically-elected president of Iran in 1953. President Bush’s father stood silently by as the Algerian military prevented democratically-elected leaders from taking power in the early 1990s."

Memon continues, "After 9/11 highlighted anti-American feeling in the Muslim world, President Bush declared in November 2003 that the U.S. would reverse its policy. “Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe — because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty. As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment, and violence ready for export. And with the spread of weapons that can bring catastrophic harm to our country and to our friends, it would be reckless to accept the status quo. Therefore, the United States has adopted a new policy, a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East.”

President Bush has partly justified the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq on the grounds of spreading “freedom and democracy. But of course these two wars are about oil, but this motive is always denied while democracy is touted as America's sole export. But make no mistake about this. I believe that there is a large very dangerous sector of the Muslim war that will NEVER be deterred from its jihad against the West, NEVER, unless it is soundly defeated. But this winning the hearts and minds approach is hogwash. According to one writer the US should:

"Bottle up the Camp of Islam, to the extent possible, and exploit, to the greatest extent possible, the sectarian, ethnic, and economic divisions that divide the Camp of Islam. And then turn the attention of Infidels to the instruments of Jihad other than Terror. Start with those campaigns of Da'wa, and the demogrpahic conquest that has already made the countries of Western Europe much more unpleasant, expensive, and physically dangerous than they would be without a large-scale Muslim presence.

And then like any true eagle scout "be prepared" for the next jihadist move.

But speaking of the Boy Scouts of America, there is more nonsense everyday popping up in this country. According to "The Militant Islam Monitor" the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has signed a lease for up to 25 years with a group that wants to build a Muslim youth camp at Lake Coralville near North Liberty, Iowa. The lease allows the Cedar Rapids-based Muslim Youth Camps of America to build on 114 acres of federal land. Construction can start once the group works out details with county and state regulators, the corps reported in March, 2006.

Plans for the $934,000 camp north of North Liberty call for lodging up to 60 campers ages 10 to 17 in cabins and tents plus staffers during the summer and up to 40 per night in the offseason. When completed, the camp will include a 2,400 square-foot lodge, a beach, recreation trails, five cabins, five tent pods and a bathroom. The initial plan, submitted in 1999, called for a 17,500-square-foot lodge, 12 camping platforms, 10 cabins, bathrooms, trails and a beach. The scaled back plan was presented after an environmental assessment.

Do you think everyday Americans would be alarmed? Think again. Neighbors who had been opposed to the camp said they no longer were as concerned as they had been. Rick Hollis, whose property adjoins the land, said he could live with the scaled-down version. He said it is closer to the size of a Girl Scout camp there previously. "I like the quiet neighborhood the way it is, but if they really keep it the size of the Girl Scout camp, it should not be a big intrusion on the neighborhood," Hollis said.

In July of 2002, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) won a long fought battle to remove a cross from the Mohave Desert public preserve, as a Federal judge ruled that it was in breach of the "establishment" clause of the Constitution.

Of the case, Peter Eliasberg, an attorney at the ACLU stated, "The federal government should not offer public land—owned collectively by people of every faith and of no faith—as a site for the advertisement and promotion of Jesus Christ, Buddha, Pope John Paul II, or any other particular religious figure. Contrary to what some believe, it is not the role of the federal government to advance Christianity or any other sectarian belief." He further stated, "The courts have consistently held that a permanent religious fixture on federal land is a violation of the U.S. Constitution."

While the ACLU feels it necessary to take action against symbols of the Christian faith, it seems they do not attribute the same set of standards to Islam. The group that wants to use the Iowa site calls itself Muslim Youth Camps of America, Inc. (MYCA). Organizers of MYCA say they purposely chose the name so that it would resemble that of the YMCA, the well-known Christian nationwide health and fitness center. "It is not exclusively for Muslims, just like YMCA is not exclusive to Christians," states Manzoor Ali, the Chairman of MYCA. But this statement doesn't exactly jibe with some of the other statements made by the group. Read more.

And yet there have been several well-publicized cases where the Boy Scouts of America have been denied permits for a permanent camp or even a single event on public land. City officials in Norwalk, CN were recently considering denying a permit for the Boy Scouts to use a beach for a recruitment drive based on the parent organization's policy of barring homosexual members.

Norwalk's mayor has asked the law department to determine whether there is legal precedent to deny a Boy Scouts troop use of Shady Beach. He made his request after members of the Common Council's parks committee told the scoutmaster last week that they would vote against issuing her a permit for a three-hour campfire and recruitment program. The continuing controversy about Boy Scouts of America membership arose a few years ago after the organization expelled James Dale, an Eagle Scout and assistant scoutmaster in New Jersey for 10 years, because he is gay. Dale sued and won reinstatement but the Scouts took their case to the US Supreme Court and, in 2000, prevailed.

But there is still something wrong here, folks. Wake up!