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Islam and the United States

The current administration has announced that the U.S. will leave Iraq by the end of 2011. It is dragging its feet on the request for 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan by General McChrystal. Pakistan is practicing democracy but the region is powder cake and the situation there could erupt into chaos anytime.

So let’s take a look of this map and see what’s happening over there in recent days?

• Six UN staff members at a UN guesthouse in Kabul were killed by Taliban militant on Oct. 28.
• On Oct. 25, two car bombs on October 25 killed more than 150 people and injured nearly 1,000 in Baghdad. The bombs heavily damaged Iraq’s Justice Ministry building.

• The Peshawar region in northwestern Pakistan suffered great damage from a car bomb on October 28. More than 90 people died. Two weeks earlier, Taliban insurgents launched an attack against the headquarters of the Pakistani army. The militant kidnapped 33 hostages; killing three, before Pakistani soldiers stormed the place, shot the militant dead and freed the other 30 people.
• Then there is Iran which openly ridicules the U.S., secretly develops nuclear weapon capabilities and vows to wipe Israel from the map of the world. Iran has agreed to open its facilities for UN inspection. But do you believe for one minute that Iran will ever abandon its research and development of a nuclear weapon? No way!

What’s going on over there? Why are there so many killings and so much violence? Are the insurgents or freedom fighters from their perspective targeting the US soldiers? Are Muslims killing other Muslims? Should the U.S. stay the course set by Bush and take fighting away from the homeland to where anti-America sentiment originates from? Or should the U.S. leave the volatile region to minimize short term suffering but face the long term threat of enemies taking their fight to the U.S. soil?

There are about 1.6 to 1.8 billion Muslims in every country of the world. Even if only 0.1% of them take Qur’an’s scripture literally, we are talking about 1.6 million people who rather like to see the entire world under the rule of Islam, or a religion of the sword, either by peaceful means or by force. Of course the possibility of this ever comes true is nil at best, the process will create instabilities all over the world for generations.

The current president has a Muslim middle name and may have a deeper understanding of the true meaning of Qur’an. He has, on behalf on every Americans, apologized to the world for past U.S. presidents’ unilateral actions against other nations. He has obviously sided with his Arabic friends and isolated Israel into a corner. He has opened his arms to Iran, arguably the only enemy of the U.S., with a peaceful gesture. What is he trying to achieve by asking for forgiveness? Is this the basis of his foreign policy with respect to Muslim countries?

A more important question is: will the submissive gesture work with Muslims? Does who still remember the Battle in Mogadishu of 1993 where many U.S. soldiers were killed by Somalia militias? Following the defeat, instead of regroup and reengage the enemy, Clinton decided to withdraw U.S. soldiers from Somalia. This submissive action energized Muslim militant groups and was disparaged by Al-Qaeda and bin Laden. Will the insurgents see this as an opportunity to expand their reach and increase their infiltration into the US soil as evident by the recent arrest of several groups of Muslim youths by FBI? I bet that not very many people pay attention to what the current threat level is. Homeland Security becomes synonymous to inconvenience at the airport. It has been peaceful since 9-11 in the U.S., hasn’t it? The FBI and CIA are working together and they will do their jobs to snatch up bad guys, won’t they? And most people have largely forgotten about the horrific images of 9-11 other than a short ceremony at Ground Zero and a few speeches by politicians on its anniversary. Why would anyone want to remember that horrible moment?

Americans have a short memory. Americans also has a tendency to pay more attention to what will happen in the near future; be it in the business world or national security. The insurgents however are the patient people. They have a very long term perspective. They plan when the U.S. is nervous and cautious. They attack when the U.S. is complacent. They are learning from their mistakes and they are regrouping to plan their next move. They will avoid their previous mistakes and they will have more than one group studying what is the best way to achieve their goals.

We better watch out for 9-11 may happen soon.