Nine years ago this morning I came up from the subway stop at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue to hear from the breakfast cart vendor that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan. It didn’t seem that important; I pictured a small two seater private plane crashing into a large building and hoped that no one had been killed. Once I got to my office, it became clear that something bigger had happened. Then came a groan from a group of people watching television a few doors down the hall; I rushed in to see the second plane hitting the second tower.
In the hours that followed, life in New York gradually fell apart. Great clouds of ash and smoke rose up from the fires; the transport system crashed. When the buildings collapsed, telephone service went down across the city. With the news of the attack on the Pentagon I went out to withdraw cash from my bank in fear that electric power also would fail. Traffic came to a halt; by early afternoon there were tens of thousands of grimy, dirty people trudging up the avenues of the city, walking home from lower Manhattan. The BBC asked me to come down to their studios near Times Square for an interview; it was almost impossible to get there — even more difficult to get back. I spent the night with friends; the subway system that had brought me into Manhattan could not get me home.
Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates speaks at a commemoration ceremony at the Pentagon Memorial Sept. 11, 2010, in Arlington, VA (DOD).
Nine years later, we are still living in the world that introduced itself on that grim and unforgettable day. Shadowy organizations of hate-crazed fanatics seek to destroy the foundations of civilized life. Satan, we are told, can appear as an Angel of Light; these grandiose, delusional fools have mistaken the King of Death for the Maker of the Universe. “Evil be thou my good,” is what Satan said as he contemplated the ruins of his hopes in Paradise Lost; this is what the Osama bin Ladens of the world have come to. When a bomb goes off in a mosque, they rejoice that God’s will is done. When schoolchildren die horribly in the ruins of a burning bus, they give thanks and praise to God. They pine for greater destruction, greater havoc, for mass deaths of millions; the blood of the innocent has become a drug they cannot live without.
The question of how to deal with these fanatical death-eaters has convulsed world and American politics ever since. It is fatal to ignore them, fatal also to react to their attacks in ways that inflate rather than diminish their support. The free peoples of the world ultimately learned to fight communism though not without many costly blunders and mistakes. We can and will defeat this new scourge, born like Nazism and communism of the hatreds and failures of the world. We will learn, we will grow, we will act and we will by God’s grace and God’s help win.
In some ways we are winning already. The greatest victory we have won in this war came on one of its most questionable battlefields: in Iraq. It was not a military victory, though it opened the door to military progress. It was a moral victory. And it was not something that Americans imposed on Muslims; it was a choice that Muslims made.
Nobody in the world had more reason to hate America and love Al-Qaeda than the Sunni Arabs of Iraq. After frustrating Iraqi nationalists and humiliating their pride by crushing Iraq’s attempted conquest of its “nineteenth province” (better known to the rest of the world as Kuwait), the US imposed and enforced crippling sanctions. We then invaded the country and overthrew a regime that for all its faults and crimes protected what many Sunnis saw as their rightful place in Iraq — and we handed over power to their despised Shi’a enemies and rivals.
Then the occupation failed. We made grandiose promises about all the good we would do: the schools, hospitals, pipelines and roads we would build, the peace we would establish, the security we would provide for the people. It was soon a sick joke; incompetence in Washington, poor management and poor choices on the ground in Iraq, a lack of preparation or intelligent planning for the realities of postwar Iraq turned the occupation into a bloody farce. America had replaced a bad Sunni government with anti-Sunni anarchy and chaos.
Iraqi Sunnis did not just learn of America’s failures by watching TV. They heard about Abu Ghraib from relatives and friends who were there. They learned about accidental shootings and humiliating searches at checkpoints by passing through these checkpoints, experiencing the humiliation, and mourning in the funerals of friends and neighbors who died. They lived without electricity, watched their jobs disappear, saw revenge-minded Shi’a take over the government jobs they once held, and watched militias storm through their neighborhoods, evicting Sunnis from their homes in an orgy of killing that the Americans could not or would not stop.
Into this hell stepped Al-Qaeda and its affiliates. “Brothers,” was their message: “We are the pious Muslims from all over the world. We share your faith. We are here to defend you from the American unbelievers and the Shi’a heretics. At great danger to ourselves, moved by pity for your troubles and our faith in God, we have come from all the corners of the umma to deliver you.”
But then something happened.
Sunni Iraqis took a long hard look at Al-Qaeda. They watched bombs go off in marketplaces and mosques. They watched reprisal killings of respected tribal elders and innocents. They watched undisciplined groups of fighters, freed from all moral and social restraint, innocent for the most part of any serious religious knowledge, imposed narrow and poorly conceived ideas on society by force in the name of an Islam Al-Qaeda neither understood nor respected.
And the Sunni Arabs of Iraq made a choice.
They saw Al-Qaeda at its best — volunteer freedom fighters come from around the world to fight for them — and they saw America at its worst, incompetent, insensitive, vacillating and violent.
And they chose the United States.
They decided that the future of their families, their children and their values was better served by aligning with the United States against the terrorists and against the fanatics.
What those Sunni Arabs in Iraq came to understand is the basic truth of this conflict. The war unleashed nine years ago is not a clash of civilizations between Islam and the west. It is a clash between civilization and barbarism, and in that clash the Americans and true Muslims are on the same side.
I have met many Muslims in the last nine years, in Iraq, in Pakistan, in Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria, Kenya, Algeria, on the West Bank, Italy, France, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Syria, Lebanon and in many other countries who have reached the same conclusion.
Many — most — of these Muslims do not approve of many of the features in western and American life. Many — most — of these Muslims have profound differences with certain aspects of American foreign policy. I have engaged in some bitter and tough discussions during the last nine years, and like to think that maybe I have learned a few things.
But as we look back on the nine years since 9/11, one thing needs to kept clearly in view. The more the world’s Muslims see of Al-Qaeda and its agenda of indiscriminate murder, the less they like it.
And there is something more. Over the years I’ve also had the good fortune to meet many of the Americans who have served on the front lines of this conflict. I hear the same message from them. When General Petraeus and Secretary Gates denounced the Qu’ran-burning loons in Florida, they weren’t just speaking as PC commanders at the top. They were speaking out of the experience of American warfighters who have learned in the last nine years that at the end of the day the Muslim majority isn’t our enemy in the war on terror. That majority is our best and our most important ally in winning it.
Over and over in Iraq, American soldiers turned near-defeat into victory as they built relationships with Arab Muslims. American commanders staked the lives of the men under their command on the word of the sheikhs, the tribal elders, the village notables — and that word proved true. They gave good information, provided honest help, and thanks to their wisdom, their courage and their integrity Al-Qaeda in Iraq was pushed back.
This means many things, but here’s one of the most important. For the next generation, the American military is going to be led by people whose formative experience was the establishment of relations of trust and respect with angry, frustrated and suspicious Muslims under combat conditions in the Middle East. The American military knows deep in its guts that working with Muslims is the key to beating the bad guys.
Islam and America have both changed since 9/11. Some of the changes are for the better, some for the worse, and with others it is too soon to tell. The consequences flowing from that terrible morning nine years ago are still unfolding, and the world we thought we knew has gone.
But the principal goal of Al-Qaeda was clear. It wanted to establish its leadership of the Islamic world while launching a clash between Islam and the west. In this it has signally failed. Even in a time of violence and tension, Al-Qaeda is hated and scorned by growing majorities of the world’s Muslims. And in some of the world’s toughest hot spots, on the battlefields of Iraq, in the flooded farmlands of Pakistan, Muslims, Christians and people of all faiths and no faith are working together on common projects for the common good.
Al-Qaeda is failing not just because Americans have decided to fight it. Al-Qaeda is failing because the world’s Muslims are rejecting it.
Nobody knows what the future holds and whether new and terrible attacks like 9/11 or even worse may lie before us. But if Islam continues to rally against terror, there are sharp limits on how much havoc the bad guys can wreak.
It would be deeply satisfying if the final result of 9/11 was a new and richer understanding of Islam in America and of America in Islam. Nine years after the attack, I am more hopeful than ever that this is the course we are on.
“It would be deeply satisfying if the final result of 9/11 was a new and richer understanding of Islam in America and of America in Islam.”
Especially if it reflected a new and richer understanding of Islam throughout the Islamic world itself!
The problem, Professor Mead, is that the pathology in the Muslim world is not limited to Al Qaeda. Yes its gratifying that Al Qaeda is increasingly unpopular in the Muslim world and is failing to meet its objectives. But organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and its many branches and off-shoots are almost as dangerous as Al Qaeda and far more insidious, The temptation of American politicians and opinion leaders to look at organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and conclude that they’re “moderate” because they are not quite as violent or uncivilized as Al Qaeda is particularly unfortunate.
Militant Islam comes in more “flavors” than just Al Qaeda. The form of militant Islam practiced by the Muslim Brotherhood is not collapsing like Al Qaeda is, its thriving. Unfortunately, it’s helped along by American intellectual elites on the left who have concluded that truly dangerous figures like Tariq Ramadan should be lionized while heroic figures like Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be excoriated.
An excellent book on the subject is Flight of the Intellectuals by Paul Berman. An interesting interview with Mr. Berman can be found here,
http://www.michaeltotten.com/2010/05/the-flight-of-the-intellectuals.php
A lot of fanciful nonsense.
There may be moderate muslims but a moderate islam is an impossibility. What did you expect from the followers of a “religion” started by an illiterate, mass-murdering pedophile?
The west has been engaged in a war with islam, practically since its inception. This is merely the latest battle in that war.
Hoping otherwise is naive and dangerous.
Whistling past the grave yard.
Must have been Mormons who set off that bomb in Copenhagen.
I understand Islam just fine. It is my enemy.
It’s nice that you concentrated on Al Qaeda, Mr. Mead, but let us not forget about the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Shahab, Hezbollah, Hamas, and this certain Persian country that stated it wants to wipe Israel off the map. You are more of an optimist than I: what I see is a steady capitulation of western civilization to the demands of Islam. I hope you’re right, because if you’re wrong we are all in trouble.
[...] Walter Russell Mead: …The greatest victory we have won in this war came on one of its most questionable [...]
I followed this conflict daily for the last 9 years and I have not read a better or more telling appreciation of what happened in Iraq. As I watch electorates reject 20th century solutions from both sides of politics in the UK, Australia and very probably in the US, I remind myself that General Petraeus and all those who assisted him in Iraq not only grasped a 21st century problem but actually solved it against all odds. It important to recognize what we got right in Iraq, regardless of what happens in Afghanistan, as we continue to learn as WigWag points out above that the problem is deeper and more difficult than just al Qaeda.
“Al-Qaeda is failing not just because Americans have decided to fight it. Al-Qaeda is failing because the world’s Muslims are rejecting it.”
You have it exactly backwards. Muslims are rejecting it because Americans are fighting it. Let us go into your pacifist, appeasement mode and watch how fast those “moderates” desert to the other side.
I hope you are correct, as the alternative looks to be some kind of Armageddon.
Thanks for the inspirational and hope filled message.
I understand Islam just fine. I will not submit!
[...] in that clash the Americans and true Muslims are on the same side.” –Walter Russell Mead, 9-11, Islam and War [via Instapundit] That’s what America is: a never-ending battle against the [...]
Judging from the comments on this post, I believe that many Americans do not trust Muslims and do not share the perspective that we are allied with moderate Muslims in a desperate struggle. I believe that this outlook is not helped by Mr. Obama’s unwillingness to acknowledge that Iraq was both a disaster and an accomplishment. This is not unusual in the course of history. Churchill entitled the concluding volume of his war memoirs, “Triumph and Tragedy.” Obama’s compulsive Bush bashing is counterproductive and cannot replace creative thinking and real leadership.
Left out of this narrative is how, “[...] in the spring of 2007, in a huge policy shift, General Petraeus began putting the Sunni insurgency on the payroll–essentially paying them not to attack us.” (according to Amazon’s interview of Thomas E. Ricks for his book The Gamble). How much of this success was due to a well founded dislike of Al-Qaeda plus minor details like shifting our tactics to the tried and true priority of protecting the people and how much to cold, hard cash is something we’re only going to find out in due course as the latter two end.
Disagreement over foreign policy–code words for “They hate Israel and we had better start hating Israel, too, if we know what’s good for us.”
Recently the Wall Street Journal had a symposium on moderate Islam. All six experts had interesting things to say, but I think last, Mr. Akbar Ahmed, the former Pakistani ambassador to Great Britain had the most interesting insight. He suggested that Islam can be divided into three broad streams. The mystics treat the Koran as just one approach to enlightenment and do not treat Muhammed and the script of the Koran was the final word. Sufi’s are an example of this mode. The national/modernists regard Islam as perfectly compatible with modernity. In practice this meant a selective emphasis on texts, and it served as the recruiting ground for most major leaders in Muslim societies from the 19th century through the immediate post-colonial period. However, Mr. Ahmed believes that these leaders have lost legitimacy given the absence of obvious success in establishing successful prosperous nations based on more than petro-dollars. Finally, there are the literalists. They aspire to Sharia and regard the Koran as the word of Allah, “bloody bits” an all. Rather than selective interpretation of the Koran they want all the verses enforced.
I think Al Qaeda is a small subset of the literalist school of interpretation. Furthermore, the US can live in a world with literalist Muslim states. There’s nothing that mandates offensive wars of religion without assurance of victory. However, fundamental US civil liberties, freedom of conscience, no established state religion, freedom of speech, etc., represent plain blasphemy for literalists. To paraphrase Franklin, We are infidels and entitled to our benightedness if we can keep it.
Mystic Islam poses no threat. National/modernist Islam would be unlikely to threaten the West (this was the Egypt of 40 years ago where women routinely wore western dress). At the risk of sounding simplistic, a literalist Islam would pose no threat to powerful, self-confident West. Peace through self-confident strength wouldn’t plead with Islam for understanding but would tell the Muslim world that American civil liberties are not curtailed at the say-so of this or that Imam or Koranic verse. Get over it or riot and burn your own cities as you please. Prudent heads would quiet the Islamic street soon enough.
Al Qaeda is failing because every time one of those flea-bitten mutts puts on the grand poobah hat, we send his [inelegant referent deleted -- ed] to the after life.
Thing is, al-Qaeda is a tip of the iceberg. It is quite easy for an average Muslim to reject the appeal of a bunch of nitwits on the run, lead by a crazed madman in a cave, who mostly kill not infidels but other Muslims. It is a very different thing for the same Muslim to reject, say, Hamas or Hezbollah or Iran (or Protocols of Zion’s Elders, very popular reading in Arab world). Now we see Turkey moving in the same direction, about Pakistan you’ve said enough. Our goal should not be “burn the Koran”; what we should aim for is to get Arabs to burn it themselves. Otherwise, this war will go on forever.
It is fascinating to see how Israelis align their own goals with Americans whereas the fact is the opposite. Israel shoves its goals down the throats of Americans. Right now I see now the “war on terror” but on certain fronts a “war for Israeli interests” being waged.
Either you people don’t know enough about Islam or have just drunk the cool aid being offered to you by the media. Get real people these are the same people who have fought by the side of the USA for decades and have provided it support in all of its endeavors. now all of a sudden you think they are mad dogs and need to be exterminated? Start thinking with the brain God gave you and get your heads out of the murk created by the media.
To Ron Hyder
What are “Israel’s goals”, pray? Kill all Muslims? What are “Israel’s interests”? And do elaborate on the “these are the same people who have fought by the side of the USA for decades” thing.
What would Mead say?
Mosque Notes
Washington Diarist
Leon Wieseltier
September 2, 2010 | 12:00 am
94 comments
Collective responsibility. One of the most accomplished Jewish terrorists of our time, Baruch Goldstein, came from the Jewish universe in which I was raised. When he committed his crime, there were a few former and present citizens of that universe, a revered rabbi of mine among them, who demanded a stringent communal introspection; but the critics were denounced as slanderers who tarred all of religious Zionism, or all of “Modern Orthodox” Judaism, or all of Judaism, with the same treasonous brush. The killer, we were angrily instructed, was an aberration, and any generalization from his action was an unwarranted imputation of collective responsibility. I disagreed. Baruch Goldstein murdered in the name of Judaism, with an interpretation of Judaism, from a social and intellectual position within Judaism. The same was later true of Yigal Amir. They did not represent the entirety of Judaism, or of the Jewish institutions that formed them—but the massacre in Hebron and the assassination in Tel Aviv were among their effects. If the standpoint of broadly collective responsibility was the wrong way to explain the atrocities, so too was the standpoint of purely individual responsibility. There were currents of culture behind the killers. Their ideas were not only their own. I am reminded of those complications when I hear that Islam is a religion of peace. I have no quarrel with the construction of Cordoba House, but not because Islam is a religion of peace. It is not. Like Christianity and like Judaism, Islam is a religion of peace and a religion of war. All the religions have all the tendencies within them, and in varying historical circumstances varying beliefs and practices have come to the fore. It is absurd to describe the perpetrators of September 11 as “murderers calling themselves Muslims,” as Karen Hughes recently did. They did not call themselves Muslims. They were Muslims. America was not attacked by Islam, but it was also not attacked by Jainism. Mohammed Atta and his band (as well as the growing number of “homegrown” Islamist killers and plotters) represent a real and burgeoning development within Islam, an actualization of one of Islam’s possibilities, an indigenous transnational movement of apocalyptic violence that has brought misery to Muslim societies, and to us. It is not Islamophobic to say so. Quite the contrary: it is to side with Muslims who are struggling against the same poison as we are. Apologetic definitions of Islam will not avail anybody in this struggle.
“The American military knows deep in its guts that working with Muslims is the key to beating the bad guys.”
This is somewhat true only as long as the U.S. 1) is involved in the folly of nation building and 2) continues to abide in the self-imposed constraints of political correctness.
If [when?] the Jacksonians come to power, both these premises vanish, the gloves will come off, and the Muslim threat to the West will disappear quite quickly …. and I dare say, this is exacty what our effeminate elite fear.
One of the things that has made racism simply unacceptable was the successful branding of ALL white people as racists. Even a hint of racist sentiments (well, when expressed by anyone except blacks and Democrats) arouses universal condemnation.
It is time the same standard is applied to all Muslims….If you aren’t fighting against Islamic violence, you are helping it.
[...] Russell Mead: 9/11, Islam and War: Nine years later, we are still living in the world that introduced itself on that grim and [...]
Afghans, Iranians, Turks and Pakistanis are not Arabs. Islam declared war on the rest of the world over 1300 years ago. They are capable of stealth but the goals have never changed.
Like it or not know it or not Islam is at war with us.
The Cross of St George or the Crescent Moon one must fall.
first i disagree with the author that alqaeda is unpopular in Muslim world.here in Pakistan what Al-qaeda did is astonishing.muslims may be weak,may not defend themselves,may not repel invaders but we are sure that the reverse momentum will occur.
I also agree with Adobe Walls that one must go either Crescent or Cross.
[inane and foolish anti-Semitic remark deleted: ed. This particular commentator seems desperately eager to lend credence to certain western stereotypes about the bigotry and ignorance of Muslims. Fortunately there are too many Muslims who are more thoughtful and wise, so hopefully he will not bring Islam into too much undeserved disrepute.-- ed]
Islam isnt a terrorist religion. just like every part of the world, there are good and bad people. saddam hussain was a BAD person. prophet mohammed was a GOOD person. and, besides, Islam is the only religion sent from god that havent been distorted. the Bibel have been distorted. the jews book have been distorted. and besides, americans have attacked Palestine for over 60 years just to take Palestine for jews. In the history of islam, they’ve only attacked 1 time in 2001.
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