Christopher Hitchens on the War on Civilization

He writes:

We know very well what the "grievances" of the jihadists are.

The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way....

It is a big mistake to believe this is an assault on "our" values or "our" way of life. It is, rather, an assault on all civilisation. I know perfectly well there are people thinking, and even saying, that Tony Blair brought this upon us by his alliance with George Bush.

....

Don't even try to connect the two. By George Galloway's logic, British squaddies in Iraq are the root cause of dead bodies at home. How can anyone bear to be so wicked and stupid? How can anyone bear to act as a megaphone for psychotic killers?

Read it here.

Hitch is right. This is not a clash of civilizations -- it is a war on civilization; a war we cannot lose. Unfortunately there are many on the left, both in Britain and America (not to speak of Europe), who are just wicked and stupid enough to function as such. In their warped and diseased imaginations America looms as a greater threat to the world than the Jihadis.

There is no hope for such as these. We can only pity them and refuse to take seriously their inane mouthings.

The response to radical Islamism is the great moral question of our time, just as the response to racism was that of an earlier generation. It defines us and our worth as human beings. And in this crisis the response of the left has been disastrously wanting.

Faugh!