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Following the new terrorist bomb scares in Britain and Germany, the question America and the West should ask is not “Why do they hate us?� Rather, it is “Are we being tricked into helping radical Islamists dominate all of Sunni and Shiite Islam?�
In its original essence, Islam of any stripe is undoubtedly a religion of peace and goodwill in submission to God. In this sense, Islam is no different from other religions.
However, radical Islam is different. The leaders and soldiers of Al Qaeda, various Jihadis, Hezbollah and Hamas are determined to establish the reign of their particular version of Islam, using the Trojan Horses of nationalism. They have no secular esteem for other Muslims or the nearly five billion people of other faiths.
As fighters, Hezbollah and Hamas should be dealt with separately from the terrorists of Al Qaeda and other Jihadis, but as religious entities they reflect radical Islam.
Hezbollah expresses Shiite radical Islam underpinned by Iran. The future nightmare could be a global Shiite terrorism network secretly run by Iran to fight America, Israel and Britain as does the Sunni Al Qaeda.
Their recruiting grounds would be youth raised in the West and unaware of how the radical Islamists are using their spiritual thirst to amass political power and wealth to dominate far away Muslim countries.
Global Shiite terrorism could emerge if Iran is humiliated by the US, UN and Europe over its nuclear technology and other ambitions. The Lebanon war and the new strife in south Iraq signal its ability to make trouble.
In the worst scenario, Iran could block sea-lanes in the Gulf disrupting the supply lines of over 130,000 American soldiers trapped 400 miles inland. The US will undoubtedly win in the end but defeating 100 million Iraqis and Iranians without robust supply lines will cost much American blood and treasure. This is a war for which almost none of its allies has appetite.
After such an expensive victory, could the US still deter China 20 years ahead and perhaps a nationalist Russia?
In the least bad scenario, the Shiite versus Sunni sectarian war in Iraq could turn into a confrontation between Shiites led by Iran and Sunnis led by Saudi Arabia. Terrorists from both Shiite and Sunni Islamic radicals would then target the West.
Would America stick with the Saudis at the risk of creating a theocratic Shiite enclave in Iraq? Would China and Russia quietly back Iran to weaken America’s position in the region? Would vital allies including Pakistan, India, Turkey and the Gulf Emirates, which have large Sunni and Shia populations, be destabilized by homeland security challenges?
The recent bomb scares and events in Lebanon and Iraq suggest that radical Islamists are trying to provoke or ensnare Israel and America into more wars. They know they cannot defeat the West but they hope an angry Muslim street would then fall into their laps.
To goad Washington into attacking Iran or Syria would be a triumph for radical Islamists because most Muslims would see that as proof of an American crusade against Islam. Moderate Islam would no longer be able to resist a take over by the radicals.
To this end, the radical Islamists are trying to make peace impossible in the Middle East. They are also trying to make any kind of proper governance impossible in Lebanon and Gaza. They need to own a failed State to camouflage the fact that each day they provoke more Muslim deaths than do Israelis and Americans.
Hezbollah could turn to global terrorism if, under pressure from the West, the Maronite and Sunni elites try to neutralize it as a power inside Lebanon. That is an added reason for the United Nations and the West to proceed with extreme caution in Lebanon.
This not just a matter of helping Israel to survive by carpet-bombing its intractable enemies as some shortsighted hot heads suggest. It is a winding path fraught with catastrophic possibilities for humankind.
Violent radical Islamists are a global political challenge that requires more skilled handling than a military sledgehammer and rhetoric, tepidly accompanied by tiny carrots.