Fairly Conservative

Jihad.

Getting even.

The concept has been around for a long time. The post title above is from Psalm 55 (New International Version.)

Why are we so surprised when this ancient emotion stays in play?

I haven’t written anything on the Christmas Day terrorist attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. It’s not like this war between us and them is new.

Make no mistake. It is war. The struggle deserves war-time tactics, including profiling.

The best commentary I’ve read in a week comes from Ann Coulter. I never read Ms. Coulter, but her column popped up on another blog (maybe Ol’ Broad?) and this logic stuck with me:

The “warning signs” exhibited by this particular passenger included the following:

His name was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

He’s Nigerian.

He’s a Muslim.

His name was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

He boarded a plane in Lagos, Nigeria.

He paid nearly $3,000 in cash for his ticket.

He had no luggage.

His name was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Two months ago, his father warned the U.S. that he was a radical Muslim and possibly dangerous.

Here’s the problem as I see it: We no longer understand as an American society what it means to wage war. We have developed a generation who prefers to send mercenaries – kindly described as a volunteer army – to do our dirty work. We lack the ability to sacrifice. We struggle with the concept of enemies.

We are, in short, wimps. Wimps that won’t profile. Wimps that won’t label an enemy as someone who wants us dead. Wimpy wimpy whiny fools who want someone else to handle the dirty work so we can manage our fantasy football teams.

It will kill us.

Our grandfathers knew the enemy looked just like us but were the enemy nonetheless. They acted accordingly. Our grandmothers fed families on rations and tended gardens. They didn’t wait for someone to hand them a frozen Lean Cuisine and a microwave. Our soldiers knew it could be they called up at any time. There was no volunteering; only duty. A duty fulfilled that made each one of us vulnerable as the family of a dead serviceman.

Now we hold the whole terrible thing at arm’s distance and say that hasn’t happened to me. Back then it could have been any one of us.

America, it’s time to figure this one out. Label the Muslim extremist problem a war, or die from the consequences of your weak thinking. I truly believe it’s that lack of a buy-in that’s costing us. If Congress were to do something drastic like reinstate a draft, I think this war would be labeled properly and then solved through war-time measures. The discourse would finally be tangible to millions of Americans. Putting everyone at risk might force a solution to appear.

Of course, the same leadership could do something really easy instead, like profiling, and get good results.

Here’s my final argument: If a few American Christians were running the same kind of kill-at-all-cost game as the Muslim extremists, the rest of the world would have put us in a hole a long time ago. Oh, sure, there are good Christians, but if they weren’t part of the solution, they’d be considered part of the problem and isolated accordingly. I’m thinking it’s time to use that tactic. A little peer pressure could work wonders. If WWII was a Christian problem, maybe this current war is a Muslim one.

Someone wants you dead. Shouldn’t that matter to you?