Everywhere, however, the tide has turned against them. Hundreds of terrorists have been killed or captured in those three countries in the past five years and many more put through re-education schemes to shed their fanatical view of faith and life in general.
And, despite numerous attempts, the Islamofascists have failed to produce another spectacular coup. Though tragic, the attacks on the transport networks in Madrid and London resembled poor remakes of 9/11, underlining al Qaeda's desperation rather than its ability to pursue its dream of global conquest. The fact that the Islamofascists have not succeeded in organizing a new raid against the United States in the past five years is a testimony both to American vigilance and the historic decline of al Qaeda-style terrorism.
FIVE years after 9/11, the United States looks less like the "House of the Spider" and more like a citadel of steel. And that is a result of the most important victory that free peoples have won against Islamofascism so far: the realization at the grassroots level of the danger that the modern world faces.
Despite efforts by postmodernists, multiculturalists and apologists of terror to explain (and explain away) Islamofascism, the overwhelming majority of free peoples, especially in the United States, realize that they are engaged in an existential struggle against an enemy that can and must be defeated both on the battleground and in the field of ideas.
The world is witnessing a new type of war in which none of the traditional causes of conflict such as territory, borders, natural resources and markets are the prize. The prize in this war is human freedom. And this is why, no matter how long this conflict takes, the enemies of freedom cannot win.
I think this piece by Amir Taheri is quite profound (read it all) and hopeful. It underscores what I have been thinking for quite some time: that there is no way human progress can be halted forever; humans will slowly--perhaps ineptly-- but surely move toward a state of increasing liberty; and, as Taheri says, there is no way that the enemies of freedom can ultimately win.
Because freedom is an unstoppable force and it is all around us. The human spirit may be vanquished temporarily; it may falter from time to time; but in the end, the desire for freedom will lead humans in the right direction.
Just as the air we breath keeps our bodies alive; so does freedom keep our souls alight.
It is possible that this is mere wishful thinking on my part, but as I look at the long march of human history, it has always been the forces of freedom that have pulled man forward, time after time.
The forces of oppression and slavery; and all those who seek to enslave the human spirit--no matter how carefully they disguise their agenda under utopian fantasies--will always end up in the dustbin of human history.
In this century, it will be no different.
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