A Battle of Hearts and Minds

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“Words matter in this situation because one of the ways we’re going to win this struggle is through the battle of hearts and minds,” President Barack Obama told Anderson Cooper of CNN in a recent interview.

Well, maybe the President has something there, though it wouldn’t have been what Harry Truman would have told Molotov or Abe Lincoln would have said to Jeff Davis and President Obama, whether he will admit it or not, was speaking as much to our enemies as he was to the American people. Words do matter. They did then; they do now.

There was no “fighting it out on this line if it takes all summer” in this interview. There was none of that “you’re either with us or against us” stuff either. This will be a battle of the hearts and minds. The President is drawing down. Give Sergeant York a discharge; send that Murphy kid back to his farm in Texas. We will beguile them, mesmerize them; make ourselves so lovable they will be unable to resist our charms.

No sense in charging up San Juan Hill. They are just like us. They have the same hopes, dreams and aspirations. They put their boots on the same way we do—one at a time. They pray to the same God we do. They call him Allah. Does it matter what we call God? God is God. Allah will do. Some few of them, a handful of extremists, believe that if we don’t pray to their version of God, we will suffer a painful doom, we will have boiling water poured down our throats or some other ridiculous thing as if we were contestants in some reality show with four big-breasted blondes and three studs named Kevin. Now who on earth would believe that? Maybe Osama bin Laden and Muqtada al-Sadr…maybe Omar Bakri Mohammed and Ali Khamenei…maybe those few Muslims who have read the Qur’an from end to end and accept it as the unquestioned word of Allah as told to the Prophet Mohammed.

But boiling water…and a painful doom—surely, they jest; but, alas, there it is in the Qur’an in black and white like a footnote out of Mein Kampf.

Qur’an 22:19 “ Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers. Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. They shall be lashed with rods of iron. Whenever, in their anguish, they try to escape from Hell, back they shall be dragged, and will be told: ‘Taste the torment of the Conflagration!’”

Well, sure, but it can’t be more than a very small percentage of Muslims who believe that nonsense. Somebody should take a poll. Yet the President says words matter and one of the ways this war is going to be won is through a battle of the hearts and minds. Does the President have a Plan B?

Obviously the enemy, that tiny handful of Muslim terrorists that fill the ranks of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hizballah, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Abu Sayyaf, Ansar al-Islam, Jemma Islamiyah, Laskar Jihad…the list goes on and on…are hardcore incorrigibles. Being universally despised by other Muslims does not seem to bother them. In places they are as numerous as fleas in a philosopher’s beard. They spring up like hydra in Pakistan and Somalia and words have no effect on them. Is there a Plan C?

“But…those organizations aren’t representative of a broader Arab community, Muslim community,” says the President.

Well, if they are not representative of the Muslim community why hasn’t the Muslim community tossed them out on their butts…excommunicated them…exiled them…negatively extended them? They’ve had 1,400 years to get rid of them. They should have made some headway by now. They could have passed a resolution or something. Surely, Daniel Pearl was an aberration…9/11 a horrendous mistake.

What does the Qur’an say about Pearl and 9/11, about the treatment of unbelievers, about water boarding, about beheading? It can’t all be fire and brimstone.

Let’s see.

Qur’an 9:29 “Fight those who do not profess the true faith (Islam) till they pay the jizya (poll tax) with the hand of humility.”

Qur’an 8:12 “I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers.”

Qur’an 9:73 “Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate.”

Not much in the way of a struggle of hearts and minds. Conversion…slavery…death! That’s it. What kind of life would that be for Bill Maher and Rosie O’Donnell?

Perhaps Hell lies in the eye of the beholder. Allah is compassionate. Allah is forgiving. Allah is merciful. Allah is just. Would Ibrahim Hooper and Muqtada al-Sadr believe in an Allah that was not compassionate, forgiving, merciful and just? Of course not! Certainly there is hope for Maher and O’Donnell.

Alas, no

Qur’an 21:96 “The unbelievers shall stare in amazement, crying: ‘Woe to us! Of this we have been heedless. We have done wrong!’ You and your idols shall be the fuel of Hell; therein you shall all go down.”

Qur’an 44:40 “ The fruit of the Zaqqum tree shall be the unbelievers’ fruit. Like dregs of oil, like scalding water, it shall simmer in his belly.”

Qur’an 69:30 “We shall say: ‘Lay hold of him and bind him. Burn him in the fire of Hell, then fasten him with a chain seventy cubits long…”

“Seventy cubits…humbled to dust…heirs to Hell”

Maher and O’Donnell had better pack their asbestos underwear. They will need it where they are going.

Should we be afraid? No, not necessarily, the President has a plan. Yes, the President has a plan. “What I want to do,” he told Anderson Cooper, “is make sure that I’m constantly talking about al-Qaeda and other affiliated organizations because we, I believe, can win over moderate Muslims to recognize that that kind of destruction and nihilism ultimately leads to a dead end, and that we should be working together to make sure that everybody has got a better life.”

Moderate Muslims…working together…a better life! By Jove, he has hit on it! But isn’t that what George W. Bush has been doing the past seven years—working with moderate Muslims, with CAIR (Council on American-Muslim Relations), with MPAC (Muslim Public Affairs Committee), with ISNA (Islamic Society of North America), and except for a few prayer breakfasts he hasn’t accomplished much. Ugly demonstrations in Florida and New York, strikes at the JBS Swift Company, hatred preached in mosques, Islam taught in public schools as literature—that’s been it. It would be easier to fill the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and the Tangerine Bowl with the supporters of al-Qaeda than to fill the Oval Office with moderate Muslims willing to whole-heartedly support America in its War on Terrorism. It won’t be easy.

Seeing as the Democrats believe Bush did everything wrong, they will start over again. They have a lot of carrots, a few sticks. They will trust the same moderate Muslims that have proven false. They have yet to come to grips with the results of the Iraq War.

Abe Lincoln failed to win the hearts and minds of Bobby Lee and Stonewall Jackson and Barack Obama will fail to win the hearts and minds of Ibrahim Hooper and Siraj Wahhaj and unless he is willing to make some stunning concessions he will not win the hearts and minds of Robert Edgar and John Esposito.

Lock the door and bring in the dogs.