Last week as I watched the testimony of General Petraeus and the subsequent media coverage of the Senate Committee Hearings, I recalled the last sermon given by Martin Luther King before his assassination 40 years ago.  The sermon was entitled “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution”.  In this sermon, King talked about Rip Van Winkle:

 

“The most striking thing about the story of Rip Van Winkle is not merely that Rip slept twenty years, but that he slept through a revolution.  While he was peacefully snoring up in the mountain a revolution was taking place that at points would change the course of history- and Rip knew noting about it.  He was asleep. Yes, he slept through a revolution.  And one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands.  They end up sleeping though a revolution.” ¹       

 

The story of Rip Van Winkle has great relevance in our day; there are lessons to be learned from his story.  Like Mr. Van Winkle, America and most of Western civilization had peacefully slept while what has been called “the last great Revolution of the Modern Era” ² (the Islamic Revolution) was unfolding and gaining strength. Like Rip, we were able to sleep nearly 20 years before the alarm went off on the morning of September 11, 2001, a generation after the Islamic Revolution introduced its new political ideology to the world’s modern political spectrum.   However, unlike Rip, our peaceful sleep was interrupted by the continuing revolution that had now touched “our safe mountain” and the frightening reality to which we awoke seemed more like a nightmare.  On that day in history and during the weeks that followed, a sobering hush fell over our land; there was a tangible sense of “knowing” in the atmosphere of our nation. No one needed to say it; we were all keenly aware that a new day was upon us and that we were now engaged in a battle for the soul of our nation.  For that moment, differences were cast aside.  With all the confusion and unanswered questions, there was one thing that we were certain of–we were certain that throughout the diverse fabric of our nation our allegiance to freedom and democracy was our unifying thread.  So with a determined spirit we grabbed hold of that thread with one hand and grabbed hold of each other with the other.  And then we stood.  We stood with a resolution and unity that seemed unshakable. 

 

Today, a little more than six years after that fateful day, we need to ask “where are we?”  We have awakened to an Islamic Revolution that is far past its infancy, a revolution that is having a ripple effect throughout modern civilization.  Yet somehow this reality continues to elude us.  We have managed to cling to a Western mindset with a tenacious hold that keeps old paradigms in place. Mindsets, attitudes and mental responses that afforded us the comforts of sleep in the last generation, are now dangerously inadequate to deal with our current situation.

It is certain that we would be wiser and fare better if we, like Mr. Van Winkle, were able to comprehend these “strange events” before we “take our seats at the Inn” and assume the position of the “reverenced patriarch”.  As Americans who enjoy the liberties self-government, let us not forget the accompanying responsibility.  During difficult and confusing times it is much easier to revert back to the security of familiarity, doing what we know best, facing problems in ways that worked in the past.  Yet we do this to only find that the problems are not going away. In fact, they seem to be getting more complicated and difficult.  If we continue to cling to past paradigms, we soon find ourselves frustrated and resorting to infighting and blame shifting.  I am not suggesting that this is intentional or mean spirited.  I am suggesting that this is the result of a population who has not developed a new paradigm to deal with the global reality and have simplified problems in a way that gives us an illusion of control.  

As I observed the reactions to the testimony of General Petraeus, I realized that the increasing partisan divide has reached detrimental levels in our nation.  While partisan politics are a necessary and healthy dynamic in democratic governments, I believe that the heightened partisan tension that we are currently witnessing has served to erode some of societies stabilizing institutions and has left us searching for truth amidst the fog of partisan politics.  These consequences are particularly disturbing in an hour where stability on the home front is critical. 

 

Under the increased partisan divide, we engage in an internal battle where we begin to see every issue as an opportunity for political gain, an opportunity to criticize and accuse the opposing party as being either ignorant or self-serving.  Under this fog, American citizens suffer as information is tainted, media misconceptions are the norm and unbiased truth is hard to ascertain. Under the fog of partisan politics, we have unconsciously learned to approach information through a lens of suspicion—no longer able to see the testimony of our officials as honest or credible.  Instead, we discount the assessment of authorities like General Petreus and Ambassador Crocker as ignorant, misinformed or an exercise in political manipulation. Critical events such as the war in Iraq, and the War on Terror now become “partisan causes” where each side seems more determined to justify “their side” of action or inaction, rather than explore the reality of the current situation. The effects of the partisan divide?  We focus our attention, energy and resources on factional infighting, while a divided America is anesthetized to the real external threat that we are now ill-equipped to deal with.

 

 In his article, “The War We Deserve” Alasdair Roberts addresses the phenomena of partisan politics by describing what he calls a “disturbing narrative”:

 

“There is an uncomplicated tale many Americans like to tell themselves about recent U.S. foreign policy.  As the story has it , the nation was led astray by a powerful clique of political appointees and their fellow travelers in Washington thing thanks , who were determined even before the 9/11 attacks to effect a radical shift in America’s role in the world. The members of this cabal are known as neoconservatives.  They believed the world was a dangerous place, that American power should be applied firmly to protect American interests, and that, for too ling, U.S. policy had consisted of diplomatic excess and mincing half measures.  After 9/11, this group gave us the ill-conceived Global War on Terror and its bloody centerpiece, the war in Iraq” ³  

 

In this article, Roberts called this mindset an “unrealistic, even deadly, way to fight a global war” saying that it is “easy to blame the violence in Iraq and pitfalls of the war on terror on a small cabal of neocons, a bumbling president, and an overstretched military.  But real fault lies with the American people as well.  Americans now ask more of their government but sacrifice less than every before.” ³ Robert’s is addressing the partisan politics and blame shifting that is symptomatic of a society who has not developed the mindsets needed to adapt to today’s global threat.

 

The unifying thread of allegiance to freedom and democracy woven throughout the diverse fabric of our nation is our heritage. It is what came to the surface and sustained us in the days following September 11^th. That thread still unites us, yet at times like this the unifying thread is difficult to see.  However, examined more closely, we will see that the partisan tension is not the result of a people who are disinterested in the destiny of our nation. Rather, it is evidences of a passionate population that is desperately trying to do what is best to preserve our nation amidst the challenges of our day. After all, none of us (Democrat or Republican) like conflict, violence, war, death, destruction, discomfort or injustice. 

 

The core problem, as I see it, is that we are in the midst of a radical global shift and as a nation we are struggling to adapt an appropriate paradigm that will enable us to accurately process the ‘strange events” of our day.  The sobering events of 9/11 thrust us into a day that we were completely unprepared to deal with. To the credit of America, we put our best foot forward and stood together in an unprecedented way. As the emotions of our nation healed, we moved forward with one of our greatest challenges–quickly adapting to the revolution that had matured for over a generation.  Normally paradigms evolve over time, so a national paradigm shift is a difficult feat.  It requires us to let go of ideas, attitudes and thought processes that we have become quite comfortable with and have grown accustom to.  As Americans, we are inherently idealistic and the grave threats that we face today are not easy to look at. We also look at problems with a Western mindset and insist that world events operate according to these constructs.  We believe that inherently people are motivated by the same things that motivate us…freedom, liberty, prosperity, etc. When we look at the global situation we tend to do so with Western thinking that continues to causes the threat of Islamism to elude us.

 

What are some of the key paradigm shifts that I believe we must make in this hour? First, we must recognize that our old paradigms are no longer adequate to deal with the current situation that we find ourselves in. We must recognize that we are in the midst of Global Islamic Revolution that emerged on the world seen in the 1970’s and seeks to influence every corner of the earth.  The radical ideology of Islamism is anti-Israel, anti-U.S. and anti-Western civilization. This revolution has many international fronts (I will explore this is future articles). While most informed people recognize the growing threat of Radical Islam, many people in the West do not understand the nature and tenacity of this ideology that has allowed it to infiltrate society, largely unchecked (and at times aided)by the international community.  If we are going to effectively understand the global threat of Islamism, we must begin to develop mindsets that understand its ideology, history, and its intent.

 

Second, we must recognize that we are in a war that threatens Western civilization. If we do not understand that radical Islam is both an ideology and a political force that has declared war on Western civilization, we tend to isolate current assessments of Iraq apart from its global context. We may even buy into the esoteric illusion of peace that ignores the practical realities necessary to secure and sustain it.  If we are going to survive as a nation and adequately respond to this threat, we must begin to adapt a mindset for war.  Not just a physical war, but also an ideological war. We must recognize that this is not a war that we contrived after 9/11, but one which American’s were thrust into on that date. The war on terror is not Bush’s war, but all of ours who value the life and the liberties that democracy has afforded us. 9/11 was the wake up call given to our nation by a network of terrorist who had reached global maturation and had succeeded in setting up networks on our own soil.  It is beyond the scope of this article to address the modern thrust of the Islamism (this will be addressed this in future articles).  However, one must understand that that Islamism is a religious oriented nationalism that emerged in the Third World in the 1970’s.  Adherents to this ideology have declared war on the West and their words have not proved to be idle or vain.  Whether we like it or not, or believe in it our not, we as Americans are engaged in a very real over-arching war with Islamism. If we are going to face this war, we must begin to accept the reality of this war.

 

Today, like Mr. Van Winkle, we have awakened to an unfamiliar world, a world in the midst of a global revolution. We have been charged with a daunting feat that requires our nation to adjust our mindsets, attitudes and mental reactions. As our nation is undergoing a radical paradigm shift, we would be wise to be devoted students of truth as we acclimate ourselves to the global realities to which we have awaken. “Right in the Middle” was created to inform readers about the critical global realities occurring in the Middle East that affect every one of us. In future articles we will explore the threat of Islamism–Its origin, history and global aspirations. Like Mr. Van Winkle, we must acclimate to current realities.

 

I began this article by talking about General Petraeus’ assessment of Iraq.  Next week, I will discuss the process “Lebanonization” that General Petraeus mentioned.  I believe that it is important for us to hear what is being said. Is Iran making vain threats, or do they have the ability and intent to make good on these threats? We will examine Lebanon’s fall from a thriving democracy to a breeding ground for terrorism.

 

1. “Remaining Awake through a Great revolution” http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/680331.000_Remaining_Awake.html

2. The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran, by Robin Wright 2000 Random House, NY

3. Foreign Policy, Washington, DC: “The War We Deserve” by Alasdair Roberts (November/ December 2007 ) www.foreignPolicy.com