Ummah

The war in Afghanistan isn’t a regional or tribal conflict, it isn’t a war on “terrorism,” it isn’t a war on narco-warlords (even though 90% of the worlds illicit opium originates there); it is a war between the values of Islam and the values of the Western Enlightenment, and if you refuse to understand it and fight it on those terms the war in Afghanistan will never be over and certainly never be won.

The Taliban in Afghanistan and ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and its offshoots elsewhere around the world, do not desire any kind of “peace” except the peace of the Ummah – the peace of the worldwide reign of Islam.

“I think the Afghan war is long past its mission. I think we killed and captured and disrupted the people who attacked us on 9/11 long ago. And I think now it's a nation building exercise... I think after 15 years and a trillion dollars that it's time for them to take over their country.” Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)

For sixteen years American leaders have failed to grasp the essential lesson of 9/11: Islam is a religion of peace only in the sense that the world will enjoy peace only after the Ummah encompasses the whole world, and all its peoples have the peace that living under Islam allegedly bestows.

It is unconscionable to send brave Americans to Afghanistan, not to win the war, but so that American political leaders and generals can declare victory and go home.