It is sufficient for one
cubic centimeter of anthrax germs, which has penetrated the ventilation
system of a large concert hall, to annihilate thousands of patrons
within forty-eight hours. The infusion of one liter of botulinum,
one of the deadliest toxins in nature, into the water sources of
a metropolis such as New York would probably cause the death of
millions. In extreme contrast to nuclear development, which costs
billions of dollars related to acquiring uranium from outside elements,
and requires a scientific infrastructure that generally is not available
to Third World countries, chemical and biological weaponry is available,
cheap, and no less deadly. The kill ratio of 30 liters of an anthrax
germ solution is equal in value to a nuclear explosion of 20 kilotons
such as used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Thus, with the end of the
Cold War, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the removal of the
threat of “mutually assured destruction” (MAD), not only did the “end of
history”, in the naive formulation of Frances Fukuyama, fail to
transpire, but in fact the potential increased of an incomparably
greater danger – the danger of weapons of mass destruction in the hands
of Muslim civilization. This is indeed a “clash of civilizations” as
Samuel Huntington aptly defined it. Islam, which has characteristics of
Nazism, is more dangerous than either the Nazi terror or the Communist
evil, since it does not draw its spiritual sustenance from a passing
ideology but rather from the principles of jihad, which it
derives from the categorical imperative of the Qur`an. Devoid of any
traces of morality, it sanctifies murder for its own sake with cries of
“Allah is mighty!” It now has the tools to implement its evil designs.
It is, indeed, an entire
civilization encompassing every fifth person in this world, and it makes
no difference whether he is a shahid on the altar of Islamic
fundamentalism, bin- Laden-style, or a “hero of the revolution”
of the socialist Ba`ath Party of Saddam Hussein; a serial-killer
from Arafat’s Fatah or a “human bomb” of the Hamas kind.
The Americans understood
this well on September 11, 2001, when no fewer than fifteen murderers
out of the nineteen were Saudis – their “allies” – and, concurrently,
Iraq’s buildup of weapons of mass destruction has been approaching the
level of critical mass.
Yet Iraq is only the tip
of the iceberg. Egypt and Libya do not lag far behind Saddam Hussein;
nor do Syria and Iran. The Muslim core developments radiate out in their
impact to potential allies such as North Korea, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.
Defeatism is a built-in
liability of democracies that has characterized the past one hundred
years. George Santayana’s familiar maxim that “those who cannot remember
the past are condemned to repeat it,” is once again fulfilling itself
before our eyes. Again, as in the past, it is France that stands at the
forefront of the “peace camp”, the defeatists, the greedy, the
anti-Semites. In partnership with it is Germany. The two (funded by
Swiss banks) are the main exporters of components of weapons of mass
destruction to the dictatorships of the Middle East.
Thus the determination of
President Bush, who has the wide support of the American public, to
uproot the regime of Saddam Hussein, is a source of wonder and hope.
Eliminating Hussein means much more than removing a habitual criminal.
Stripping Iraq of weapons of mass destruction will be a warning signal
to Damascus, Cairo, Teheran, and Tripoli.
What for
the United States is a long-term strategic calculation is for Israel an
existential necessity. The Jewish state is not exactly a superpower that
stretches over half a continent on the other side of the planet, and it
does not have an army of two million equipped with the best of strategic
systems. Israel is a microstate surrounded by enemies that are sworn to
its destruction, who are hundreds of times larger in territory and
population. The destruction of the regime in Baghdad and the
neutralization of the Iraqi threat therefore constitute additional very
important elements in ensuring its survival.
