I Googled “Radical Islam”

I Googled “Radical Islam” and got the following:  “The academic definition of radical Islam consists of two parts: The first being: Islamic thought that states that all ideologies other than Islam, whether associated with the West (capitalism or democracy) or the East (communism or socialism) have failed and have demonstrated their bankruptcy.”  People living in Europe or the United States do not comprehend the potency of this kind of thinking among populations that are living marginal existences in the Middle East and Africa.  We tend to believe that we can counter the threat of Radical Islam through the use of force.  I accept the necessity of using force, but believe that it must be accompanied by meaningful economic development.  Not just payments to corrupt, self-serving governments, but rather actual economic development that demonstrably improves the lives of populations currently living in poverty.  I have tried to do it.  It is unbelievably difficult and discouraging, but it remains the only way to avoid an eventual nuclear holocaust.

Nowhere in the developed world do I see this motivation driving policy.  Instead, I see the governments of developed countries, our own included, squabbling among themselves for economic dominance.  Among all of the examples out there, the Chinese Communist Party is, presently, the only group that understands the issue, and it is bent on manipulating it to achieve its own very partisan objectives.  Beijing’s Belt and Road has economic development programs in countries around the world, but despite their rhetoric, they are crassly attempting to use those programs to control the populations that they are assisting.  (Their domestic policy that aims to eliminate Muslim thought inside China is a further strategic impediment that weakens their position, despite their tactical success in dealing with major Islamist governments.)  Western governments, to include our own, invest in foreign countries with the sole objective of benefiting themselves, despite mountains of lofty rhetoric to the contrary.  The success of our own economy over the past couple of centuries has made us the envy of the world and that has adverse, as well as positive implications.  Radical Islam is, in my mind, the most extreme reaction facing us today.  Populations infected with this thinking are willing to engage in suicide bombing in protest.  That is about as extreme a human reaction as it is possible to imagine and understand, particularly for very well-fed Americans.

Because we can not conceive of the issue that I here describe, none of our policies are helping defeat the threat posed by Radical Islam.  Killing contrarian leaders does not eliminate the threat.  All it does is improve upward mobility among professional malcontents and further diversify the concepts of hatred that motivate the ideologues.  If you want to eliminate Radical Islam you must, repeat must, improve the lives of all people living in Africa and the Middle East.  In so doing you will, among other things, eliminate suicide bombing and its Western, mindless reaction - over-the-horizon missile strikes.  The task facing humanity is enormous, but it is the only way to avoid an eventual nuclear exchange that poisons some portion of the earth.  I am not optimistic, but I remain hopeful.  After all, our grandparents figured it out while fighting Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo.  It’s just that those of us who came after that Greatest Generation, couldn’t stay focused and wasted the opportunity that they gave us.