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America Alone: The End Of The World As We Know It |
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reviewed by Engin Akcay |
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Author: Mark Steyn |
ISBN:
978-1596985278 |
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Publisher:
Regnery Publishing |
Page:
224 |
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Type:
Paperback |
Price:
$16.95 |
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Place of Publication:
Washington, D.C. |
Published in:
2008 |
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Review: |
Why America Is Becoming Lonely?
When people see a strong horse and a weak horse,
by nature they will like the strong horse.
Usame b. Ladin, Kandahar, Nov., 2001
Perception has a crucial importance in foreign affairs, as well as matters in psychology and sociology. According to Mark Steyn, who says “America Alone” in his best-seller, America’s global act of striving is also an issue of perception, at international level. In the history “all dominant powers are hated – Britain was and Rome – but they usually hated for right reasons” he says. This sort of hatred has resounded with echoes like that of Afghani El-Qaeda member Maulana Inyadullah’s; “the Americans love Pepsi-Cola, We love death”.
Explaining why “Muslims vs. Jews in Palestine, Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa, Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in Caucasus, Muslims vs. backpacking tourists in Bali, Muslims vs. Danish cartoonists in Scandinavia”, Steyn declares that they live the fact ‘think globally, act locally’. In this perspective, the picture looks like a clear ‘clash of civilizations’ between “the westerners” and “Muslims”. So how come? By holding manpower… He argues that “in the seventies and eighties Muslims had children while Westerners took all those silly doomsday tomes about overpopulation seriously”.
It is an old discussion over how population is determinative in gaining superiority in global booms. What it does focus on are the nuances concerning the ‘quality’ and ‘quantity’ of a population. In this context, a connection is made between the population policies and development level of less-developed countries, especially those of the African continent. During the last few decades, family planning was shown as the panacea for third world countries, by international and regional “western” institutions. If that is so, to what extent can demographical statistics change? The author supports this argument with this data; ‘in France, of inhabitants aged twenty and under, approximately thirty percent are Muslim and this is about 45 percent in major city centres… In Belgium Turks and Moroccans under 18 years old are almost 35 percent of same aged Belgians. But, is this a race on giving birth? I do not think this is a case seriously taken by Islamic world as a tactical tool to overwhelm the West, aside from Colonel Qaddafi who predicts “… Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe – without swords, without guns, without conquests. The fifty million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.” Otherwise this could definitely be determined as state policy by Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez and others that have ideological hostility with the USA.
Asking what the West prepared to die for after 9/11, Steyn should actually be asked whether dying was the only alternative in the world for cherishing goodness and keeping a civilization alive. Is it not that possible to sustain it by living? Sometimes, interestingly, to live requires a much more brave heart than dying in today’s world… Each conscious individual has the responsibility for making the world better, not killing for but eliminating hatred. Describing Islamism as “militarily weak but ideologically confident” while “the West is militarily strong but ideologically insecure”, the author emphasizes that the West does not have any strategy to combat terrorism which has strong ideology. Although academic sources indicate when the “Encyclopaedia of Islam” was completed, the concept “Islamism” had virtually disappeared from the English usage, by 1938; it is hard to understand why Steyn insistently uses it to reflect an ideological characteristic via an additional “ism”. It is well known that there is no any Islam-related professional union gathering all Islamic countries under the frame of an ideological aim. In this case the only modern example is – including no ideology – the Organization of the Islamic Conference of which the Secretary General is from secular Turkey and is officially represented in the UN.
Much analysis on combating terrorism and global security highlights that the problem can simply be solved through a comprehensive approach comprising civil initiative and soft-power. Moreover reformed after 9/11 NMSP-WOT – even if not so successful in implementation – is built on this unique perspective. Bringing the issue to the “clash of civilizations” axis and choosing the examples from not only “radical” Islam but also “moderate” Islam does clearly shade the objectivity of the book. Even if quite witty wording is used in the book, it serves for discrepancy rather than reconciliation between the civilizations.
The book conveys from NYT’s Thomas Friedman that the failure to prevent the September 11 attacks is a failure of imagination rather than lack of coordination or intelligence. Like some others Steyn too has a perception problem pertaining to the difference between an ordinary Muslim and the ones using terror with Islamic motives as a tool. When this kind of misperception is reflected at state level some undesired progress easily becomes inevitable in international relations. Touching on the negative impacts of multiculturalism Steyn concludes: “in the absence of cultural confidence, demography will decide the future.” Because of that he believes that the USA is under the demographic invasion of not only Muslims but also of Hispanics…
With given perspective what is perceived is America’s loneliness. However, especially during the cold war period, America was sincerely backed by many countries including Turkey. It is still recalled that Turkey, which Steyn tackles as being in the “opposite” category, supported America both with its “manpower” and military forces in the first instance in the Korean War since 1950 as “strategic partner”. However, not only Turkey and Islamic countries but the European Union also refrained from supporting US global policy when the approach “you’re either with us or against us” steps in the relations as Bush Doctrine bypassing democratic precedents in foreign affairs. In today’s world where globalization eliminated most of the classical understandings, if Steyn is still in favour of the Monroe Doctrine, there is no chance to implement such a policy. The breaking point for the “American Dream” that has been coveted by advancing countries is not 9/11 attacks and the Islamic world have already not assented to them; but the real breaking point is the ego-centric and disruptive policies of the Bush government made after 9/11 bidding defiance to common sense. In this period while terror becomes global, Bush’s effort to globalize war on terror lost its credibility in Iraq thus combating terrorism could not become worldwide.
Praying for “God Bless America” is a conceivable wish that each nation could make for their own homeland. If that is so, is not it time to pray “God Bless Humanity” for the American government calling “good” countries of “angelic axis” to act with itself against “rogue” countries of the “axis of evil”? Who knows, perhaps the remedy for American loneliness is hidden within this Rumi-sounding perspective.
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about book: |
It's the end of the world as we know it...
Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Europeans already are. And liberals will still tell you that "diversity is our strength"--while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn't violate the "separation of church and state," and the Hollywood Left decides to give up on gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy. If you think this can't happen, you haven't been paying attention, as the hilarious, provocative, and brilliant Mark Steyn--the most popular conservative columnist in the English-speaking world--shows to devastating effect. The future, as Steyn shows, belongs to the fecund and the confident. And the Islamists are both, while the West is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization. But America can survive, prosper, and defend its freedom only if it continues to believe in itself, in the sturdier virtues of self-reliance (not government), in the centrality of family, and in the conviction that our country really is the world's last best hope. Mark Steyn's America Alone is laugh-out-loud funny--but it will also change the way you look at the world.
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