Posted by
voice_of_reason on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 8:09:09 PM
I have just finished reading Dinesh D'Souza's new book "The Enemy at Home - The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11"
In "The Enemy at Home", D' Souza illustrates the following paradox:
* the Islamic world despises the West for the values (or lack thereof) of the cultural left
* it is the American Right that has the guts to defend the West against Islamic extremists
* Leftists (both cultural and foreign policy types) oppose the American Right for political reasons
So, strangely, the Left - that is largely the object of Islamic hatred - is politically aligned with Islamic extremists.
In addition to exposing the above paradox, he points out some of the inconsistencies in our approach to foreign policy. He skewers the Left AND the Right, while simultaneously showing the true nature of America's external enemies - who make very little distinction between Left and Right in their mission to destroy America.
D'Souza also makes some interesting points:
* Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida have never attacked Israel, despite the fact that Al Qaida appears to sympathize with the Palestinians. He makes this point to prove that Al Qaida is not the enemy of 'traditional' people. It is difficult to argue against the fact that Al Qaida hasn't attacked Israel - but the analysis that he derives from that fact seems to be a bit of a stretch.
* Conservative Americans face two enemies - as manifested by the GWOT and a war against the cultural left. Clearly, Islamic terrorists are the larger threat. The Left, however, is a significant impediment that has to be overcome politically and socially
* The American Left sees conservatism as a disproportionately larger threat (in relative terms) when compared with the threat from Islamic extremism.
He suggests the following:
* we should encourage traditional Muslims to drop their support for radical Muslims. In D'Souza's view, this can only be done if we also drop our support for the cultural left - showing traditional Muslims that there is a 'mainstream' conservative, religious America that doesn't believe in the values of the cultural left.
In my opinion, D'Souza exaggerates the cultural gap between the cultural left and conservatives in America. Although there is a gap, and conservatives publicly abhor the excesses of the cultural left, they are not 'traditional' in the manner of traditional Muslims. This may be a result of the cultural left's control of the media (and Hollywood), or due to a slow drift in what is considered 'mainstream'.
D'Souza is not afraid to 'name names' - his rogues gallery of the cultural left include many of the usual suspects, for example Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Clark & Ward Churchill. For this alone, the book will find an interested audience among conservatives.
Personally, I thought that the book was well written and recommend it highly. While it will no doubt be criticized by most liberals (and some conservatives), it should be seen for what it is - an appeal to traditionalists (some of whom may be liberals) - to distance themselves from the excesses of the cultural left.