Rock artist Sting worried about nuclear war and once sang that he hoped the Russians loved their children too. We might say now with confidence that the Russians did and do indeed love their children. Perhaps the commonalities between the Russians and their Western European brethren (and by extension the United States) was greater than the ideological differences. The existential struggle between the democratic/capitalist Western NATO and the communist Soviet Bloc will be studied and debated for a long time to come. But ultimately the struggle resolved without apocalyptic war because of the simple fact that neither side was willing to take the ultimate step and use the most destructive and most horrible weapons at their disposal.
What about now? Despite arguments to the contrary Western liberal democracies face another existential threat in the form of radical Islamic jihad.
Do Islamic extremists love their children too?
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz explores the question in this Wall Street Journal commentary.
Quotes from the piece.
Mother to son; "if you're not going to follow the steps of the Islamic resistance martyrs, then I don't want you."
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah; "We are going to win, because they love life and we love death."
Osama bin Laden; "We love death. The U.S. loves life. That is the big difference between us."
Sheik Feiz Mohammed, leader of the Global Islamic Youth Center in Sydney, Australia; "We want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam. Teach them this: There is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a
mujahid."
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; : "It is the zenith of honor for a man, a young person, boy or girl, to be prepared to sacrifice his life in order to serve the interests of his nation and his religion."
So maybe they do love their children…but not in the same way. Not in a way we understand or accept as rational or moral. It is more than competing socioeconomic systems. It is entrenched in the most basic religious and cultural underpinnings of this radical subset of Islamic society.
It is something that prevents them from understanding the meaning of Golda Meir when she said; "We can perhaps someday forgive you for killing our children, but we cannot forgive you for making us kill your children."
It is something poignantly illustrated in this now widely distributed cartoon:
