![]() ![]() And, judging from the way things are going, he must have the support of Dick Cheney in order to be prevailing. For Colin Powell, whose own reputation as a man of infinite moderation is extremely dear to him, the business of coalition-building in the Arab world is of much greater importance. Those who had a pre-existing resentment against Saddam Hussein, for example, or against Syria and the Hezbollah, are taking the chance to push their preferred bugbears.Īt the defence department, a faction most identified with assistant secretary Paul Wolfowitz has been pressing for an assault on Iraq and - while he is about it - the forces of Hezbollah. Troubling times for the Washington hawks It is noticeable that in today's Washington the recent and the local and the immediate are the determinants of policy. If my speculation is correct, then whoever wanted to destroy the hearts of New York and Washington was animated by something more than a recent grievance over the West Bank or the Iraqi sanctions. (The forces of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza once published a statement saying that they could not be satisfied until all of Spanish Andalusia had been restored to the faithful as well.) But in the Islamic world, and especially among the extremists, it is remembered as a humiliation in itself and a prelude to later ones. In our culture, the episode is often forgotten or downplayed, except by Catholic propagandists like Hilaire Belloc and GK Chesterton. The Ottoman empire never recovered from the defeat from then on it was more likely that Christian or western powers would dominate the Muslim world than the other way around. It can rightly, if tritely, be called a hinge-event in human history. Now this, of course, is not a date that has only obscure or sectarian significance. ![]() It was on Septemthat the conquering armies of Islam were met, held, and thrown back at the gates of Vienna. I now think I can provide a more persuasive explanation, however. ![]()
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