Radical Islam stages worldwide war on democracy
On Sept. 11, 2001, a war was brought to our shores by a band of men, bound by a militant ideology, in an act of mass murder. The response by the United States was a so-called "War on Terror," a reflex that has proved to be as ineffective as it has been costly.
We have spent more than a trillion dollars on invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 5,000 American soldiers have died in the last eight years, and tens of thousands have been wounded. Yet, there has been no sustainable victory for the United States — no strategic victory, no political victory, no moral victory. Islamic terrorism continues around the globe unabated. 
The Bush and Obama administrations' war has failed because there is no such thing as war on terror. War on terror is war on shadows. Terrorism is only a weapon, a technique, not an enemy that can be fought effectively. A "War on Terror" is a fool's errand.
Yet, there is a war raging. It already had raged for 1,400 years before it was brought to our shores. The war is universal jihad: the eternal worldwide war on all infidel nations. The United States is merely among the latest nations to be targeted for attack and invasion.
Universal jihad is a declared war of Islamic theological exclusivism against pluralistic democratic traditions. This war, though, can be won decisively.
I maintain:
• War against universal jihadists can be won globally in less than five years.
• It can be won for less than $1 billion.
• It can be won without any more loss of American or Western life.
The first requisite is to acknowledge that it is an ideological war. Reason, empiricism and scientific method are our greatest weapons against religious fanaticism.
Therefore, we must do the following.
• Build a global united alliance of nations against universal jihad. Jew and Gentile, Saxon and Slav, Catholic and Protestant, Hindu and Buddhist, Norwegian and Nigerian — all have been victimized by jihad. Whatever our differences, in this war we are allies unified by a common enemy that will not rest until our cultures and nations have been conquered through conversion, domination, or death.
• Restrict all immigration to the Western world from nations where Sharia is the law of the land.
• Systematically remove all advocates of universal jihad from every nation of the Western world — which, by their own definition, is Darul al-Harb (Land of Hostility, governed by the infidels).
• Cut off all trade and diplomatic ties to the empire of universal jihad: Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Enforce these sanctions until their governments publicly, formally renounce and disavow universal jihad by official proclamation.
• Demand and exact compensation from the empire of universal jihad for having supported global terrorism.
To survive and to preserve our cherished rights and freedoms, our cultures, our religions, our civilizations, we must declare an ideological war against universal jihadists. They long ago declared war on us.
Vijay Kumar, a longtime resident of Nashville, is in telecommunications sales. He may be reached at kfcnashville@aol.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
