9/11 and America’s Failure to End the Jihad

The anniversary of 9/11 is here, and another year has passed without America naming, much less eliminating, the cause of the attack.

The cause of the attack on 9/11 and, more broadly, of the jihad against the West is the fact that Islamic regimes—most notably those in Iran and Saudi Arabia—take Islam seriously and thus seek to convert or kill everyone who doesn’t. Toward that end, these regimes materially and spiritually support jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State, who, in turn, attack and murder Americans and others who refuse to submit.

That, in a nutshell, is why al-Qaeda attacked America on September 11, 2001. And it is why jihadists and their supporters are constantly planning or sponsoring more attacks. Everyone paying attention knows this. But the U.S. government refuses to acknowledge the cause and thus refuses to eliminate the source of the problem: the Islamic regimes that sponsor jihad.

Why? Why does our government refuse to identify the cause of the jihad and end the regimes that sponsor it? I and other contributors to TOS have answered this question in many articles and from myriad perspectives (see below). The short of it, however, is this:

A large percentage of Americans embrace moral relativism and multiculturalism and are eager to blame America for any and all wrongs in the world. These people refuse to judge any culture negatively, except Western culture—especially that of America—which they judge as evil. Consequently, this sizable portion of the U.S. citizenry refuses to call jihadist groups or their sponsors evil, much less demand that our government eliminate them, because, hey, who are we to judge?

Another large percentage of Americans embrace religion—the notion that faith is a means of knowledge and the corresponding fantasy that “God” exists and being moral consists in obeying his commandments. Religious Americans refuse to acknowledge the glaring fact that if faith is a means of knowledge, then jihadists and their supporters are justified in doing what they do—because they have faith that they should. Because religious Americans are wedded to their own particular religion and thus to the universal religious fundamental that faith is a means of knowledge, they are unwilling to condemn the fundamental that gives rise to jihad: the notion that faith is a means of knowledge. Instead, religious Americans either condemn Islam as a “bad” religion or deny that it is a religion at all. This enables them to feel that they are opposing Islam when, in fact, they are supporting its very essence.

Finally, both relativists and religionists—along with practically everyone else in America—embrace the idea that selflessness is moral and selfishness is immoral. Consequently, almost everyone in America is unwilling to advocate a foreign policy of self-interest because, well, that would be selfish.

Widespread acceptance of these three myths—moral relativism, religion, and the virtue of selflessness—renders Americans unable to name, much less eliminate, the cause of the jihad against America. Thus, Americans who want to end the jihad must reject these false ideas and embrace correspondingly relevant truths.

We must reject moral relativism and embrace rational egoism. We must reject revelation and faith in favor of observation and logic. We must reject the morality of self-sacrifice and embrace the morality of self-interest. And we must acknowledge and say forthrightly that when jihadists attack Americans, the U.S. government has a moral responsibility to eliminate the jihadists and their sponsors as soon as possible.

If we want to end the jihad against America, we must spread the truth about what causes jihad—and, correspondingly, about what America must do to end it. There is no other way.

The following articles flesh out the foregoing and related points in great detail and from many perspectives. Please share this post and these articles with people you think are open to reason.

• The Evil of Whitewashing Islam
• Ten Steps to End Jihad Against the West
• The Jihad Against America and How to End It
• The Causes of War and Those of Peace
• U.S. Foreign Policy: What’s the Purpose?
• “No Substitute for Victory”: The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism
• “Just War Theory” vs. American Self-Defense
• On the Anniversary of 9/11, Relativism and Religion Still Paralyze American Self-Defense
• The Atrocity Following 9/11
• “Gifts from Heaven”: A Vital Historic Lesson for America
• Yes, Conservatives, Islam Is a Religion
• Islamic Jihad and Western Faith
• William Tecumseh Sherman and the Moral Impetus for Victory
• Obstacles to a Foreign Policy of Self-Defense for America
• Islam vs. Free Speech
• Don’t Tolerate Islam, Condemn It
• Morally Judging Muslims and Other Religionists
• Religion Versus Morality

About Craig Biddle

Craig is cofounder and editor of The Objective Standard, cofounder and director of education at Objective Standard Institute, and executive director of Prometheus Foundation. He is the author of Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It; Rational Egoism: The Morality for Human Flourishing; and the forthcoming Moral Truths Your Parents, Preachers, and Teachers Don’t Want You to Know. He is currently working on his fourth book, “Thinking in Principles.”

View all articles by Craig Biddle →