Lesson from Vietnam

I remember seeing some bumper signs: "My country, right or wrong." "My country, love it or leave it". These were in reference to the war in Vietnam. I believe that today, it is far more accepted to question if you could be going to your death because of a political screwup. If you are going to risk your life and to kill others, the reason for war must be far better.

I am at war with historical Islam because of number of reasons.

1) Separation of church and state.
2) Moral obligation to kill occupiers of Muslim lands. That no other requirements are needed to justify killing is a BIG problem. This is a power to be held ONLY by nation-states. In other words, even if a Muslim government launches what we would consider a war of aggression, the occupation of the country triggers the obligation to kill occupiers. WRONG.
3) Penalty for leaving Islam is death. (An Apostate) Another power of the nation-state.
4) Stoning people to death as punishment. Execution of ANYONE is a power of the nation-state only.
5) Waging war is another power reserved ONLY for nation-states. The four ‘legal’ enemies of Islam. In other words, to wage war against:
a) Infidels
b) Apostates
c) Rebels
d) Bandits
The first two qualify for ‘Jihad’.)

The concept of ‘Jihad’ can ONLY be personal. Changing this will be fought by organized warfare as the general belief that jihad refers to armed conflict has been around since 630 AD and is common today.

This is not a complete list. I attempted to keep this brief. These reasons are more than enough to prevent any political solution outside of open warfare. These are good enough for me to risk my life and kill the enemy. Issues similar to these have been the cause of many wars.

The issue of separation of church and state will unite Muslims worldwide. The rise of the nation-states has been and is today pushing upon Islam and it is winning although slowly. This is one of the most significant reasons why we are seeing repeated suicide attack for only the 2nd time. They are resisting modern advancements with violence. This has no political solution. And time is not on our side. Repeated suicide attacks must be stopped prior to any of these groups obtaining effective WMD. This alone is worth waging conventional warfare to prevent. If we go defensive as our current President is enacting, the war will come directly to us.