This is a comment on the “Get Out of Iraq” referendum recently passed unanimously by the City Commission of Helena.

No doubt we’re all tired of our apparent lack of success in “nation building” in Iraq, including the politicians who voted for invading Iraq when the president wanted to do it, like Senator Hillary Clinton. But our present “change of heart,” though understandable, flies in the face of some undeniable facts.

Fact #l: The mindset of the Arabs: Most of us know that the Arab countries, particularly, Saudi Arabia are happy to sell us oil, so long as they get to set the price, even though western oil companies discovered it and showed it to them. What most of us don’t know is that an Arabian Muslim cleric named Wahab helped put the Saudi Royal family, on the throne in Arabia and that’s why its called Saudi Arabia. His most noteworthy follower these days is a fellow named Osama Bin Laden. Wahab’s brand of a “return to Islamic purity” is a very extreme version of the religion. The Wahabi movement is being and has been for some time fueled with “petro-dollars” from the pockets of the Saudi Royal family. Some of it right here in the good old USA.

Fact #2: The pilots of those planes that hit the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on 9/11, were all Saudi-Arabian Wahabis, some of whom were here on “student visas.” They used this lie to cover up their real purpose for coming here, which is to continue their “Jihad” or Holy War against the western democracies. That’s right, their “jihad” isn’t really against our religions, the Koran respects Christians and Jews as “People of the Book,” the real insult to Islam is our secular “anything goes” public culture. Some of us like to think of the USA as a “Christian” country, but in fact its traditional religion that’s on the defensive here. The lawsuits to get the Ten Commandments out of the courthouses, the Christmas manger scenes and Hanukkah Menorahs out of the public parks and buildings, the prayers out of the pubic schools and the drive to “legalize” same sex marriage, should make that plain. Our pornographic media and Internet culture gives plenty of proof. The U.S. is today the standard bearer for these “enlightened” political issues. Most of the world knows this, even if some of us don’t. When President Bush told the Iraqis he was going to try to turn them into a “democracy” it seemed like a good idea at the time, until the hard-liners got organized and are now doing anything they can to prevent that result. That’s what the current “civil war” is about!

Fact #3: We keep hearing about the fact that a “majority” of Muslims are moderates. It’s these people to whom the “peace at any price” element in our society keep referring as justification for the use of “diplomacy” instead of war. But why haven’t any moderate Muslim clerics or political leaders stood up to be counted? The available evidence seems to point to the existence of something within Islam itself which prevents this. Why does the “silent majority” of Muslims sit back and let the hard-liners kill innocent men, women and children? Why do they allow only the creation of a totally “Islamic” government which wants to make war on Israel and the West until the whole world is Islamic? Why are “Islamic” states hostile to other religions and don’t allow them to be practiced there?

Conclusion: Congress and its supporters on the Helena City Commission propose to back down in the face of increasing Muslim hard-line strength. I think this will only tell the fanatics that we’re too weak to stand up to them. Remember, they’ve been killing anyone who disagrees with them for many years. They’re doing it in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan (Darfur), Somalia, Indonesia, right now! Now, a “me-too” brand of Shiite Muslim fanaticism in Iran has just told the U.N. to “go to hell” and can be expected to build an A-bomb to attack Israel and maybe all of the rest of us.

President Bush has offered us, “nothing but blood, toil, tears and sweat” to defeat these maniacs. It may be a hard choice for some of you; a few of our fine local boys have made the extreme sacrifice in this fight already. Can you at least join me in voting to defeat the Helena City Council Referendum to “Get Out of Iraq,” which will be on the ballot this fall?

Ward Shanahan is a Helena attorney.