World War IV: The Long Struggle against Islamofascism.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Date: 22 March 2008
• Author: Preble, Christopher
• Published date: 22 March 2008
• Author: Preble, Christopher

World War IV: The Long Struggle against Islamofascism Norman Podhoretz New York: Doubleday, 2007, 230 pp.

"9/11 constituted an open declaration of war on the United States and ... the war into which it catapulted us was nothing less than another world war." So says Norman Podhoretz in the opening passage of this alarmist, rambling screed. The enemy is Islamofaseism, a "monster with two heads, one religious and the other secular." This scourge, Podhoretz warns darkly, may be "even more dangerous and difficult to beat" than Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.

Podhoretz admits most Americans disagree. So, too, do most terrorism and foreign policy experts. The purpose of this book, therefore, is to repudiate the collective wisdom of both the chattering classes and the public, and rally support behind the policies of George W. Bush, who invited Podhoretz to the White House to discuss the book in August of last year, and his presumptive heir, John McCain, whom Podhoretz hopes to influence. Each of the particulars that Podhoretz cites to buttress his claim that we are in the midst of a new world war is easily refutable

His argument, such as it is, runs off the rails before the train even leaves the station. The central problem is Podhoretz's conception of the enemy, the so-called Islamofaseists, which draws heavily from the writings of Daniel Pipes. Quoting Pipes, he notes that they have "potential access to weapons of mass destruction." But don't we all? Nuclear weapon designs can be downloaded from the Internet.

He stresses that the Islamofascists have a religious appeal and repeats Pipes's contention that their "ideology [is] capable of appealing to Muslims of every size and shape." But their appeal is in fact extremely limited. While many Muslims believe that Islam should have a prominent role in political...