The death of the West

This is actually the name of a newish book by Patrick Buchanan, the American politician and writer who worked for three American presidents. In the book he is predicting the acute decline of the West in the coming days and how America perceives ‘political Islam’ to be the biggest threat.

The Americans and the West have been working on finishing off political Islam for over three decades and have failed miserably. The biggest symbol of their failure today is the abject defeat of the US and its Nato allies in Afghanistan. The book is actually a reaction to that defeat. Buchanan says that America in particular, but not to forget Europe, will decline on a moral front and at the level of the family as a uniting force.

The second reason he highlights for its decline is demographic changes due to the biological deaths of people. He calls it ‘depopulation’ by natural death. He then goes on to lament the fall in births in the West and how their populations are decreasing, and the void is being filled by young immigrants.

At the rate at which Muslims in the West are procreating and immigrating, they will soon be in a majority in some Western countries or be a significant minority. He says that apart from bringing in immigrants, the West will have to carry out a counter-revolution that restores religious and moral values to their previous status. He emphasises the fall in the fertility rate of Western women. In contrast to this, he says, Europe is “dying” of low births.

Third World countries like India, China, Latin America and, he emphasizes, especially Muslims, are witnessing unprecedented population explosions at the rate of 80 million per annum. He says that by 2050, the Third World’s total population growth will reach four billion and thus “the nightmare of the West” becomes a reality and Europe will simply become the property of these people. He wonders why the nations of Europe stopped having children. The answer lies, he says, is this deadly culture in the West and the moral death that this culture has inflicted on the people of the West.

He goes on to discuss the collapse of the first basic value in society, which is the family and then the decline of moral and religious norms. He also decries the collapse of the framework of the institution of marriage. This he says has destroyed the central cell of society. He also points out that illegitimate children amount to 25 percent of the total number of American children and a third of American children live in single parent homes. Today, three times as many suicides among young Americans are taking place as compared to 1960. Add to this drug addicts whose number is some six million in the US alone.

What I have written above is largely from a review by Dr Saleem Al Kharrat. I think it would be a good idea to read the book because depopulation and the Muslims becoming a majority in many Western countries are issues that frighten the people of those countries.

But political Islam is rising instead of going away and America is helping it to rise because of its petulant obduracy of finding scapegoats for its defeat. Sometimes, it seems that it is spoiling for another war with Afghanistan, which will be suicidal for the US and the West. I recently heard a statement by a Taliban Corps Commander in which he actually mocked America – saying that it cannot digest its defeat and that if it foists war on Afghanistan again, this time they will be defeated in their own countries which means that the Taliban will take the war to the American mainland. So, somebody has to calm America down. This should be the job of the UN but it has become useless and in the end it will be up to the American population to force America to change from its perfidy.

For those who are thinking there will finally be peace should start thinking again because there is likely to be another conflict in Afghanistan. Add to this other hotspots like Israel and Palestine, the South China Sea and Taiwan, Russia and Ukraine, Pakistan and India over Kashmir and you have many hotspots that could unleash great conflicts. So, somehow, the world – especially the US – must pause and re-evaluate what it is trying to do. The American economy is tottering, Congress is not easily passing the budget or raising the debt ceiling and they are in for another shutdown. This will lead to an acute decline of the dollar which will hit the whole world because we have stupidly made the dollar the global currency. But it will also help put many countries on the right track.

Not just America, but India too must pause and reevaluate its complete disregard for human rights – especially in Kashmir. That is a civil war India cannot win and one day Kashmiri freedom fighters are likely to walk into Srinagar like the Taliban did in Kabul. This too will lead to horrendous deaths. I have always said that India is a large country with a small country mentality and the Kashmir conflict is a stark example of the UN’s impotence. Whatever may happen, I can predict that we are in for huge change.

The writer is a veteran journalist, political analyst and author.

Email: humayun.gauhar786@gmail.com