As I had previously written, I believe we are in a war to save and protect civilization. Eventually there will be a global understanding of the need for military force to be deployed in a long drawn out battle to overcome radical and militant Islamic terrorists.  But what replaces the failed ideologies and brutal rule of radical Islam?  I think that we have to help civilized peoples repopulate these terrorist areas.  However, what will be the alternative culture for these peoples?  The culture that is prevalent today has promoted an us-versus-them mentality that has been nurtured into a rule of fear and hatred.  An apocalyptic view of the world and bringing about the end of times has been instilled in people that then are willing to fight and sacrifice themselves for a belief in a God they cannot possibly correctly understand.  What is the anti-thesis ideology that is needed?  Military force, and political outcomes are not enough, there must also be a culture/ideology transformation that occurs in vast parts of societies pressured today by these anti-civilization forces.  Christianity too has gone thru its militant phases, where those that wanted to hang onto power created an us-vs-them fervor that resulted in the slaughter of millions, but that was a thousand years ago.  Christianity survived its madness to eventually rewrite its history, and present an improving face to the world.  Still there is room for improvement as we continue to evolve to be culturally accepting of all peoples as was Christ’s message.   We need to evolve to a theology and ideology that embraces the loving and inclusive message that the major religions spiritual texts espouse without the; our faith, our methods, our god is better than yours complexions that we allow others to tell us about.

Secular democratic principals that call for the separation of religion and state are the traditions of western philosophers and thinkers that resulted in the rise of our country and many other western nations.   The principals and thoughts that drove us to navigate away from dictatorships and monarchies apply here as well.  However, we did not arrive at the principals of governance and culture without much pain, warfare, and repeated failure to see the humanity in others along the way.  Look at our on-going struggle to overcome an appalling history of slave trade, ownership and then the incipient racism that persists in our culture a hundred and fifty years after we fought a civil war to address this issue.  So what can we learn from this history?  What makes sense as an alternative to the ultimately failed culture of religious militant zealotry that is radical Islam?

The Arab Spring was thought to be the sowing of secular democracy principals that would eventually lead to a bountiful harvest for civilization.  However, it has failed, or we let it fail in so many places. Instead the evil twin of ISIS born about the same time appears to be thriving.  Is there any life left in the Arab Spring, or can it be brought back to life?   I doubt that there is a religious alternative that has the moral foundation to be an effective solution.  Islam, Christianity and Judaism have all failed the Middle-East, and for that matter Africa.   Well that brings us back to secular democracy, to the Arab Spring… but this time we need to embrace it, support it with a vehemence that will shake the foundations of the dictatorships and monarchies, just as we did when the USA was young.  Our liberty and freedoms threatened the monarchies of Europe, and its right and good that they did.  Our system of laws and democracy may not be perfect, and is still evolving, but it was a basis that eventually allowed us to become a nation of many races, many heritages and many religions, living as a prosperous and civilized society.

We have an opportunity to turn refuge camps in Lebanon and Jordan into education centers.  Let us help refuges return to their countries with a sense of self-government, with an understanding and belief that civilized countries like the USA will protect and encourage the advancement of an Arab Spring and they will one day harvest a culture, ideology, and prosperity of secular democracy, while being inclusive of the many types of moderate Islam, Christianity, Judaism and other religions.  We should not squander an opportunity to encourage Arab Spring revitalization.