I personally would start the Long War (from the US being victimized by it, and finding out that we were combatants even without knowing it) on June 5, 1968, with the assassination of Bobby Kennedy.

Its' roots are many, and its causes are not simple.

It's complicated.

1) some of it is the reaction to autocratic, secular (more or less) and often corrupt states that rose at the end of the colonial period.

2) some of it is the reaction that comes from having the pressure of the Turkish empire released after a long era of bad government.

3) some of it is a reaction by various different religious leaders who saw what the West was becoming, saw the secular leanings that were taking place all over Islam, and started preaching against it (this is similar to the roots of the English Civil War and the puritians.)

4)Tied into tribalism (extended kinship groups) which is how much of the ME organizes itself.

5) movements within different major sects of Islam (the wahabist impulse vs. a more relaxed approach to Sunni Islam, somewhat a reaction to Sufiism as well, and certainly posed to fight against the heresy (as they see it) of Shiite Islam.

6) Shia on the other hand, got coopted by a movement pushed by Khomenei which saw the Immams as the ones who should be politically active and tell people how they should behave, instead of a more relaxed approach to guiding their flock that was once more common in Shia.

7) a pool of underemployed but educated young men.

8) economic changes in Saudi and some of the other countries which meant there was less chance for these young men to get ahead.

9. Multiple causes to gravitate to: Kashmir in India. The Russians in Afghanistan which led to the rise of the Taliban. The growing desire in Indonesia to create a truly Moslem state. The war in the Philipines with the Islamic forces who have been fighting the government for what seems like forever. And of course, Israel, which is both the symbol of all that is disliked about the west and about non-Islam being like a thorn thrust into the side of those countries near at hand - Israel which took a Palestine that was backwards and not very productive and made it bloom. This is a special poison that has been fed by keeping the Palestinians from integrating with the countries it took refuge in, except for Jordan...they are willingly used as tools to create the disruption and chaos.

10 and the desire for a Caliphate - both the sunni and shiite dream of this...and both are struggling to be king of the mountain.

It is woven together in a multilevel structure, with many twists and turns and ins and outs. It's NOT simple.

But the hatred that keeps the violence happening is fed by religious leaders, from a spectrum of Islamic sects. And as long as the religous leaders teach this hate, it's not going away.

When I was working on the list of Islamic terrorist actions, I discovered that back in the start of this period, there was a lot of action by several groups:

Leftwing US and European groups (The Weathermen, the Red Brigade and so on)

The IRA

The ETA

and a few smaller nationalist groups (one in Puerto Rico, some in Africa, the problems in Sri Lanka and a few others.) With time, many of these groups stopped their actions, as they began to either make political strides or they lost. If today, you could remove all the violence that involves Islam, the world would be a much quieter place than it has been in centuries.


Up through and into the 90s, The IRA and the ETA and the Tamil group continued to be active, but it was easy to see the ramping up of Islamic pan-nationalist groups, and now it's a veritable storm...focused on multiple centers: Israel, of course, Kashmir, the Philippines and non-Islamic Indonesia (including Malaysia and Thailand) and growing centers of trouble in Europe. The ETA and Tamils still kick up some squawking, and there are now militant Hindu groups, but pan-national Islamic groups are now speaking with the loudest voices.

And what they are saying is this:

We are standing up to save the world from unrighteousness.

You who are not of Islam are infidels, and therefore have no inherent right to exist. You really only have two choices: Convert or die. Even getting out of our way will only buy you some time, for we will not forget what you are. Our destruction of you is an appropriate way to fight the war for holiness.

Israel must be destroyed. All compromise on this issue is evil, and although we might suffer, and our children do without, it is a worthy cause.

We must rule the Umma, for we and we alone are the Righteous.

Those active in these groups are not people you can negotiate with in good faith. The causes of how we got here may not be simple, but the end result is simple and focused: they want all or nothing.

And we have to decide what we are going to let them have: the whole enchilada or martyrdom. At this point, in dealing with these movements, there is no middle way, not because of our unwillingness to compromise, work, help, but because this is the way they want it.

This is our reality. We must deal with it.