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The National Interest
From Awakening to War
Robert F. Ellsworth
Abstract
06.01.2006
A resurgent and increasingly fundamentalist Islam is embroiled in a fateful clash with America's historic, faith-based claim to a dominant role in the world. The Islamists are sustained by passion and rage; Americans draw inspiration from our Founders' claims that freedom and democracy were universal values. In the 21st century, these values are as precious and unique to America as ever; but as universal claims, they are demonstrably false, dangerous and costly. And while the 2006 National Security Strategy proclaims, "The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world", Islamist-inspired protestors in Western capitals carry placards about how one day all will be united into a single Islamic community.
The Great Awakenings
American Protestant eschatology (with its particular interpretation of the Book of Revelation and awaited "End Times") has historically maintained that the world is moving toward an end state in which America is the chosen agent through which good will triumph over evil. President Bush and some of his supporters are evidently influenced by that religious worldview--which many Americans believe is firmly rooted in our experience.