I was disappointed to see a disparaging reference to General John Vines in Bruce Bawer's critique of our willingness in the West to succumb to jihadist ideology. I thought the general theme of the piece was correct--we cannot defeat this enemy without being sure of our own values. However, Mr. Bawer's insinuation that, by including two texts on a professional reading list that take up a multicultural viewpoint, that General Vines was "whitewash(ing) jihad, dhimmitude and sharia" to his staff was wildly off the mark.

Let me reveal my prejudice. I served under General Vines's command in the 101st Airborne and later while he commanded Task Force 82 in Afghanistan. He is the best leader and toughest soldier whose command I was ever privileged to serve under.

General Barry McCaffrey, who gained notoriety commanding the Army's 24th Infantry Division in the first Gulf War, and later as President Clinton's Drug Czar, agrees. After conducting an assessment of the situation in Iraq in 2005, he said, "LTG Vines is the most experienced and effective operational battle leader we have produced in a generation." That is tall praise, and deserved in my judgment.

Professional reading lists in the military include many texts, some of which challenge officers to defend American values--you better be able to if you are going to send soldiers into dangerous situation to defend those values. One of the favorite texts in Special Forces circles, for example, is The Ugly American. As a cadet at West Point, I was required to read Marx and Hitler. We need to know how our enemy thinks. Few things are more important for professionals.

Accordingly, we should expect that our military professionals are reading controversial texts such as Sayyid Qtub's Milestones. Similarly, this professional inquiry should extend to the works of Karen Armstrong and John Esposito, as well as Frank Gaffney and Mark Steyn.

General Vines is a patriot, dedicated soldier, and a genuine hero. He has fought in many conflicts defending America and American values. He has earned better than to be casually included with the cast of characters portrayed in Mr. Bawer's piece.

[The writer is Director of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Policing Terrorism]

Mr. Bawer,

Thank you for a most excellent piece on our ongoing surrender to the forces of Sharia. You are indeed a master scholar and courageous writer.

I noticed that you alluded to the work of Diana West, who is also a master scholar of the jihad and its many facets.

Please continue your work. America needs you. I'm not particualrly optimistic about our chances for survival, given the spineless press corps that has evolved since WWII.

As a Christian and a Netizen, I know it is the price of freedom that I uphold the right of atheist popularizers like Dawkins and Hitchens to publish their books and express their views in the media. I have the perfect right to ignore them. Certainly Islamists have the right to express their views as well, but freedom of expression does not extend to crying fire in a crowded movie house, and it does not extend to threats that chill the very freedom of speech itself.

I'm glad Bawer is standing up for freedom of speech, and I wonder if he might find allies not in the halls of liberal institutions, but in the homes of right-wing, gun-toting Christians with "defend freedom" bumper stickers, as well as in the ACLU and in the editorial offices of non-religous, libertarian magazines.

Excellent article! The cowardice of European (and, increasingly, U.S.) politicans in facing the threat of Islamism threatens our futures as free societies. In fact, it may already be too late for Europe, due to demographics.

Your concept of Muslim culture is at best a crude caricature and your understanding of the Muslim world is misconstrued as a single amorphous social movement with no internal dissent. Your article mentions the divide between Sunni and Shia, but in no way recognizes that there are many secular Muslim who are in fact being endangered by our inability to understand that the cultures practicing Islam are diverse and even contradictory to Sharia in some instances--such as is the case in Malaysia.

Now I am not completely educated and haven't spent an appropriate amount of time studying the topic to consider myself a worthy debate opponent. I have, however, met many Muslims from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Indonesia, and other countries. If you think that these people honestly seek to inject "radical Islam" into the place they have gone to, I would suggest you meet some honest immigrants on a non-academic level and observe if they are truly the demon you contend.

This article speaks volumes regarding what some (including me) call the secularists, secular left, or secular humanists. It would appear that a philosphy built on secular humanism is incapable of defending the freedoms under which secular humanism can flourish.

Mr. Bawer winds up his article saying that the U.S. is more effective in combating Islamofascism because of the First Amendment. I disagree. American society has not yet succumbed to this because we have many more churchgoers than in Europe. The very people the Left in The United States and in Europe deride and hold in comtempt are in fact the ones defending Western values.

So much for the man of the Left saying, I disagree with what you say but will defend your right to say it. Hah. They haven't got the guts.

How refreshing to see this in a magazine associated with New York! Carry on, Mr. Bawer!

Very courageous and accurate article, Mr. Bawer. I was born a Muslim, and came to the U.S. 13 years ago, hoping that the evil of Islam had been left behind. The battle against this monstrous cult becomes even more difficult when the supposed defenders of our freedoms--our elected leaders--default so completely on their responsibilities. Truly tragic.

Bruce Bawer should be commended for warning us about
a serious threat to secular democracy and civil liberties in the West. We simply cannot allow appeals to postcolonial guilt and multiculturalism to rescind our system of common law and constitutionally-guaranteed rights.