WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED This is the true memoir of one US Air Force navigator’s journey from the schoolhouses of Air Training Command to the nuclear alerts of the Cold War to combat in a 35-year-old anachronism called the B-52. It is a first-hand account of life during the last days of Strategic Air Command, the early days of Air Combat Command and the ensuing military drawdown of the 1990s. From peacetime training exercises across the globe to combat operations in Desert Storm, Jim Clonts takes the reader inside the cockpit where life and death are seconds apart. Often comical, sometimes heart-pounding, other times tragic, WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED takes you into the world of military aviation, a crucible where warriors learn the true nature of character, conscience and mortality.

The End Game
by Jim Clonts, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT MILITARY.COM, September 11, 2006

Conventional wisdom dates the beginning of the war with militant Islam as the 1979 fall of the Shah of Iran. Although the Iranian Hostage Crisis captured the American public's attention, it was little more than a blip on the radar scope of a military whose focus lie on the Evil Empire. Dealing with the Soviet Union occupied the next decade and, even though the Marine barracks in Beirut was bombed and an airliner blown out of the sky over Scotland, America did not view militant Islam as a threat to survival. Surely with nuclear Armageddon hanging over our heads, we had little to fear from a bunch of religious zealots from the Third World.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union we endured a decade of terrorist attacks on our embassies, our navy, our troops in Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon and, of course, the World Trade Center, twice. The September 11th attacks were an opening gambit in the war for world dominance. This nation has faced enemies seeking world domination, such as Hitler and Stalin, but the motivations of this new threat are different. The motivations of militant Islam are not based on ethnic purity, political ideology or a specific system of economics. The leaders of this movement are men of intense religious faith. They recruit and train men who are totally unselfish, totally dedicated and totally willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. They do not want the world for their own ambitions, but to fulfill prophesy and serve their god.

So what is the militant Islamic plan for world dominance? For decades the extremist Muslim movement has used terrorist tactics in this pursuit. While the goals of a suicide bomber who straps explosives across his chest can at best be considered short-range, the tactic itself plays an essential role in a long range plan. Both the Democrats and Republicans within our government have a fundamental misunderstanding of this. They refer to our struggle as the War on Terrorism, but we are not at war with terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, just as trench warfare, guerilla warfare and even nuclear warfare are tactics of war. That a Third World militant group employs terrorism should be no surprise. It is an ideal short-term tactic for waging war against a high-technology, heavily mechanized military. These attacks, even the 911 attacks, are little more than pin pricks to our nation as a whole, but in this stage of the war the enemy is not yet seeking victory. He is meeting his goals with those pin pricks.

Militant Islam cannot possibly hope to destroy or subjugate America with car bombs. At this stage they are seeking publicity, attention, recruits, funding and, amazingly, world sympathy. The modern media is spreading their propaganda, making them appear far stronger than they really are and inciting greater resentment of the West in the process. Every beheading reported in the media and appearing on the Internet enhances the illusion of power, the militant, righteous Muslim standing over the weak, trembling infidel at his feet. Every car bomb attack is portrayed as heroic in the Muslim world. Recruitment is up. Terrorism is working, at least for the moment.

Terrorist tactics alone cannot win their war. We are already seeing the beginnings of a new strategy in Hezzbollah. Israel, operating under bad intelligence, assumed Hezzbollah was still a renegade militia they could use as an example to Iran and Syria. Israel discovered Hezzbollah was no longer a mere militia, but a full-blown army of thousands, funded by Iran and armed with rockets, anti-tank weapons and artillery pieces. In a new strategy of overt warfare, coupled with a remarkable understanding of modern public relations, Hezzbollah played the media like a fine violin, launching overt military attacks from urban neighborhoods, then standing back and watching Israel pound those neighborhoods into rubble. The images were captured by television cameras and brought into the living rooms of the world. Within two weeks even the United States was calling for an Israeli cease-fire. Israel did teach a valuable lesson to Iran: they may not need nuclear weapons to take Israel. The media and the United Nations might be all they need.

Taking the West is essential to the fulfillment of the militant Muslim's duty to his god. So how do they do it? It will begin with the fall of Europe. Today there are large enclaves of Muslims living in France, Great Britain and other European countries. The battle to subjugate these countries will begin with small-scale terrorism, of which we may have already seen the beginnings in Spain, France and Britain. Like a virus the terrorism will propagate and eventually grind their economies to a halt. The stock markets will collapse as investors flee the region. Terrorism will create vast economic depression. Martial law will be declared. Curfews will go into effect and law enforcement and military forces will crack down on the Muslim enclaves, most of which have not been involved in the violence. Riots, murders and atrocities resulting from fear will ensue as the peaceful Muslims become targets of infidel outrage. Of course the media will cover this and it will rally many to the militant Islamic cause.

As the terror escalates, the people of these nations will blame their governments, their police and their military for the violence, everyone but the terrorists themselves, and new leaders will step forward promising to end the turmoil. The newly elected government will seek to appease the aggressors, doing whatever it takes to find a path to peace. Over time they will cede more and more power to the militant Islamic factions of government, just as the Germans gave the Nazis power in the 1930s, with the eventual adoption of Islamic culture and eventually Islamic law. Many will flee Europe, but those who can't will convert to Islam to protect their families. Those who will not convert will become a temporary underclass, like the Jews in Nazi Germany, eventually weeded in mass purgings.

Many in the United States would be susceptible to this type of cultural and religious infiltration, embracing a slow abandonment of religious freedoms and personal liberties. These same people, always ready to condemn their own country, will blame our government for the violence perpetuated by others. They will be all too eager to appease the militant Muslims. Thankfully, many more in this country will not. The strategist of the Jihad are aware of this and may have decided it would be far easier to eliminate the United States than convert it to Islam.

After Desert Storm it became obvious to the world that if you are going to war against the United States you had better bring nuclear weapons to the fight. In a conventional war we have no equal. (The terrorist war in Iraq will be won or lost in the media, not on the battlefield.) This is why Iran so desperately wants nuclear weapons. Although we played the game of nuclear brinksmanship with the Soviets for forty years, neither the Americans or the Soviets wanted mutual assured destruction. The president of Iran has asserted the Muslim faith would survive a nuclear exchange with the West. He seems to believe it is Iran's scared duty to destroy Israel and the Great Satan, no matter the cost. The concept of Mutual Assured Destruction does not work if one side views its own destruction as a path to victory and martyrdom as the door to paradise.

If Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons, the attack on this country won’t come for decades. Iran, more than anyone, has learned the lesson of Iraq. They will not attack the 800 pound gorilla until they can kill it in one fell swoop of the scimitar and we will be lulled to sleep in the meanwhile. They will bide their time, increase their nuclear inventory and develop new generations portable nuclear weapons. When these weapons do land on US soil they will not come from the sky, but by car, cargo ship and by foot. We will retaliate in kind, but to the militant Muslims governing Iran, this will be expected and welcomed. We will ensure their place in Heaven.

Just as millions worldwide died defeating the Nazis, the death toll in this coming struggle will be staggering, far greater than World War II and few nations will remain untouched. Militant Islam will stand against the rest of Humanity, poised to commit martyrdom on an unimaginable scale. The end game will result in millions of deaths in this country and among our allies, but also with the complete decimation of the Middle East and her peoples, hundreds of millions of innocent Muslims, Christians, Buddhist, Hindus and even Atheists.

We are just entering the 21st Century, but given the weapons and technologies of this century, coupled with millennia-old hatreds, Humanity will not enter the 22nd Century with the cultural and religious rifts that exists today. There will be resolution to this conflict in this century. This struggle might be ancient, but the end game is in sight. How do we stop it? The struggle exists at the very core of our Humanity, the fundamental questions of Man’s belief in his Creator and his place in the universe. Stop it? Maybe the best we can do is understand it and be ready for it.

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