The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations? [Hardcover]

Tony Blankley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2005

Blankley paints the picture of a Europe in which radical Islam is triumphant--a threat that is not only very real, but that would be more threatening to the United States than a Europe under Nazi domination. But there is hope--and a strategy--for Western survival; and Blankley illustrates what must happen to save the West.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The Nazis failed to take over Europe, but Militant Islam might The West, says author Tony Blankley in this shocking new book, is down to its last chance. Within our lifetimes, Europe could become Eurabia: a continent overwhelmed by militant Islam that poses a greater threat to the United States than even Nazi Germany did. In The West’s Last Chance, Blankley shows how that could happen—and what we must do to prevent it. In The West’s Last Chance, you’ll learn: · What really happens if Islamist terrorists acquire weapons of mass destruction—it’s worse, and more likely, than you think · How Europe is already well on its way to being a launching pad for Islamist terrorism · Why Europe’s plummeting birthrates could wreak huge upheavals on the Continent—and how the United States could face a similar fate · What’s holding our government back from fighting the Islamist threat to the best of its ability · Why the U.S. has ignored the lessons of World War II—lessons that could hold the secret to winning the War on Terror · How liberalism degenerated from the war-winning policies of FDR to an ideology of Western suicide Tony Blankley asks the hard questions—and gives the straight answers—that our country needs to hear. Frightening, provocative, and instructive, The West’s Last Chance is the most important political book of the year. It will change the way we think about—and fight—the War on Terror.

About the Author

Tony Blankley is the editorial page editor of the Washington Times, a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group, a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate, and a popular speaker and radio and television pundit. For seven years he was press secretary to then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and before that served President Ronald Reagan as a speechwriter and senior policy analyst.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing; First edition. edition (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895260158
• ISBN-13: 978-0895260154
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #694,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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443 of 490 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Home Run, August 23, 2005

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Alexander Olszewski (Toad Suck Ferry, Arkansas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations? (Hardcover)

Tony Blankley's The West's Last Chance is a wake-up call for the West to recognize the dangers it faces from radical Islam. It draws heavily upon history and current events to illuminate this threat, makes its case convincingly, and concludes with a recommended course of action.

The author begins by exposing our disorganized and weak response which he attributes to a flaw of human nature: we tend to forget the past and focus on the present. The Islamic threat we face today is not just Osama and a few thousand followers; in the 15th century Islam overwhelmed Bulgaria, Serbia, Constantinople, Persia, Greece, and struck at the heart of Europe until King John Sobieski stopped them at the gates of Vienna in 1683.

He points out that the Protestant Reformation only became possible with the invention of the printing press, and that Islamic radicals are utilizing the internet to further their cause in a similar way. Now aspiring terrorists can train in virtual camps and learn terrorism without having to set foot in a physical training camp. I myself have read the Al-Qaeda terror training manual which is available through a quick internet search.

Blankley draws an intriguing parallel between our situation today, and that of the America Indians and the first European settlers centuries ago. The situation was similar; in both cases they were not formally at war and even cooperated with each other at times. The Indians, he points out, could have easily held on to their heritage if they had recognized the threat of Europeans to their lifestyle, because while there were only hundreds of Europeans at first, there were thousands of Indians with superior knowledge of the land. The Indians, however, didn't have a historical reference point on which to judge the situation and failed to act decisively. We, however, have plenty of historical reference points to judge the threats posed by radical Islam.

Another interesting parallel is shown: Evangelical Christians in the past didn't involve themselves in politics much for fear it might negatively taint their spirituality, but during the 1970's events arose (notably Roe v. Wade) that goaded them into becoming a strong political force. The same, he shows, is happening in Islam today.

The author points out that in 1920's and 1930's Germans were feeling humiliated and confused, susceptible to outside influences. The Nazis, although a tiny percent of the population, were aggressive, well-organized, and targeted German youth. Islam in Europe, he says, is in a similar situation. Radical Islamicists find a Muslim population humiliated by the dominance of foreign cultures, and young Muslims are increasingly disdainful of their parents' political passivity.

Blankley is careful to note that history is just a guide to possibilities, not a blueprint of the future.

Blankly points out many contemporary warning signs, one for example is a 2004 poll by the Guardian, a liberal British newspaper, in which 13% of Muslims polled publicly admitted to supporting more terrorist attacks on America. If 13% would admit this in public, how many more would admit this in private?

Blankley has a chapter on the actions America took during WWII - enlisting directors like John Ford and Frank Capra to make patriotic morale-boosting movies, censoring the broadcast of economic plans or criticism of physical equipment or troop morale, travel restrictions, etc, and in doing so shows how the Patriot Act is a fraction of what American once did to fight the enemy. He says that Americans during WWII were a little less concerned about rights, and more concerned about what the damage the enemy could inflict.

Concluding the book is a list of intelligent actions that should be undertaken. If the author is correct, and we do not heed his warnings, there could be a time some years into the future we look back and think, why didn't we take action when we still could?

311 of 347 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long overdue, August 30, 2005

By 

David Rivkin (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations? (Hardcover)

Tony Blankley's "The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilization?" is a superb and long-overdue book. His portrayal of the challenge we face is both chilling and correct - "the mortal threat we face comes not merely from Osama bin Laden and a few thousand terrorists. Rather, we are confronted with the Islamic world - a fifth of mankind - in turmoil, and insurgent as it has not been in at least five hundred years, if not fifteen hundred years." The true threat spectrum encompasses not only radical Islamists, but a variety of fundamentalist Islamist groups, hell-bent on fulfilling what they passionately believe to be their most important religious obligation - establishment of a global caliphate, governed by Sharia law.
Blankley details how only very few media pundits, government officials or elite members in the West are willing to acknowledge the profound nature of this challenge. The problem is particularly acute in Europe, where several generations' worth of social and cultural policies of denigrating nationalism and Christianity - all driven by a mistaken belief that it was these forces that caused World Wars I and II - have "slowly morphed into a surprisingly deep self-loathing of Western culture that has denied the instinct for cultural and national self-defense." The situation in the United States is not nearly as grave, although there is a concerted effort by the proponents of multi-culturalism and civil liberties absolutists to oppose all government policies that can be used to tackle the Islamist threat. In any case, if the Islamization of Western Europe, described by Blankley and a few other prescient scholars, succeeds, the U.S. would be facing the gravest geo-political threat in its history.
The book does, however, end on a position note, with the author arguing that with the appropriate U.S. leadership, both Europe and the United States can win this clash of civilizations.

57 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 stars......Thought-provoking analysis of the Islam thread, December 26, 2005

By 

Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations? (Hardcover)

I am not much for the many, many political talk shows that shower the TV landscape, but I do admit to being addicted to the weekly "Mclaughlin Group" show on PBS for the last 20 years. Many cast members have come and gone, but Tony Blankley has been a steady presence on there for years now. His views are clearly pro-Republican, pro-Bush, which clashes with some of the other, clearly pro-Democratic, anti-Bush members on the panel. It makes for great TV viewing.

"The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations?" (232 pages) starts with the premise that at this very minute we are at the dawn of yet another "battle to the death" confrontation by Islam on the Christian-based societies of Europe and America. If you can't buy into that basic premise, this book will annoy you to no end. If, however, you buy into the premise, Blankley has a lot of interesting, if not provoking, theories. Thus Blankley says that the concept of the war on terror is deeply flawed, as "we are facing a challenge of immigration, cultural aggression, and a conflict of values, religions, and lifestyles." Blankley goes into detail on how the current Islam thread is akin to the rise of Nazi-fascism in the 30s: "Just as the Nazis reached back to German mythology and the supposed Aryan origins of the German people, the radical Islamists reach back to the founding ideas of their religious culture." Blankley also goes into detail about the many problems posed by the massive Islam immigration into Europe in the last several decades, describing as an example how Malmo, Sweden's population is now 25 percent Islam, and what it has done to the city. In the last part of the book, Blankley offers several potentially controversial ideas on how to win this battle. You'll want to read it for yourself...

This book should be required reading for high school and college students, whether one accepts the basic premise or not. Blankley establishes himself as an astute observer of history. Whether he is right or not, I guess we will find out over time.