{"id":21133,"date":"2026-07-29T17:06:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21133"},"modified":"2026-07-29T17:06:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:06:39","slug":"target-the-root-causes-of-forever-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21133","title":{"rendered":"Target the root causes of \u2018forever wars\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2023\/08\/11\/080823-twt-promo-editor-900x542_s900x542.jpeg?c0c047c263be1cb79d987d8cb70e60b4836e6ba6\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"article-category\"><strong>OPINION:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>America\u2019s \u201cforever wars\u201d are sustained by a \u201cforever complexity\u201d trap: Experts keep multiplying symptoms, policymakers keep fighting them and the root cause remains untouched.<\/p>\n<p>The mullahs draw their political authority from something more fundamental: The public acceptance of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/shariah\/\">Shariah<\/a> as divine law governing all aspects of life.<\/p>\n<p>The 2013 Pew Research Center survey found that 83% of Iranians supported <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/shariah\/\">Shariah<\/a> as the law of the land, while 82% said that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/iran\/\">Iran\u2019s<\/a> laws already follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/shariah\/\">Shariah<\/a>. That level of acceptance produces a predictable political result: 66% of Iranians supported a political role for religious leaders.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/iran\/\">Iran<\/a> is not an exception. Pew data across 20 diverse countries and territories with significant Muslim populations \u2014 from Kosovo to Afghanistan and Turkey to Pakistan \u2014 show that public support for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/shariah\/\">Shariah<\/a> and clerical political authority move together with striking consistency.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/iran\/\">Iran\u2019s<\/a> ideological foundation has remained intact, continuously regenerating clerical authority that justifies proxy warfare and exports instability to Israel\u2019s borders and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>Stabilizing Gaza requires more than governance arrangements. It requires addressing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/shariah\/\">Shariah<\/a> platform that would undermine any such effort.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey shows what a root-cause intervention looks like. After World War I, the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, systematically dismantled the institutional authority of Islamic law in public life. He removed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/shariah\/\">Shariah<\/a> from governance, placing mosques under state supervision and contesting the clerical establishment\u2019s claim to divine authority.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The result was decades of relative stability and measurably lower radicalization compared to many surrounding countries. The intervention worked because it targeted the root cause rather than its symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>In practice, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/shariah\/\">Shariah<\/a> is not a fixed, divine code operating by itself. It is a highly subjective and often self-serving clerical interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>Reduce public acceptance of that platform and clerical authority weakens structurally at the root.<\/p>\n<p>That is the way to undercut the mullahs\u2019 hold on power in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/iran\/\">Iran<\/a>, weaken the ideological engine of radicalization worldwide and move America and its allies out of the \u201cforever war\u201d trap.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MOORTHY MUTHUSWAMY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Leesburg, Virginia<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OPINION: America\u2019s \u201cforever wars\u201d are sustained by a \u201cforever complexity\u201d trap: Experts keep multiplying symptoms, policymakers keep fighting them and the root cause remains untouched. The mullahs draw their political authority from something more fundamental: The public acceptance of Shariah as divine law governing all aspects of life. The 2013 Pew Research Center survey found&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2023\/08\/11\/080823-twt-promo-editor-900x542_c0-8-900-533_s1200x700.jpeg?6c7ae6d0d431bca000e8f19777d5764712e38326","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}