8) Western complacency and overconfidence. The trite assumption that the west will win, simply because it will, is rife. We won against fascism, Nazism, communism and militarism, so we must win against Islamic extremism. This, mixed with the inability to grasp the hatred for liberal democratic philosophy that the extremists have, creates the conditions for defeat. Dr. Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, goes further by suggesting that this has placed the west in the impossible position of being unable to stand for its own interests in the war by focusing on the interests of the enemy. If something is not really a threat, why concern yourself with winning?