I'm sorry if I'm being obtuse here, TEd, but why's it only
Western Civilization we should be defending? I'm all for fighting and making sacrifices for Civilization (or at least what I see as the essential values of civilized life) but see no reason to be exclusive about that. Surely we need all the allies we can get in such a hugely important task?
Eastern Civilization - I take this to include everything from the Middle East round through India to China, Japan, Taiwan etc - has produced many of the greatest achievements of mankind*. I don't feel inclined to even undervalue that contribution, let alone to put "Eastern" folk in the same category as "the Enemy", which is achieved by implication.
This is at the very least an incredibly careless choice of words. At worst it's divisive, to put it very mildly indeed.
I'm afraid that one term disables my appreciation of the rest of Helprin's words.
Shona* Do I really need to list what Eastern Civilization has given us? The list would probably start with
Civilization 
