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| Wretchard on the "Christian Peacemaker Teams" |
| 2006-03-24 |
| EFL'd from a very long piece which you should go and read in its entirety 'cause, like everything this man writes, it's incisive as all get out. We judge figures by their actions under stress; note their choices; form some estimate of their capacity for truth; their ability to recognize quality even in their enemies. In the statement following their release Christian Peacemaker Teams have shown their quality by completely airbrushing out of the account of their rescue the fact it was performed by multinational forces. In terms of truthfulness, the statement of the CPT is in a class with that of Maurice Thorez, head of the French Communist Party, who described the Liberation of Paris without once naming LeClerc, Patton, Eisenhower or even de Gaulle. . . . . . . Now I can see that the Christian Peacemaker Teams were right to admire such as those who even one of their own described as criminal gangs. For I would much rather throw in with ruffians who still had a perverse sense of criminal honor and were willing to come to the aid of their fellows than entrust myself to people paralyzed with their own sense of sanctity, full of their own sense of righteousness. They have forbidden any attempts to visit retribution and justice upon their captors. And if they know anything more about this criminal gang they are unlikely to share it with the Coalition. The Washington Post reported shortly after CPT hostage Tom Fox was killed: Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. "We reject violence to punish anyone who harms us," said Doug Smith, quoting Fox, in a statement read to reporters at the group's headquarters in McLean, Virginia. If I have it aright, the CPT would not on principle -- if the word can be perverted thus -- have placed a call, if they could, to save Tom Fox as he was being tortured to death because it might bring Multinational Forces rushing to violent rescue, an act they would have no part of. Yet they saw no contradiction in precipitating this absurd situation by their intentional presence in Iraq and by trailing their coat in the most dangerous neighborhoods; nor did they think it ethically consistent to refrain from telling the Press of the kidnapping though they must have known efforts to rescue them would be made, despite their well-publicized refusals. There is nothing more suspicious than false modesty performed conspicuously upon a stage. As for myself, the Christian Peacemaker Teams remind me of nothing so much as Fred Phelps. I think that if ever there were an instance of latter-day blasphemy it must be in the CPT's hideous claim that their "only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers". Nothing seems further than the truth. They've endangered themselves, the lives of innocent Iraqis and those who hazarded themselves to find and rescue them for the sake of their own self-righteous theater. Vanity, not love is their watchword. Fortune and men's eyes and not God is who they worship. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #4 It was like this, as reported in the Telegraph: A deal had been struck with a man detained the previous night who was one of the leaders of the kidnappers. He was allowed a telephone call to warn his henchmen to leave the kidnap house. When the troops moved in and found the prisoners alive, they also let him go as promised. Seems the bad guys skated. |
| Posted by: Inspector Clueso 2006-03-24 21:49 |
| #3 If I have it aright, the CPT would not on principle -- if the word can be perverted thus -- have placed a call, if they could, to save Tom Fox as he was being tortured to death because it might bring Multinational Forces rushing to violent rescue, an act they would have no part of. That's one klaxon beginning to sound. Yet they saw no contradiction in precipitating this absurd situation by their intentional presence in Iraq and by trailing their coat in the most dangerous neighborhoods; That's two klaxons blaring away. nor did they think it ethically consistent to refrain from telling the Press of the kidnapping though they must have known efforts to rescue them would be made, despite their well-publicized refusals. They've endangered themselves, the lives of innocent Iraqis and those who hazarded themselves to find and rescue them for the sake of their own self-righteous theater. You'll have to speak up, you see, there's all these klaxons going off. This sort of vile sanctimonious holier-than-thou crap goes beyond evil. It is the very face of satan himself. Wretchard does well to summon up the name of Fred Phelps when discussing these twisted puppies. I agree, tu3031, next time we don't lift a finger and just let these idiots make love to their captors. The Stokholm Syndrome looks rational by comparison. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-03-24 19:29 |
| #2 It's of little help at the moment, but I have no doubt all these clowns are going to be in for a VERY rude (and hot) awakening when they die. (And I'm not even Christian.) I'd prefer a reckoning for them in this life, but I'll take what I can get.... |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-03-24 17:36 |
| #1 Fuck these idiots and those like them. The next time they get plucked off the streets by their Jihadi heroes, just send word on where their bodies will be dumped so we can bag em and tag em. There are more important things to spend time on over there then wasting time on bailing out the sanctimonius relics of the sixties and their wannabe desciples when their little Kumbaya games blow up in their faces. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-03-24 17:09 |