Thursday's attack in London is the latest blow struck in the war that began on Sept. 11. Its origins are easy to fathom: A minority of Muslim extremists, their numbers in the few millions, resents deeply the erosion of life in the Middle East and other Muslim areas. A globalized communications system reminds them daily how far behind a Pakistan is from India, how much better a South Korea or China is doing than Egypt, or how more humane life is in an Infidel North America or Europe than in Syria or Algeria.
Autocratic regimes, statist economies, gender apartheid, corruption, the absence of a free press â all that and more retard economic growth from the Gulf to Morocco. In response, theocratic regimes like the Taliban and the Iranian mullocracy blame the West for their own self-inflicted misery and inadequacies. But more often, clever dictators such as a Baathist Saddam, the Saudi Royal family, an Egyptian kleptocracy, or the Pakistani military regime allow Islamicists some rein, if not covert support, to deflect blame from their own failures onto the United States and the "Jews."
A shamed Islamic street â ill-housed, ill-fed, and ill-informed â is nourished on the mythology that a purer creed and a return to the 8th century alone can reclaim past glories of the caliphate, and stop the decadent intrusion of Western consumerism and popular culture.
So when terrorists strike in London â or Bali, New York or Madrid â they operate on a variety of assumptions. Middle Eastern governments may publicly deplore their methods, but privately sigh relief that al-Qaeda agents are still not yet after their own heads. Islamicist ganglia go deep into the central nervous system of the Pakistani intelligence service, not to mention the House of Saud.
Likewise, the Muslim public in the Middle East may decry terror, but privately often gets satisfaction when Westerners too are humbled. Their schadenfreude is cultivated by the old anti-Semitism â they can always say the Jews or Israel caused 9/11 or the London bombing â as well as by a deep shame over their own attraction toward Western affluence and consumerism. So we see the eerie spectacle after a 9/11 or 7/7 of imams assuring us that "Islam does not condone such things," even as bin Laden T-shirts and copies of Mein Kampf sell like hot-cakes on the Arab Street.
A third critical assumption is the deniability of culpability: only al Qaeda or its Mcfranchises in Europe are ever deemed responsible for something like Madrid or London. Apparently, such groups never visit the Pakistani border areas, never take a dime from Saudi princes, never travel through Syria on their way to this or that terrorist camp. And thus no terror-abetting nation ever faces any real accounting. That the attacks are periodic rather than daily, and that most of the world's oil reserves are in the Middle East make it easier for Westerners to live with the bloodshed rather than issue real ultimatums.
Fourth, and most important, the terrorists and their supporters understand that in a strange way the West is not only split, but also increasingly illiberal as well. It has lost confidence in its old commitment to rationalism, free speech and empiricism, and now embraces the deductive near-religious doctrines of moral equivalence and utopian pacifism. Al Qaeda's supporters will say that Thursday's victims were killed because of Afghanistan or Iraq. Westerners will duly repeat the dull refrain that "Bush lied, thousands died" in their guilt-ridden search for something we did to cause this.
And so, rather than focus our attention on the madrassas and the mosques that preach hatred, we will strive to learn more about Islamic culture, as if our own insensitivity were the true culprit. Our grandfathers could despise Bushido â Japan's warrior cult â without worrying whether they were being unfair to Buddhists; we of less conviction and even less courage, cannot do likewise.
In short, we now know what to expect from the London bombings and the others to follow. There will be no effort to punish the states that subsidize al Qaeda. Critics will cling to the myth that the British got what they had coming. The primary obsession of many Westerners will be to extend sensitivity to Islam, not the victims of those who kill in its name. And all will be consoled that just a few dozen were harvested this time.
#2
Our grandfathers could despise Bushido â Japan's warrior cult â without worrying whether they were being unfair to Buddhists; we of less conviction and even less courage, cannot do likewise.
Reparations must be due to our poor Buddist brothers. Who can Rainbow PUSH best extort, and what would the "booty call" look like?
Posted by: Jesse Jackson ||
07/12/2005 11:43 Comments ||
Top||
#3
There will be no effort to punish the states that subsidize al Qaeda.
Perhaps. Depends on who's in office when the troops come back from Germany, South Korea, and Iraq. Remember, Libya was for free!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/12/2005 12:27 Comments ||
Top||
#4
.com, can't let a time machine reference pass without a comment, nice one.
Opinion piece but worth the read. Very good points that often gets missed... Hat tip LGF. EFL
...
And I listened raptly to the expanding stream of political dignitaries who condemned such acts of murder and the spilling of innocent blood. I listened to President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. I followed the sad yet determined consternation voiced by Jacques Chirac of France and Koffi Anan of the United Nations. Pope Benedict, Governor Pataki, Zapatero of Spain and Russia's Vladimir Putin. They spoke angrily and vowed to pursue, capture or eliminate the perpetrators. Eloquence and passionate determination, reaffirming the world's commitment to eradicate the scourge of terrorism against innocent civilians, was voiced by all without exception. By all!
It was then that I began to shiver. I shivered not from the cold wind in July, but rather from the sudden realization that I and they are not chess pieces in the same game. The shiver rose from within, from the deep recesses of my heart. Sudden realization? No. It was a shiver brought on not by realization, but of affirmation.
In the words spoken by these politicians I hear affirmation that my child's blood, a Jewish child's blood, is of a different color. I shivered as I heard London's mayor, Livingstone, lamented that this was "mass murder... by terrorists bent on indiscriminate... slaughter... aimed at ordinary working-class Londoners...." and an ugly thought entered my mind.
What of the slaughter of my children, 'ordinary, working-class' brothers and sisters in Haifa and Jerusalem, Ashdod and Ashkelon? What about my working-class Jewish fellow citizens whose simple wants and needs are the same as those in London? Where is the determination to eradicate the vermin who have turned Israeli streets into infernos as they blow up buses, restaurants and malls?
Do those murdering and maiming my children deserve a state of their own from which they can peacefully continue to bathe my country in blood? Why are the snakes in London to be pursued and eradicated, while those who have killed young Jewish mothers, Jewish infants and the unborn are to be rewarded and feted as heroes in every corner of every continent in the universe?
I shook spasmodically, the shiver rattled my teeth, as I heard President Bush, my president, vow to "find them... bring them to justice...." Bring whom to justice, I thought loudly? I'm sure he wasn't referring to those same Palestinian murderers who indiscriminately murder Israelis and whose incarceration is cut short by American demands that Israel set them free. I'm sure President Bush wasn't referring to the PLO hoodlums who have been so conveniently and magically re-incarnated in the form of newly-appointed Palestinian Authority 'policemen'. And I'm sure that the president's words of defiance weren't directed at Yasser Arafat's henchman, otherwise known as Abu Mazen.
But then the shiver receded, and in its place, I felt total disappointment and anger sweep over me. There, on the screen, stood Russia's Vladimir Putin. In a no-nonsense tone of voice, the Russian Bear spoke of the need for a "united response" to such acts of terror. Said Mr. Putin, through an interpreter: "Wherever such inhuman crimes occur -- in London, in New York or in Moscow -- we must unconditionally condemn them and unite all civilized countries in the struggle against international terrorism." London? New York? Moscow? I waited to hear Haifa. And Jerusalem. And Afula. And Netanya.
What Mr. Putin said was correct. What he urged was appropriate. The cities he named have suffered greatly at the hands of Muhammad's followers. These cities and others have seen the gory results of Islam's fanaticism. I waited for the Russian weasel to bring his lips to acknowledge those cities and many others in Israel as the epicenters of Islam's global assault on decency. I waited and expected his outrage at the despicable murder in London and New York and Moscow to continue a minute or two further so that I may know that, finally, perhaps, the world will be prompted to avenge my child's blood, too. I waited for Mr. Putin to "unconditionally condemn" the barbaric acts committed against my parents, my loved ones. I waited... and waited. And then he was gone.
I cried for the children in England and for the children in Russia. And I cried along with those in Spain. I cried for them all.
#1
It's important to remember that despite the fact that the media never cries for spilled Jewish blood, that most people do.
It's all marketing - a message repeated over 30 years through leftist channels - NPR, BBC, and the large dailys. The lie repeated and repeated that somehow that Israel is responsible for the Palestinians. It was repeated so often it became true. For too many on the left, the killing of the Isaelis is an abstract. They cry for the people, but the lie is so ingrained that can't make the connection as they discuss the abstract. It's strange, but these same people get offended if you say that they don't care about Jewish children. They just think they are being fair.
Most people do care - no matter what they say on NPR, BBC or in the NYT.
#2
Most people would care - if they knew about it but the MSM simply refuses to cover the Israeli victims of suicide bombers outside of a 'scorecard' (the Palistinians scored 8 points(!) with a suiclde bombing today in Israel...)
Compare the coverage the MSM dedicated to the 'alledged' desecration of a book with their coverage of murdered jews.
For example: last year a 8 month pregnant jewish woman and her 3 (under 10 YO) old daughters were killed in cold blood in Israel (crime? Being Jewish....) - The MSM totally ignored it outside of Israel. I dont think hardly anyone outside of Israel or Rantburg (and a few other blogs) even heard about it.
A Koran is 'alledged' to have been dropped on the floor in GITMO - the MSM covers it extensively for weeks-on-end. Rants and Raves and calls it an 'OUTRAGE!'.
None. Just madness. I am more and more inclined to conclude that these people (MSM, LLL) have some serious mental deficiency.A fully matured human being is supposed to have both rational and emotional sides of psyche developed. In their case, the ratio seems to be gone. Entirely. It's like you talk to them martian.
#4
think things might be different if the next time a Nazi regime arises, they come first for the journalists...ohhh, I forgot, Ashkkkroft and Gonzalez already are... What a self-absorbed pack of assholes
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2005 22:25 Comments ||
Top||
â[They] might have nuclear bombs but we have the children bomb, and these human bombs must continue until liberation.â â Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi.
When British immigrant Sheikh Qaradawi uttered these words, he had Israel, not his adopted base-of-operations, in mind; however, yesterdayâs events underscored their prescience. How they contrast with the bluster of Londonâs pro-Islamist mayor, âRedâ Ken Livingstone, who boldly told terrorists, âwhatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.â The fact that Livingstone recently âhostedâ and embraced Sheikh Qaradawi, defending him from charges of extremism while calling George W. Bush âthe greatest threat to life on this planet,â further illustrates the self-destructive indulgence of the Leftâs Unholy Alliance with radical Islam. The fact that al-Qaeda killed nearly 40 people yesterday morning in a series of Israeli-style bus bombings in order to drive Europeans out of Iraq illuminates the critical facts facing the nations of the democratic West.
Fact #1: The war on Iraq is not a distraction from the War on Terror; it is the War on Terror â and al-Qaeda will stop at nothing to end it.
Yesterdayâs bombings prove al-Qaeda agrees with President Bushâs classification of Iraq as the terror warâs âcentral front.â The terrorist cell that claimed responsibility for Londonâs 7/7 attack â âThe Secret Organization of al-Qaeda in Europeâ â declared:
We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all crusader governments that they will receive the same punishment if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan
Notice the strategic priority conveyed by their press release: âIraq and Afghanistan.â Although Osama bin Laden is likely surrounded by Green Berets in the mountainous no manâs land straddling the Afghan-Pakistani border, his minions demand Allied withdrawal from Iraq, because that is the terroristsâ bleeding wound. Iraq has become the terror warâs valley of Armageddon, the decisive battleground between good and evil â and as in eschatology, evil is losing.
Al-Qaedaâs first strike in the West in 16 months killed 40 people; Last month, Coalition forces killed more than that many âinsurgentsâ in one day. They also arrested more than 900 terrorists, including Zarqawiâs âmost trusted aideâ and many other top al-Qaeda operatives, killed more, and even freed one of our own hostages during the two-week-long âOperation Lightning.â (Last weekâs âOperation Swordâ netted more terrorists yet.)
Moreover, the liberation of Iraq has the potential to change the dynamics of the entire Middle East. Coalition sacrifices brought democracy to Iraq and saw paralyzing fear drown in a sea of ink-stained fingers. A democratic, pluralistic, majority-Muslim nation in the heart of the Islamic world could demonstrate the superiority of Western values and inspire a chain-reaction throughout the region, drying up jihadist recruitment. Put simply, Iraq is what Noam Chomsky calls âthe threat of a good example.â
The terrorists understand, as Osama bin Laden does, that âThis Third World WarâŠis ragingâ in Iraq; âThe whole world is watching this warâ; and it will end in his âvictory and glory or misery and humiliation.â That they have taken such desperate measures to get us out confirms beyond all doubt the importance of this battle, and which way it is going.
Fact #2: Appeasing terrorists cannot buy peace.
Amidst yesterdayâs tragedy, a moment approaching farce came when Spainâs socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero pledged his âimmediate and unconditional helpâŠto pursue the criminals that have carried out such a repulsive attack.â Zapatero has helped enough. There is a one-to-one correlation between Madridâs surrender to al-Qaeda last March and the slaughter in Londonâs âtube.â Zapatero was swept into office three days after the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings (which killed 191), essentially at al-Qaedaâs request. Immediately upon election, he rewarded the terrorists by withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq. His âhelpâ taught al-Qaeda that First World governments are weak and easily blackmailed by terrorism. During the campaign, Zapatero declaimed, âFighting terrorism with bombs, with Tomahawk missiles, isn't the way to beat terrorism, but the way to generate more radicalism.â The London subway bombings show that âfightingâ terrorism with capitulation is a quicker route.
Yesterday, other Euro-socialists followed closely on his heels. French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin pronounced, âMore than ever, democracies must rally together and show unity in the face of the terrorist threat.â Jacques Chirac went further yet, saying, âThis scorn for human life is something we must fight with ever greater firmness.â Tony Blair knows not to count They have reneged on their proffered anti-terrorist aid before. In a private dinner on January 19, 2003, de Villepin assured Colin Powell France would take an active part in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The wild-haired French diplomat then killed the U.S.-backed second authorization of force resolution in the UN Security Council. The French could pursue âever greater firmnessâ for eternity and never rise above the level of collaboration.
The Euro-Left apparently wants to fight terrorists everywhere except where they are: in Iraq.
Fact #3: The enemy isnât just âBin Laden.â
Appeasement does not just come from surrender; it also comes from setting the standard of âvictoryâ too low. To the Left, âwinning the War on Terrorâ means capturing Osama bin Laden and trying him before the International Criminal Court (where heâll receive life in prison after a multi-year trial). Since Bush has not âgotten bin Laden,â he has not won the War on Terror. However, genuine victory must assure that all terrorist cells that would threaten our safety and all those governments that aid and abet them are liquidated â regardless of whether they happen to feature Osama bin Laden as their titular head. Remember, Osama and al-Zarqawi were presumably not connectedâŠuntil a tape-recorded bin Laden endorsed the Jordanian viva voce, and al-Zarqawi changed the name of his terrorist group. Now we understand a defeat for one is a setback for the other.
âŠWhich brings us to the London bombings. Before yesterday, no one knew of the existence of âThe Secret Organization of al-Qaeda in Europe,â and as of this writing, it is unclear whether it is a formal part of al-Qaeda or merely appropriated the name. Some have speculated the âsecret organizationâ got its foot soldiers from Ansar al-Islam âfeeder cellsâ throughout Europe. Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaeda affiliate, has an estimated 100-times the number of fighters needed to carry out the London strike. This al-Qaeda affiliate also maintained a training base in northern Iraq during Saddamâs reign and has returned post-Saddam.
Still, the entire chorus of left-wing Democrats chided the president for linking Iraq with the War on Terror last week. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, accused President Bush of trying to âexploit the sacred ground of 9/11.â Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, said Bushâs speech âdid not provide a way forward in Iraq. [It] only served to remind the American people that our most dangerous enemy, namely Osama bin Laden, is still on the loose.â
It does not matter if Osama is âon the looseâ if he is incapacitated, and it does not matter if he is in police custody if his followers continue to assault Western, liberal democracy.
Tony Blair said this was ânot an attack on one nation but on all nations and on civilized people everywhere.â And it was not merely perpetrated by âbin Ladenâ but by the forces of worldwide Islamic terrorism. President Bush understands one must wage a multi-front war to make the United States safe. This is why the Left's ruse of splitting the war in Iraq from the War on Terror is ridiculous, losing sight of the forest amidst the trees. The war may at times focus on bin Laden â but it will surely rage on after his capture, perhaps more violently for a time.
And as my friend Alan Nathan pointed out on his radio program âBattleline,â at some point this war will have to focus on the terrorists en route to Iraq, before they cross its porous borders. This is why the War on Terror is all of-a-piece, a seemless front against Islamic jihad, wherever the terrorists happen to strike at the moment. It is foolish to reduce the war to any one man. Osama is but the most visible (and best-funded) representative of an Islamofascist movement popular throughout the Muslim world. Including London itself.
Fact #4: Unbridled immigration and tolerance of radical Islam is hazardous.
Great Britain finds itself the victim of terror in part because of its lax homeland security, open borders, and liberal social welfare policies. Shortly after 9/11 during a raid in Afghanistan, British intelligence discovered al-Qaeda had trained nearly 1,200 Muslim British nationals. This is a tiny percentage of the UKâs 1.8 million Muslims, nearly all recent immigrants fed on the Kingâs pence. England also has no Patriot Act, so terrorists have a freer hand in plotting their crimes â even in public. Groups like Al-Muhajiroun â which celebrated 9/11 as âA Towering Day in History,â has called for the assassination of world leaders, and whose leader has ties to Osama bin Laden â operated freely post-9/11.
London played home to the infamous Finsbury Park Mosque, led by Abu Hamza al-Masri. Finsbury provided spiritual support for âshoe bomberâ Richard Reid, al-Qaeda trainee Feroz Abassi, the man who allegedly plotted to blow up the U.S. Embassy in France. When the bobbies made their belated raid, they found chemical weapons gear, as though the mosque were planning to live through a chemical attack. Imam Masri openly told his followers to âterrorize even policy makers,â screaming his Friday sermons on the sidewalk. Any society tolerating public cries for its violent overthrow will likely live to see that come to pass.
Fact #5: The modern Left has become so consumed with hatred of the West that it embraces its would-be destroyers.
The fact that fundamentalist Muslims murdered British civilians as G-8 leaders met to bestow massive aid on underdeveloped and increasingly Muslim Africa could not make the contrast between the capitalist West and our murderous enemies any sharper. As President Bush said, âOn the one hand, we have people here who are working to alleviate poverty, to help rid the world of the pandemic of AIDS, working on ways to have a clean environment. And on the other hand, you've got people killing innocent people.â The subway bombers claimed with glee, ânow Britain is burning with fear and terror, from north to south, east to west.â They long for the day a despotic madman â whether Saddam, (Iranian president), or Kim Jong-il â will provide them a nuclear weapon they can detonate in the highest concentration of innocent Western civilians they can find.
Meanwhile, the Left, at home and abroad, continues to demonize George W. Bush and the soldiers carrying out the War on Terror. Londonâs âRedâ Ken Livingstone provides the most lamentable example. As noted above, he played host to Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi after the sheikh called for the death of Jews and âinfidelsâ and told al-Jazeera, âThere is no dialogue between us except by the sword and the rifle.â This February, Livingstone maintained, âSheikh Al-Qaradhawiâs ideology is utterly remote from extremism.â President Bushâs plan to kill terrorists, he assured us, was the real Weapon of Mass Destruction. Far-Left British MP George Galloway â whom Congress has said laundered Oil-for-Food bribes from Saddam Hussein through his wifeâs charity, allegedly benefiting an Iraqi child with leukemia â also lashed out at President Bush during his appearance on Capitol Hill.
If only the venom were limited to foreigners. Leftist Congresswoman Jane Harman, D-CA, responded to Thursdayâs bombing by stating, âthe notion that we are fighting terrorists in Iraq so we don't have to fight them in our cities is clearly false.â Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, in a speech given the day before the London bombings, said, âterrorism was the result of the war, not a reason for waging it and so we are in greater danger.â Boxer then demanded a âtime frame for the subsequent withdrawal of our troops.â
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, has compared the well-fed detainees of Gitmo to the emaciated inmates of Bergen-Belsen. Ted Kennedy, D-MA, has called Abu Ghraib âGeorge Bushâs gulagâ and insisted the president cooked up the Iraq war before 9/11. Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-NY, helpfully added last week that Bush didnât launch this theory on his own (how could he, the dummy?) â several prominent Jews assisted him. Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and scores of leftist organizations repeat the jiahdistsâ talking points as though they were the words of Allah, perpetuating al-Qaedaâs propaganda war gratis. Apparently, even the occasional mass murder will not dissuade them from clasping bloodstained hands in a united assault against the United States.
Until a radical Muslim can lay hands on a nuclear weapon, the Left will remain al-Qaedaâs most potent weapon. However they harass the Coalition, even on its own soil, they cannot defeat us militarily. Their only hope lies in causing us to defeat ourselves â a role the âantiwarâ Left perfected in Vietnam and continues to relish.
The bombings â carried out, as âRedâ Ken noted, against âworking classâ Londoners, in an attempt to disrupt the philanthropic designs of the G-8 Summit â should make clear the character of those the leftists are rallying behind, and the unflappable British showed the face of those they are rallying against. The United States and our allies in the Coalition have a charge to keep. Yesterdayâs bombings show us the stakes if we fail.
#1
The answer is very simple, defeating Muslim fanatics was done in the Phillipines by US troops a hundred years ago.
Take the remains and bury them in pig guts. Tell the press. Tell them that we've heard over and over that these terrorists are not Muslims, that they don't represent the Peaceful religion of Islam so we shall no longer treat them as peaceful Muslims but as idolitors and criminals. The UK/US/Isreal/India/Phillipines should all start the policy at the same time to share the heat and send a clear message that those actively fighting the war on terror will no longer play nice.
#2
And Timur the Lame had many wonderful methods as well, but how about if we defeat the enemy not become him.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/12/2005 22:52 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The most surefire, ironclad guaranteed way to become like the enemy (at least for the survivors) is to lose this war. I would rather win and convert their asses than the other way around.
Posted by: ed ||
07/12/2005 23:00 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Let's just continue to win this war the way we currently are. The only chance they have is if we get impatient or convinced by our traitors from withinthat we aren't winning.
I'm sure Rumsfeld knows all the methods used by Black Jack Pershing - he uses the man's desk. Mai Lai type stupidity just gives our traitors more ammunition for their demoralizing media campaigns.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/12/2005 23:16 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
