Posted on 08/17/2004 7:28:19 PM PDT by quidnunc
A couple of months back, Sudan took time out from its hectic schedule of ethnic cleansing in Darfur to get elected to a three-year term at the U.N. Human Rights Commission. The U.S. representative protested this move by walking out before the final vote.
Big deal. The Sudanese delegate had a much droller reaction. Following his election, he immediately announced his major concern was the human-rights abuses at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.
At such moments, I find myself thinking: Do they know us much better than we know them? Take, for example, four small items in the news. Like Sudan's man at Turtle Bay, they're all revealing:
1) German prosecutors announce they're dropping all the most serious charges against the only terrorist convicted for the 9/11 attacks, and releasing him.
2) The Philippines, in order to obtain the release of one hostage, pulls its troops out of Iraq and, according to reports, pays the terrorists a ransom of $6 million.
3) The U.N. Oil-for-Food program turns out to be funding the insurgents in Iraq.
4) A band of Syrian musicians terrifies passengers aboard a flight from Detroit to Los Angeles.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
SteynOnTheWorld
FOUR BAD SIGNS
A couple of months back, Sudan took time out from its hectic schedule of ethnic cleansing in Darfur to get elected to a three-year term at the UN Human Rights Commission. The US representative protested this move by walking out before the final vote.
Big deal. The Sudanese ambassador had a much droller reaction. Following his election, he immediately announced his major concern was the human rights abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.
At such moments, I find myself thinking: Do they know us much better than we know them? Take, for example, four small items in the news. Like Sudan’s man at Turtle Bay, they’re all revealing:
1) German prosecutors announce they’re dropping all the most serious charges against the only terrorist convicted for the 9/11 attacks, and releasing him.
2) The Philippines, in order to obtain the release of one hostage, pull their troops out of Iraq and, so it’s reported, pay the terrorists a ransom of $6 million.
3) The UN Oil-for-Food program turns out to be funding the insurgents in Iraq.
4) A band of Syrian musicians terrifies passengers aboard a flight from Detroit to Los Angeles.
Those are four good reasons why I’m in favor of the US going to terrorist-sponsoring states and dropping bombs on them. John Kerry, among others, believes that the war is “primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation”. If it is, we’ll lose. The prosecutors in Hamburg decided to drop charges against Mounir Motassadeq because “they fear” the crucial American evidence against him was obtained by torturing detainees at Guantanamo. That’s all: just a casual assumption that the Great Satan was up to his old tricks.
“No doubt they will complain bitterly,” said a German “anti-terrorist” official, sounding awfully pleased with himself. “Let us say we have different views on how to handle this problem.” Three of the 9/11 “pilots” lived in Hamburg. But the Germans have pretty much made clear to Washington that trying to “handle this problem” at the Hamburg end is not an option. There’s going to be a whole lot of days like that if we try to fight a war with subpoenas: “The judge has thrown out the mass murder charges, but the DA says we can still nail him on mail fraud.”
What’s impressive is the way these supposedly unassimilated outsiders pick up on our weaknesses so quickly – the legalisms, the ethnic squeamishness, the bureaucratic inertia. As Claudia Rosett has demonstrated, when Saddam went the UN route, he played it more skillfully than Clinton or Bush. As with law enforcement, the transnational organizations’ distinctive combination of western sloth and thug-state corruption ensures that all you do by entering that arena is even the playing field to the enemy’s advantage.
In crude, hard ways, the Islamists have shown from Spain to the Philippines the leverage they can wield. Has the world’s only hyperpower no pressure of its own to apply? Bush spelt it out three years ago: you’re either with us or against us. In Manila, Gloria Arroyo has just switched sides. Bankrolling the enemy to the tune of six million bucks may not be much in US terms – in West Virginia, it’d barely cover the foundation of another Robert C Byrd Institute of Time-Servers public building – but it would be enough to fund another 13 9/11s. If the Philippines is now objectively “against us”, there has to be a price to pay; Bush’s words have to mean something.
As for those 14 Syrian musicians on a NorthWest flight, they had a grand old time, going to the washrooms in groups, back and forth, taking along bulky hand luggage and returning to their seats with the bags mysteriously empty, etc, etc. After their fellow passenger Annie Jacobsen wrote it up for Women’s Wall Street, there was much speculation: Was it a dry run, such as James Woods witnessed before 9/11? Were they terrorists posing as musicians?
Here’s one thing I’ve come to appreciate in the last three years: the tremendous cultural confidence of young Muslim males. On September 11th, they celebrated in the streets of Copenhagen and at Concordia University in Montreal. In Bradford, Yorkshire, they roamed the town, banging on the hoods of passing cars, forcing them to stop and making the drivers shout “Osama is a great man.” They understood, even on the day, that nothing would be done to them.
I don’t know why Syrian musicians are touring the US. Notwithstanding the doubtless vibrant music scene, Syria remains a terrorist state and its citizens should be subject to particular scrutiny. But, if I were a Syrian musician let into America, it’d be a hoot to wind up the soft paranoid Americans by making them think you’re a terrorist. And, if two or three harmless Syrian beat combos get hassled by the authorities, James Zogby and CAIR and the other efficient lobby groups will kick up a fuss, and Norm Mineta will fine the airlines and impose mandatory sensitivity-training on the cabin crews. And the next time a stewardess sees something funny going on, she’ll think, “Do I really want to get mixed up in this? Who needs another Islamophobia re-education class?”
The self-imposed constraints of this war – legalistic, multilateral, politically correct – are clearer every day. “Know your enemy,” they say. They know us pretty well.
National Review, August 9th 2004
~ Mark's "Happy Warrior" column can be read every two weeks in National Review . In the current issue, don't miss Steyn on the new America Firsters, only in the print edition of National Review, on sale now - or save
I'm wondering if those Syrian musicians were on their way to "the Third Annual Daniel Pearl Music Day, which promotes a more humane world, free of the hatred that took Danny's life".
You might want to check out this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1193558/posts
They are bullies reveling in their power, nothing more. Negotiation does not work. A sharp jab to the nose does. Most of us learn this lesson in elementary schoolyards.
Wish I knew for sure President Bush has read this article.
I recomend all see the movie "Savior". Very gripping & one can relate to the man's desire to obtain some very gruesome payback.
The Character "Guy" played by Dennis Quaid makes a very personal visit to a mosque after his family is murdered by Muslim terr perps.
He then goes to Bosnia and tucks in many other Isamists for their long dirt naps.
This movie makes Arnold in "Collateral Damage" look like a wuss puss.
You may not be allowed to use the name Daniel Pearl you know.
[You might want to check out this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1193558/posts]
5) No balls in DC
Seal the borders
Expell the invaders (including the UN) from US soil
Vaporize American enemies
Tell the rest of the world to kiss our asses, WE make the rules now.
I know, it'll never happen, see #5 above
GG,
You're a new poster here so I thought I'd point you to a thread on the topic.
That's all.
No no, I was glad you posted it. I'm sure lots of people wouldn't understand my little joke if you hadn't.
Back at you. Hoping it was a 'joke.'
Another Steyn-bright moment.
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