Posted on 04/12/2004 1:55:34 PM PDT by Cedar
Who's next? Terrorists' version of peace is an Islamic world
The tactic worked. They attacked the innocent – brutalized, killed and strung them up.
No, this isn't the Crucifixion or "The Passion" movie.
It's about Iraq's terrorists. They killed four civilian workers, burned them, brutalized their bodies and hung them before the cameras to be viewed around the world.
They're doing it again, taking hostages and threatening death and mutilation. Now, it's an American civilian, Thomas Hamill, being threatened with torture and death. Kidnapped Japanese face threats of burning alive along with kidnapped Israelis, Italians and others. Threats, too, of cannibalism.
The terrorists know what they're doing and what they want. It's not exactly what you think.
The tactic worked in their brutality to the four Americans and their flaunting them like hunting trophies. In fact, they were trophies in their war against the civilized West, not just the United States or Israel.
Their tactics are below civilized sensibilities – not only because they know that will shock us, but because they know we don't know how to defend ourselves against them and, too often, don't know how to respond.
Actually, we do know how to respond – at least some of us do. The problem is, at this point, we don't have the guts to do it.
Lee Harris, in his magnificent and must-read book "Civilization And Its Enemies," (Free Press) sets us straight. Simply, he says civilizations get in such jeopardy because of "forgetfulness." We become so secure, and things are so easy, that we "take civilization for granted," forgetting that such security was won by others with courage and blood.
I agree. We're fat and lazy. For us to fight to win this battle against terrorists out to destroy us – literally – we must fight as if our lives depend on it.
They do.
Not only do our lives depend on it, so does the survival of our country and other Western countries around the world. If that sounds overblown, think again.
If the United States were defeated, does anyone imagine European countries would survive unscathed? They'd be without our military and financial support, and since they're already so infiltrated with Islamic radicalism, it would simply be a matter of time. A short time.
Anyone with doubts need only read two other two excellent and sobering books, these by Italian journalist Orianna Fallaci. "The Rage and the Pride" first appeared as a newspaper essay. It was wildly popular, but immediately was met with attempts to ban it and with threats against her life. It was then published (Rizzoli) in the United States as a small book. Get it. Read it.
Her newest is "The Strength of Reason." Again, first released in Europe and met with the same anger and cries of vengeance. Read it and weep.
Fallaci courageously shows the pattern for disaster in Italy and France and spreading across Europe, which she calls "Eurabia" and a "province of Islam." The core of the issue is not only the invasion of terrorists, but also the hoards of Muslim "immigrants who settle in our home, and who with no respect for our laws, impose their ideas, their customs, their God." She also excoriates the Catholic Church for being silent as its beliefs are demeaned and outrageous practices, such as torture, are ignored.
She's right. Massive immigration is not without guile – it's a presence by numbers and a push to change laws and customs. There's no attempt to become "real" citizens of the host country, only to change to host to suit them.
It's gotten to the point, in liberal Europe, that immigration is being restricted and deportations are taking place. It's probably too late.
What about us? We have Muslim immigration. We're already see pressures on local, state and national policy concerning the "rights" of newcomers to force us to change laws and customs.
The dominance of multiculturalism and diversity proponents on every level of our society – schools, churches, academia, media, politics and the judiciary – gives these invaders almost free rein for victory. Are we committing suicide or designing our own execution?
All this is accomplished without violence. But add that to the mix, and the enemy will have the upper hand.
But, we have endured terrorist violence and 9-11 was on our turf. Yet we ignore the ramifications. We pretend we're dealing with "sane" people who have at their core what we believe "all" people have – a sense of honor, reason and civility. WRONG!
Lee Harris frames the point with today's events and shows the historic roots. He shows how we misread the enemy and could lose because of that.
Harris explains that our biggest challenge is that our terrorist enemies base their ideology on a fantasy of superiority. They hate us for what we have, what we do and what we believe.
Incredibly, they're encouraged and supported by our media and intellectuals who criticize and too often hate us for the same reasons, thinking fallaciously that if only we could reason together, there would be peace.
The terrorists love that. Their version of peace is an Islamic world. They got close once, until the oppressed fought back to regain the land Islam took by the sword. That fight for freedom and cultural autonomy was called the Crusades.
They say history repeats itself. Well, gang, here we are!
By Barbara Simpson, Radio talk-show host KSFO
Some of us are fat and lazy, but not our marines. Our brave marines had the stomach for a fight to the finish in Fallujah, and still do, even after their losses. Some even relished an all-out fight. It's what marines are trained to do, and they do not shrink from it. But then, as always, political considerations intervened: the Iraq National Council cried overkill. Cease fire. Allow the enemy to re-group. The marines were under the apparently mistaken impression that they were to fight to win. Until this is seen as an all-out war against terrorism in Iraq (and the monsters afoot in Iraq definitely are terrorists both in immoral tactics and goals), as elsewhere, it won't be won. And the struggle in Iraq is definitely part of the war on terror despite the Demonrats'strenuous effort to make it Bush's private war.
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