Posted on 04/30/2004 2:09:46 PM PDT by churchillbuff
Unless you have an argument against his argument, that is simply another snide comment. That, by the way, is certainly not the reason he did not go public earlier.
The fact is that our policy--the President's announced policy in the State of The Union--serves to confirm the worst charge that our real enemies have made against us, that we have been trying to impose our cultural values on the Arab peoples. It is sheer folly to think that giving the real terrorists the confirmation they seek, to help them recruit, helps America--and the only interest we have a right to be seeking is the American interest.
I could go further and comment on the absurdity of our taxing the American people to rebuild an oil rich land, but that opens up a whole other discussion.
Well, it may be more obvious to me that Odom is right in his predictions, because, being in agreement, I understand the rationale behind them. My version of that rationale is set forth in my essay, Iraq--Tactical Folly, Strategic Madness..
However, quite apart from the immediate, the folly of trying to impose Democracy on multi-cultural Third World peoples, has been demonstrated over and over again, over the past 45 years. There are links to materials offered to substantiate that at the site of the Iraq essay, above.
William Flax
Let's not get carried away. Benedict Arnold, Timothy McVeigh and John Fonda Kerry also wore the uniform.
Wearing the clothes, of itself, isn't enough to get my respect.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)
You sound like a Leftist. Maybe you are
Excerpt...
Such an image of America's purpose--and one need only look back to the Washington/Jefferson foreign policy, to which we adhered from the inception of the Republic until the early Twentieth Century, to demonstrate that such was indeed our traditional purpose in most foreign engagements--will make it infinitely harder for the future bin Ladens to recruit. It will also make it increasingly more difficult for any whom they do recruit to find any established social circle on earth, in which they will be welcome.
Yo, Neville. This is complete balderdash. There's no going back to a foreign policy of 200 plus years ago. Islam (the Jihadis' "established social circle on earth") is on the march -- again -- and can only be stopped by total defeat. Nothing, I repeat, nothing is going to stop future bin Ladens from recruiting suicidal psychopaths except for their total destruction.
Singapore for you ... Midway for me.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)
There's nothing like that old ad hominem thing when you can't make a case.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)
Our traditional foreign policy was for the ages. Our present foreign policy is moronic. It is not workable now, it would not have been workable 200 years ago. It will not be workable 1000 years from now.
Our traditional foreign policy went after our actual enemies. It did not insult people by claiming we knew better than they, what sort of culture they should develop. The post victory tangent in Iraq is not a foreign policy, it is an ego trip for socialist theorists--the crack-brains who believe in an undifferentiated humanity, responding like putty to environmental manipulation. The domestic aspect of the same malady is behind almost every major social problem that America has.
For analysis of the underlying ideological malady see The Lies Of Socialism. For analysis of the 40+ year old, failed Leftwing Democrat, foreign policy that the Administration is trying to revive, see Democracy In The Third World.
As for your stupid Neville quip, why don't you look a bit deeper into your own reference. What Chamberlain was agreeing to in 1938 was more akin to what the Administration wants to force on Iraqi minority peoples than what I have suggested is the correct approach to the Near East.
William Flax
When a Republican Administration embraces the ideas of Bill Clinton and Dean Rusk, they do not speak for me. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson did and do.
And by the way, while you provide links to sources that recognize an internal threat, you do not tell us what you would do to close our borders. That failure is just as serious a mistake as the Iraqi tangent, which you apparently support.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
Are we not doing that?
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)
They want to change our culture -- or kill us. Why shouldn't we want to change theirs? Considering that we did just that in Germany and Japan, changing the culture -- sufficiently -- is hardly a pipe dream.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)
As for "pipe-dreams," certainly the idea that the Arab world can alter American culture from afar is an extreme example. You need to distinguish between the relatively small numbers of fanatics who follow Bin Laden and those who may merely cheer, if they feel he is humiliating us. But the idea that a force with no industry, no planes of its own, no tanks, ships, etc., can seriously threaten the future existence of the American nation is ridiculous.
Let us put threats into perspective. Bin Laden killed perhaps 4,000 out of 200,000,000 Americans of the traditional European-origined American mainstream. That is one out of 50,000 people. During the period since the Administration took office, it is conservatively estimated that perhaps 4,000,000, Third World peoples have entered the United States--many illegally. That is a ratio of one to 50, and is part of a trend that has now been going on for almost 40 years, markedly changing the character of our populations in many areas.
If you are concerned about preserving American culture, join many of us in demanding that we close the borders. That is far more practical than many of the things that we are presently doing overseas.
William Flax
No, you need to distinguish between the number of fanatics who follow Bin Laden and the number of fanatics in Islam at large. Would 120 million be too large a number for you to digest?
But the idea that a force with no industry, no planes of its own, no tanks, ships, etc., can seriously threaten the future existence of the American nation is ridiculous.
Au contraire. The advent of WMD -- a threat which will only grow unless we do something to stop it -- could most certainly spell doom for our way of life. A few dirty bombs here, a little smallpox there and pretty soon...well you get the picture. Or maybe you don't.
Isolationism was great, when we could afford it. Those days are long gone.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)
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