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WSJ: 7/7/2005--Will yesterday's savagery reunite the West against its common enemy?
opinionjournal.com ^ | July 8, 2005 | Editorial

Posted on 07/08/2005 5:40:48 AM PDT by OESY

Certainly we should have learned by now that appeasement wins no reprieve. The terrorists don't hate what we do as much as who we are, so there is no safe place to retreat to.... And retreat from battling the Islamists in the Middle East would only make it easier for them to take the battle to us at home....

That al Qaeda's tactics have changed to smaller bombings is notable, though of little comfort. As in Madrid, the London explosions lacked the diabolical audacity of flying planes into the Pentagon. But as allied defenses against major targets have been strengthened, the terrorists are striking soft targets with bombs that are very hard to detect....

That Islamists haven't mounted such an attack in the U.S. suggests not they aren't willing but that they haven't been able to. And one reason has been the forceful American response in the wake of 9/11.

Yet that resolve continues to fade along with the public memories of that day. For months the debate in Washington hasn't been over how best to fight terrorists but how harshly we treat them. Rather than strengthen the Patriot Act, Congress wants to weaken it by creating a library loophole. The press corps has wallowed in Abu Ghraib as the defining event of the entire Iraq War.

In the wake of London, the political attacks on Guantanamo deserve special mention here. That detention center is designed to hold precisely the kind of stateless, uniform-less terrorists who carry out such attacks. Clearly these men remain a threat, and we have to find somewhere to put them once they are captured so they can't return to kill more innocents....

The terrorists believe Iraq is the central battlefield in the war on terror, even if some in the West still don't....

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: abughraib; afghanistan; alqaeda; axisofweasels; biden; blair; guantanamo; gwot; iraq; islamists; london; middleeast; patriotact; terrorist
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QUOTE OF THE DAY

Perhaps the London bombings will inspire a new shared determination. Yesterday Mr. Blair read a joint statement of the leaders present, including France's Jacques Chirac and Germany's Gerhard Schroeder: "Today's bombings will not weaken in any way our resolve to uphold the most deeply held principles of our societies and to defeat those who would impose their fanaticism and extremism on all of us. We shall prevail and they shall not."

1 posted on 07/08/2005 5:40:49 AM PDT by OESY
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To: OESY
Perhaps the London bombings will inspire a new shared determination.

I kinda doubt it ... we've been ignoring the same things happening in Israel for quite a while now ...

2 posted on 07/08/2005 5:52:18 AM PDT by tx_eggman (Does it hurt when they shear your wool off?)
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To: tx_eggman

The Rats are already fanning out all over the media, spreading the "it's all Bush's and Blair's fault for being in Iraq" talking points. I guess that answers the WSJ's question.


3 posted on 07/08/2005 5:55:38 AM PDT by CFC__VRWC ("Anytime a liberal squeals in outrage, an angel gets its wings!" - gidget7)
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To: OESY; MadIvan; quidnunc; Brian Allen; SJackson; dennisw
I have become cynical.

After 9-11, after Bali, after Madrid, we were going to "get serious." Yes we go after terror cells, etc., but we don't really speak the truth, face the hard facts, and do what must be done. When we try, the Dems whine (GITMO and Abu Gharib) the Eurotrash trashes us.

We blackmail Israel into making deals with jihadis, and worst of all, we suppress the memories and images of the terrorist attacks so that we forget.

We have a Bush-hating 5th column here that hates him more than they hate the jihadis. We need the oil from the ME so we appease the Saudis. Plus we have to prop up the Saudis so that the jihadis won't take over the oil fields, and all the while the Saudis export terrorism, the two-faced bastards.

We have to nail Bin Laden and Zarqawi. We need to kill the head of the snake and adopt a ZERO TOLERANCE for terrorism. That means no "Palestine" - no ranting imans - no hate-filled speeches in mosques - no PC talk about Islam - and we must undertake relentless pursuit of terrorists, with targeted killings if the perps are found.

Will we take the measures necessary "this time?"

4 posted on 07/08/2005 5:56:54 AM PDT by veronica
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To: OESY
Hah. The Axis Of Weasels deliver soaring rhetoric. What's needed is results. How about putting combat troops in Iraq? That will be a test of their willingness to defeat Al Qaeda with the blood of their own sons. As they say, talk's cheap. Color me unimpressed.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
5 posted on 07/08/2005 6:00:06 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: OESY

Something needs to awaken our resolve in this matter. Perhaps this horrible event will do so. The British of today are not quite what they were in the past but then, neither are we. The kinder, softer view of the world we have been sold and grown accustomed to is a myth. The world remains a savage place where those who foolishly beat their swords into plowshares end up plowing for those who kept their swords. I'm not sure that the old British bulldog is still with us but this yank on it's chain should wake him up if anything will. I pray that it is so.


6 posted on 07/08/2005 6:05:40 AM PDT by Leg Olam (I'm not crazy, I've just been in a very bad mood for 30 years.)
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To: OESY

Will yesterday's savagery even convince the West of who and what that enemy is?

I doubt it.


7 posted on 07/08/2005 6:05:53 AM PDT by Redbob
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To: OESY

IMO the answer is no.

The same politicians that shouted outrage at 9/11 are talking about appeasement with terrorists.

We saw terrorists attacks up to 9/11 and then we have seen Madrid and now London and a bunch of little strikes in between, not counting the hundreds or thousands of attacks in Iraq. The outrage amongst the left last until after the smoke clears and the blood stains on the pavement has been cleaned up then they are forgotten.

Our politicians and governments (in the West) don't have the nerve it takes to fight a GWOT.


8 posted on 07/08/2005 6:06:11 AM PDT by Americanexpat (A strong democracy through citizen oversight.)
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To: veronica

Simple answer,

No.


9 posted on 07/08/2005 6:08:13 AM PDT by Xenophobic Alien (Wilf for president)
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To: veronica
Simple answer: No we won't take the necessary measures this time. Sorry.

Long answer: Significantly more people are going to have to die in order for the "elites" to take action. Even then some useful idiots will still play the blame game - i.e. fix the blame and not the problem. We can't get the FedGov interested in border security even now. Our "betters" have determined we are expendable. Take personal action with that in mind.
10 posted on 07/08/2005 6:09:49 AM PDT by RKV ( He who has the guns, makes the rules.)
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To: OESY


.


England's New KING ARTHUR =


911 Lifesaving Hero RICK RESCORLA

http://www.RickRescorla.com

http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24361

.


11 posted on 07/08/2005 6:09:58 AM PDT by ALOHA RONNIE ("ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer/Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965 http://www.lzxray.com)
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To: RKV

The Dems won't even put Bolton at the UN - cause Bolton is too "mean".


12 posted on 07/08/2005 6:11:43 AM PDT by veronica
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To: OESY
"Certainly we should have learned by now that appeasement wins no reprieve."

How can they make this statement? As long as Spain suffers no further attacks they have won at least a temporary reprieve, FOR SPAIN, in exchange for their withdrawal from Iraq. Spain's actions encouraged the terrorists to attack others (as everyone knew it would), and they should be hanging their heads in shame today.

13 posted on 07/08/2005 6:12:25 AM PDT by LZ_Bayonet
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To: OESY
The answer to the headline is "of course not". The Axis of Weasels has not changed. When they issue the proclamation:

Today's bombings will not weaken in any way our resolve to uphold the most deeply held principles of our societies and to defeat those who would impose their fanaticism and extremism on all of us.

...you have to understand that "deeply held principles" means "it's Bush's fault" and "fanaticism" and "extremism" aren't references to the Religon of Peace but to Bush and Rove. In a week things will be back to normal in London and those who have hastened to blame Islamo-fascism will have been duly chided by the BBC and the leading papers (and, of course, the American MSM).

14 posted on 07/08/2005 6:14:42 AM PDT by Moosilauke
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To: veronica

I wish I could get more excited about sending Bolton to the UN - he IS a good man. There are other things Bolton could do which would be a better use of his time since we should leave the UN and kick the rest of the kleptocratic appeasers out of our country.


15 posted on 07/08/2005 6:26:01 AM PDT by RKV ( He who has the guns, makes the rules.)
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To: OESY
"We shall prevail and they shall not."

We shall if we are more persistent than islam. We must somehow get thru to our "leaders" that islam is serious about making all of us live in 6th century dirt. The United States has the best trained and best equiped army that has ever been raised in the history of the world. I can't believe that our "leaders" would be more afraid of what a bunch of American hating lawyers and judges would "say" about them than millions of dusty lunitics that are bent on changing our very way of life. It is kind of disheartening, I must say, to read that our federal judges have confered "constitutional rights" to people that are trying to kill us, and nobody, and I mean nobody in the Bush Administration has told the judges to go 'f themselves.

Read this:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent."

... Calvin Coolidge

I submit to you that islam is persistant....and we must be more persistant by killing them all. If we waver, or let the liberals get in charge, you better measure your women for a burka.

16 posted on 07/08/2005 6:26:40 AM PDT by B.O. Plenty (Liberalism and islam are terminal.......)
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To: OESY

A joint statement from world leaders like Chirac, Schroeder and Putin? These are the same people who not only opposed our Resolution 1441 intervention but who profiteered during the Oil for Food Program? Spare me.


17 posted on 07/08/2005 6:38:44 AM PDT by Inwoodian
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To: CFC__VRWC

The Rats are already fanning out all over the media, spreading the "it's all Bush's and Blair's fault for being in Iraq" talking points


Jan 25 1993, Five commuters were shot outside the gates of the US CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Two people died. Mir [Amil] Aimal Kasi, a Pakistani national, was tracked down for the shooting in 1997 in Afghanistan and returned to the US. He was convicted of murder in 1997 and was executed Nov 14, 2002

Feb 26 1993, The parking garage of the 107-story World Trade Center was bombed in NYC by terrorists. The bombing killed 6 and injured over 1000 people. 4 Islamic extremists were convicted and each sentenced to 240 years in prison. Militant Muslims Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil fled the country. Yousef was captured in Pakistan in 1995 and Ismoil was picked up in Jordan. The two were convicted in 1997 of conspiracy. In 1998 Yousef was sentenced to life plus 240 years in prison after declaring: "I am a terrorist and I am proud of it." Ismoil was sentenced to 240 years in prison. In 2000 Laurie Mylroie authored "Study of Revenge," an investigation of the bombing.


18 posted on 07/08/2005 6:40:11 AM PDT by Valin (The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.)
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

..................

19 posted on 07/08/2005 7:07:45 AM PDT by SJackson (On the second try, I got that jug off, but then I had a bear tied to a tree)
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To: OESY
No. European leaders invited the Muslims into their countries thirty years ago, as a deterrent against "American power". Now they have a tiger by the tail and it is going to eat them alive. Any show of support for Israel or America - and show of real solidarity would bring the Muslim preachers down on their heads and they know it.(See Spain's announcement that they favor the Palestinians over the Jews).

The European leaders will mince words and pretend to be horrified, but they are only farting into the wind. Europe's destiny has already been determined: Western Civilization has about ten years, if that many.

20 posted on 07/08/2005 7:30:26 AM PDT by swampfox98 (Michael Reagan: "It's time to stop the flood.")
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