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We all know who was to blame for Thursday's murders... and it wasn't Bush and Blair
The Observer ^ | Sunday July 10, 2005 | Nick Cohen

Posted on 07/09/2005 6:16:03 PM PDT by F14 Pilot

We all know who was to blame for Thursday's murders... and it wasn't Bush and Blair

The instinctive response of a significant portion of the rich world's intelligentsia to the murder of innocents on 11 September was anything but robust. A few, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, were delighted. The destruction of the World Trade Centre was 'the greatest work of art imaginable for the whole cosmos,' declared the composer whose tin ear failed to catch the screams.

Others saw it as a blow for justice rather than art. They persuaded themselves that al-Qaeda was made up of anti-imperialist insurgents who were avenging the wrongs of the poor. 'The great speculators wallow in an economy that every year kills tens of millions of people with poverty, so what is 20,000 dead in New York?' asked Dario Fo. Rosie Boycott seemed to agree. 'The West should take the blame for pushing people in Third World countries to the end of their tether,' she wrote.

In these bleak days, it's worth remembering what was said after September 2001. A backward glance shows that before the war against the Taliban and long before the war against Saddam Hussein, there were many who had determined that 'we had it coming'. They had to convince themselves that Islamism was a Western creation: a comprehensible reaction to the International Monetary Fund or hanging chads in Florida or whatever else was agitating them, rather than an autonomous psychopathic force with reasons of its own. In the years since, this manic masochism has spread like bindweed and strangled leftish and much conservative thought.

All kinds of hypocrisy remained unchallenged. In my world of liberal London, social success at the dinner table belonged to the man who could simultaneously maintain that we've got it coming but that nothing was going to come; that indiscriminate murder would be Tony Blair's fault but there wouldn't be indiscriminate murder because 'the threat' was a phantom menace invented by Blair to scare the cowed electorate into supporting him.

I'd say the 'power of nightmares' side of that oxymoronic argument is too bloodied to be worth discussing this weekend and it's better to stick with the wider delusion.

On Thursday, before the police had made one arrest, before one terrorist group had claimed responsibility, before one body had been carried from the wreckage, let alone been identified and allowed to rest in peace, cocksure voices filled with righteousness were proclaiming that the real murderers weren't the real murderers but the Prime Minister. I'm not thinking of George Galloway and the other saluters of Saddam, but of upright men and women who sat down to write letters to respectable newspapers within minutes of hearing the news.

'Hang your head in shame, Mr Blair. Better still, resign - and whoever takes over immediately withdraw all our forces from Iraq and Afghanistan,' wrote the Rev Mike Ketley, who is a vicar, for God's sake, but has no qualms about leaving Afghanistan to the Taliban and al-Qaeda or Iraq to the Baath party and al-Qaeda. 'Let's stop this murder and put on trial those criminals who are within our jurisdiction,' began Patrick Daly of south London in an apparently promising letter to the Independent. But, inevitably, he didn't mean the bombers. 'Let's start with the British government.'

And so it went on. At no point did they grasp that Islamism was a reactionary movement as great as fascism, which had claimed millions of mainly Muslim lives in the Sudan, Iran, Algeria and Afghanistan and is claiming thousands in Iraq. As with fascism, it takes a resolute dunderheadedness to put all the responsibility on democratic governments for its existence.

I feel the appeal, believe me. You are exasperated with the manifold faults of Tony Blair and George W Bush. Fighting your government is what you know how to do and what you want to do, and when you are confronted with totalitarian forces which are far worse than your government, the easy solution is to blame your government for them.

But it's a parochial line of reasoning to suppose that all bad, or all good, comes from the West - and a racist one to boot. The unavoidable consequence is that you must refuse to support democrats, liberals, feminists and socialists in the Arab world and Iran who are the victims of Islamism in its Sunni and Shia guises because you are too compromised to condemn their persecutors.

Islamism stops being an ideology intent on building an empire from Andalusia to Indonesia, destroying democracy and subjugating women and becomes, by the magic of parochial reasoning, a protest movement on a par with Make Poverty History or the TUC.

Again, I understand the appeal. Whether you are brown or white, Muslim, Christian, Jew or atheist, it is uncomfortable to face the fact that there is a messianic cult of death which, like European fascism and communism before it, will send you to your grave whatever you do. But I'm afraid that's what the record shows.

The only plausible excuse for 11 September was that it was a protest against America's support for Israel. Unfortunately, Osama bin Laden's statements revealed that he was obsessed with the American troops defending Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein and had barely said a word about Palestine.

After the Bali bombings, the conventional wisdom was that the Australians had been blown to pieces as a punishment for their government's support for Bush. No one thought for a moment about the Australian forces which stopped Indonesian militias rampaging through East Timor, a small country Indonesia had invaded in 1975 with the backing of the US. Yet when bin Laden spoke, he said it was Australia's anti-imperialist intervention to free a largely Catholic population from a largely Muslim occupying power which had bugged him.

East Timor was a great cause of the left until the Australians made it an embarrassment. So, too, was the suffering of the victims of Saddam, until the tyrant made the mistake of invading Kuwait and becoming America's enemy. In the past two years in Iraq, UN and Red Cross workers have been massacred, trade unionists assassinated, school children and aid workers kidnapped and decapitated and countless people who happened to be on the wrong bus or on the wrong street at the wrong time paid for their mistake with their lives.

What can the survivors do? Not a lot according to a Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He told bin Laden that the northern Kurds may be Sunni but 'Islam's voice has died out among them' and they'd been infiltrated by Jews. The southern Shia were 'a sect of treachery' while any Arab, Kurd, Shia or Sunni who believed in a democratic Iraq was a heretic.

Our options are as limited When Abu Bakr Bashir was arrested for the Bali bombings, he was asked how the families of the dead could avoid the fate of their relatives. 'Please convert to Islam,' he replied. But as the past 40 years have shown, Islamism is mainly concerned with killing and oppressing Muslims.

In his intervention before last year's American presidential election, bin Laden praised Robert Fisk of the Independent whose journalism he admired. 'I consider him to be neutral,' he said, so I suppose we could all resolve not to take the tube unless we can sit next to Mr Fisk. But as the killings are indiscriminate, I can't see how that would help and, in any case, who wants to be stuck on a train with an Independent reporter?

There are many tasks in the coming days. Staying calm, helping the police and protecting Muslim communities from neo-Nazi attack are high among them. But the greatest is to resolve to see the world for what it is and remove the twin vices of wilful myopia and bad faith which have disfigured too much liberal thought for too long.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaedauk; arabs; blair; british; bush; clerics; england; eu; freedom; iran; iraq; islam; jihadineurope; london; mullahs; murder; radicalmuslims; terrorists; uk; usa; women
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To: Westbrook

100% correct. If we are not in the end times, then we had better bunker down. God Bless


21 posted on 07/09/2005 8:08:31 PM PDT by mhuye (http://theonewhoislost.blogspot.com/)
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To: Echo Talon

Matter of fact, the immediate spin from the Left was, "It's all Bush's fault." No matter. We must deal with the threat and let the Left play with itself.


22 posted on 07/09/2005 8:11:54 PM PDT by popdonnelly
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To: F14 Pilot

The DU is spending its time punishing Fox News. I assume they think this is the right time to trash the only arguably conservative network news.


23 posted on 07/09/2005 8:21:57 PM PDT by popdonnelly
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To: Valin

No,no.... It was all WOLFOWITZ'S fault!


24 posted on 07/09/2005 10:16:55 PM PDT by Humidston (Hillary's Full Name - EVITA PEYRONie's CLINTON)
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To: F14 Pilot; CHARLITE

HOW ARE THINGS COMING ALONG SO FAR?


Shape of things to come in Iraq (and the world over)

• The elections are held in Iraq
• Sunni clerics denounce elections
• Voters are killed on election day in Terror attacks
• But election results are announced
• Sunni turnout is less than 20%
• Sunni clerics reject results
• Shia dominated govt is formed
• Sunnis call for US troops to leave
• New Shia dominated govt calls for phased pullout of US forces
• US forces begin a phased pullout
• They re-locate outside the cities in isolated fortified camps
• Terrorists blow off Iraqi parliament, Presidential palace Prime Minister’s residence
• Terrorists assassinate Ministers, Parliamentarians
• A full scale civil war starts between the Sunni dominated insurgents and the new Shia and Kurd Iraqi military
• Iran sends in insurgents to back Shias
• Saudis, Syrians, Egyptians, Kuwaitis, Palestinians send in insurgents to back Sunnis
• Saudis and Kuwaitis call for US action to stop Iran from intensifying the Iraqi civil war
• US seizes the opportunity and bombs Iranian nuke facilities
• Iran tries to crash missiles into Israel and Europe
• Internal rebellion breaks out in Iran
• US special forces start operating inside Iran to topple Mullah regime
• Iranian/Hezbollah forces stage terrorist attacks in Israel and in the West
• US launches an air blitz of Iran followed by a land invasion and sets up a new regime
• The Shah of Iran returns to Iran as a private citizen
• Shia-Hezbollah led terror attacks across the West and Israel intensify
• Israel invades Lebanon to wipe out the Hezbollah threat
• Egypt/Syria threaten Israel with serious consequences.
• Terrorist attacks originating from Gaza intensify in Israel
• Israel warns Syria with military action
• Spectacular mega terror attack in Israel
• Israel declares Syria to be culpable and launches a swift land and air assault on Syria
• Syria appeals for Arab military action to save itself
• Egypt, Jordan and Saudis start military action against Israel
• Israel overruns Jordan to join up with US forces stationed in Iraq
• Israel occupies Damascus
• US forces enter Syria from Syrian-Iraqi border in the North, join up with Israeli military
• After the conquest of Syria, Israel turns on Egypt, annexes Sinai, crosses Suez Canal and threatens Cairo
• Mecca, Medina, Mena, Jiddah taken off the map thru IAF (Israel Air Force) nuke strikes
• Upheaval in the entire Arab world
• Western diplomats and businessmen attacked, kidnapped, beheaded
• Anti-American riots in Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia.
• Musharraf and Yudhyono regimes under tremendous pressure to give up pro-US stance
• Musharraf assassinated by pro-Jihadi elements in Army due to his association with the US. The Jihadis last straw being his helping the Americans in finding Iran's nuke sites as a trade off for letting AQ Khan off the hook. But Mushy's gamble does not pay off, as he loses his job and life.
• Jihadi regime in Pakistan ups hostility with India
• Jihadis succeed in smuggling nuclear devices in the US and exploding them simultaneously
• US army takes over US administration, suspends constitution
• US military regime blockades the UN and declares it persona non-grata
• US enters into emergency war council with Russia and Britain
• The triple alliance starts nuclear bombing military targets across the Islamic world
• Pakistani nukes taken out in first strike
• Pakistan explodes some nuke devices on India
• Indian retaliation wipes off Pakistan off the map – death toll in South Asia is over half a billion
• Widespread Hindu-Muslim riots in India on the lines of the Gujarat riots of 2002. Muslim population decimated, Hindus and Christians also suffer heavy death toll.
• Nuclear campaign launched by the triple alliance intensifies as many cities in the Islamic world are taken off the map to wipe off the air forces.
• Seaports in the Islamic world crippled to decapitate the navies
• Radiation causes second wave of deaths. The toll in secondary deaths more than three billion
• More than half of the fatalities are Muslims.
• Almost the entire population in the Muslim world is decimated.
• China joins war against Islam, wipes off Muslim (Ughir) population in Eastern Turkestan
• Muslims in Europe launch a wave of terror attacks in European capitals
• Conditions in Europe very disturbed in a civil war like situation
• Right wing coups in France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark. The new regimes join the triple alliance
• Widespread anti-Muslim riots in Europe aided by the militaries of those countries and NATO forces
• Domestic military action against Muslims in Europe intensifies as European militaries do combing operations to flush out Muslims
• The post-war Muslim population worldwide now accounts for only one percent of the global population concentrated mostly in Europe
• Military action ends, US, Britain and Russia announce reconstruction plan for the world
• Islam outlawed across the globe
• Residual Muslims worldwide embrace Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism. Judaism
• Humanity enters post-Islamic phase.

http://www.hindutva.org/


25 posted on 07/09/2005 10:52:06 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (Understand Islam. Understand Evil. Read THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD link My Page.)
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To: F14 Pilot
The West should take the blame for pushing people in Third World countries to the end of their tether,' she wrote.

One has to wonder how she ever got a job due to her obvious stupidity. Jihad is not about poverty, and I suspect this moronic reporter is fully aware of that in reality.

26 posted on 07/09/2005 10:55:07 PM PDT by ladyinred
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To: F14 Pilot

bump


27 posted on 07/09/2005 10:56:50 PM PDT by eddie willers
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To: F14 Pilot
THEY CAN'T SPELL, BUT THEY CAN THREATEN (SWEDEN NEXT?) http://haganah.org.il/harchives/004053.html
28 posted on 07/09/2005 11:19:37 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (Understand Islam. Understand Evil. Read THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD link My Page.)
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To: Ukiapah Heep
"The answer is to forcibly roll back Islam, no matter what the cost to Muslims."

I agree. Not many are saying this publically. The Islamofacists have declared total war on the west. By total war, I mean they are willing to target our civilian assets. Our financial base, general populations, etc. The Germans did the same thing to the Brits in WW2, but they had the Luftwaffe to do their bombing. The Islamic populations of the world provide a powerful war fighting asset. Recruits, finances, cover for their fighters, media and propaganda, training, the list could go on and on. Nobody spared the Germans to tear out the Nazi core. It was the price Germany had to pay for allowing Nazism to take root there. The countries in the middle east have the same choice now. Some are responding and fighting alongside us, others are not. Those who do nothing or simply placate us with lip service are the enemy states. Unless the west wakes up and realizes were in a fight for our lives, even more than we were against Nazi/Bushido fascism, were all going to have to eventually learn to speak Arabic. And I don't really want four wives.
29 posted on 07/09/2005 11:31:38 PM PDT by Gum Shoe
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To: Humidston

Actually we're both wrong. I've just checked with my (anonymous) sources and they tell me it's really the white house night shift pastry chef.


30 posted on 07/10/2005 6:07:21 AM PDT by Valin (The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.)
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To: Gum Shoe

"The answer is to forcibly roll back Islam, no matter what the cost to Muslims."

I agree. Not many are saying this publically.

Around here? This is the height of political correctness on FreeRepublic. Of course that doesn't make it correct, just popular.


31 posted on 07/10/2005 6:10:24 AM PDT by Valin (The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.)
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Comment #32 Removed by Moderator


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