Posted on 10/05/2005 12:27:26 AM PDT by naturalman1975
IT is the curse of the thinking classes – to imagine they can reason even the bloodiest mass-murderer into peace.
When 3000 civilians were killed in the September 11 attacks, then ABC 774 host Virginia Trioli announced her plan for peace with terrorist boss Osama bin Laden.
Shouldn't we be "sitting down with" the al-Qaida leader, she asked? Shouldn't we "talk to him, understand their anger, listen to them"?
What charming faith in the disarming power of a deep and meaningful chat. Such a hallmark it's become of our Left, tuned to its ABC.
I say that because Trioli's acting replacement in her drive shift, Libby Price, has now asked listeners to suggest terms for "peace talks" with al-Qaida and the men behind these latest Bali bombings, in which 22 died.
Sure, we shouldn't really negotiate with killers, Price said on Monday, but "things have progressed so far beyond that".
To save ourselves we must open talks -- if not with bin Laden himself, at least with "someone within the (al-Qaida) organisation that doubts what's happening".
And for half an hour her listeners rang with helpful suggestions to cut a deal with the terrorists who have killed so many of us.
We should appoint an expert in "conflict resolution", suggested one. What about the United Nations, asked a second. And, of course, of course, we should get out of Iraq, the cause of all sorrows.
Dear God, how strange it was, to hear so many callers assume that terrorists happy to blow up children and behead civilians are as reasonable as are they themselves, in a manner of speaking.
Hang on, warned one listener, but wasn't one of al-Qaida's desires the return of Spain and East Timor to Muslim rule?
Well, that could be just a "starting point" in these talks, Price replied.
That's right. An ABC staff presenter thinks we can negotiate with killers who feel that democratic, Christian Spain should be put under the rule of Islamist fascists.
Sadly, such fantasising is not restricted to the ABC. Since these latest bombings, former magistrate Brian Deegan, whose son Josh died in the Bali bombings of 2002, has also called for "discussions . . . even with militant leaders".
Others have simply advised us to hand over whatever they fancy the terrorists want. Academics and Islamic leaders, for example, tell us to pull out of Iraq. How long before we're again told to abandon Israel, too?
From where does all this come? Is it stupidity?
Is it the contempt, or fear, a brain-worker has for solutions needing brawn instead?
All right. If we really must "understand the anger" of such terrorists and find the "starting point" of any negotiations with them, let us at least listen to what they say they really want. That should sober up even a fool.
Of course, there's one bloody problem with this. In the past three months alone, Islamist terrorists have struck in Bali, Britain, Iraq, India, Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Sudan, Israel, Algeria, Mauritania, Lebanon, Chechnya and Thailand. That's how far Islam's death cult has spread.
So many surrenders to negotiate! So many different killers to talk to, still wiping their knives!
Worse, some of them barely seem to understand themselves what they're killing for.
Explaining in 2002 why his Islamic Army of Aden had just attacked a French tanker, a spokesman said: "We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels."
Imam Samudra, one of the terrorist behind the 2002 Bali bombings, was just as casual, saying he'd actually expected to kill more Americans than Australians, but "Australians, Americans, whatever -- they are all white people".
Actually, said his fellow bomber Amrozi, he killed his 202 victims because tourists "make our people weak and they take them to bars".
Yet now his spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, head of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, says Amrozi was too dumb to make such a good bomb. It was, in fact, "a CIA Jewish bomb".
Can we really reason with such insanity? Should we even try, knowing what these killers did to get our attention? And can we hope to settle all their local grievances anyway?
Let's save time. Let's get to the bottom line of the spiritual leaders of these men. the leaders of this new Islamist cult of death. Let's find out if there truly is any hope of a peace deal with such as they.
Start with the demands of Osama bin Laden, as broadcast by him on Al-Jazeera two months after the September 11 attacks. Ah. More trouble. He in fact tells us there can be no peace.
"This war is fundamentally religious," he said.
"Under no circumstances should we (Muslims) forget this enmity between us and the infidels. For the enmity is based on creed . . . We should also renounce the atheists and the infidels."
This is why he denounced our "crusader Australian forces" for intervening to "separate East Timor, which is part of the Islamic world".
We thought we were saving civilians from death. He says we were killing Islam.
Can we ask the UN to at least discuss this with him?
Actually, no. Says bin Laden: "Those who refer our tragedies today to the United Nations so that they can be resolved are hypocrites who deceive God, His Prophet and the believers."
Got it? Islamic rule must triumph. Non-Muslim countries -- and Muslim democrats -- are evil. Full stop.
Not much room for talking there. But is there more hope with Abu Bakar Bashir, whose Jemaah Islamiah
was behind the first Bali bombings and perhaps these latest, too?
Bashir last month gave an interview to Professor Scott Atran of the Jamestown Foundation, and helpfully set down his own peace terms.
"All laws must be under Islamic law. This is what the infidels fail to recognise . . .
"They have to stop fighting Islam, but that's impossible because it is destiny, as Allah has said in the Koran. They will constantly be enemies . . .
"Islam must win and the Westerners will be destroyed."
Forget peace. "There is no (example) of Islam and infidels, the right and the wrong, living together in peace."
And so, his war will come to us: "If there is a state, the infidel country must be visited and spied upon. My argument is that if we don't come to them, they will persecute Islam."
And should Muslims use nuclear weapons against us?
"Yes, if necessary."
So let's check. The leaders of these terrorists say we must submit to Islam or die. Peace is not possible. And any of us may be killed -- even bombed with nuclear weapons -- because we are infidels. Or whatever.
Perhaps you can see something in this that's worth negotiating over the bodies of the Bali dead.
But if so, you are as mad as these men. The difference is they still have their pride.
I'm sure that what you intended to say is this:
"IT is the curse of the thinking classes" that mindless nitwits "imagine they can reason even the bloodiest mass-murderer into peace."There. Now it makes sense.
"From where does all this come? Is it stupidity?"
LOL, I love plain speaking. What an excellent article.
It should be interesting to see the responses to this article in the Herald..
"Might and right rule in this world: Might til right is ready." ~~ Jomini
Many people in their naivete wish to project their ideas or their understanding of the world onto these terrorists. Some, however, aren't so much naive as they are extreme partisans. Thus, they will act as if alternatives are available if we only had the right party in power. [While it's probably true that Al Gore had he been voted into office would have never invaded Iraq, it is not true we'd not be at war somewhere with al Qaeda. Al Qaeda's been at war with us for at least ten years. Clinton and his supporters just didn't see any reason to fight back.] Others just cannot face up to the fact that we've got an enemy that hates us regardless of anything we say or do unless it's submission to them and "their" idea of what Islam is. Those terrorists would fight with the other Islamic terrorists if it were not for the fact that they're too busy right now fighting with the Shia, the Hindus, the Christians, the Animists, the Socialists, the secularists, the communists, and everyone else under the sun. So people who bring up the issue of Palestine and Israel might as well be smokin' dope. We have a savage foe. He is either motivated by Satan, or he's possessed of an ideology based on the thoughts of sociopaths and molded into an murderous cult of death. Get used to it, folks. Brace yourself for the struggle, and don't blame yourself that the are evil people out there. It's no different than when we were fighting the NAZIS.
Shouldn't we be "sitting down with" the al-Qaida leader, she asked? Shouldn't we "talk to him, understand their anger, listen to them"?
Stuck on stupid!
bump
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