Posted on 11/25/2005 11:35:06 AM PST by Rummyfan
The assimilation of Mark Steyn
HH: Special appearance on this Wednesday by Mark Steyn, columnist to the world. You can read all of his work at Steynonline.com. Mark, let me compliment you, as I ordinarily do. But this week's Telegraph column on Zarqawi's desperation provided to me a perspective that I did not see in the mainstream media. He really is at wit's end, isn't he? If he's alive.
MS: Well, I think so. Originally, these fellows were blowing up infidels. And from that point of view, that makes a lot of sense. Then they found it harder to blow up infidels, and they started blowing up their brother Muslims: Shiia and Kurds, and Muslims in other countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia. And again, you could say well, these fellows, they're blowing up Shiia and Kurds, and that's not...if they want to have an Iraqi civil war, then blowing up Shiites is the way to go. Now, they're blowing up their brother Sunnis in Muslim weddings in Jordanian hotels. And this is a pathetic...where's the strategy in that? More to the point, he sent some of his most valued people to blow themselves up in this pointless, pathetic raid. I think he's a busted flush, this Zarqawi guy.
HH: Now when you talk about sending his most important people, that's the detail I did not read. He's no longer sacrificing foot soldiers who are crossing over from Syria. He's eating his seed corn.
MS: That's right. And if you think back to, for example, the elections in January, he...they did this one suicide bomber. They talked some unfortunate Down's syndrome boy into loading himself up with a bomb, and going off to try and blow himself up. And they were using very much what we would have called in the first world war, cannon fodder. Ordinary people, and just sending them off to self-detinate. Now he's using his most valued...the guy who blew up this wedding in Amman, at the Radisson hotel, was one of his closest and most valued colleagues. Why sacrifice a guy like that on a pointless operation, that all it did was drive nearly 200,000 people out into the streets of Amman to denounce you, and tell you to burn in hell? It's a complete disaster for him.
HH: Unless you're down to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid facing the Bolivian Army, and you're going out with a blaze of delusional glory. Mark Steyn, two other aspects. Today, a leading Sunni sheik was assassinated, along with his three sons. And that does not bode well for the transition. It does suggest payback time is in full season in Iraq. Is it possible for these elections to go forward with that kind of a climate?
MS: I think so. I think these things are terrible when they happen. And they happen everywhere. They happened...you know, my mother's Belgian. In her hometown after the second world war, there were girls who were known to have collaborated with the enemy, who were dragged through the streets, had their heads shaved, were called filthy whores, were marred, had their features disfigured. Terrible things went on in Belgium, in France, in all those European countries after liberation. And what we should remember is that we talk up Iraqification. We talk up the need to reach out to the Sunnis. In a sense, the more we rely on the Iraqi army and the locals, which I'm in favor of, but that's going to mean that goes with the territory, some amount of old score settling after forty years of Baathist tyranny. There's just no way around that. And I hope there's as little of it as there's been so far. But I think there's certainly going to be some.
HH: You know, it's interesting. Even as we talk about paybacks, Pinochet is indicted today on tax evasion charges, two days short of his 90th birthday. They are still pursuing Pinochet. And I guess that underscores what you say, is that people don't forget after the brutality of forty years under Saddam.
MS: No, and I think that when the Democrats say oh, we need to get out of there and leave it to the Iraqis, they'll be the first ones to squeal when it turns out that some new Iraqi police department is getting a little bit overzealous in how it conducts its affairs. You can't have it both ways. I think there's bound to be a little bit of this. Let's hope it's not too much. But at the same time, let's not overinflate the importance of the Sunnis. They're really an equivalent of the white South Africans, or the white Rhodesians. They were this privileged minority that lorded it over the rest of the country. And they're having to adjust to the fact that they're just going to be essentially a permanent minority, and cut themselves as good a deal as they can get.
HH: While they have leverage to do so, which is now.
MS: Yeah. And while they have leverage to do so, which is what the white South Africans did. But you didn't hear the Democrats defending, you know, saying oh, we need to do more to reach out to Africana racists. They couldn't wait to shovel them into the garbage can of history. And in a sense, that's the role the Sunnis have played in the history of independent Iraq.
HH: Let's talk a little bit about the report in today's Daily Mirror, that George Bush and Tony Blair had a conversation about possibly bombing Al Jazeera in the course of the Gulf War. The significance of this? And how does it get out with the official secret's act?
MS: Well, the thing here is that it seems an irrational thing to want to do. But what you need to remember is that Al Jazeera has a very privileged hotline to al Qaeda, and to senior al Qaeda figures, including, it said, right up to those around Osama bin Laden. It's effectively the same thing that Clark Kent had at the Daily Planet with Superman. You know, or Peter Parker did at the Daily Bugle with Spiderman. When they got up to their exploits, it was always Peter Parker or Clark Kent who had the exclusive. Now I'm not saying that Al Jazeera and al Qaeda are one and the same people, but they are linked in a very fundamental way. And they've been the most zealous promoters of the propaganda of these groups. And in a sense, taking it off the air is something you could debate the value of. I happen to think it would be the wrong thing to do. I think instead, I'm glad to see that the U.S. government recognizes that in a sense, the media is a front in this war. But I don't think there's anything to be gained by blowing up Arab TV stations. What you have to do is make sure that your own media, and the stuff you're putting out is as media savvy in response to that propaganda.
HH: In response to that, over the past week since we last talked on Thursday, the House of Representatives pushed back against John Murtha. George Bush pushed back against the Democrats. Dick Cheney pushed back, as did Tony Blair yesterday. A consistent media offensive. Effective, Mark Steyn?
MS: I think partially. I think one of the things is people ask me about the rationale for the Iraq War, and I said I stated it. I think it was September the 15th, 2001. About three or four days after 9/11, I stated my reasons for toppling Saddam. And I really had very little to say in the four years since. I still think the reasons I gave then are the reasons I feel now. And in a sense, I understand the Bush/Cheney dilemma, that you don't want to have to keep saying the same thing over and over and over again, because it should be something that you either get, or you don't get. And it's the Democrats that are being cynical about this. It's the Democrats that basically want...from the way they've reversed their position, is that when Jay Rockefeller and John Kerry, and all these fellows claim to be in favor of using force in 2002, and now say that they're not, and they were misled by the president, one can only conclude they weren't...they didn't mean what they said then, and they didn't mean what they say now. In fact, I have no idea what any of these men mean on it. And that's why I have such a really deep and profound contempt for people like Jay Rockefeller. What does he stand for? What does he believe? We've no idea.
HH: That's why I've just posted, and I will be devoting most of today's show to, a guide to Thanksgiving Day festivities with cranks. That is, how to engage, or not to engage, the crank at the dinner table who wants to debate Bush lied/people died. Are you inviting any cranks to your house in New Hampshire, Mark Steyn?
MS: No, I'm having a low-key Thanksgiving. I am celebrating Thanksgiving in New Hampshire. You know, I said to daughter's writing teacher, that we were having a discussion about how unassimilated the Muslims were in France. And then she said, well, what are you doing for Thanksgiving? And I said well, Thanksgiving's not a big deal with us. You know, we're foreigners. And she said oh, you're New Hampshire's equivalent to the unassimilated Muslims. And I felt so bad about that, that we're having a real big Thanksgiving celebration, a traditional, all-American Thanksgiving. I don't want to be unassimilated.
HH: ...an unassimilated Mark Steyn. Now we've got one question with thirty seconds. If you're confronted by a crank, and cornered tomorrow on Bush lied/people died, what's the one fact you've got to get across to them, Mark Steyn?
MS: The one fact you've got to get across to them is that 50 million Muslims now live in freedom, because of the bravery of the men and women of the U.S. and other armed forces. And that's what we should be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
HH: Mark Steyn, always a pleasure. We'll talk to you again next week. Steynonline.com, America.
End of interview.
Hope all had a Happy Thanksgiving!
Ping!
pyng
I'm glad he decided to assimilate. Bet he is too.
Thanks for the read poster!
From the article; "MS: The one fact you've got to get across to them is that 50 million Muslims now live in freedom, because of the bravery of the men and women of the U.S. and other armed forces. And that's what we should be thankful for this Thanksgiving."
Mark Steyn is a National treasure. Is that too simple for the Left to understand?
When in Rome, do as the Roman's Mark! Not hard really, we get up to pretty much the same things up here as you guys.......pass the Budweiser.....
I love Steyn, and his analogy between South African whites and the Iraqi Sunnis is appropriate (approximately 20% of the population). But he's way off on Rhodesia, which at the time of independence had 250,000 whites out of a total population around 6 million.
Steyn's last comment is exactly right and what Bush and the rest should hammer home everytime a Lib (including that fool Sheehan), opens his mouth.
Assimilation in the US is so simple. You can retain your culture, your religion, your language. All you have to subscribe to is the right of other people to believe differently and allow them to live in peace. All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Europe could surpass the US if they adopted the US Constitution and treated their countries as states. But that would never happen. The elites would have to give up their power.
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