Mark Steyn: At least Hamas is open about its evil intentions

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn29.html ^ | Mark Steyn

[mal]

was at a county fair in New Hampshire last summer and stopped by the National Guard tent. They had those "Support Our Troops" ribbon stickers for sale -- one on a Stars-and-Stripes background, one of them just plain yellow. I've never liked the whole yellow-ribbon thing: It's too victimological, too passive, too enervated. One of the distinctive features of that immediate post-9/11 moment of near national unity was the blessed absence of yellow ribbons. It would have been the wrong symbol for an America full of righteous anger.

But four years on, and there are "Support Our Troops" yellow ribbons a-plenty. "What's the idea behind that?" I asked the National Guardsman manning the display.

"Well," he said, "a lot of people don't support the war and they aren't comfortable with the flag-colored ribbon but they support the troops."

[driftless]

Steyn is right. Who here believes that the Palies could run a successful state even if all the Israelis went back to Europe? These people are pathetic losers. And what a great mother is Mother Nidal of the suicide bombers. "Hey boys, go out and blow yourselves up!" Gee, thanks mom for the encouragement". A nation of homicidal basket cases.

[Mr. Mojo]

For decades, the Middle East's dictators justified themselves to Washington as a restraint on the baser urges of their citizens, but in the end they only incubated worse pathologies.

And they're still justifying and incubating with American taxpayer dollars falling out of their turbans.

[GermanBusiness]

From Wikipedia:

In October of 1971, newspaper columnist Pete Hamill wrote a piece for the New York Post called "Going Home." In it, college students on a bus trip to the beaches of Fort Lauderdale make friends with an ex-convict who is watching for a yellow handkerchief on a roadside oak. Hamill claimed to have heard this story in oral tradition.
In June of 1972, nine months later, Reader's Digest reprinted "Going Home." Also in June 1972, ABC-TV aired a dramatized version of it in which James Earl Jones played the role of the returning ex-con. A month-and-a-half after that, Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown registered for copyright a song they called "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree." The authors said they heard the story while serving in the military. Pete Hamill was not convinced and filed suit for infringement.
One factor that may have influenced Hamill's decision to do so was that, in May 1973, "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" sold 3 million records in three weeks. When the dust settled, BMI calculated that radio stations had played it 3 million times--that's seventeen continuous years of airplay. Hammill dropped his suit after folklorists working for Levine and Brown turned up archival versions of the story that had been collected before "Going Home" had been written. [1]

[GermanBusiness]

I'm sorry folks, but I got curious and had to research more about the yellow ribbon business.

The idea of a yellow ribbon for a soldier far, far away...basically came from the WW2 US Army cadence song in which "yellow" fit the music better than white. "Around her neck, she wore a yellow ribbon...she wore if for her soldier who was far, far away." The John Wayne movie of 1949 cleaned up the lyrics a bit. The original song was about her being preggie and unmarried while the soldier is away.

And that US Army cadence song must have evolved from an 1838 British song called "All Round My Hat" that goes like this: "All round my hat I [w]ears a green willow [because] my true love is far, far away."

It took 105 years for "green willow" to become "yellow ribbon".

Somehow the yellow ribbon idea for women staying faithful to soldiers...migrated into the convict community after World War Two. It remained below the surface of our society (in the convict world) until it started getting attention as an urban legend in the early 70s with a story going around about a convict who couldn't bear to look at a tree to see if his woman wanted him back as a sort of prodigal son.

With soldiers coming home from Vietnam, and treated like dirt by a lot of the population, the Tony Orlando and Dawn song, in May 1973, was a smash hit!! The returning veterans angle probably had a lot to do with the success of the song.

But, after the song was a hit, the first known instance of a yellow ribbon getting media attention was when a Watergate convict's wife put up a yellow ribbon (Mrs. McGruder). It was because of this act that the wife of an Iranian hostage decided to do the same thing in 1979. This Iranian hostage wife was on a TV report that showed the yellow ribbon around the big tree in her front yard.

And that was all she wrote. Today...it is a major American symbol of remaining loyal to someone who is far away in harm's way or going through a lot.

[gcruse]

I've been railing against yellow ribbons in these circumstances for years. You may have come across my urging that we "fly the flag, flush the yellow." Or my, "We won't mourn our way to victory."

It's gratifying to learn this century's combination of Mark Twain and HL Mencken is on the same page as I.

[chesley]

I liked the song. Still, it was about a man in prison. I guess we all get out of something what we bring to it. To me it was not the right symbolism. But I can see where other people might think differently.

The other song is much more appropriate, in my view.

However, the original point about who uses the red, white, and blue ribbons, and who uses the yellow ones has some substance. I've seen the same discussion on DU.

[Victoria Delsoul]

The Palestinians are the most comprehensively wrecked people on the face of the earth: After 60 years as U.N. "refugees," they're now so depraved they're electing candidates on the basis of child sacrifice.

Hamas -the duly democratically elected terrorist government- has now a mandate from the Palestinians to live up to their promises and commitments.

If there's any doubt that Hamas will use its mandate to exercise the will of the Palestinian people... just take a look at this paragraph:

Mariam Farahat, a mother of three, was elected in Gaza. She used to be a mother of six but three of her sons self-detonated on suicide missions against Israel. She's a household name to Palestinians, known as Um Nidal -- Mother of the Struggle -- and, at the rate she's getting through her kids, the Struggle's all she'll be Mother of. She's famous for a Hamas recruitment video in which she shows her 17-year-old son how to kill Israelis and then tells him not to come back. It's the Hamas version of 42nd Street: You're going out there a youngster but you've got to come back in small pieces.

It may be that she stood for parliament because she's got a yen to be junior transport minister or deputy secretary of fisheries. But it seems more likely that she and her Hamas colleagues were elected because this is who the Palestinian people are, this is what they believe.

[chesley]

Mark Steyn is very hard to beat.

[denydenydeny]

It's the Hamas version of 42nd Street: You're going out there a youngster but you've got to come back in small pieces.

Steyn is the best.

[PzLdr]

"Yellow" is the branch color of Armor troops [and back when, the Cavalry]. You might want to re-think your overbroad view of "yellow".


Cpt., Armor
MACV, Class of '71

[ShuShu]

Day Care Centers = Indocrination Centers

They have to get them at a young age and bring them up right don't ya know.

[rdcorso]

McLaughlin is a loudmouth liberal idiot.The only person with a brain on that show is Tony Blankley.

[Austin Willard Wright]

How times change. Only a few months ago Mark "one vote, one gloat" Steyn was waxing excitedly about how elections in Arab would liberalize the Middle East. Now....the new party line seems to be that extremist victories are "good" because they show the truth. I suppose he'll use this arguments if the Muslim Brotherhood wins the first free elections in Egypt.

[rockrr]

If you heard the interview that the twerp Stein had with Hewitt (I think it's available at thepoliticalteen.com) you heard him say "Yes, we should have a military, but only for "humanitarian" purposes. Otherwise they need to stay home and not "meddle" in other people's business".

I think it notable that he could not name a single personal associate (I seriously doubt that he has any friends!) other than a cousin, that had military experience...

[Austin Willard Wright]

Only a few months ago, Steyn was predicting that electiosn in the Middle East meant that "liberty" was just around the corner in articles like "One vote, one gloat." It doesnt' sound like things are going according to plans, does it?

Here is a sample of the "old" Mark Steyn:

"Now the torrents of Arabia cascade on, from Baghdad to Beirut, Cairo, Riyadh and beyond. Those of us who argued three years ago that Iraq was the place to start the dominoes falling and that the Middle East was ripe for liberty, for democracy, for one man, one gloat - whoops, sorry, vote. Anyway, those of us who told you so way back when long ago gave up trying to figure out why the media, the Dems, the Europeans and Canadians were so wedded to "stability" uber alles. But we had a feeling that their enthusiasm was unlikely to be shared by the actual subjects of Assad and co. And we were right: it turns out America's Zionists know the Arab people better than Europe's Arabists do - better than all those ex-ambassadors to the Middle East now shilling for Saudi-funded think-tanks who pop up on TV discussions to recycle Arab League talking points."

[Joan912]

You obviously missed the point of his article. Reread the title. At no time does he infer or claim that it is a "good" thing that Hamas is now officially in power. So just what in the bloody hell are you talking about?

[Austin Willard Wright]

Exactly sir!!! You make my point. As the above quotation shows, a few months ago Steyn was predicting that elections would bring "liberty" to the Middle East. Since this, his predictions have been proven wrong in Egypt (Muslim Brotherhood) victories and now with Hamas. Do you think he'll admit it?

[Austin Willard Wright]

Ooops. I guess that is ma'am not sir.

[Zack Nguyen]

So I'd like to believe this was a vote for getting rid of corruption rather than getting rid of Jews. But that's hard to square with some of the newly elected legislators. For example, Mariam Farahat, a mother of three, was elected in Gaza. She used to be a mother of six but three of her sons self-detonated on suicide missions against Israel. She's a household name to Palestinians, known as Um Nidal -- Mother of the Struggle -- and, at the rate she's getting through her kids, the Struggle's all she'll be Mother of. She's famous for a Hamas recruitment video in which she shows her 17-year-old son how to kill Israelis and then tells him not to come back.

Disgusting, bloodthirsty and demonic. Not all Palestinians are radical Islamists (not all are even Muslim) but people like this are contemptible.

[NutCrackerBoy]

Steyn was predicting that elections would bring "liberty" to the Middle East.

It is way too soon to pronounce the death of self-rule in the M.E. -- mere seconds after its birth. Everyone knows that elections don't magically and instantly create a free society. Arabs are looking inward at democratic changes and there is turmoil and instability. Good. There's free freakin' press in Iraq! Meanwhile, enemies (and ultimate victims) of this wave are still in power, still at work, you know. Steyn didn't pronounce anything "over".