Protesters cross line by cheering on terrorists

You may have missed the march in downtown L.A. on Aug. 12, but I was there. I expected the Palestinian flags, the jaunty kaffiyehs, the drum-beating and brow-beating. But I nearly dropped my pen in the gutter when I heard cries of "Long live Hezbollah!" from the marchers.

It's one thing to protest the Israel-U.S. alliance, to think Israel's a big bully, etc. I don't agree, but a free country is open to varied political discourse. Call everyone with whom you disagree a Nazi if it makes you feel better.

But it's quite another to cheer on a terrorist organization. And if you think it isn't happening in the United States, you may have missed some recent far-left rallies where that anti-Israel stance crossed the line to anti- Semitism, where the traditional anti-Bush chants were supplemented with support for guerrilla militias armed by Iran.

When I saw the signs saying "Hezbollah forever" and "Hezbollah, Hamas --- People's Resistance," among others, I knew I wasn't hearing things. And the Anti- Defamation League reports similar occurrences at that day's other rallies, including "Long live Hezbollah" cries in San Francisco and San Diego, and a chant of "Nasrallah, Nasrallah, the martyr is the beloved of Allah, the Zionists are the enemy of Allah" in Washington, D.C.

Since when did Hassan Nasrallah become a man of the people, a pied piper to lead the oppressed masses? Since when did Americans find his draconian theological warfare to be a symbol of liberation? "The most honorable death is death by killing," Nasrallah told his followers last year.

"Our motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year, is 'Death to America,"' he also said.

Would people get miffed if marchers were screaming "Long live al-Qaeda!" through downtown? Or if Osama bin Laden became the sexy new poster boy for anti-war demonstrations? How vile will these protesters become simply to spite the current administration?

Because it wasn't just about bashing Bush and Tony Blair, or demanding redrawn boundaries in the Middle East. It was about supporting terrorists. And that's just reprehensible. On the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations, Hezbollah was responsible for the deadliest terrorist attack on Americans before Sept. 11, 2001, when Marine barracks in Beirut were bombed in 1983, killing 241. The "Party of God" is believed responsible for nearly 200 terrorist attacks -- including kidnappings and a 1985 TWA hijacking -- resulting in more than 800 deaths.

"Hezbollah is the main weapon outside of Iran for Iran," said Christopher Hamilton, a senior fellow in counterterrorism studies at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Iran, our fair protesters may be pleased to remember, is controlled by a nuke-coveting mad regime that denies the Holocaust and wants to annihilate the Jewish state in their hat tip to Adolf Hitler.

How does Hezbollah win its support among the American far left? By focusing its virulent hatred on Israel and the U.S. By accusing the Bush administration of interference in the Middle East. By painting itself in a glorious revolutionary light so attractive to the fans of Che.

Nasrallah once referred to the American people as "most of whom are distant and ignorant of what is going on in the world." I look at the terrorist-supporting protesters with a heavy heart and agree, but the Hezbollah leader surely would call this rabble bloody geniuses.

it's treason, and those committing it should be shot at dawn...america seems to have forgotten its treason laws...perhaps the "intellectually superior" lefties out there should read a bit about world history...no successful civilization in the history of the world would have tolerated the crap that america does...so unless america forgets about the political correctness, it will die from within, and it certainly won't survive the length of time that the roman empire and other great civilizations did

...america needs to racial profile those groups who are likely to be terrorists (ie, you spend your resources monitoring and searching 17-40 yr old middle eastern men, rather than 85 yr old swedish grandmothers, etc)...it also can't be having $20 million trials for guys like massoui from 9/11, even the mighty USA can't afford that endlessly...start enforcing treason laws like america did 200 years ago, and shoot them at dawn...and why immediately after 9/11 didn't all airlines adopt el al's passenger profiling methods (THE most thorough in the world)

...and why hasn't ALL muslim immigration stopped?...i realize that not every muslim is a bad muslim, but until we can determine who is who, don't allow ANY in (if two people were at your door late at night, and one was someone who wanted to kill you, and the other was not, would you let them both in because you couldn't tell who the murder was, and didn't want to hurt their feelings?! - well, i say if the bad one killed you, you would deserve it)

...as well, america needs to consider mass deportation of those who think they can say and do ANYTHING in america, whether it be financially supporting terrorism, or publicly protesting in favor of hezbollah, or burning US flags in dearborn, etc.

...if politicians don't get serious about this, and these fanatics start bombing american shopping malls, public schools, and subways, etc, then the american people will take matters into their own hands and you will see civil war...it may not happen for 20, 50, or even 100 yrs, but mark my words, the more insanity we tolerate the worse it will be and the greater the chances of a civil war within america itself

...a quote from abraham lincoln: "At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume I, "Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum,of Springfield, Illinois (January 27, 1838), p. 109.

There's just something about fanatics... If I could only put my finger on it. ;^)

The cause of fanaticism and why it's dangerous.

The fanatic has an elitist view of himself. He holds a firm belief that he is in some way special and has something that others, not like him, do not. Because of this basic self-view any disagreement with the elitist or any resistance to their actions causes anger. This "supreme" view of himself is an excuse for justifying his anger and thus justifying any act from deception to murder against those who disagree with or refuse to comply with him. He is comfortable with hatred, revenge, lying or any gross deception in defense of his special "superior" position acted out against those (the "others") who do resist him or refuse to validate his view(s).
It is impossible to reason or negotiate with someone who believes that they are morally and/or ethically superior to everyone else. Anything and everything you do to accommodate their "concerns" (demands), short of complete capitulation, will be discounted due to your "obvious" inherent inferiority. Any resistance to this, anything other than complete submission, actually becomes self-evident proof of their superiority and your inferiority. The elitist's mindset presupposes the rationale of rightness and righteousness as inherent only to themselves by virtue only of this self-superior self-image and not at all as a measure of the quality of their actions or their resulting consequences.
That mindset becomes the entire basis of their world-view. They may rest it on an ideology or philosophy that they choose to use as support or camoflage for it but the doctrine itself may or may not, loosely or strictly, support their view. It doesn't really need to as that is of secondary or even tertiary importance. The doctrine has relevance only as a tool. An indoctrinated fanatic may be completely unaware of this yet still be very skilled in its method. "I'm right you're wrong and this is where it says so" goes his thinking. The founders and leaders of fanatic movements know full well that the doctrine is nothing but a smokescreen. They're still right and you're still wrong but it "says so" in their minds only. When it gets down to brass tacks they "don't need no steenking doctrine" to support or hide their superior self-view.
Of course the opposite is true for the non-elites in the fanatic's mindset. You can never be right if you're not one of the "righteous." That is why a fanatic is so dangerous. Any and all evil acts can be justified on the basis of any disassociation whatsoever with the personal views and goals of the fanatic. With his identity. The intent and motivations of an outsider are irrelevant no matter how positive they are. Even the results of an outsider's actions are irrelevant no matter how accommodating or constructive or beneficial they are to the fanatic elitist. The outsider is always wrong because he won't submit to the fanatic's view.
The world is full of fanatics of many varieties and they can base their superior self-view on any pretext that works for them. Some belong to large groups of like-minded fanatics, some belong to a group that is not in itself fanatical but lends itself to the their needs and some are individuals under the delusion that they alone are special.
In today's world the United States in particular and western civilization in general are under a concerted assault from two separate groups of fanatic elitists. Fundamentalist Muslims and leftists. The Islamo-nazis and the Marxists. Both leftists and Islamo-fascists hold a firm belief that they are special and have something that "rednecks" and "infidels" don't have. For the leftists it is supposedly "superior intellect" and "social sophistication" that they possess and for the Islamo-nazis it's a "call from Allah," a "holy annointing."
Both groups are manifestations of a mass psychological disorder of fanatic elitism. Both are extremely unstable and are neither founded upon nor affected by sound logic or reason. Convinced of their own inherent superiority both groups will press their respective agendas as far as they can without regard for the consequences to themselves or to others. As with any fanatic the blame for all of their actions will logically fall on the shoulders of the "others," the outsiders. Negative consequences of their actions simply become another tool for self-vindication in the form of propaganda turned back on the outsider as "proof" of his inferiority.
The mindset of the fanatic elitist is the same as that of a rabid dog. The mindset of "us-and-them" on an inviolable scale. Nothing else has a valid existence for them if it doesn't submit completely to their view. Anyone and anything that doesn't submit is "total enemy." The outlook of neither the rabid dog nor the fanatic elitist can be affected by outside influence. The dog's mind is controlled by the fevered ravages of a virus; the fanatic's mind is controlled by a self-chosen paradigm that holds anything contrary to its own superiority in all matters as automatically self-negated and both the dog and the fanatic view anything that is other as a threat that must be destroyed.
For the fanatic elitist change can only occur from within and that means a change in their most basic self-view, the view that they are special and unique in a superior and dominating way. A view that all reasonable people must either fully reject or completely submit to. Those are the only choices the fanatic leaves to the others.
TigersEye - 7/27/05
(revised 8/20/06)

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