Posted on 09/05/2006 12:44:04 PM PDT by shield
A REALLY good posting. Thanks.
In many of these countries turning toward Radical Islam, the people are sheep being exploited by the leadership. Iran was once a very enlightened, western nation. The religious few have come to dominate power and there are many more open minded young people just keeping quiet and going along with the flow....
Masses of our Opposition Exploited, Unsophisticated
By John E. Carey
September 5, 2006
On September 1, 2006 the United States successfully demonstrated the ability to shoot down a ballistic missile like those being developed now in North Korea. The North Korean propaganda machine immediately cranked-up and went into action with a long diatribe which included several ridiculous sentences accusing the U.S as an aggressor.
North Koreas press release, in a heavy handed way, implies that the U.S. missile defense system is, in fact, offensive.
We should notice ignorance in North Korea. We should set aside our fears. We should feel pity for the people of North Korea.
We should listen to and notice the immaturity, the lack of education and awareness and the lack of hope of people being “used” and exploited.
America’s missile defense system demonstrated exactly what it says it is: a defensive measure. Yes, there is a rocket and guidance system. No, there is no warhead or offensive capability. No, you would never want to modify missile defense to be offensive. The missile defense system is engineered and optimized to provide a hit-to-kill space vehicle that can find and smash into a nuclear weapon-carrying reentry vehicle. If you wanted to hit a target on land; you sure wouldn’t start with this technology.
In fact, everyone from the American media to common Russian men and women on the streets of Moscow have, for years, referred to the missile defense system as “the shield.”
There is an old saying about a warrior, intent upon threatening his foe, as he “rattles his saber.”
Have you ever heard about a warrior “rattling his shield”?
Most of the people in North Korea are starving or living just above the line Americans would consider to be Neolithic. So a foaming at the mouth press release should worry us little. We should worry about the leader—especially if he has nuclear weapons.
Many of the Middle Eastern “terrorists” we encounter live within a similar construct as the people in North Korea. When Fox New reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig were captured by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza region of Israel, the two were threatened with death because, the terrorists said, “you are both Americans.”
Wiig, a New Zealander, protested to his captors. But they didn’t know where New Zealand was; or that it was a sovereign nation and not a part of the United States.
Wiig had to draw them a map.
The point is this: many of the “terrorists” and other foes America faces are not very sophisticated. They are being exploited or used by powers with the money and influence to manipulate masses of people to achieve dubious aims. Usually the users are seeking more wealth and prosperity. They care nothing for the lives of the minions they manipulate and cause to be killed.
Didn’t Yasser Arafat become wealthy? And how did he do that? Hard work? No. “Chairman” Arafat pulled the wool over the eyes of the ignorant. He used his people to become a world leader. It is hard to prove that he helped his people achieve anything except their own terror.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is no different from the other tin horn dictators who use and manipulate people. Iran has the poorest airline safety record in the world. On September 1, 2006, another Iranian air liner bit the dust. As many as 80 souls were lost, all innocent citizens of Iran who placed their lives and trust in the hands of their careless government. They were on a holy pilgrimage.
Ahmadinejad has a responsibility to buy new Russian airliners and then to maintain them to the highest safety standards possible.
But he doesn’t have to take care of the people. He is an absolute ruler with no obligation to the people. There are no real “voters” in Iran the way there are in the US. There is no free and open media in Iran. Like in North Korea, the people can hear little but what the government feeds them.
And we all know that Ahmadinejad backs Hezbollah and offers to “eliminate the Zionist state from the face of the earth” whenever he can.
Do you think for one second that Ahmadinejad cares one bit for the lives of Hezbollah or the innocent lives of the Lebanese lost in the recent war?
Cuba, Vietnam and China also come to mind as nations with similar characteristics. The leadership has no true accountability to the people. Any voting is window-dressing and rigged. And no free and open media. No freedom of speech. In Vietnam and China you can’t even get to such internet websites as the one maintained by the US Department of State or The Washington Times.
When Fidel Castro went into the hospital last month, what was the first major political decision of his designated stand-in, his brother Raul? Raul proclaimed an end to TV satellite dishes in Cuba. No more western TV and news.
What we in the west need to realize is this: there is a mass of humanity, much of it living under Communism or poverty or ignorance or all three. Many of these people, in fact most, share two things: they are exploited and powerless to control their real destiny because they cannot vote in free and open elections. And secondly, they have limited access to education and news and the media. Maybe none at all.
The war on terror has similarities to the Cold War. Both confrontations feature oppressed, exploited and uninformed zealots managed by bosses using them. On the other side is s free and open society relying upon democratic values and volunteer military men and women to fill the armed forces.
The North Koreans feverishly prepared a press release on missile defense that demonstrated what we already knew: in North Korea and elsewhere, the population lives in an upside-down world. We should pity them. We should not rush to their destruction.
We need to draw them a map.
"We are great with TV but we are getting crushed on the P.R. [Public Relations] front,” President George W. Bush told NBC News reporter Brian Williams on August 29, 2006.
Why is that? Why can’t we explain the benefits of democracy? Why can’t we diffuse the time bomb of a riled up people and concentrate on the leaders?
The western democracies need to figure out how best to strike a blow at the oppressive user leaders who manipulate the masses of uninformed zealots against us.
Mr. Carey is former president of International Defense Consultants, Inc.
Hardly a day goes by that I don't ask a liberal "Why don't you stand in support of the liberal voices in the mideast?" I never get an answer but I know it anyway. It's a little hard to support anyone when they hate the president and America as much as they do.
People should realize this truth about many Muslims in the U.S. They care nothing about the country, only Islam.
At this point in time, if we could find a way to put $1Billion of our hard-earned tax dollars into the Iranian dissidents, I would support it.
That $1B could save a lot of lives and human tragedy.
I just hope that if we end up going military over there, we hit the government/military infrastructure and then a lot of leaflets telling the people we will support them when they finish the job.
I really don't want to put boots on the ground in Iran.
The Nation of Islam knows no geographical borders.
At some point, the rest of us are going to figure that out.
They want the world and will kill anyone who gets in their way.
Thanks for posting!
Honestly, State should be completely shut down! It is a rat's nest.
There may indeed be two Irans.
The problem is that if the real Iran dosnt get rid of the crzy Iran pretty soon there will only be one Iran.Covered in a layer of glass.
Perhaps we have indeed provided this much or more. We have our ways. the time is not right for boots on the ground but maybe for bombs in the bunkers.
I have a feeling that good intelligence, a well funded insurgency, and bunker busters in the right locations would result in an Iranian *democracy* that threw out Islamic fascism on its a55 and really puts a hurt on the nutzis.
Thanks for the article, but a small nit:
See post #9...to a link to watch these interviews. Listen/watch closely to the very first part...x Iranian president is speaking at Washington National Cathedral...1 of 5 speaking engagements...outrageous!!!
Yes. One can always count on the US state department to do precisely the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time. They should probably all be hung as traitors.
CC, that is an excellent question. May I borrow it?
I wish everyone would use that argument. The mideast needs education and liberalism more than anything else but western liberals are inexplicably encouraging the hardline islamic conservatives.
We need to create a mideast where an opposing thought doesn't result in neighbor turning the thinker in to the nearest mullah for a speedy trial and execution under sharia law.
Also, nothing takes the fight out of a population faster than liberalism.
Very true. Note Mr. I'm-a-nut-job's latest kick--getting rid of liberal teachers in Iran's colleges.
OH..the ole.."The Iranian people are good people" pablum. Theyve had 30 + years to get their sh*t together. They deserve the government they have. I am tired of being threatened by them,and do not want my childred to live under this duress and I want that whole regime toppled at any cost. And my calculations do not include the number of koranimals stacked like cord wood. "The good people of Iran" have run the clock out long enough. Time for them to muscle up or taste the MOAB! And...one more thing...NO NATION BUILDING THIS TIME MR. PRESIDENT!!!!
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