Posted on 09/25/2006 7:01:03 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
In the classic Westerns, before the genre got all psychological and had people kissing everything except their horse and girl friend, there was a mandatory scene with a mandatory line. Early in the movie the bad guy would confront the good guy and say, “This town ain’t big enough for the two of us.”
The rest of the movie consisted of everyone choosing sides, then the final, shoot-em-up, in which the good guy (against all odds) prevails. The classic version is Gary Cooper in High Noon. More complex is Clint Eastwood in The Unforgiven. The Byzantine version, in which a number of major players change sides, is Silverado.
As you might have guessed from that introduction, the subject this week is the Pope’s comments, the Muslim reaction, and the War on Islamo-fascists.
Pope Benedict gave an academic speech, in German, at a university. Now, the number of Islamo-fascists who are fluent in German is probably quite low. Still, the “spiritual advisors” of hundreds of thousands of Muslims assured them that they had been “dissed,” to use an American street phrase. These pathetic patsies were told by their Imams that they had been insulted – by a quote from a 14th century Pope who was certainly accurate then.
How do we know that the “insult” that Muslims are vicious and violent people is actually true? Look at the evidence. The reaction was to assassinate an elderly nun, burn several churches, and call for the death of the Pope.
Now, as Charles Krauthammer pointed out correctly in his latest column, “The Irony of the Offense,” all of the world’s major religions at some point used the sword as a primary weapon of persuading people of the justice of their cause. It is equally true that all major, modern religions have abandoned violence as an ecclesiastical method, except for Islam.
By the tenets of the faith, Muslims are duty-bound to subjugate all non-Muslims, by violence if necessary.. There could be no clearer statement that, “This town ain’t big enough for the two of us.” Only we’re not talking about towns, here. We are talking about the Planet Earth. And no one to leaves the Planet except in a pine box.
So, the Islamo-fascists are going to kill us, or we are going to kill them However, killing everyone on the enemy side is unnecessary. At this point, the astute reader should refer to General George Patton’s classic address to his troops. The Bowdlerized version of it appears at the beginning of the movie, “Patton.” For the balance of the sidebars, refer to Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War.”
As Clausewitz pointed out, “War is diplomacy by other means.” The Islamo-fascists are too stupid, and too hide-bound, to be dealt with by negotiation. The rule of all warfare mankind has ever conducted with whatever weapons and in whatever era, applies today. War continues until the survivors on the losing side conclude that further warfare is futile, and agree to surrender.
That may be a long time. It will be a longer time to the extent that those who oppose the war, or who do not recognize that we are even at war, impede the efforts of the US to obtain victory.
Do we have the military might and skills to prevail in this war? Certainly.
Do we have the will to win this war? It is only there that we can possibly fail.
This week provided another example of the only route to failure. The New York Times, and other media, quoted a secret CIA analysis that the War in Iraq had “increased” the number of Jihadists. Two quick points: This was one-sixth of the entire report and was detrimental to the Bush Administration. Given the record of what the Times publishes or withholds, it’s a reasonable assumption that the other 5/6ths of the report was favorable to the Administration, on the evidence that the Times didn’t publish that.
The second point is the usual neglect of history. For instance, Nazi Party membership grew after the War in Europe became a true World War, after Germany invaded Poland and then declared war on the US. Nazi membership continued to grow for years after 1941. Wars are polarizing events in both the defeated and the victorious nations.
So, the Times has stated the obvious, and the Democrats are citing that as grounds for the US to cease fighting. The same logic would have called for the US to cease fighting against Germany, Japan and Italy in the early years of WW II. It takes a high level of deliberate ignorance not to see that parallel. Unfortunately, both the Times and a significant number of national Democrats, are up to that challenge.
Smarter people with a better sense of history understand that it is us or them. And the only way it will be them is if we turn tail and run. Must it take a nuclear-powered education of American defeatists to allow the rest of us to do what must be done?
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About the Author: John Armor is a lawyer specializing in constitutional law, who may again be a candidate for Congress in the 11th District of North Carolina.
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John / Billybob
Thanks!! I do appreciate.
It is indeed a shame...but I fear it is what it will take. I pray that the bomb doesn't go off in my neighborhood, but if it does, I'll never know it, will I?
If I survive, I hope that I am a member of the party that deals with the "American defeatists" who are left....at the "most populous" intersection of the town at high noon.
I am keeping a list.
Well said...
Outstanding, John. Thank you.
Good post! You sound like Thomas Sowell, and from me that is a hell of a compliment.
I like the Western movie line "We deal in lead, friend."
Great essay - I agree.
Are we going to allow the democrats to pull down the entire country? Are we going to give up the American free speech merely because some unknown person declared a word politically incorrect? Why should we care if a word is politically incorrect? Maybe we should care a little about the free speech delivered to us through the deaths of our honored soldiers.
We are really weak if we allow the democrats to destroy the safety of our children and grandchildren with their ignorant claims against a President doing all in his might to protect this country. And, we are unworthy of free speech if we allow a complainer to take the free speech from each of us merely by proclaiming a word "politically incorrect".
Maybe we should call demeaning our president overseas in a time of war as "politically incorrect". Do you think the democrats would even care that it was "politically incorrect"?
We are weak, very, very weak. Our forefathers would be ashamed at our wimpish attitudes today.
Great essay!
I suppose the NYTs and it ilk would have refused to respond to the attack on Pearl Harbor for fear it would make the Japanese really mad.
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