Posted on 11/19/2006 11:52:45 PM PST by spkpls4
Well beyond us now is any overarching Churchillian vision of our enemies. We lack the practical understanding of an FDR that all of these Islamists loathe us far more than they despise each other. Their infighting, after all, is like the transitory bickering of thieves over the division of loot that always pales before their shared hatred of the targeted bank owner.
So we are at a crossroads of all places in Iraq. The war there has metamorphosized from a successful effort to remove a mass-murdering dictator into the frontlines of the entire struggle between Islamic radicalism and Western liberality. If we withdraw before the elected government stabilizes, the consequences won't just be the loss of the perceptions of power, but perhaps the loss of real power. What follows won't be the impression that we are weak, but the fact that we are--as we convince ourselves we cannot win against such horrific enemies, and so should never again try.
That stumble will send a shudder throughout the so-called West that will be felt worldwide. It will insidiously show that the premodern world proved the master of the postmodern, as al Qaeda's Alfred Rosenberg, the pudgy Dr. Zawahiri, boasted all along--whose followers will not be happy with a successful defense when they think they can go back on an even more successful offense.
In the end, the Islamicists' best way to blow up the world's Starbucks or to turn off freewheeling American television is ultimately with a whimper, not a bang. They need not plant a hundred thousand bombs across the Westernized globe, but simply to cauterize its very spinal cord in the United States--the willingness of the American public, as in the past, to confront only the latest challenge to their freedom and all the ripples from it.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
I sure hope we are both wrong, but it isn't looking that way.
The Islamists don't even need to use violence - demographics is all they need.
Many Persians agree with you. Islam lowered the IQ of the place quite efficiently, compared to Christianity, which flourished there, and Zoroastrianism, a creed friendly to rational thought.
As Rodney Dangerfield would have said, "What a crowd, what a crowd."
;-)
The president's strategy was inconsistent on many fronts,
Are you talking about the war?
No, the war was an exception
We will let the Iraq vets decide who is the blame.
The Bush haters won a big one this month. We will see how that goes the returning Iraqi vets.
I'm not sure that I follow your logic. Are you blaming the looney left for being themselves, or libertarian leaning voters who were angry about the growth of non-defense spending, or those who felt the president was too Wilsonian in aspiring to nation building, those who supported the president on the war, but not on Harriet Myers, or those on the right who have criticized the president for not going on the offense against the war critics sooner, more consistently and more articulately?
Well someone should tell dear Victor that the enemy is here and he/she is a smooth talking relativist full of the cliches from the twentieth century. And the mutts from Islam would be little but targets much like the last Mahdi was for the Maxims of the Brits.
great work!
Bump. I sometimes forget what all I have!!
BTTT
What a fantastic photo essay!
It's very chilling to think about those kids.
Something tells me they need killin', too.
[Something tells me they need killin', too.]
Yes, teach them evil from the cradle onward and they know no better.
Bump that!
JHP, I came back to read comments because of your BTTT (thank you). This note from Blind Eye Jones expressed what I've been thinking as I read through the majority of threads these days: Such pessimism. Such lack of faith in the Living God. So much reacting to evil rather than acting in good.
I have become thoroughly convinced that the words of our mouths and pens and keyboards spread hope and courage as blessing our nation or spread dark despair, actual curses against ourselves. I am appalled, for the choice is ours to bless our nation and her leaders or to fill the heart of our land with bitter arrows tipped with poison.
"Who will not be shaken? Who will stand?" asks the Psalmist. Victor Davis Hanson asks the same question in this article. If the West (or any man, or any nation) will stand, how will that happen? What is the work God blesses and which nation receives His blessing?
LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?How very important the words we speak or write are to our own strength and to the building up or tearing down of our fellow man and thus our nation as a whole.
Who may live on your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heartand has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be shaken.~Psalm 15
God bless America
Land that I love;
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the Light from Above.
This Promise of God comes to mind once again, with greater conviction than ever, that He chose and blessed Abraham, and made him the Father of many nations, the man declared righteous by his faith. God Himself has chosen to be known as, to be named, "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" forever. Abraham settled in Hebron, and all his descendants became known as Hebrews. From Jacob came 12 sons, the Tribes of Israel, and among these was Judah, from whom the Hebrews received the name Jew. Of these People, a Chosen Race, through whom we have received the Law, the Promises, the Messiah Jesus, and all our knowledge of the One True God, the LORD has spoken these words:
"I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
So long as America remains the friend of Israel she will be blessed, for the Promise of God stands forever.
O Lord grant in Your Mercy that America's leaders will be loyal to Your People Israel. We lift our cry to Thee that Thou will indeed establish Jerusalem and make her the praise of all the earth, as we pray in the Name of the Eternal King!
Hate possesses them to the point of inability to do anything but express that hate. Sad, isn't it?
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