Posted on 11/12/2001 9:03:35 AM PST by TimSkalaBim
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:35:58 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
ATHENS
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
You may fool yourself with the conservative tag, but only yourself.
I am not a Serb (not that there is anything wrong with that).
It is actually the essence of conservatism to create and defend an empire. Ask Winston Churchill. It is liberalism to dismantle one (ask the post-war Labor party), and it is folly and pacifism to refuse to take charge in some fashion of nations from which you are threatened with mass destruction. As we all know from George Orwell, refusal to act in the face of such threats is objectively to favor the other side.
What I would like to hear about is the excesses in which the Saudis live, and how that money is distributed. My understanding is that one, you have to come from the right family, and two, the controlling family has so much money it doesn't know what to do with it. Had a friend who grew up in several oil countries, and while a teenager in UAE, he had a friend who was wealthy prince, and their family had stooopid stuff like gold plated machine guns, gold plated commode seats, and monster truck type Mercedes coupes.
Even though that is kind of the absurd, it illustrates the thinking of the Islamic world in general: the Palestinians, and others deemed displaced or disenfranchised, must be compensated. But not by the Islam, the Arabians, or the Persians, but the West. Same goes for Israel: Palestinians deserve a homeland, but not in Yemen, Saudi, or any other Middle Eastern state, it must come from Israel. Although this thinking is irrational and illogical, and intellectually dishonest, it continues to shape our world.
Bactrians were an Iranian tribe closely related to the Persians culturally and linguistically. I think Roxanne was Bactrian. Iranians were originally a nomadic people of the steppes. Some migrated south, to India (the Aryans), and some to Iran (Persians, Medes). Some migrated west (the Scythes). There were Iranian tribes in western China. Bactrians were a tribe that held the mountains in northern Iran and Afghanistan, and many of the lush farmland in the valleys. An ancient Northern Alliance if you will.
As I said, Alexander was a conservative. He started out to defeat the Persians to punish them for an invasion that occurred about 100 years early, and which still wounded Greek sensibilities, to free the Greek cities of Anatolia, and to deter future Persian aggression. Just like we protect ourselves from future aggression, by pacifying the lands of our enemies.
I looked up some of your past posts, and you have a keen interest in Balkan affairs, for whatever reason. I don't know if searches go back far enough, but you would see from my posts how harshly I criticized the Clinton Administration during the Serbian air strikes for doing a number of stupid things, including making enemies of former friends, supporting Islam in the heart of Europe, and using the US military to deflect memories from the sting of impeachment. I think that part of this current campaign will involve rooting out militant Islam from the Balkans, and reforming immigration policy in Germany, France, Britain as well as in the US. Nothing is stupider than creating a 5th column in our own back yards.
"New Economy": (1) Giving U.S. Government backed loans to political contributors who want to export American jobs and money. (2) Convincing those who lost their jobs that they will be retrained for non-existent dot.com jobs, then forgetting about them. (3) Giving government grants to lefty Econ professors in sandals to tell us how this is good for America. (4) Its all OK as long as we continue to import lots of oil and otherwise continue the status quo.
"Engagement": (1) Convincing the sheeple that the situation that exported their jobs and money must be protected through the meddling of incompetent American beaurocrats, think tankers, and political appointees in the national affairs of places with unpronounceable names. (2) Maintaining the energy status quo at all costs, because Exxon and the Saudi family are "much more important" than the peons that can't find a gas station that sells biomass-based fuels or anything made from natural gas. (3) When (1) fails to achieve the objective, call in the military, or if Congress won't buy-in, NATO or the UN. Do it in a way that gives the sheeple nightly pyrotechnics on CNN until they are convinced the job is done. Under no circumstances should anything be done, such as taking out Hamas or Hezbollah, or anything else that might upset the Saudis. Include a nationally sanctioned group pander to islam.
Incorrect. Suleyman's father, Selim the Grim (love that name), declared himself caliph after conquering Egypt and Arabia in 1517.
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