[gg188]

"We live in dangerous times, when a new kind of leadership is required. Visionary and ruthlessly strategic."

Here's my understanding and paraphrase of the thrust of what Kaplan said on Fox this morning and apparently in his book, Warrior Politics:

We must resort to pagan means to repel these pagans. Playing by OUR rules---of civilized Europeans---is going to get a lot of people killed AND is going to end civilization as we know it. We are going to have to meet paganism with pagan-like force and power---ruthless, with ONE PURPOSE: the OUTCOME. An outcome in which WE, the West, the good people of God, SURVIVE.

My footnote: as I compiled this, Bebe Netenyahu was interviewed on Fox. He pointed out (nothing of what HE says or what KAPLAN says is new or isn't already known, but it NEEDS to be repeated): IF/WHEN any of the terrorist-supporting states obtains nukes, they will USE the nukes. The terrorists will do anthing, will use anything, to destroy us.

We must first do anything and use anything to destroy THEM.

[gg188]

Interesting reading.

[Valin]

We must resort to pagan means to repel these pagans. Playing by OUR rules---of civilized Europeans---is going to get a lot of people killed AND is going to end civilization as we know it.

bump for an interesting piece. I would disagree with the writer, I don't see that we have to lose our soul to win this war.

[Valin]

One more bump

[knighthawk]

In this world America must learn to distinguish among our true friends who will be with us and we with them through thick and thin; opportunistic allies with whom we have some but not all interests in common; strategic partner-competitors with whom we have a mixed relationship; antagonists who are rivals but with whom negotiation is possible; and unrelenting enemies who will try to destroy us unless we destroy them first.

I agree with him and you 100%!

[dennisw]

Kaplan is a genius. He wrote "The Coming Anarchy" years ago for The Atlantic Monthly.....A classic.

[dennisw]

Even more relevant when we see blood thirsty pagans chopping off Daniel Pearl's head or whatever primitive means they used to murder him. Lust for blood.........slitting throats up close and personal. Pumping up the Muslim psyche.

[FreedomPoster]

Whew! That was heavy duty, and more than worth it. For those who skimmed the article, and are just reading the comments, go back and read it. Don't read six other insignificant threads to do so, if that is how you accomplish this.

Posts like this are one of the main reasons I'm here at FR.

Huntington has warned in the past that it is pointless to expect people who are not at all like us to become significantly more like us; this well-meaning instinct only causes harm. "In the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is false, it is immoral, and it is dangerous."

Worth emphasizing. You can't teach a pig to sing. The results aren't there, and it annoys the pig. A key failing of liberal foreign policy is the assumption that you can export (tradition word definitions here) American liberal republican democracy to regions with no history of any of these things. For a great current example, see Zimbabwe and Sud Afrika. We're trying to insert "democracy" into Afghanistan, when what we really should want there is a Western-friendly iron-fisted benevolent dictator a la Singapore.

[angkor]

IF/WHEN any of the terrorist-supporting states obtains nukes, they will USE the nukes.

Everthing is possible for an enemy which enjoys snuff films.

[tallhappy]

Thanks for posting this. Maybe I'll read the whole thing later.

I've appreciated a lot of Kaplan has written over time. I probably agree with him on this as well, but when he comes up with pithy kitschy titles like this and says banal things,

Warrior Poltics-Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos. Kaplan spoke of (the need for) "naked national self-interest

I have to wonder if he understands the things he has been writing about and written.