Spain's Surrender (Important)

Front Page Magazine ^ | March 18, 2004 | Jamie Glazov and Victor Hanson

[FITZ]

Islam is a religeon of war and assimilation.

But look at the Persians, I think we do need to help those who wish to help themselves. Europeans have become so godless and decadent, they've brought all this on but others in the Middle East and Africa want freedom. Someday if the French tire of Islam then they will begin to overthrow it themselves and then we could aid them.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[hershey]

Where would the Middle East be if the West didn't buy their oil? It's the only thing they have to sell other than carpets. And we had to show them how to drill for it, etc.. Let's say we got out yesterday, we invented cold fusion or whatever to heat houses and fuel cars, the Middle East would still hate us. They'd be reduced to eating sand. The problem with Islam is that it looks backward. Their culture is stagnant and worse.

Spain just begged terrorists to 'paint burquas on every Spanish butt', to paraphrase M. Steyn. As long as computers, TV, and movies exist, America be in every living room in the world with electricity and running water. Our culture isn't stagnant. We are a creative people...blame individual freedom for that. Every day we get up and invent something new that captivates the world and infuriates people like Osama bin Laden. We aren't about to change our nature, and you can't disinvent computers and mass communication.

Appeasement won't work long, and neither will blackmail. I wonder if that won't be the next trick out of the terrorist bag: threatening to bomb some European city if America doesn't give up the fight. Bombing America proper would only serve to enrage us and make us more determined to carry the battle to whatever rat-infested cave terrorists call home, this time with MOAB.

Plus, the terrorists' latest demands have gone way beyond America getting out of Saudi Arabia. Now they want to revisit the Crusades, et. al.. This time they want to conquer Europe, then the rest of the world, so where do we draw the line in the sand?

Do you think Kerry has the right idea and we should consult the UN for legitimacy on everything from soup to nuts? Some in the State department would go that route. I heard some nitwit general (McCaffrey?), on the radio...a CNN feed...yesterday, calling Powell a national treasure and advocating that we put him and State in charge of foreign policy as they'd involve the UN asap, never mind that the UN has been hijacked by a gang of thugs. The world is complicated, and made more so by our history in the Middle East, which hasn't always been lily-white. But we have to play the hand we're dealt, and appeasement won't work. By the way, McCaffrey, or whoever the general was, also said democracy would never take root in Iraq or anywhere else in the Middle East. Evidently he feels Muslims don't have enough brains to make it work. Funny, nobody called him a racist.

[hershey]

Bush said the other day that Spaniards had voted for appeasement because they hoped feeding the alligator meant that he'd eat them last. It didn't work in the 'thirties and won't work now. Alligators eat whatever's handy, and Spain has a large Muslim population. They're in for trouble.

[hershey]

Although the world's only superpower, we can't right all the world's wrongs in a matter of days or weeks or even years. But we are trying. Give Bush credit, he's freed Iraq from an unspeakable monster who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of his own citizens. Plus, Bush is doing his damndest to give her people a taste of democracy on their terms. Libya is coming around. If we mean what we say and do just that, no nuancing around, tyrants get the big picture. As for NAFTA, etc., outsourcing jobs, the banks and CFR decided to export American capitalism to the third world on the theory that a rising tide raises all boats. The third world would have the means to buy our products, etc.. Painful for us in the short run, alas. We have to invent something more substantive than cell phones.

[hershey]

I like that, 'barbarian hordes', and that's exactly what we face. Unfortunately, if Bush says it, he'll be called a racist by our pals, the lib press.

[hershey]

Spanish forces were symbolic, a show of solidarity. Their departure, the socialist victory, is a white flag in the fight against terror. It's appeasement writ large, and it's unspeakably sad. To think that Iraq, come June, won't need protection against terrorist elements, whether home grown or foreign, isn't sensible. US troops will be there for years.

[hershey]

Yup.

[hershey]

560 American soldiers have died in Iraq because we decided to fight terror where it's spawned, not in Chicago or Boston, NY, or L.A..

[hershey]

V.D. Hanson...I'd love to borrow his brain for a month. He's marvelous, articulate, cuts right to the bone, yet still remains a gentleman.

[RottiBiz]

Outstanding post! Thank you.

[paulsy]

"The terrorism we experience is a direct result of our being there in the first place."

Oh please PLEASE PLEASE educate yourself. Please. Wahabbis have been dead set on destroying everything the 1700s. You thought Nazism was bad, just give THESE folks some power. Saudi Arabia wanted to protect itself from radical islam dating way back, so they (among other things) started pumping money into those madrasses. These radicals have hated everyone who weren't like them - including other muslims - for centuries.

In fact, various groups of Muslims have been going after Christians since 700 AD when they took Algiers.

These most recent attacks are a direct result of their historical hatred of us; they've been brainwashed into hating us by the madrasses funded by Saudi oil money. Giving in because we're afraid of pissing them off, as Spain did, is a deadly strategy. We tried the "nice" approach in the 1990s and we still got 911. They are invasive and viral, and throughout history, the only way to stop them has been to kill them. Unfortunately, the Spain socialist leader has done exactly the wrong thing, as have a lot of people in Spain who put him in power.

So please, you and your liberal friends, remove your nose from that foul smelling Chomsky book long enough to learn some objective truth, or you might be in for a real sore life someday.

[Travis McGee]

He wasn't even the senior speech writer, as I recall. Safire was.

[meenie]

I think you are right on the probability that troops will be there for years but the country should be a stand alone nation capable of defending itself and governing itself. What is wrong with the process when they cannot rely on their own protection and governance?

Something is very wrong when an occupying power is required to baby sit a government for years. It is also impossible from an economic and political standpoint to occupy every source of terrorism all over the world. We do not have the resources and population to make this a permanent solution to terrorism. Thought should be given to this reality and a solution found. We do not have to appease terrorism but we have to find more of a solution than we now see.

[sarasmom]

"Something is very wrong when an occupying power is required to baby sit a government for years."

How old are you?
How much history have you read, if not lived?
Care to take a guess on how long we stuck around in Japan, Germany and South Korea? We are still hanging around the former Albania, arent we?

It takes as long as it takes.That's about the only "exit plan" option available to an occupying power.
So far, we have occupied Iraq for less than a year.Come back to me in three years, and a clearer picture may have emerged.

[meenie]

I've lived history since the depression, WWII, Korea, etc. and rely on my experience in all. What history have you lived? Do you not realize that we are expending resources we do not have or hasn't it registered that a seven billion dollar debt will have to be paid or defaulted upon? Doesn't the Russian experience where the economy was unable to support the military and caused a crash of the economy and military bother you? Have you not read world history, even if you have not been engaged in world events in a participating way? Your comments do not show an understanding of the whole picture. Do you think that we can idefinitely afford 200 billion in occupation expenses in just one small country? Start using your head instead of parroting the latest propaganda.

We did not win WW II by concentrating our efforts on Bavaria. We had to establish priorities and spread our efforts on the whole Axis block. The war on terror is no different. While putting all our resources into Iraq, other parts of the terrorist world are neglected, including our own borders and South America. I appreciate your comments regarding my not having lived long enough to realize world problems in such an experienced manner as you. Your wisdom shines through in your reasoned comments(not)on the events that have molded your thoughts and judgement.

[sarasmom]

If you are as old as you claim, it sounds like you have filtered events and history through a rather strange color of glass.
And you ignored my questions completely.
Which is it?
Marxist,Communist, Socialist or just old and set in your ways, against all proof and reason to the contrary?

[ModelBreaker]

Was he [Pat Buchanan] more than a speech writer [for Reagan]?

I think he was Nixon's speechwriter. I don't know what role he played in the Reagan administration.

Maybe one of the 'patbots' around here can tell us :)