Posted on 09/06/2004 8:50:55 PM PDT by Destro
Cult of Death
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: September 7, 2004
We've been forced to witness the massacre of innocents. In New York, Madrid, Moscow, Tel Aviv, Baghdad and Bali, we have seen thousands of people destroyed while going about the daily activities of life.
We've been forced to endure the massacre of children. Whether it's teenagers outside an Israeli disco or students in Beslan, Russia, we've seen kids singled out as special targets.
We should by now have become used to the death cult that is thriving at the fringes of the Muslim world. This is the cult of people who are proud to declare, "You love life, but we love death." This is the cult that sent waves of defenseless children to be mowed down on the battlefields of the Iran-Iraq war, that trains kindergartners to become bombs, that fetishizes death, that sends people off joyfully to commit mass murder.
This cult attaches itself to a political cause but parasitically strangles it. The death cult has strangled the dream of a Palestinian state. The suicide bombers have not brought peace to Palestine; they've brought reprisals. The car bombers are not pushing the U.S. out of Iraq; they're forcing us to stay longer. The death cult is now strangling the Chechen cause, and will bring not independence but blood.
But that's the idea. Because the death cult is not really about the cause it purports to serve. It's about the sheer pleasure of killing and dying.
It's about massacring people while in a state of spiritual loftiness. It's about experiencing the total freedom of barbarism - freedom even from human nature, which says, Love children, and Love life. It's about the joy of sadism and suicide.
We should be used to this pathological mass movement by now. We should be able to talk about such things. Yet when you look at the Western reaction to the Beslan massacres, you see people quick to divert their attention away from the core horror of this act, as if to say: We don't want to stare into this abyss. We don't want to acknowledge those parts of human nature that were on display in Beslan. Something here, if thought about too deeply, undermines the categories we use to live our lives, undermines our faith in the essential goodness of human beings.
Three years after Sept. 11, too many people have become experts at averting their eyes. If you look at the editorials and public pronouncements made in response to Beslan, you see that they glide over the perpetrators of this act and search for more conventional, more easily comprehensible targets for their rage.
The Boston Globe editorial, which was typical of the American journalistic response, made two quick references to the barbarity of the terrorists, but then quickly veered off with long passages condemning Putin and various Russian policy errors.
The Dutch foreign minister, Bernard Bot, speaking on behalf of the European Union, declared: "All countries in the world need to work together to prevent tragedies like this. But we also would like to know from the Russian authorities how this tragedy could have happened."
It wasn't a tragedy. It was a carefully planned mass murder operation. And it wasn't Russian authorities who stuffed basketball nets with explosives and shot children in the back as they tried to run away.
Whatever horrors the Russians have perpetrated upon the Chechens, whatever their ineptitude in responding to the attack, the essential nature of this act was in the act itself. It was the fact that a team of human beings could go into a school, live with hundreds of children for a few days, look them in the eyes and hear their cries, and then blow them up.
Dissertations will be written about the euphemisms the media used to describe these murderers. They were called "separatists" and "hostage-takers." Three years after Sept. 11, many are still apparently unable to talk about this evil. They still try to rationalize terror. What drives the terrorists to do this? What are they trying to achieve?
They're still victims of the delusion that Paul Berman diagnosed after Sept. 11: "It was the belief that, in the modern world, even the enemies of reason cannot be the enemies of reason. Even the unreasonable must be, in some fashion, reasonable."
This death cult has no reason and is beyond negotiation. This is what makes it so frightening. This is what causes so many to engage in a sort of mental diversion. They don't want to confront this horror. So they rush off in search of more comprehensible things to hate.
E-mail: dabrooks@nytimes.com
Spot on, sadly.
YGBSM? The NYT hasn't pulled this guy to the alter of sacrifice and butchered him yet? He hits it right on the head, but I am still stunned this guy exists at NYT. I would say this act of barbarism would be a wake up call to the world, but if 9/11 wasn't I don't know what will be.
The cult of death lives and thrives because of the ability, or disability, of some people to see evil when confronted by it. Liberals and leftists of all stripes will have much to answer for when the time comes.
When I read this it reminded me of an earlier post of mine:
God help us all.
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. God helps those who help themselves.
The reason many people cannot look at, see, and name evil is that they are afraid or unwilling to go to the only One who can deliver them from evil.
Luke 11
1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
As long as they believe that there is a reward in blowing up infidels there will be no end to it. And as long as this country allows this to be taught in Muslim schools we will experience it.
Just imagine if you will the Pope and all of his Bishops calling for the murder of all non-believers (men, women, and children). World forces would have the Catholic Church shut down overnight. So I ask...
WHY IN THE HELL IS IT TAKING SO LONG TO SHUT DOWN THIS MUSLIM DEATH CULT?
Bayonetting an 18 month old baby? Good God forbid I should ever get used to that!
Let's get to the heart of the matter. These "people" were raised by Islam. They were taught by Islam. They got their ideology from Islam. They were trained by Islam. They were funded by Islam. They were armed by Islam.
They weren't "hostage takers". They weren't "militants". They weren't "kidnappers". They were muslims, acting on behalf of Islam and at the behest of Allah, written through the "Prophet" and recorded in the Koran.
They've done no different that Islam has done for almost 1,500 years.
"Islamic Fundamentalists" is a redundant term made up by the West.
It's ALL Islam. When Beslan happened and 911 happened and Madrid happened and Bali happened and Telaviv happened, every muslim in the world thought how horrible it was, then a split second later, the thought skittered through their brains, "It's ok. They're only kafir, infidels." In much the same way, Nazi guards had the thought skitter through their brains that "It's ok. They're only Jews."
Europe should be watching what is happening VERY closely. It may well happen in France or Spain next. Islam has VERY big grudges against them.
Islam is a wretched failure at motivating or providing any progress or comfort to all of the ignorant dipsh*ts who practice it so they get PO'd and emotionally hysterical and want to kill people they blame for the failures of their stupid religion and all the countries that harbor it. There's a real large emotional component to their hysteria that has no basis in fact.
Another reason for the failure of Islam is their abysmal treatment and disenfranchisement of women. No society can fully funcion with only half of it's members working, producing and sharing in it's problems and benefits. Until Muslim women have equal benefits and rights in their society their culture will remain backward and poor.
Islam needs to be eradicated from the earth. It's truly that simple. AIDS? Forget it. Here's a disease that takes FAR more innocent lives per year. Wipe it out........the world becomes a far better place.
It's about time the Western world realizes this and acts upon it.
One small quibble. He wrote: "We should by now have become used to the death cult that is thriving at the fringes of the Muslim world."
No, it is NOT at the fringes. Not at all. It is strictly mainstream, and approved of by the normal inhabitants of Middle Eastern countries. It is supported by the Arab street.
Let me say this again. The actions are mainstream. Not on the fringe. Not exceptional.
I have just made an exceptional claim. You, gentle reader, have a right to demand some basis. Please read "Imperial Hubris" by Anonymous. You can buy it on Amazon, and it's probably in the library.
This is written by a working CIA analyst. No classified information, of course, but background on the nature of the conflict that puts a lot into perspective. There are extensive scientific polls. The Arab street is against us, and they support bin Laden.
Please, read this book.
You must agree that this is perhaps Armaggeddon, do you not?
And in the meantime, this grandmother could and WOULD be willing to destroy one of those spawns of Satan with my bare hands. But make no mistake - there will be many innocent victims of this war. For all of us who only wish to live in peace, I pray God's strength to do what we must.
Oops! I forgot to remove my tag line from a previous post but in a strange way, it fits!
Well said!
David Brooks wrote a column a while back saying that conservatives should not only support gay marriage, they should INSIST on it. So he's a mixed blessing. Some of his columns are great, and some are garbage.
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