Careful newbie ...
your outlandish, abusive and quasi-racist posts
are beginning give off the distinct odor of troll.
~ & my feline associates can be here ever so quickly.
Posted on 07/08/2005 1:52:47 PM PDT by GMMAC
The Same Old, Same Old . . .
An anatomy of the London bombing.
Victor Davis Hanson
NRO - July 08, 2005
The British may react very differently than the Spanish did after Madrid — by doing nothing rather than by retreating from Iraq.
In the corrupt West these days, that is something.
We all know the score of this war now in the near four years since September 11. The London bombings should remind us how the old tired game works.
Causes
Failed states in the Middle East — autocratic, statist, unfree, intolerant of women and other religions — blame the West for their self-inflicted miseries. Sometimes they are theocratic, like the late Taliban or the current Iranian mullahs. But more often they are dictatorial like the Syrians, Pakistanis, Saudis, or Egyptians, who all, in varying degrees and in lieu of reform, have come to accommodations with the terrorists to shift popular anguish onto the West and the Jews.
That is the Petri dish of Islamic fascism, an evil that will only disappear when the dictatorships that allow it or nourish it do as well. Whether the jihadists are in Iraq, the United States, or Europe, they all share a sick notion that someone else (the decadent Western oppressor and unbeliever) is responsible for their own poverty and backwardness rather than the fundamentalism, corruption, bias, and intolerance endemic to the Middle East.
Propaganda
In WWII we didn’t care much whether in fighting Bushido some thought we were in a war against Buddhists. We weren’t, and that was enough.
We knew the enemy were Nazis, not simply Germans, and didn’t froth and whine to prove that distinction.
But not now.
To criticize Islamic fascism is supposedly to be unfair to Islam, so we allow on our own shores mullahs and madrassas to spread hatred and intolerance, as part of our illiberal acceptance of “not offending Islam.”
It is not that we don’t believe in Western values as much as we don’t even know what they are anymore. The London bombings were only a reification of what goes on daily with impunity blocks away in the mosques and Islamist schools of London.
The enemy knows that and thrives on it. That refuge in religion is why imams shout that “Islam doesn’t condone such things” — even as bin Laden has become a folk hero on the Arab Street. Jihadists sense that even here at home more Americans are more concerned about a flushed Koran at Guantanamo Bay than five Americans fighting for the Iraqi jihadists or Taliban sympathizers in Lodi, California.
As long as there is not any price to be paid for Islamism, either by governments abroad or purveyors of its hatred in the West, the propaganda works and the killing will go on. But when a renegade Saudi Prince, Pakistani general, London imam, or Lodi mosque leader screams out to the jihadist, “Stop that before those crazy Americans really do go to war,” the war, in fact, will be over and won.
Methods
Terror is the signature of the Islamist: hit, back off; hit, back off — hoping in a few years to erode the will and nerve of affluent and leisured Western countries.
Bin Laden has so far only made one mistake: He took down the entire World Trade Center rather than the top floors, and had the misfortune of having George Bush as president. Thus he lost Afghanistan and ended up with democratic reform from Iraq and Lebanon to the Gulf and Egypt. Train bombings in Madrid and bus explosions in London, like the carnage in Iraq, are preferable, since they are enough to terrify and demoralize the Westerner but not quite enough to knock sense into him that only military resistance and victory will save his civilization.
So the attacks will never quite be of such a stature to convince Western voters that one more such explosion will destroy their societies. The trick is instead to wage war insidiously, incrementally, and stealthily to avoid an overwhelming response. A cooling-off period in between 9/11 and 7/7 in which Western apologists, pacifists, and Islamist sympathizers go to work is essential for the terror to continue.
Second, the denial of culpability is equally critical: a Syria, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia must always be able to profess that it deplores terrorism, and that to its knowledge no jihadists are in transit on its territory; bin Laden & co. are not in its country; and its royal family are not funding killers. Within Europe itself, a madrassa that indoctrinates directionless youth, or an imam who shouts hatred to his audience, must always simultaneously when called upon “condemn” terrorism, and then seek victimhood when the rare scrutiny of an outraged public nears.
Finally Western self-loathing and guilt is essential: A fascist agenda of the jihadist — religious persecution, gender apartheid, racism, militarist autocracy, and xenophobia — all that must be embedded deeply within the postmodern landscape of the oppressed. A non-Christian and non-Western “other” can mask his venom only through victim status, grafting his cause to the same exploited groups that seek from Western society benefaction and compensation.
Aims
The jihadists expect that Westerners will slink out of the Middle East, allowing fascist fundamentalists to gain control of half the world’s oil and thus buy enough weapons to blackmail their way back to the caliphate.
Destroying Israel, killing Christians in Africa, running Westerners out of the Middle East, Pakistan, Indonesia, or Bali, all that is mere relish. In Europe, the goal for the unhinged is the creation of another al Andalus; for the more calculating it is enough intimidation and terror to carve out zones of Muslim sanctuary, where millions can live parasite-like, within the largess of Western society, but without its bothersome liberal agenda of freedom and equality, in hopes of implanting the universal law of sharia.
So here we are. Even though the killers profess revenge equally for Afghanistan (the so-called “right” war), they expect Westerners to scream “Iraq.”
Even though such bombings are predicated on infiltration, careful stealthy reconnaissance, and long sojourns within London, expect cries of anguish and worrying about the stereotyping of Middle Eastern males.
Look for the same scripted crocodile tears and “concern” from the Middle East’s illegitimate leaders, even as much of the Islamic Street takes a secret delight in the daring of the jihadists, and the governments sense relief that the target was Westerners and not themselves.
Anticipate Western leaders condemning the terrorists in the same breadth as they call for “eliminating poverty” and “bringing them to justice” — as if the jihadists and their patrons are mere wayward and impoverished felons.
In the short term, Bush and Blair will appear as islands in the storm amid an angry and anguished public. But as 7/7 fades, as did 9/11, expect them to become even more unpopular, as the voices of appeasement assure us that if they just go away, maybe so will the terrorists.
It is our task, each of us according to our station, to speak the truth to all these falsehoods, and remember that we did not inherit a wonderful civilization just to lose it to the Dark Ages.
Victor Davis Hanson is a military historian and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His website is victorhanson.com.
I seem to recall that Saddam Hussein won his election with a 100% count. Does this mean that all those Iraqis were on his side?
Right ON!
Excellent quote.
Knock it off.
Just a couple of points for you to consider...
First, the hue and cry of fascism because of "censorship" is out of tune here. By joining this forum, you have agreed to a few rules - Like NO profanity, NO personal attacks, and NO racism or violence in posts (taken directly from the "Posting Comment" page). Most members here take pains to avoid insulting language in their posts - some do not. Without having much posting time under your belt, you are considered to not have earned much leeway regarding insulting language.
Second, this is not a government owned forum. The right of free association on this privately owned site completely negates the concept of "censorship" you have cited. The easiest way to win your arguments (used in the classical sense here) is to present a superior command of factual knowledge, replete with appropriate source citations.
"Newbies" are suspicious to many old-timers because so many new joiners are "trolls" who are simply here to provoke. To many, I'm still a newbie, even. Don't worry about it - just pursue your arguments with old fashioned gusto - backed up by facts, or cited as your opinion as appropriate.
See ya.
No profanity?! LOL...no, FOFLMBO!! Take another look at your own posts, and check them for "purity".
I do believe the Admin Mod told you to knock it off...a course of action I HIGHLY recommend if you want to stick around here.
Sorry if I came across as accusing you of those offenses. I simply pulled them from the posting page as examples.
I do not believe anyone on this forum should allow themselves to impugn others' integrity or intelligence. There were barbs being thrown from all sides, and I was simply trying to point out that forebearance is required of newer posters more than it is of more established ones. It's not fair, and it may not be right, but it is what it is.
I thought I might offer a few words of advice to someone who joined recently. I apologize for any insult my wording carried - it certainly was not my intent.
One further thought, this time on the subject of the "directly and proudly affiliated" Nazis from WWII: Historically, a very large percentage of Germans may have sworn fealty to nazism, but that has little bearing on how much pride they felt in that association, especially since the atrocities committed by the Nazi leadership were apparently well hidden from the German populace until after the war. If you can cite evidence beyond "common knowledge" (such as a survey done long ago, when more were alive), I would be very interested in seeing it.
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