The Rage of Oriana Fallaci

ny observer ^ | January 23, 2003|5:33 PM | by George Gurley

[Revolting cat!]

Excellent perspective (# 39.) This is exactly what it is about. We've come to tolerate barbarism in the Middle East, in Africa, never scrutinize it (why, that would be "racist"!), all the while comparing our own Western imperfections to some utopian standards. Enough already!

[1rudeboy]

She started writing short stories at age 9 after reading Jack London.

And to think I was 18 when I read Call of the Wild, and White Fang. And 30+ when I completed his entire collection. She was blessed from the beginning.

[FreedomPoster]

>>Stoicism and cold efficiency always beats illogical passion.

Said another way: Beware the fury of a calm man.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Excellent article, Dennis.

The West, she said, is under assault and doesn't realize it. "If we stay inert, if we let ourselves be scared, then we become collaborationists," she said. "If we are passive … then we lose the war that has been declared against us.

So true!

[EaglesUpForever]

Yes, there are no condolences around for Israel when their children are killed in cold blood, but crocodile tears abound whenever they encircle Arafat, even when it's a mere symbolic gesture.

Bush is alot better than Clinton, but we still kiss European and Saudi butt too much. Out of the UN, let Europe pull their own dead weight. And make Saudi Arabia pay in full for 9/11.

[lds23]

Great article.

btw - it's my impression Berlusconi is with the US on the war in Iraq, too.

[Valin]

Objectivity, she said, was "a hypocrisy which has been invented in the West which means nothing. We must take positions. Our weakness in the West is born of the fact of so-called ‘objectivity.’ Objectivity does not exist—it cannot exist! … The word is a hypocrisy which is sustained by the lie that the truth stays in the middle. No, sir: Sometimes truth stays on one side only."


BINGO!!!! We have a winner! Ya gotta LOVE this woman, well you don't have to, but if you don't ya got no class or taste.

[Valin]

And another view

Kuwait calling
Scripps Howard News Service
| 1/22/03 |
M.E. SPRENGELMEYER



KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait You don't have to donate money to the Republican Party to get an ambassadorship overseas. All you need is a plane ticket, a baseball cap and the face of a big, ol' Yankee, and then people on the streets will seek you out for sidewalk diplomacy.

As photographer Todd Heisler and I wander through the streets of this oil-rich emirate, it's hard for us to be as invisible as we'd like.

We stand out from the native Kuwaitis in their formal robes and head coverings. We tower over many of the immigrants from India, the Philippines and other countries, who outnumber the natives and do most of the sweatin' work here.

It's impossible for us to blend in with the crowd and observe life anonymously. We might as well be wearing stilts and sparkling Uncle Sam costumes.

When they see us coming, they stop and smile. And, whether they speak much English or not, all it takes is one word to start a dialogue about war, about peace, or about life. And that word is "Howdy."

"Are you America?" one Kuwaiti man asked, easily spotting us in a crowded marketplace one recent Friday night.

To him, I guess we were America personified.

"Yes," I said.

He grabbed my hand and his eyes grew wider and wider.

"Oh, America," he said. "So sorry, New York. So terrible ..."

He kept gripping my hand, shaking his head. Tears filled his eyes. He said he had waited since Sept. 11, 2001, to tell America that only a few Muslims hate it.

The way he sees things, the United States and Britain "made" Kuwait by developing the oil refineries, buying the oil and creating wealth. As a prosperous businessman, he almost lost everything when Iraq invaded Kuwait in the summer of 1990. Then it was the Yanks and Brits who took back the land and the life he knew.

"Kuwait belong to America," he kept repeating in broken English. "That OK. You welcome."

He was so animated as he spoke that a small crowd of amused Indian workers gathered around us. He ignored them, staring into my face, still squeezing my hand, tighter and tighter.

He took my notebook to write a note to America, struggling with spelling but scribbling with gusto: "I love you. Are you love me? Bush pleas kill all murderers. And I love Eesa, Mohamad. I love you. O.K.? Kill Saddam. Kill bin Laden. I am Muslim. I love all."

People assume that we're Christian and want to teach us about Islam.

We made friends with a man named Haisam, a 31-year-old waiter from Syria who took us out for Turkish coffee at a place with an exotic-looking name. Translated from the flowing Arabic lettering, the name meant "Cinnabun."

We sat drinking from tiny cups, our teeth getting stained from black silt that delivered the caffeine. And Haisam talked about his frustration.

He has always wanted to live in the United States. Today, he thinks his dream is dead. Osama bin Laden killed it by poisoning the image of all Muslims like him.

It wasn't so easy to achieve even before Sept. 11, 2001. Several times, Haisam went to the U.S. Embassy to apply for at least a tourist visa. They asked to see six months of bank statements. If he couldn't show that he had $50,000 - which is many, many times his annual salary - he'd never get the visa, they told him.

We kept talking, kept drinking our coffee, until the musical chanting of the Muslim call to prayer echoed through the shopping mall. Haisam politely excused himself and disappeared to a prayer room to give thanks for all that God has given him.

Back near our hotel, my Egyptian friend Mahmoud asks if it's impossible for someone like him to get to the United States in the wake of Sept. 11.

His education back in Cairo was in English literature, but he's here in Kuwait working seven days a week as a security guard. There is no money back home, he says.

Every time I see him, Mahmoud stops me to quote Shakespeare - and to make me feel bad for not paying more attention in Mrs. Harris' English class. Then we talk about the United States and whether he'll ever get there.

I'm not an actual diplomat, so I can't offer him any assistance. But I decided to print out a page of Shakespeare quotes from the Internet to thank him for helping teach me a bit about life in this part of the world.

A quotation from his favorite play, "King Lear," sums up what I'm learning in my impromptu diplomacy on the streets of Kuwait: "Oh! The difference of man and man ..."

[TheMole]

Rage and Pride

[Travis McGee]

What a brave, brave, brave woman!

[Aracelis]

Important read...

[MHGinTN]

Bears repeating again and again ... the purpose of Cold War II is to smash the theocratic power of Islam ... except, this isn't and won't be a 'cold war'. The theocratic 'ism' of Islam (totalitarian actually) sought with 9/11 to bring about a world conflict on their terms, with chaos and mayhem and slaughter such as visits Israel and the Palestinians, Hindus and Moslems, Hutus and their victims ... but we Americans aren't cut from the same 'burqas'. We have at our core an entirely different set of foundational principles. Many of Moslem faith have realized it: we will fight and kill and die if it comes to that, to retain those founding principles, even for the Moslems among us ... as long as those Moslems stand with us. We value honor over living under tyranny, for we are born free and that cannot be taken from us easily. If we are enslaved, we enslave ourselves. Someone else cannot do it. Perhaps that is one of the many differences in Americans and Europeans: submitting to tyranny to remain alive is not living, to US. No, it isn't to be a cold war, for our free blood now runs hot. Islamism shed our blood, now our blood is hot. Now they will bleed, these deluded totalitarians.

[ppaul]

:

"The al-Qaida network is not America's most dangerous enemy.
To fight only the al-Qaida enemy is to miss the terrorist network operating within our own borders. Who are these traitors? Every rotten, radical left-winger in this country, that's who." -- Michael Savage

:

[Hank Kerchief]

...a note to America, struggling with spelling but scribbling with gusto: "I love you. Are you love me? Bush pleas kill all murderers. And I love Eesa, Mohamad. I love you...

Some more recent expressions of Muslim love for Americans:

American shot to death in Kuwait

Ambush in Kuwait; American shot dead

Two Americans shot north of Kuwait City, one dead

Suspect Arrested in Saudi Arabia Confesses, Wasn’t Working Alone (Kuwait Assassination)

Hank

[Valin]

The reason I posted this is to point out that it's NOT 100%
American shot to death in Kuwait

Ambush in Kuwait; American shot dead

Two Americans shot north of Kuwait City, one dead
Suspect Arrested in Saudi Arabia Confesses, Wasn’t Working Alone (Kuwait Assassination)

in the Islamic world.

[SauronOfMordor]

"The Rage and the Pride" is available on Amazon.com for $10.47

[dennisw]

Good story. Doesn't have to be that way if the Muslims and Muslim nations get their act together and stop blaming others for their problems

[veronica]

BTTT.

[junta]

In a bit of political pragmatism reminiscent of that diplayed with the ending of the novel "Camp of Saints" we ought to bury the work of Ms. Fallaci. Since basically the men of the West are emasculated or so enamored of ball games as they have become a substitute for their failed virility we shouldn't waste much time delaying the finale of Western Civilization.

[Man of the Right]

We see the future somewhat differently.

I think the Cold War is a good model for what's going to happen: a period of one-to-two generations of low intensity warfare broken by periods of high intensity warfare. In Cold War I, the major outbreaks were Korea & Vietnam, which were moderate-to-moderately high intensity wars. Most people don't realize Vietnam was the fourth biggest war we've ever fought, only modestly smaller than World War I. Unfortunately, I think Cold War II will be marked by high intensity campaigns. My personal opinion is that there will be at least one incident, and possibly repetitive incidents, of terrorist attacks two orders of magnitude worse than 9-11: hundreds of thousands of American civilian dead per incident through a nuclear detonation or the release of anthrax or sarin by specialized crop duster. If a Bush is in office, our response will be tit-for-tat or more. For example if we determine Hamas is responsible for a 10K nuclear detonation in a U.S. city, we will eliminate South Lebanon with a nuclear weapon. Conversely, if we have "compassionate" (i.e. loony left) national leadership, our civilization will end. I don't think human life will end on earth, but survivors will have to begin to rebuild from a fifth century A.D. level of development. That's the world our kids and grandkids will face.

Obviously, the American people are in no way prepared for this future. Bush is a desparate man playing a weak hand masterfully. He understands. At the other end of the spectrum, a large minority think we can appease the Islamists by putting on a nice face to them. They have no understanding that the Islamists are waging a war of extermination against us, that the means of large-scale killing are readily at hand, and the consequences to them and society will be devastating. They have no frame of reference or skills to cope with the threat. 9-11 will never recur, simply because any future incident that requires that level of planning will employ a weapon of mass destruction. I observed NYC leffists immediately after 9-11. They were beside themsleves.

We may be trapped in semantics. Some historians call the Cold War World War III. Call this World War IV.

Personally, I give the U.S. no more than a 25% chance of winning this war without the destruction of our civilization. This is probably a lower probability than winning the Vietnam War in the early 1960s, if we had had a President who knew what he was doing (Eisenhower, Reagan, 43)

That's not a very cheery note to end this post, but there it is.