Gates of Vienna back from Copenhagen
Baron Bodissey is back from the counterjihad conference in Denmark. Here's his report.
posted by wretchardthecat at 4/19/2007 08:34:00 PM
The Belmont Club
The Belmont Club will be moving on Monday, June 23 to this new site.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Mail Wretchard
Previous Posts
- The other Surge
- The Crime of Our Lives
- The Twenty First Century
- The Mind of Cho Seung-Hui
- "Healing"
- Hot Seat
- Some Are More Equal Than Others
- Not the Perp, Says Internet Figure
- In Loco Parentis
- Gates of Vienna in Copenhagen
Blogroll
Linkroll
Visitors since 12/26/2003
Contributors
18 Comments:
We may well stand up to Islam but we will do it without our Government it appears. Europeans are already past that significant obstical it appears but I believe that Americans will find it a bit more difficult to imagine that their Government will not be there to help. Rational Europeans long ago realized that their governments were helpless and hopeless...conservatives and defense minded liberals are still trying to get a government that teaches its FBI Agents to say this:(Statement of
Donald Van Duyn
Deputy Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Before the
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Related Agencies
September 19, 2006)Before I begin, I would like to emphasize that Islam itself is not the problem but rather how Islam is used by violent extremists to inspire and justify their actions Additionally, the FBI does not investigate individuals for their religious beliefs. Rather, we investigate the activities of individuals who want to do harm to the citizens and interests of United States and those of our allies abroad. The FBI fully recognizes and is committed to protecting prisoners' civil liberties, including religious rights. These activities have led us to believe that prisons continue to present opportunities for the proselytizing of both Sunni and Shia forms of radical Islam. Moreover, domestic groups such as white supremacists recruit in prisons as well.
Candidate Bush on Nation Building and Can Islam and Freedom survive one another?
Holy smokes I guess the moral of that comment above is don't post sleepy with a half a bottle of wine in you. Sorry for the incoherent rant.
What I mean to say is simply this. Our governments teaches the main law enforcers (FBI) responsible for rounding up domestic terrorists to utter and believe in that pap I quoted. And that isn't bad enough but many so called Conservatives and Defense minded Liberals still believe that a government engaged in that sort of idiocy can be of any help in the battle against islam.
Some Europeans have gone past that point and understand all too well that the Governments are sometimes much of the problem. That realization will be very hard to come by in the United States.
Whether or not the American government will help resist the Islamist virus depends very much on the party comprising the government. Senator Harry Reid, Democrat, Senate Majority Leader, said yesterday about Iraq, "the war is lost." He tried to weasel out of his quote after his office was barraged with angry emails and phone calls, but that bell cannot be unrung.
The Democrats either want the USA to lose in Iraq because they see some political advantage in it, or they do not understand or care about the implications of the Islamists controlling Iraq. Either way this is an appaling performance. AQ and Iran are jumping all over it. You would think that Reid created the sound bite to play on mullah TV it was so perfect for them.
Abe Lincoln might well have arrested any congressman saying such things.
Pierre Legrand said: "Holy smokes I guess the moral of that comment above is don't post sleepy with a half a bottle of wine in you. Sorry for the incoherent rant."
No worries, I suffer from the same problem. I find it more acute in the evening though.
Abe Lincoln ... 1864 an interesting election - the Democrats ran McClellan on a platform of surrender and recognition of the confederacy (and presumably restoration of slavery) (McClellan was a former Union general dismissed by Lincoln for incompetence in 62 or 63) ... he nearly won - it was only the surrender of Atlanta to Sherman in August 1864 that put Lincoln over the top and saved the Union ... not sure in 4th generational conflict there will be any such definitive point to snatch victory from the 21st Century Democrats
The Democrats either want the USA to lose in Iraq because they see some political advantage in it, or they do not understand or care about the implications of the Islamists controlling Iraq. Either way this is an appalling performance. AQ and Iran are jumping all over it. You would think that Reid created the sound bite to play on mullah TV it was so perfect for them.
It is worth noting that this FBI Deputy Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division said those words September 2006...Clinton hasn't been in office for nearly 6 years and the Republicans have controlled both houses for most of that time.
I am not disagreeing with your assessment of the Democrats but merely stating that your optimism about the Republicans may be misplaced.
pierre
Perhaps but at least the GOP has not adopted a formal subversion/surrender policy. The Democrats have.
Perhaps but at least the GOP has not adopted a formal subversion/surrender policy. The Democrats have.
Isn't ashame that we are not declaring the Republicans robust in our defense but merely better than the pathetic Democrats?
Proposition:
The main problem with the Repub's war-fighting has been from the beginning the Democrats crouching tiger hidden dragon waiting for every fleck of reverse, to mount wholesale attacks on the very legitimacy of the USA as a member of the world of nations.
I guess I tend to look more for positives than negatives in any situation. The fact is that the GOP is fighting with regular formations in the ME and with special ops in who knows where else.
There is no indication that the GOP is in a cut and run mode in Iraq or anywhere else.
Plus, I also think it more likely than not that the Democrats will fare as well in 2008 as they did in 1968 with their anti-war candidate. Virginia Tech is more than enough evidence that violence is irrational and non-negotiable.
I regret that this Administration has not mounted a more vigorous PR campaign. Not necessarily to promote the war but to counter the Democrats missteps and misrepresentations.
For example, Harry Reid said that the US is losing the war because there was a day of high casualty violence in Baghdad. That is a near ignorant comment.
Every road and sidewalk in the world is a potential suicider site. According to Reid all the Islamists have to do is send a dozen nutters to any one location and they automatically defeat the most powerful nation in the history of history. I find it alarming that one of the most influential people in government would make this idiotic utterance.
"So I make a solemn pledge to you, as president we will be out of Iraq," the Illinois senator (Obama)said to loud applause. Link
Then what?
Has anybody ever heard a Democrat say what happens after US troops leave Iraq? The demographic bomb is a very real thing. The Islamic countries are breeding armies of mujahadeen. Does anybody believe that the imperialistic tendency in Islam will decrease after defeating both the Soviet Union and the United States? How does adding billions of dollars to the Islamist coffers and thousands of square miles of protected territory increase the national security of the US or its allies?
Not only that, but AQ is already in position to price for OPEC --all it needs is something to start the ball rolling. Expect oil to go to one penny per barrel less than what would cause us to go BACK in, Normandy-style.
GDP growth will be another marker, they'll price the West to their favorite cipher, zero. Folks have forgotten 1973-80.
And Dems don't really care (obviously), as hard times just makes da people more Dependant on Big Gov.
The main problem with the Repub's war-fighting has been from the beginning the Democrats crouching tiger hidden dragon waiting for every fleck of reverse, to mount wholesale attacks on the very legitimacy of the USA as a member of the world of nations.
I am suggesting that when you have the leader of the free world declare that Islam, the most brutal mainstream religion in history, to be a religion of peace that your problems combating the ideology of the Islamic warriors are multiplied to the nth factor. It was easy to defeat the Nazis because everyone agree that the ideology was corrupt and that it needed to be defanged. There is no such agreement, indeed you have the heads of those charged with protecting us declaring that Islam is not the enemy.
Oh really? I guess its just a coincidence that Mohammed himself was a brigand and terrorist who had no problem loping off heads? At the end of the day we are simply left with the fact that the leader of Islam was not someone you wanted living next door.
It has been said before and it bears repeating. When two such disparate cultures clash only one comes out the other end. It is the duty of the leader of the free world to be up to the task to describing the terms of the war. President Bush has repeatedly denied Islam to be a problem...even though we have evidence such as Indonesia in 2003 showing 56% support for Bin Laden. Indonesia is supposed to be a shining star of Islams moderation...they couldn't possible be mad about Andalusia or Israel...maybe its something else eh? Maybe its that damn religion.
Now some have said that if we are that forthright about declaring Islam to be a problem that the moderates will flee. First we need to define moderate. If it merely means that I get to be swallowed up demographically and my great grandchildren subjected to Sharia that is not appealing. If it means that finally to avoid extinction Islam means to purge itself of its core beliefs...(can you tell I am not optimistic about that possibility) then I am ok with that but none of that happens until those mythical moderates can see that we have the balls to see what they are supposedly opposed to. And none of our leaders do have the balls.
Then lets not go to why don'e we have our defense spending up to 8% of GDP a level that we can comfortably sustain given that we have in the past.
No I am no friend of either party though I understand that one party is less of a coward than the other.
In various ways, coming from different points of view, y'all have implicitly made the point I now accept as my credo: "We Are On Our Own."
Our Imperial Gummint is useless, but people are not.
Pass the bottle Pierre.
_________
Reminds me: the Baron came home from Denmark with a bottle of Akvavit. That is some interesting stuff. No wonder they have you put it in the freezer before you try it.
He also came home with a taste for Danish beer.
I suppose that Islam as an individual belief system is subject to a variety of interpretations and intensity of practice. For that reason I do not think we can say a priori that every Muslim is a threat to non-Muslims.
As a political system, however, Islam is toxic to non-muslims and to modernity. Whether this condition is endemic to Islam or has come about primarily because of the Salafist influence I do not know. The history of Western-Islamic relations, however, does not suggest an optimistic conclusion. Especially if the only education received by young Muslim males is rote memorization of the Koran.
Shrinkwrapped has a three part blog entry on the cultural aspects of Islam and anti-modernity jihad. Because of its brevity the piece is generalized but Shrinkwrapped is a mental health professional and offers some good insights.
This may be a taste of what Christians can expect under the caliphate:
“He had scores of knife cuts on his thighs, his testicles, his rectum, and his back,” Ugras said. “His fingers were sliced to the bone.
”It is obvious that these wounds had been inflicted to torture him," he said.
Turkish Christians Tortured Before Murder
re: “He had scores of knife cuts on his thighs, his testicles, his rectum, and his back,” Ugras said. “His fingers were sliced to the bone.
”It is obvious that these wounds had been inflicted to torture him," he said.
I just guessing here, but our media-Meisters would find film or photos of the slaughter pornographic. They wouldn't want to rouse the rabble, and cattle are never permitted to see the knife.
Post a Comment
<< Home