Update II (9/12): And bringing up the rear are Literal Barrage, Tel-Chai Nation, Flopping Aces, and League of the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Everyday, sometimes several times a day, there’s another story about Muslims blowing up something or somebody.
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Update: Commenter Judy writes (emphases added):
“Later that day [9/11/01] I made my way home on an empty beltway. I could not take the usual route home because the highways were closed. There were people in the elevator of my building smiling, laughing and happy. There was a party on one of the floors. (Did I mention that they were all Muslims?) I moved when my lease was up…The next morning I stopped for coffee at my then usual place. Up until that day I thought the man behind the counter was Hispanic. I found out that day he was Palestinian. He smiled and gloated with saying “good now America will now how we feelâ€. He also volunteered that he pledged to fight for jihad before “they†(whoever they are) let him leave Palestine to come to the US. [I called the FBI on him — he disappeared a couple of days later.]”
That’s one thing you can do, reader. Call the FBI on Muslims who say things like this. It may not accomplish anything (unless they’re here illegally), but at least you’ll be doing something. Now, about that southern border…
More thoughts… Commenter and blogger Tyrone’s comment triggered this thought: I think the new World Trade Center towers, or some other building, should be erected in place of the former WTC. I absolutely hate the idea of a memorial. We don’t need to sit around looking at stone and concrete “remembering.” We need to rebuild the site and get back to work!
About the war in Iraq, I always that Bush went about it the wrong way. He should have sent in ground troops only after bombing cities where Al Qaeda thugs were hiding, then go in. Round them up, execute the leaders, and let everyone else know they’d better stop hiding terrorists, or else. I hate the mealy-mouthed way America is fighting…against a weak enemy, at that! However, I’m more hopeful than writer Greg Crosby was back in 2004.
I say, Let the Ethnic/Religious Profiling Begin!
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Conventionally, countries fight wars against other countries. Territory is well-defined, and the objective — unconditional surrender — is clear. World War II is always a good illustration. Adolf Hitler’s desire for power obviously consumed him. As he marched through Europe, plotting, conquering, and destroying, weaker or just plain cowardly countries surrendered. Germany was eventually defeated and Hitler killed himself before he could face man’s justice.
While some Americans hand-wring over the atomic bombs dropped on Japan — which ended the war, by the way — lost in the lament are Japan’s atrocities. Declaring war on us, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and conquered other territories in the Pacific. The Allied forces asked Japan to surrender unconditionally in July of 1945, and the country refused. Then came the bombs. Japan surrendered in August.
In the current war against terrorism, we’re fighting against an enemy who hides like a rat everywhere. I call him the Islamofacsist, a psychotic and murderous adherent of a religion under which “freedom” and “peace” are entirely foreign concepts. Columnist Diana West names the enemy, too.
There are billions of Muslims on the globe, and Islamofacists hide among them. The war against terrorism is an unconventional war, so one can’t expect it to look, feel, or sound like WWII.
As wild as it may seem to Americans, especially heathens, the war against terror is a religious war. Whether the enemy chooses to conquer us by force with bombs and flaming airplanes, or by our own suicidal and weak-willed acceptance of their demands to change our way of life (swimming pools today; the legal system tomorrow) to adhere to their religious laws, he will attempt to conquer us by any means necessary.
But he is a weak enemy, one that America could easily vanquish. If the way things are going in Michigan is any indication of what the future holds…
As flawed as America may be, it is unique among the ordinary. “Freedom” is not just a word or an idea; this country, above all others, every last one, has been able to put the word into action as the world has never seen. In this country, you can be a Muslim without fear of persecution. The problems begin when you, as a Muslim, demand that our banking system, our legal system, our whole way of life, change to accommodate you. I’m convinced that changing this country to accommodate Islam is the goal of even moderate Muslims.
People like me see clearly what’s going on, but so far, speaking out against Islam is unpopular at the moment, even in the middle of a freakin’ war against their radical members. But speak out, I will continue to do until I’m in my grave. In my unpopular opinion, America should be wary of the entire religion, not just the homicidal maniacs with a h***-on for virgins in the afterlife.
Is that anathema to the American spirit? Perhaps. But the enemy is everywhere, even here in our own country, plotting and scheming. Until so-called moderate Muslims and all the rest get on the ball and help root out this cancer, I will continue to hand down indictments against all of them.
Today marks the 5th anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the United States. There are many blogger tributes out there, and I’m linking to as many as I can.
Questions for readers:
1) What was your first reaction on September 11, 2001?
— I was about to leave for the hair salon, enjoying the remaining days of a vacation. I watched the “Today” show back then. That morning I noticed Matt Lauer looking off-camera during an interview. Then I saw a smoking building. I thought it was an ordinary building fire. Like everyone else, I couldn’t have imagined what was really going on. About an hour later I thought, It was that Muslim maniac, bin…something. Read the rest of my where-were-you-on-9/11 story.
2) How do you feel about it now?
—This post and the entire blog should give you a hint.
Addendum: A bittersweet consequence of Muslims elected to office and becoming a majority in any state or city in this U.S. is that the so-called separation of church and state will be weakened. It’s bitter because Christianity was pushed out of the public square long ago, and Islam will be pushed into it (I’ll take up arms before I live under sharia); it’s sweet because I’ll get to tell inane liberals, “Told you so. You think Christianity was your enemy, you hare-brained dolts? Openly homosexual Americans, watch out! The Christian faith does not require that unbelievers live under theological rules, nor does it force itself upon anyone or demand that whole societies prostrate themselves before it.”
I’ll say a lot more than that, but you get the idea. 
Blogger (and other) Tributes:
- The Mad Tea Party — We Will Not Forget: Ezra Aviles, Age 41
- A Blog For All — Five Years
- Debbie Schlussel reports on a “Good Morning America” gone bad. One-sided leftist producers and reporters will do it to you every time…
- Marvin’s Word — Gary Bird 1950-2001
- Baldilocks — Why I Hate Them
- Hang Right Politics — September 11 – We’re Still Mourning
- Bizzy Blog — Five Years After 9/11: Noteworthy Posts and Info
- Bill Bixby — An American Christian living in Belgium at the time recalls followers of Allah celebrating.
- The Thunder Run — big round-up
- Right Wing Nut House — The Tears No Longer Come
- Pundit review has two 9/11 podcasts: one with sound clips of 9/11 calls, and the other with Scott Johnson of Power Line.
- The Political Bull — 5 Years Later: The Round-Ups
- Op-For — September 11th… 1565
- Gates of Vienna — The Other September 11th (1683)
- Mike’s Noise — Remember…
- Right Wing Nation — 9/11 Tribute: Tarel Coleman
- California Conservative — 9/11: Never Forget, Always Remember
- Outside the Beltway — Fifth Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks
- Erik Rush — On September 11, I Choose Stupid
- L’Ombre de l’Olivier — on a plane
- Wizbang — links to blogs, news stories, photo essays
- Atlas Shrugs — 9/11: Islam Declares War on US
- Ed Cone — What has not changed five years later
- Mark Tapscott — 9/11 — Nuisance or mortal danger?
- Tom McMahon — But Let Us Not Forget The Efforts Of Bill Clinton
- Scrappleface — ABC Drama Marks 50th Anniversary of 9/11 (comedy)
- The Anchoress — 9/11, Iraq, WMD, Clinton’s “birthday†and more
- Sister Toldjah — 9/11 victim Peter Edward Mardikian: Gone too soon
- Michelle Malkin — The 2,996 Project (and here)
- 9/11: Birth of the Blog — I read a few years ago that many were first inspired to blog after the terrorist attacks. September 11 also gave birth to the “9/11 Republicans,” formerly dovish Democrats who’d become hawkish after Islamofascists declared war on the U.S. On our own soil.
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I was on a plane and in an airport.
I had actually visited the WTC on the 10th, was back home on the 11th and saw this on the Today show.
It was surreal, I thought a plane had actually flown too low and hit the WTC. Then another one hit and I knew it was terrorism.
I also remember that next Sunday our church was packed to capacity. The next Sunday it was back to normal.
One thing I know about Islam and Muslims. They all hate us here and our freedoms, but they love the money that can be made. They hate Israel. Even these moderates have the same feelings. It is an angry religion.
I once confronted a “moderate” Muslim man who I did business with recently and asked him about those suicide bombers. I asked him, “is that right, to kill innocent people like that?”
He replied that he believes in martyrdom but refused to directly answer my question. We no longer do business.
One question that haunts me still is how is it, with all of our security and technology that these Muslims could learn how to fly, hijack 3 planes at the same time and no one know anything and do anything about it? I guess I expected too much from our intelligence.
Everytime someone talks to me about needing more laws and this and that, I point to the fact the we knew those people were here, the FBI knew they were taking flight lessons. A bunch of young Arab men came over and immediately started taking flight lessons. And we knew who all of the hijackers were the same day it happened!
So I’m first still upset that these men came over and did, this. Secondly, I’m upset that our gov’t failed us and let it happen. But what else is new.
I wonder if our grief and mourning is holding us back from real analysis of the real issues we face.
Did you see this video about the guys at barbeque talking about September 11th five years later? I know some will say it’s not right to find humor here, but I think being 100% somber isn’t right either… And maybe humor can help us get over the attack and focus on policy that will make our world safer.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7808696975666289637
Matt Hoops
Who is this Matt Hoops fellow and why is he spamming all the blogs you mention with some google video link?
LaShawn, you have made some excellent points here, but I think that you need to go a little further with the thoughts on what Hitler and the Islamofascists have in common.
It took five years for me to realize that the Islamofascists have more in common with Hitler than we would like to admit.
Five years ago I was stunned not only by the magnitude of the attacks but also by the seeming pointlessness. What did the terrorists want? No apparent list of demands; no apparent goals. Hell, at the time, no one claimed responsibility. It appeared to be nothing more than senseless death and destruction.
At the time, I agreed with the President’s comments – the terrorists must have attacked us because they resent everything that is good about American and modern civilization. They are so envious that they want to kill us.
Only last night while watching the ABC show, however, did the light bulb go off.
It should have gone off more than five years ago, however.
The terrorists have stated their goals, plainly, in print and on video for years. Osama Bin Laden made it clear what he wanted (and still wants now, if he is still alive): “conversion” of all, yes all, to Islam. His message is succinct: convert or we kill you. It is capable of being summed up in a catchphrase – “death to the infidels.”
Neither I nor anyone else should have been perplexed trying to figure out what do the terrorists want. They have been quite candid about it. Our problem was that we had a difficult time believing it.
We seem incapable of understanding that an “extremist group” might have the audacity to think that they could take over the world.
But we have seen this movie before. The Nazis were an “extremist group” as well – that is, until they took control of Germany.
The Islamofascists want the exact same thing that Hitler wanted – world domination. Unfortunately, like the Nazis, they believe that notwithstanding their relatively small numbers, they can succeed.
The Islamofascists have taken a play straight out of the Third Reich playbook. In the 1920’s, the Nazis were a very small, extremist group. The Beer Hall Putsch was a complete failure. Yet by 1933, they had leveraged German post-WWI frustrations and nationalist sentiment to capture a plurality of the legislature, and shortly thereafter, they had leveraged that plurality to establish a totalitarian regime with the most powerful military in history.
The Islamofascists have slightly modified the formula. They are leveraging a worldwide base of Muslims. Instead of capitalizing on nationalistic fervor, they capitalize on religious fervor. Thus, instead of luring followers with pride in the fatherland, they lure followers with promises of eternal paradise (complete with scores of willing, underage girls).
We need to defeat the Islamofascists the same way that we defeated the Nazis – soundly. Nothing short of an unconditional surrender will succeed.
I harken back to 9-12, when one of my most liberal friends said that he was very disappointed in President Bush’s failure to immediately say to the world that you are either with us or against us.
President Bush came around a few days later.
I wish that the rest of the country, and civilized world, would come around today.
1. I worked for a large German corporation. We had a television in the conference room in our building and most of the employees had gathered around it. The first trade tower collapsed. I looked at the horrified faces of everyone. I didn’t see our VP, so I went downstairs and found him in his office with the door closed. I knew no meeting could be as important as telling him what had just happened. As I hastily relayed the story to him, he looked at me and said in his heavy German brogue, “My God, this is war”.
2. No truer words were ever spoken.
My daughter was in beltway traffic on her way to Bethesda Naval Hospital for a pregnancy check-up and heard the news of the first tower hit on the radio. Her high ranking husband was locked down, so she called me to ask what she should do. That is how we came to hear of 9-11 and to glue ourselves to the TV.
LaShawn is right to be suspect of the entire religion. No matter how the Islamic world spins it, the Koran is an enormously militant work and its themes of jihad, infidels, subjugation and conquest are unmistakable.
For several centuries, the Muslim world backed off those themes, but for the past 100 years radical Islam has been on the rise.
You need only listen to the idiocy that CAIR spouts to see what you are dealing with when you presume to be dealing with “moderate” Muslims.
I recently visited at length with a very sophisticated Muslim leader who holds a top position in the government of Egypt. (He holds degrees from Harvard and Oxford.) We talked openly and freely about radical Muslims in Egypt. But, then I asked how the Danish cartoons of Mohamed had affected Egyptians. He went from Jekyll to Hyde. He was apoplectic. He convincingly hissed that “such an act” is “satanic” and can only be “answered by death.” The interview was over and he was visibly shaken. He is one of our staunch allies in Egypt, but if he is ever pressured to choose side, his Muslim belief system is firmly in command.
One postscript: Don’t look for Islam to gain a toe-hold in China. Those dictators have a clear understanding of the power of militant religion among the impoverished.
On 9/11/01 I was driving to work. I was running late and didn’t realize what had happened. Joe in our quad said that one plane had hit the World Trade Center. I didn’t believe him. How? Couldn’t the pilot see the frigging tower and avoid it? Was it foggy or cloudy over there? Then we heard that the second tower was hit also. After that, no work was done at all. We all ended up in the conference room which had a TV and ended up watching it all day. I went back a couple of times to my work (I’m an architect) but my mind could not get back to the mundane world when so much was going on. I remember expressing my fear that the US would not do anything, because we’ve never fought back before. The earlier attacks on US property worldwide had never brought on retaliation on the perpetrators. That was my state of mind that day. I remember it was a bright blue sky day in Dallas.
I once confronted a “moderate†Muslim man who I did business with recently and asked him about those suicide bombers. I asked him, “is that right, to kill innocent people like that?â€
He replied that he believes in martyrdom but refused to directly answer my question. We no longer do business.
This is something we can all do.
The 1st amendment guarantees them the right to hold beliefs abhorrent to us, but it does not guarantee them freedom from financial ruin for holding them.
Today while getting my usual morning coffee, a man in the shop said “people don’t commit suicide because they hate our freedom”. I walked away dumbfounded and angry. There is so much ignorance about this WAR we face. Of course he also espoused that authors and financiers of Path to 9/11 are just right wing religious fundamentalist fanatics. Sadly, this man is just as lost in his ideology as the Islamic fascists are lost in theirs.
On 9/11 my secretary’s husband called soon after 9 am to say there was a plane crash into the world trade center. I went into the office conference room where we had a TV. I am not sure I saw the live pictures of the second plane or just a replay of the video. I put my head down and cried WE ARE AT WAR. I knew my significant other would soon be off to support the effort I just did not know where. (Two tours – 1 to Afghanistan and then to Iraq)
Then we heard about the plane crash into the Pentagon and went to the other side of the building and saw the smoke. My mother called and said she heard reports that there were more planes headed to DC. A trip to the other side of the building to watch the normal path over the Potomac river that planes into Reagan National follow. Why would I think a hijacked plan would follow the standard route?
Later that day I made my way home on an empty beltway. I could not take the usual route home because the highways were closed. There were people in the elevator of my building smiling, laughing and happy. There was a party on one of the floors. (Did I mention that they were all Muslims?) I moved when my lease was up.
The next morning I stopped for coffee at my then usual place. Up until that day I thought the man behind the counter was Hispanic. I found out that day he was Palestinian. He smiled and gloated with saying “good now America will now how we feel”. He also volunteered that he pledged to fight for jihad before “they” (whoever they are) let him leave Palestine to come to the US. [I called the FBI on him -- he disappeared a couple of days later.]
We are at WAR with a different type of enemy, until we stopped being confused about this we will only prolong the this WAR.
Scary comments about a scary day. On 9-11 I was home with my 4 year old who had impaled her leg on a makeup brush the day before and was happily playing, stitched up leg and all. My husband called to say that a plane hit the WTC. I thought it was probably a small jet, a confused pilot. Then my dad called and told me to turn the tv on. Dad says to do something, I know it’s serious, so I flipped on Good Morning America and watched in horror for the rest of the day. Thank God my daughter kept herself occupied and was unaware of what was happening. I talked to New Yorker friends throughout the day, and had my first asthma attack a few days later. The absolute terror of this war, that completely innocent civilians could be targeted in such a manner was so foreign to me, having been raised in a pro-military, honorable, Christian family. As my dad always says, “never judge others by your own values.”
After reading LaShawn’s writings, thought-provoking and on-point as always, I offer this link to a 1998 interview with bin Laden himself, in which he states in his own words what his goals are. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/interview.html
I’ll never forget the carloads of Arabs that paraded past my home in Belgium honking their horns, and waving triumphantly. Some, knowing that I was American, made a point to honk until I acknowledged them. I did with a cool stare. I tell more about it on my blog here.
I watched the first part of the Path to 9/11 last night and was astounded that ABC tromped through the tulips of political correctness to the extent that it did. It was like a breath of fresh air.
Howard Dean, John Kerry, John McCain, Hillary, Arlen Specter, Patrick Leahy, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and a host of others would preen and stroke their egos the same way Clinton did if they gained high office.
Clinton surrounded himself with sycophants and jelly-filled donuts. He ignored Freeh, Tennet and relied on the manipulative, politically motivated Sandy Berger. Compare Clinton’s court of jesters to the power team Bush has chosen.
Radical Islam could not wish for a great gift from the American people than an administration that is dedicated to talk and poll and pose and talk and poll some more.
The country has a true choice in the Congressional elections and in 2008. Even if it is a choice between “ugh” and ” worse” it is a life threatening choice, nonetheless.
I saw it on tv in Saigon. This was a movie, right? The Vietnamese came off the street to watch, and none of them were cheering like muslims. No, this was not a movie.
“Before Ground Zero.” Based on a sketch done years before 2001. A view from Sheridan Square in the West Village.
(Good work, Shawn! You remind me that this country needs more tigresses.)
1. I was doing PT (physical training), and watched the second plane hit on CNN. As soon as I realized (which was within 5 seconds from impact) what was happening, my first thought was “Well, that’s it. I’m getting stop-lossed.” (I was still in the Air Force at the time and had just a little over a year left in.) What I felt was complete and total shock and anger.
2. Today? I’m still as angry as I was 5 years ago. Well, actually, perhaps moreso since the shock has long since worn off and I can fully concentrate on being angry.
I started my morning with my usual routine — make a cup of tea and turn on the computer to scan news sites and blogs. First stop of the day was National Review Online. This was about 7:30 am in California and they already had a banner on the site with a picture of the burning World Trade Center and a proclamation saying something like, “This is war.” My first reaction was that this was some over-the-top editorial teaser and I remember thinking “That’s not funny, they shouldn’t feed into the right-wing nut-job stereotype with stuff like this.” Then I looked closer and saw that it wasn’t a joke and that something horrific was underway. I jumped up and turned on the television and stayed glued to the set for the next hour or so. I was so unsure of what I was supposed to do. Did I stay there all day watching the TV or was I supposed to get on the with the day and go to work? This was uncharted territory. I decided to go into work and experienced something unheard of in Orange County on a weekday morning at rush hour — a virtually empty freeway. That, oddly enough, was one of the eeriest and most memorable images of the day. The work day didn’t last long. Only a few of us were there — we had missed the company-wide phone mail announcement that business would be closed for the day. Although it wasn’t the primary reason for the closure, we found out later on that many of our colleagues in some of our larger city offices and international locations who worked in high-rise buildings couldn’t bear the thought of being inside on the 80-something floor on a day like that — can you blame them?
One thing…
The history channel (and other sources) tell the story of the japanese as such:
The Japanese were ready to surrender and had told the russians as much (they were actually working out the deal with the russians at the time). Truman wanted to let the world know what we had in dramatic fashion, so he refused to let the Japanese surrender until two h-bombs had been dropped.
From a realist perspective it’s still a defensible action…it did keep the cold war cold for a LONG time. Also at the time we were much more brutal, levelling a huge percentage of japanese cities (even all-civilian ones) conventionally, as we understood and fought the war as one that would be to the death.
I remember watching the news as Muslims cheered the attacks on our country. I couldn’t even describe the amount of anger and rage I felt toward them. I realize now that those people are brainwashed puppets. Kill yourself, and you will get 72 virgins lol. The Twin Towers need to rise again. I really don’t like the stupid concept of a “freedom tower”. We need to rebuild what was destroyed, but build it taller then before to send a very strong message to the world. I learned one important lesson after 911. Muslim extremist are a threat that needs to be dealt with. On the war on terror, we can’t fight it in a kumbaya appeasement fashion. That much I do know.
Re: ME’s 11:57 am comments regarding Truman and the atomic bomb — I think I’d like to see sources for this statement cited with a lot more specificity. It seems almost slanderous to President Truman to say that he wanted millions of Japanese civilians to be killed just so he could make a “dramatic” statement. My understanding is that the US tried on numerous occassions to get the Japanese to surrender, even going to so far as to drop leaflets on the targeted cities warning them of the destruction to come, but the Japanese goverment was set on its course and the idea of surrender was anathema to them. It wasn’t until the utter destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that reality smacked them in the face and they knew they had to surrender.
Without going into a lot of detailed explanation, mainly because I do not have the time, I would suggest that the comparison to Nazism will lead you, as it apparently has led our national security leadership to a wrong conclusion. You are correct, we are fighting an idealogy (religious in nature), and they use unconvetional tactics. I suggest that a comparison with communism, and idealogy, and the Viet Nam war, unconventional and a guerilla war, will be more useful. We need to win this war as we defeated communism. We need to use diplomatic, cultural, political and military means. Nazism took over a nation-state and built an army. One which we could see in its many forms, gray uniforms, tanks, airplanes, etc. That’s not what we saw in Viet Nam, or are seeing in Iraq. Its guerilla war. Using conventional forces in Iraq as we are now is insane. We cannot afford to fight as we are now at the expense of homeland security. Another 9/11 (which many expect to be much more extensive) will be more devastating to our cause than any possible favorable conclusion in Iraq. Our priorities are all wrong. Spend the money for security here, because the billions spent to date have not diminished the real threat at all, and have encouraged Muslims throughout the world that we can be defeated if they continue their unconventional approach against our costly, misguided conventional forces. I’m out of time.
A little humor on that day; I had run out of milk that morning and when I stopped on the way home from work, the grocery store had been cleared out of milk, bread, and toilet paper. When war struck, Iowans went into blizzard mode, God love ‘em.
I’m using humor as a psychological defense. I’m angry. I was angry that day (as early as that afternoon, I was reading internet moonbats spewing reprehensible garbage like, “Why do we always blame the Arabs? They’re only violent because we’re so awful.”), I’m angry today, I’m angry that most Americans aren’t angry, and if I keep thinking and writing about it I’m going to explode all over my desk at work.
Where was I on 9/11, first reaction? – I was home, curiously enough taking a comp day for working through 2 weekends in NYC on a consult job in August that was sourced through WTC#7 which also fell that day. My reaction was a mix of wondering what was the next target, concern for my brother who worked in NYC, the boiling anger I felt.
How I feel about it now…. Disappointed in Bush, the Democrats, and the country in general. Bush for making it all about a Cult of a small band of “9/11 Heroes and Super-Victims”, his for years saying Islam was the Religion of Peace, making it a war on the tactic of terror instead of naming the enemy, telling us that his tax cuts for the wealthy and the determination of each American to “shop” were all we had to do as individuals. Tremendously disappointed in the Bush peoples mismanagement of the Iraq postwar – which can be charitibly be described as ignorant blundering chasing around for serving the clueless ideology of neocons, “happytalk” Pentagon CYA-rs. The continuing “giving the American people the “Bird” – on Open Borders and unchecked illegal immigration. I was shocked at how nothing really had changed in DC after 9/11 – it was still all about pork, lobbyists, serving fatcat business as usual…and inquiries of people like me who had some interesting knowledge willing to pitch in were not received with any interest. Even a family of Afghan doctors I know fluent in Pashtun and Urdu were willing to act as translators, but told no one was interested in the Bush Administration in volunteers like them…only if they applied for a GS-7 job full time and quit their medical careers. Brainless! The Democrats – deeper disappointment for their obsession with enemy civil rights, partisan hysteria over profiling, the Patriot Act, and Iraq. And pretending that there is no war with radical Islam – just misunderstandings mostly due to the Evil West oppressors against the poor Muslim victims that we can solve by “getting” one guy – Osama – then “negotiate” a perfect peace to return to the Dem’s happy pre-9/11 world.
Disappointed in the American people for allowing the 2 parties to indulge in such partisan rancor and the naked greed of K-Street corporatist corruption. Disappointed in the American people for their continuing complacency and ease with which the media, the parties, the Israel lobby, the “human rights” NGOs of the Left continue to manipulate them.
5 years later, we are perversely “safer” against the exact type of Muslim radical attack done on 9/11 because we are watching for it — yet we are weaker as a nation as we lost most of our international clout, lost a considerable part of our manufacturing base to China, are 3 trillion deeper in debt with none of the domestic problems we face close to resolution. We have a smaller military than on 9/11. Less Navy ships, subs. Less fighter jets, M-1A tanks, less AF tankers and transports. Beating the hell out of the Reservists and frontline combat troops by refusing to add active duty Army and Marine divisions. A fact not acknowledged by the Bush supporters, who keep saying less military assets means “more capability and flexibility”. What it really means is Bush does not want to jeopardize his tax cuts for the wealthy by replacing the equipment wrecked or used up in 2 years of “air patrols” over US cities he was told were unecessary, Afghanistan, Iraq….or stop burning up Reservist eligibility or endless short-cycle of the “tip of the spear” and elite troops since 9/11 without respite…
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La Shawn writes – The problems begin when you, as a Muslim, demand that our banking system, our legal system, our whole way of life, change to accommodate you.
A Muslim I know on comfortable terms, who is an accomplished professional that comes from a family of people well connected to his birthplace country’s ruling elites and long established in America admitted they hope for changes that make America more livable for a Muslim…like a banking system that allows Muslims to fully participate in commerce and investment while honoring their religion, and in other ways changes that make America more responsive to Muslim values and foreign policy. But he had an interesting spin – which is that Muslims are actively emulating Jews as role models in setting up lobbies and groups like AIPAC, immigrant advocacy groups, and the ACLU that seek great changes in America that better serve Zionism – or the goals of the Jewish Left. He said Muslims note the great success of Jews in getting change they seek in America and Muslims believe they too can use Special Interest lobbies and lawsuits to reshape America – as it is the Jews right to petition and sue so – it is the Muslims right to seek peaceful change. He readily admits that much of what Muslims want may not be what Christians see as desirable – but it his “their right” to influence American foreign policy and minimize Christianity in public as much as it is the Jew’s right.
J.G. Swedlund had a very interesting spin in that Islam is more like the Communist menace – a universalist ideology that knows no borders – than the Nazi model, which was not a universalist ideology, but intensely limited to nation-state and ethnic identity.
But then he goes off the rails a bit by drawing from that “lesson” that we must only do containment and defense, not take the fight to the enemy.
That logic omits that we did take the fight to the Communists in numerous proxy wars, through economic warfare, through intense strategic communications and buildup of strategic military forces. We were in fact quite vulnerable to the Soviets or ChiComs attacking any targets they chose with Soviet special forces teams infiltrating with anything up to portable nuclear weapons. We chose not to defend each of the 150,000 infrastructure targets or overseas assets – but worked out a strategy of offensive deterrence that was far cheaper.
With 200,000 targets now, the idea of searching every one of the 40 million air and sea cargo containers with new million person “Federal searcher force of TSA-like low qual’d low skill people” would be ludicrous and financially ruinous. And would not stop an attack. If you have a nuke bomb, and are shipping it to NYC, do you bother to wait until the ship docks so 20,000 waiting “inspectors” can search the ship, or do you simply set off the bomb in the harbor right before it docks. Same with a bomb or nerve gas stock on a plane. Do you wait for the plane to land in Miami to smuggle the bomb through Customs, or do you just set the device off when it enters the cities airspace?
Protecting each of the 200,000 targets from “muslim attack teams” is not possible. On top of a WMD device easily defeating search teams waiting it’s possible arrival, I read in testimony after Beslan that it would take a team of 25-40 trained persons with automatic weapons and search points to “fully protect” each American public school from an organized Beslan-type attack.
Just not possible to search stuff coming in and have any chance of stopping a WMD attack before the search. Just not possible to protect each “target” here.
Our strategy must be not letting radical Muslims be free to build or buy a nuke or other WMD to put on a ship, but having ALL nations cooperate in stopping that or be assumed “if not with us, against us..” and subject to full military retaliation where Geneva goes out the window in an existential war of survival if such an attack ever happens. If 9/11 had been a real nuke, with a REAL “Ground Zero” rather than a few buildings gone with death and damage about on a level of a typical WWII bombing sortie on a middle-sized city….it is unlikely that Pakistan would still be a nuclear power, or the Saudi monarchy still be alive running their own oil fields.
You don’t win a war of ideology by playing defense. An enemy free to gather, arm, and probe any defense will eventually find a weak point and defeat the defense. As it always has been in war. Containment is radically different than “pure defense”. Containment is all about limiting the enemy’s ability to act, from deterrence.
Two of the stupidier cliches aout there are “Unlike the Communists, the radical Muslims are undeterrable” and “We have to be perfect a million times, the Islamic enemy only has to be right once”….in saying we need a new and improved Maginot Line.
First, anyone can be deterred if the price is high enough. A jihadi might be willing to die, but is he willing to see his whole city wiped out in reprisal…or more tellingly…are the Muslims NOT willing to die for radical Islam willing to put up with radicals living in their houses, in their communities knowing they will all die if the radicals strike? No, they are not. Which is why Muslim nations are critical to stopping the threat, why origination nations packing cargo are the proper agencies to stop menaces from heading our way. The concern about the Dubai Ports Deal – involving the world’s premiere and most highly responsible global shipper was beyond stupid.
Second, the idea that Bush and various law enforcement flunkies have suceeded only because of their “perfection” over the last 5 years is laughable. They are not perfect, much as they would love to claim credit for being so. What we have done is set up multiple imperfect layers of offense and defense that makes it extremely difficult for the US to be attacked, though much as the NYTimes and the “lets play defense-only while still honoring all Jihadi civil liberties and privacy rights” crowd wishes to change that.
I was in New York two weeks before the attacks for one day. When I realized that the Empire State Building and the WTC were too far apart for me to visit both in the time that I had, I had to choose between them. I chose the closer, the ESB. it was a thrill to be up on the top but the view was just plain bad. I cant remember how it came about but someone pointed to two tiny smudges in the distance, The World Trade Center, and to an even smaller smudge out beyond them, The Statue of Liberty. I remember that we both chuckled about the awful smog that day. I had to take their word that there were days when the view was much better.
I took a picture not even knowing if it would come out, planning to share the chuckle with my friends and family. “See the two smudges there?. Thats as close as I got to the World Trade Center.” Then I looked wistfully at them a little longer, squinting trying to see then a little better, sighed, and then reassured myself by thinking, and I will never forget the exact way that I put it, “Oh well,” I thought, “I guess I’ll see them the next time I get to New York. Its not like they’re going to go anywhere. And I turned my back on them.
Buildings are like mountains, right? They dont disappear. At least that is how we normally think of them. Nothing that big could ever just go away.
9/11 sure cured me of that unexamined notion. Buildings, even ones as monumental as the WTC, do go away.
On 9/11/01, I was back from living in Ireland, jobless, and in no real hurry to find employment so I was still in lolling in bed when my sister came to tell me with a pronouced quake in her voice that two planes had hit the WTC and that both buildings had collapsed.
My first thought was absolute denial. She had to have it wrong. Both my mom and my sister are notorious in my family as the un-intellectuals (I say that of course with affection) in our midst and one of the things they do often is scramble news stories beyond recognition. I told her with absolute assurance that she had to be wrong about that and marched into the living room to sort out the facts for her.
What I saw on the screen was just too much to process. I saw smoke and a jagged piece of that metal weave stuff that encased the building near the bottom and my whole “world” came crashing down. As long as I live I think that will the next most awful moment that I will ever (I hope to God) experience.
BTW The worst moment was seeing for the first time the footage of the second plane hitting the South Tower. Thats when the vaccum left by my old conception of the world was replaced by the image that gave unholy birth to the new world that took its place because when that second plane hit, that was the end of all of our denial about everything that we had previously been sheltered from. We were at war. And worst of all a girl who believed that all people were basically good and that the world could only get better had to admit in that moment that real, malevolent demonic-scale evil was very much alive and well and as bad as it had ever been.
For the next I cant remember how long period of time, I sat in front of the TV gaping at the screen, praying with all of my heart that it wasnt really as bad as it looked. The anchors had to be speculating. They didnt really know. The smoke was just concealing that most of the two buildings were still standing. The debris that I could see was just from where the planes hit. It had to be that it looked worse than it really was. They couldnt both be gone. They couldnt both be gone because there wouldnt be any survivors if even if they did or if someone did survive how could anyone find them in time under all that and…Then the networks started that endless loops of both buildings coming down with thousands still inside and that was it. There was no going back to the way it was ever again.
Now I show that picture that I took and I tell my story and nobody chuckles. They just look sad and then they always ask hold the picture in their own two hands. Nobody just casually holds it either. They cradle it and look at it a long time before giving it back.
I try not to do that to people but sometimes they ask when I tell them about it and sometimes I just have to get it out for myself and hold it again. Its my little relic of the Sept 10th world frozen in time. I always feel the same whenever I see it and I dont think that will ever change. I dont want it to. Call me crazy but at some point in those first awful days I swore that I would never get over what happened in honor of the precious lives of all those people. It seemed the least that I could do in their memory. I meant it then and I’m still doing a good job of keeping that promise 5 years later. May I never get over it for their sake. Never. Ever. Ever. Ever. With every ounce of the American-Ukrainian-German-Irish stubborness that I have in my body, I will never get over it!
PS
Sorry for the rant there at the end of that last post but if I dont rant in the direction of the monstrous demonic inhuman butchers who planned and perpetrated this horror, if I dont declare that I will never forget and never surrender, if I dont give them a big metaphysical middle finger on 9/11 in the midst of my tears and sorrow, then I consider it a perfect opportunity wasted.
Cry for those who were lost and never ever stop cursing the monsters who killed them.
NEVER apologize for ranting, Peggy, at least not on this blog AND if I agree with you.
LukeNC,
I was once a regular visitor to a Muslim families home. I was once the most PC flower sniffer, all religions are the same fool that you would ever want to meet.
When I met this family, they were the very image of the moderate muslim family. The wife had only recently begun to cover her hair after years of not doing so. (She had grown up in Saudi and took it off as soon as she got here.) The husband was my good friend from work. We had a ball. We laughed alot and had great discussions about just about everything.
But over time the family, following the wife’s lead I think, got more and more religious. Their two adorable girls were soon covering up and the wife became increasingly and more and more obviously uncomfortable with me coming over and spending most of my time talking to her husband. So I was already getting qualms about the situation, (although it really hadnt dawned on me yet why she was acting differently towards me at the time) when one my friend happened to mention that he was part of a muslim boycott of the local paper because it deliberatly misrepresented muslims and made them look bad. Then he also told his theory as to why this newspaper talked bad about muslims. He told me without an ounce of shame that it was because the paper was owned by Jews.
There werent too many more visits after that. I had some denial to overcome. But eventually it just became too obvious that the time had come to move along.
This was before 9/11 though. I’m kind of glad in a way because if these people had reacted like some other muslims did to my face 1) someone would have had to call the cops & 2) Even my good memories of them would be tainted. Its better not to know.
I, of course, blame Islam. There is only one trajectory for the person who takes this religion more and more seriously. I dont think I have to spell it out. At the very mimimum, there is no way that religious muslims can live beside us in the way that other faiths and cultures have before. I came to this conclusion the long, hard way and it makes me sad but there is really no denying it the longer and deeper that we get into this new era.
Peggy, I understand your frustration.
What we fail to realize is that the majority of Islam has now become what some call political Islam. Moderate Muslim scholars state that the focus of belief under political Islam is that the failure of the Islam world to succeed is a function of the lack of adherence to strict religious teachings. Political Islam states that if only Muslims followed more closely the teachings of Islam then Muslims would be more successful. Political Islam does not believe in the separation of church and state, but that the success of the state is dependent upon strict adherence to religious teachings. The goal of political Islam is to recapture the success of Islam in the 5th/6th century. Again, Islam does not believe in the separation of church and state. Unlike Christianity and the Christian world, the Islamic world has not gone through a stage of enlightenment.
I attribute a good deal of the lack of success in the Islamic world [no patents, no inventions, western civilization is responsible for the production of their greatest resource (OIL)] as a function of the status of women within their society/culture. A person or culture cannot lift themselves up while pushing down half of their population and dismissing half of their human capital. The Islamic world blames their lack of success of Jews and western civilization, instead of their own backward thinking and cultural restrictions.
I am a conservative feminist. I acquired my “feminist streak” in the Helen Reddy, I am woman hear me roar days. My conservative character is based upon the concepts of personal responsibility and accountability. Until Muslims begin to accept that the failings of their economies and lack of progress in their civilization (aside from oil wealth) is because of the inherent flaws of their Islamic culture, then they will continue to fail, and also continue to blame the West and the Jews for their failures.
I feel for any woman born into a Muslim family, for I believe that Islam denies her her God given free will. I feel that any woman who “freely” converts to Islam is either seriously uninformed or seriously lacking in self-esteem.
#33 Chris Ford correctly identifies another type of “Gorelick Wall” that began with the Pendleton Act in 1883 and has morphed into a virtual closed-shop union for Federal workers.
It is not that President Bush refused to employ Urdu and Pashtun speakers, it is the labyrinthine GS rules that consistently keeps common sense and efficiency from invading the classified jobs in the government.
You will remember, I hope, that the Democrats insisted that the TSA employees be protected form firing by being part of the union. Luckily, Bush was able to stand on common sense in that case. But it is a rare win. The Democrats still weep and wail over Reagan’s ax murder of their beloved air traffic controller’s union.
I share much of Chris Ford’s disappointment with the Bush years, but nothing makes me wince more than the thought of President Gore or President Kerry and the side show of fakirs and clowns they would have unleashed.
Dear Ms. Barber:
I am an American son of Iranian immigrants. I used to post comments heavily at Frontpagemag.com, especially after 9/11, in which I pretty much agreed with the position of its publisher, David Horowitz. At the same time, as much as I reviled the Islamofascists and wanted them all dead, I still felt a need to defend Islam itself as something other than what it appeared to be to many people from the behavior of Bin Laden and his kind. After 5 years, I’ve grown tired of doing this, and I have said so in a lengthy essay that was published at Faithfreedom.org a few months ago. At some point you can’t straddle the ideological fence anymore. I chose America over the culture of my ancestors, and it wasn’t a particularly difficult decision.
I was never very religious to begin with, but today I am a full-fledged apostate. I reject Islam and its despicable, murderous, child-molesting “prophet.” As far as I am concerned, the Koran is a piece of fascist rubbish unfit to be used even as toilet paper.
I realize that many non-Muslim people will prefer to take a milder approach to Islam, and that’s OK, but to the extent that Middle Eastern people continue to be DEVOUT Muslims, I despise them, and I am mostly unmoved when I hear about civilian casualties among the Palestinians or the Lebanese Shiites. It is only toward those in the Middle East who have quietly rejected Islam and its savagery that I feel any human bond. Religious Muslims, however, are only reaping what Muslims have sown for 1400 years. To Hell with them and their ugly dogma. They deserve every American and Israeli bomb, bullet and missile that is fired in their direction.
Keyvan Shirazi
I’d like to clarify one thing…
These “Islamofascists” — I love this word — dont hate us for our freedoms, they hate us because we support Israel.
Its not a jealous hate because we have so much adn are so wealthy and free, its a hate for the support we give to the Jews, God’s chosen people.
Any muslim will state this in some way or another.
People always ask, “why do that hate us????” or “lets investigate why they are so angry with us.”
Israel is the bottom line. Its all about that little strip of land over there.
“Then he also told his theory as to why this newspaper talked bad about Muslims. He told me without an ounce of shame that it was because the paper was owned by Jews. ”
I was tempted to make a snarky comment that blacks have been saying the same about white owned media, but then remembered that the most vocal people blaming white/Jewish media are black Muslims or their sympathizers.
But there are a few moderate Muslim countries like Turkey. The alternative is the “connectivity” theory by that professor, author of the Pentagon’s New Map, who argues that it’s the physical isolation (Saudi Arabia – which started as a country the same time Turkey, which England lost in 1920s, underwent change, and Afghanistan) Sort of like thinking hill Christians snake-handlers represent the Vatican.
“As wild as it may seem to Americans, especially heathens, the war against terror is a religious war.”
Today I woke up to seeing my pastor on local TV–my parish erected a “Peace Pole” and he was saying that *there is another way* besides war…then there was an op-ed saying “religious certitude” was to blame–basically a pure moral equivalency argument.
I believe it will indeed be true believing Christians and Jews who finish this thing. The moderates, the wobblies, the temporizers, the “root cause” explainers will all fall away.
And you know what? We’re not the ones who are afraid–it’s them. Just like the Brits in the 1930s. They are deathly, deathly afraid of the jihad and they don’t know how to handle it, so they turn it back inward on themselves–us–because they figure they can handle that. The left does not know what to make of fanaticism and violence. Just like the Cliveden Set couldn’t deal with Hitler.
UNK,
This man wasnt from Saudi. I said his wife was. He was from India and had several college degrees to his name. Her family was from Pakistan I think but lived in Saudi.
The point of my story wasnt to show how much of a rube some guy from Saudi could be about the Jews. The point was that even under the surface of moderate muslims lurks some of the same unusually messed up views of the world that the openly fanatical muslims have. It comes with the territory.
And think that SA is the equivalent of the Vatican.
I have mine own theory about what we see in Saudi and why. Yes its isolation has a place in it. But in my theory, SA is where islam is found in its purest form where it has been isolated from the outside moderating forces that watered down islam in other areas. In SA we have islam the way it was when it first came shrieking out of the desert. Modern Wahabbism was a reaction to the modern world trying to change that pure faith. Moderate islam only exists where there were for long periods of time of contact with large populations of other religions. It is moderate in these areas because it is not pure but mixed with the influences of more civilized faiths. Take a look for yourself. Then take a look at someplace like SA that has never known such cultural exchange. There you find the original islam before more pragmatic men saw the success and sophistication of other cultures and wanted that for islam and found a way to justify it.
>>“people don’t commit suicide because they hate our freedomâ€>>
Actually, I agree with him. They _don’t_ commit suicide because they hate our freedom. They commit suicide because they believe that martyrdom for Allah is the only pathway to paradise. (I’m not positive about the “only” part, but it’s a direct route) Our prosperity is simply a symptom of our decadence, in their eyes. They believe that the whole world belongs to Allah, and it is their mission to bring all the people of the world to submission to shari’a in the Grand Caliphate of islam.
Keyvan Shirazi – While I welcome you as an American, I hope you don’t go without pride in coming from a great nation, culture, and people. It is rare to find an Azeri or Persian emigre that Americans dislike. Just last week, millions cheered the final game of a much-admired Iranian-American, Andre Agassi. And fairly soon, an Iranian-American woman entrepreneur will be going to the International Space Station. I find great pleasure in visiting Iranian art sites on the ‘Net – incredible landscapes, vivid colorful paintings. Be as proud as a Japanese American, or English, German American is as an American coming from an accomplished overseas people!
LukeNC – These “Islamofascists†— I love this word — dont hate us for our freedoms, they hate us because we support Israel. Its not a jealous hate because we have so much adn are so wealthy and free, its a hate for the support we give to the Jews, God’s chosen people.
I am leery of Christian Zionists that claim their faith obligates them to blind support of whatever Israel wants, and their fealty to the Zionist vision of a Jewish-only Holy Land comes first.
As other nations remind the US frequently, as groups like the descendents of the 70,000 Palestinian Christians forced from homes and land at the point of a gun without a shekel of compensation remind America – The power of the Israeli Lobby is such that now the US is the only nation that blocks UN Security Council resolutions regarding the refugee compensation and violation of 4th Geneva Protocols against Israeli colonization of 1967-occupied lands…Resolutions the US once voted for.
Groups that visit Christians in the Levant – in Syria and Lebanon, are sometimes surprised to find they hate American favortism towards Israel as much or even more than the Muslims do. They say there are big problems with Islam, but that the Muslims and Christians in the area do indeed have valid grievances towards the US for it’s ME policies.
#42 Keyvan,
Islam is just the latest manifestation of false religion and man’s sinfulness. While Muslims put their faith in the claims of a false prophet, other false prophets have come before and after him preaching ideas that have led to disastrous consequences for mankind (Hitler, Marx, Stalin, Mao). Consider reading about our savior, Jesus. He is truly the son of God and preached repentance and salvation from our sins and death.
I definitely agree that Islamic Jihadists want to kill us. But Le Shawn did not coin the phase “Islamofacist,” nor is it an accurate description.
Mussolini said,
They are religious fundamentalists who hate our morals, think we are against God and should be converted or killed. We should be hunting to the ends of the earth all who would try. Nuff said.
But to call them ‘fascist’ is to willfully ignore the meaning of the word. To kill one’s enemy, one must know it. By repeating this propaganda that they are fascist I think you are contributing to misinformation, causing confusion in our minds as to the true nature of our enemy. Therefore, this is an unhelpful label to use because it clouds our minds with untrue allusions, making us actually weaker in our ability to fight them.
Who said I coined the word “Islamofascist?” That word was floating around long before I used it, and most people commenting on this thread know that. Responding to actual assertions is the most efficient use of your time in a comment thread. You’re a new commenter, so I’ll cut you some slack. And remember, proofreading is our friend. Try La Shawn next time. As for the rest, I like commenter Heliotrope’s definition of “Islamofascist”:
http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/08/10/no-mr-bush/#comment-74510 – Admin
>>The power of the Israeli Lobby is such that now the US is the only nation that blocks UN Security Council resolutions regarding the refugee compensation and violation of 4th Geneva Protocols against Israeli colonization of 1967-occupied lands…Resolutions the US once voted for.>>
I checked for info on this and found nothing – could you help me out with a source?
This is how I experienced 9/11. I put it in a song that was later recorded by numerous acts, including this one:
One September Mournin’
Performed by Sacramento Bands Together
words and music by Dr. BLT (c)2006
http://www.drblt.net/music/OneSeptMourn.mp3
This is how I imagined a cowboy might reflect on the event 5 years later (please excuse the recording as it’s a bit rough: just made yesterday)
A Cowboy’s Prayer (5 years after)
words and music by Dr. BLT (c)2006
http://www.drblt.net/music/cowboysPrayer.mp3
(sorry, the recording on this one’s a little rough).
Thanks for letting me share my blog n roll with you.
1. I thought it was a hoax, it looked almost comical. I was watching the news online, and unless you see the planes going into the buildings in 3-D…..the whole thing looked as if it could have been photo-shopped.
I figured someone’s gonna really be fried for pulling such a cruel hoax like that, and in such poor taste.
When I found it it was real, I was in disbelief.
2. I feel anger. I feel anger at the way the media has cheapened and exploited the whole thing…making miniseries….the way the Ground Zero redevelopment big-wigs are using their project to self-aggrandize…lots of self-serving behavior surrounding the whole tragedy. Capitalizing and enriching one’s self, or one’s company at the expense of victims….plus some of the victims themselves who are looking to profit.
That, and of course, anger at the Middle East. I felt we should have stormed Iraq at the same time as Afghanistan. If I were President back then, I’d have gone ballistic and stormed all three: Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq, all simultaneously. I don’t know if we have the troops to do that…but when I’m President and such a tragedy occurs, I’d haul off and bomb, and occupy the whole Mid-East!
Re #33, lukeNC: The Islamofascists are anti-Semitic, and do advocate genocide more enthusiastically than the Nazis. However, the hatred of Americans does not stem from the U.S.’s traditional support of Israel. Even if the U.S. turned its back on Israel, the Islamofascists would still be attacking America.
The Nazis and their supporters were adamant about Sudetendland. Yet, even after Chamberlain cut the “peace for our time” deal (Munich Agreement), the Nazis continued to wage war.
Why? Because the goal of the Nazis was the same as the goal of the Islamofascists – world domination – nothing less.
Like the Nazis, the Islamofascists view killing Jews only as a means to their evil ends.
I checked for info on this and found nothing – could you help me out with a source?
Comment by suek
Somehow, suek, I doubt you even looked.
Any internet search of blocked UN Resolutions will quickly appraise you of the 1948 Security Council Resolutions and the famous 242 Resolution of 1967 – all of which the US voted for before the Israel Lobby became so powerful. And any internet search will quickly reveal the full history since around 1973 of the US blocking any Resolution it is told to by the Lobby.
My apologies for sounding as if I was accusing you of coining the phrase, the ‘but’ was unnecessary. I did not mean to pick a fight over that.
My point is that using ‘fascism’ to describe the enemy seems a shoehorned attempt to equate this struggle with the ones of the last century. By the definition you offer, “Catholofacism” is an equitable way to label the inquisition and much of the history of the Roman Church.
Even looking at these, one senses that Muslim terrorists hew to all of the defining traits of ‘Theocracy’ and none of ‘Fascism’ save the suppression part. Where’s the nationalism, the rigid control of economy and industry?
What’s wrong with “Islamic Jihadi?” or “Muslim Extreamists?” Why graft an unsuitable word to describe something innacurately? As undoubtedly catchy as it is, no serious historian or Islamic scholar would ever use the word ‘fascism’ in describing Muslim fundies, terroist or otherwise. Why would you?
One last thing and then I’ll shut up, bc fighting them is more important than arguing about what to call them: the danger in equating Muslim Extremists with Fascism is that it assumes a structure that isn’t there. Fascism can only be battled with straight military might, state against state, because Fascism manifests itself through the state. As we have learned ever so painfully and as Israel learned last month, terrorists and Muslim extremists do not exist as a state that can be toppled. To fight such an enemy we cannot afford to believe that waging a war against a state will be the way to win.
And I thought I was sleeping my life away when I was getting up and dressed when the first plane hit. At first, it seemed like a large, but everyday accident and I was not paying much attention. But if one was in Ireland, it must have been the early afternoon:
“On 9/11/01, I was back from living in Ireland, jobless, and in no real hurry to find employment so I was still in lolling in bed when my sister came to tell me with a pronouced quake in her voice that two planes had hit the WTC and that both buildings had collapsed. “
#59
Your complaint of her “rhetoric” is completely vague. I see you’re an indepent. How’s sitting on the fence treating you? Chafing much?
As far as your claims that all religions are to blame, perhaps you should try reading a New Testament book. Try one of the Gospels. Then pick up a Koran. Read some of that. Then make your decision as to whether or not they’re all to blame. Where is this mysterious and veiled Christian threat to civilization lurking in the shadows? Perhaps you’ll make some indictment against Christianity because of the Crusades or the Inquisition, however long ago it was. Also, have you ever heard of the Reformation?
#43 –
I don’t think it is just as simple that they hate us because we support Israel. If it was this simple then Sunni’s and Shites would live as peacefully as Baptists and Methodists. If Israel did not exist they would still be killing each other. If Israel did not exist Arab Muslims would still be killing African Muslims and African Christians, and Hindus, and Buddists, and, and and….
Islam is a religion of hate and murder. Jews, Israel, and US support for Israel are just the easy scapegoats for their lack of progress in the civilized world.
It is past time for liberals to wake up to the fact that Islam is their biggest enemy.
Judy, the interesting thing is that it seems the folks who support these terrorists and demand “understanding and dialogue” are actually those who will be at the top of the Jihad list. Libs (especially Jewish libs) and Hollywood types (especially Jewish ones), will quickly become public enemies under Islamic government. Are these people too stupid to know this or do they think they will somehow be included at the inner circle of Islamic government elite? I don’t think so.
UNK,
I dont know if you are taking a shot at me or just teasing. I really dont know why you would single out that particular comment. But if you will read it again you will see that i said I was back from living in Ireland. I was in the US at the time of the attacks.
I dont remember the time when my sister told me the news. Details of the first few hours are still hazy to me. But by the time I found out, both buildings had collapsed. I live in the Central time zone so if the Towers were gone by mid morning New York time then at the time that they fell it was a little earlier than that in Texas time. So I found out before before noon at least, I would think. I still wouldnt be able to pin down how long after they fell that I found out. I’ve got nothing on that at all.
One good thing about your comment though is that you caused me to really think about what time it was when I found out and what time it was in New York at that point. So no matter what you motive may have been, I at least derived a benefit from it. I have had a long running mental block about some small details. I guess because other more powerful concerns obliterated any interest I might have had in what time it was.
Sorry, my bad for reading incorrectly and quickly.
Does anyone remember on 9-11-01, were planes diverted to the closest airport, back to their originating airport, or allowed to proceed to the destination?
I think I remember international flights were turned back and domestic flights were sent to the closest airport.
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