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2006-09-10 Home Front: Culture Wars
Can the West defeat the Islamist threat? Here are ten reasons why not
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Posted by Snolutch Shiting8268 2006-09-10 17:21|| || Front Page|| [8 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 @ssholes like David Selbourne need to live in a Muslim majority nation for a few years in order to cure this sort of self-hatred and correctly resettle it upon a more appropriate target.
Posted by Zenster 2006-09-10 18:46||   2006-09-10 18:46|| Front Page Top

#2 I don't know. Selbourne may be consumed by his verbal flatulence, but does anyone still feel as though we're winning this war? I used to, but I'm not sure I do anymore.
Posted by Infidel Bob 2006-09-10 18:59||   2006-09-10 18:59|| Front Page Top

#3 Well thought out & well written.
I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher
Posted by gromgoru 2006-09-10 19:02||   2006-09-10 19:02|| Front Page Top

#4 I don't agree with his conclusion that the West will lose, or is likely to lose the war ( and yes, Mr. Selbourne, it is a war). Having said that, the guy makes a good many points that many fine posters here at RB have made over the years.

I would have preferred if Selbourne entitled his work: "why it's gonna be damn hard to win the war on jihad".
Posted by Mark Z 2006-09-10 19:08||   2006-09-10 19:08|| Front Page Top

#5 From the article...
10) Finally, the West is convinced that its notions of technology-driven modernity and market-driven prog- ress are innately superior to the ideals of “backward” Islam. This is an old delusion. In 1899, Winston Churchill asserted that there was “no stronger retrograde force in the world” than Islam. More than a century later, it is fondly believed that sophisticated hardware and Star Wars defences will ensure Western mastery in this war, if it is a war.

Well Mr Selbourne, I have become utterly convinced that a lot of people know exactly what Islam is about, and those in power are trying to give it that final chance to be something that the West can co-exist with. To that end, modernity and progress are probably the best tools that can be used at the present time.

If that fails, there is no need for 'Star Wars defences', as there are a shedload of weapons in the Enduring Stockpile.
Posted by Tony (UK) 2006-09-10 19:26||   2006-09-10 19:26|| Front Page Top

#6 Selbourne mistakes the fecklessness of the elites with the totality of Western civilization.
Posted by Rob Crawford">Rob Crawford  2006-09-10 19:46|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/]  2006-09-10 19:46|| Front Page Top

#7 The question is not whether we will win. We will. The question is how many Mooselimbs we'll have to kill to win. I'd say the over/under is 1 million, but that's really up to them.
Posted by Matt 2006-09-10 19:55||   2006-09-10 19:55|| Front Page Top

#8 #2I don't know. Selbourne may be consumed by his verbal flatulence, but does anyone still feel as though we're winning this war? I used to, but I'm not sure I do anymore.

"…I received orders to move against Colonel Thomas Harris, who was said to be encamped at the town of Florida, some twenty-five miles south of were we then were…Harris had been encamped in a creek bottom for the sake of being near water. The hills on either side of the creek extended to a considerable height, possibly more than a hundred feet. As we approached the brow of the hill from which was expected we could see Harris’ camp, and possibly find his men ready formed to meet us, my heart kept getting higher and higher until it felt to me as though it was in my throat. I would have given anything then to have been back in Illinois, but I had not the moral courage to halt and consider what to do; I kept right on. When we reached a point from which the valley below was in full view I halted. The place where Harris had been encamped a few days before was still there and the marks of recent encampment were plainly visible, but the troops were gone. My heart resumed its place. It occurred to me at once that Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him. This was a view of the question I had never taken before; but it was one I never forgot afterwards. From that event to the close of the war, I never experienced trepidation upon confronting an enemy, though I always felt more or less anxiety. I never forgot that he had as much reason to fear my forces as I had his. I never forgot that lesson." Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant
Posted by Hupereck Ebbish7621 2006-09-10 20:48||   2006-09-10 20:48|| Front Page Top

#9 
#8, fine post. If you "turn the table around" it's hard to imagine that things look very bright from the jihadist point of view. The jihadi survivors of Operation Phantom Fury can't have gone home and delivered glowing reports of their battlefield experiences, at least not with a straight face.

"Back from the glorious struggle, Achmed? Where's Mahmoud? Where's Abdullah?"

"Little brother, it took me a week to comb Mahmoud and Abdullah out of my beard."
Posted by Matt 2006-09-10 21:09||   2006-09-10 21:09|| Front Page Top

#10 "I'd say the over/under is 1 million, but that's really up to them."

Six hundred million by 2020. That's my O/U.

Posted by Dave D.">Dave D.  2006-09-10 23:15||   2006-09-10 23:15|| Front Page Top

#11 The question is not whether we will win. We will. The question is how many Mooselimbs we'll have to kill to win. I'd say the over/under is 1 million, but that's really up to them.

Many more I would say because the Muslim supremacists will not have it any other way.
Our Darkening Sky: Iran and the War
Posted by SR-71 2006-09-10 23:26||   2006-09-10 23:26|| Front Page Top

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