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| Home Front: WoT |
| The real blowup |
| 2010-01-06 |
| Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab couldn't ignite the bomb in his underwear on Flight 253 on Christmas Day. All he managed to blow up was a worldview. His failed attempt put paid to the notion that terrorism is the byproduct of a few, specific US policies and of our image abroad. This view dominates the left and animates the Obama administration. It informs its drive to shutter Guantanamo Bay, to get out of Iraq and to cater to "international opinion." If we are only nice and likable enough, goes the theory, the Abdulmutallabs of the world will never be tempted to violent mayhem. Only the young Nigerian didn't appear the least bit moved by President Barack Obama's commitment to close Gitmo in a year. He didn't seem to care that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will get a civilian trial in New York. He didn't appear to be fazed at all by Obama's Cairo and UN speeches, or a year's worth of international goodwill gestures. He just wanted to destroy an airliner. It shouldn't be hard to fathom why. Abdulmutallab was in the grip of a violent ideology with an existential hatred of the United States at its core, an ideology promoted by a global terrorist conspiracy under the loose rubric of al Qaeda. This is the essential fact that the left tends to minimize or deny. Obama called Abdulmutallab an "isolated extremist" in his initial statement on the incident, and left the same impression about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the terrorist of Fort Hood. How coincidental that we are beset by isolated extremists believing the same things and inspired by the same people -- in the cases of Abdulmutallab and Hasan, the radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. A totalist rejection of the United States, this ideology will never lack for particular reasons to hate us. For years, we were told that the Iraq War was al Qaeda's best recruiting tool. Now, new recruiting tools are at hand. Hasan reportedly was disappointed that Obama stayed in Afghanistan. In taking responsibility for Abdulmutallab's attempted attack, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed it was in retaliation for a US-sponsored strike against its leadership in Yemen. If we pull our troops from Afghanistan, they'll object to our missile strikes in Pakistan. If we stop the missile strikes, they'll object to our training of foreign militaries. If we stop that, they'll object that we have the temerity to maintain a blue-water navy. Nothing short of suicidal abdication will suffice. The other great reputed recruiting tool was Gitmo. But what's worse -- holding terrorists in a facility condemned by the world's scolds, or releasing them to re-invigorate al Qaeda's franchise operations? AQAP got a critical boost from one former Gitmo detainee who, according to The New York Times, is "the rising star of the local movement," and another who is "the mufti, or theological guide." The Wall Street Journal says 11 Gitmo returnees have joined the ranks of Yemeni militant groups, making the detention facility AQAP's farm team. No matter. Just before Christmas, the administration returned six more Gitmo detainees to Yemen, home to about 90 of the 200 remaining prisoners. Obama counterterrorism adviser John Brennan pledges to keep sending them back, and insists that "several" or "many" of the six latest returnees are in Yemeni custody. Whatever that means. Yemeni government is not a model of Prussian precision. In February 2006, AQAP managed a mass break from a Yemeni high-security prison. The environment there is so treacherous that we were just forced to shut our embassy temporarily. The administration is loath to admit that vacating Gitmo has itself proven a powerful tool for the terrorists. It can't give up its operating theory of terrorism, no matter how tattered. Instead of designating Abdulmutallab an enemy combatant and interrogating him, we have granted him all the protections our justice system provides a civil defendant. Whatever comes of this foolish act of generosity, we can be sure that the next Abdulmutallab will be singularly unimpressed. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 BOA (Big O Administration) has this ideological model they are working under with respect to the Islamic terrorists. It is a typical liberal Left model of the misunderstood miscreant, and how we make them angry. BOA is always trying to fit the model to the situation, even though it does not make sense. Like trying to keep turning the wrong piece in a puzzle in hope that it fits. BOA, being the ideologues that they are, will not re-examine their assumptions and change the model, like rational people are. They do not and will never GET IT. All this done at the public's expense in safety and security. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-01-06 17:30 |
| #6 Muwallad referred to the offspring of Arab men and foreign, non-Arab women. Thank you, Big Chusoque2260, for a fascinating and useful post. In this particular case, young Mr. Abdulmutallab's mother is Yemeni, his father is the non-Arab. Very much the opposite of the way Things Are Supposed To Be for bigotted Arabs, who I'm sure assume the muwallads result from captured non-Arab concubines... at least if some of the posts we've seen at Rantburg from that part of the world are any indication. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-01-06 13:57 |
| #5 "...cost a cool 2 million." Ooops...that's a cool 200 million. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2010-01-06 12:44 |
| #4 Lets see here Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan attacks Ft. Hood and gets a reservation at a military brig. Abdulmutallab attacks an airliner gets 3 hots and a cot with a public defender to boot. And now its estimated the KSM civilian trial in Manhattan is going to cost a cool 2 million. Im no AQ muckity muck but their choice between a hard and soft target may have gotten much easier. Just sayin |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2010-01-06 12:40 |
| #3 A totalist rejection of the United States, this ideology will never lack for particular reasons to hate us. For years, we were told that the Iraq War was al Qaeda's best recruiting tool. Now, new recruiting tools are at hand. Hasan reportedly was disappointed that Obama stayed in Afghanistan. In taking responsibility for Abdulmutallab's attempted attack, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed it was in retaliation for a US-sponsored strike against its leadership in Yemen. They hate us because we are different than them. We are viewed as contemptible infidels that are less than them. They don't believe in freedom of speech or freedom of religion. They believe they should rule the world. They have a religion that justifies lying to achieve their purposes. They have a religion that justifies violence and terror in the name of Allah. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-01-06 07:56 |
| #2 Perhaps the Gentleman is viewed differently by the Arab culture - Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent or a person who has both black ancestry and white ancestry Some dictionaries and scholarly works trace the word's origins to the Arabic term muwallad, which means "a person of mixed ancestry". Muwallad literally means, "born, begotten, produced, generated; brought up," with the implication of being born and raised among Arabs, but not of pure Arab blood. Muwallad is derived from the root word WaLaD (Arabic: æáÏ direct Arabic transliteration: waw, lam, dal), and it should be kept in mind that colloquial Arabic pronunciation can vary greatly. Walad means, "descendant, offspring, scion; child; son; boy; young animal, young one." Muwallad referred to the offspring of Arab men and foreign, non-Arab women. Will the Arab culture think of this person as a whole or a part ? Seriously or not Seriously ? That is the question. |
| Posted by: Big Chusoque2260 2010-01-06 07:11 |
| #1 Well, he didn't change my worldview. Certainly didn't change the minds of other 'Burgers. And probably not Obama's, either. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2010-01-06 06:10 |