That the London killers were native Brits surprised a lot of people, which is testimony to our capacity to forget our own history. The 7/7 terrorists were neither the first British terrorists (take Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber," for example), nor the first terrorists born and bred in a Western democracy. The executioner of Daniel Pearl was a textbook British Establishment sort, having been well raised and educated (he had studied at the prestigious London School of Economics) by a good family. He went to secular schools, he was exceedingly upward-mobile, he did not suffer any deprivations or traumatizing slights from infidels. One day, in a mosque, he made a free decision to become a terrorist. All of this has been known for years, and it is quite easy to compile a long list of native American, British, French, German, Spanish, and Italian terrorists ââ¬â suicide and otherwise. Mohammed Bouyari, the assassin of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, was born and bred in the Netherlands. And our own "Johnny Jihad" was the product of wealthy families in a stylish neighborhood in San Francisco, who went to Afghanistan to kill fellow Americans.
These facts were known, but got relegated to that part of the spirit that shelters active thought from unpleasant truths. The knowledge that our societies contain people ready to kill us had not penetrated the awareness of the British people, and, with them, countless Europeans and Americans.
Why were so many well-educated and well-informed people surprised, even shocked? Why were the facts ignored? Many of them have provided an "explanation": They believed that people raised in cultured, democratic, societies ââ¬â whatever their ethnic background and whatever their political or religious beliefs ââ¬â are immune to the emotional poisons that transform normal people into terrorists. No doubt the belief was, and in many cases remains, genuine. But this intellectual conceit ââ¬â which underlies a vast multicultural enterprise that dominates media and schools and universities throughout the Western world ââ¬â totally ignores the history of the West. It is as if fascism and Communism ââ¬â products of the finest European societies ââ¬â never happened, or that, even if they happened, they were anomalies (Benedetto Croce called Italian fascism "a parenthesis") that didnââ¬â¢t really matter for the purposes of understanding human nature and human society, and of crafting suitable policies.
George Orwell got it just right when, in the winter of 1940, he bitterly observed "highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me." He knew what his countrymen, and most of the intellectual elite of the West, have relegated to a quiet intellectual closet: that Hitler and Mussolini had created monstrous mass movements in two of the most civilized, and most cultured countries in Europe. The Duce and the Fuhrer were wildly popular in the countries of Dante and Vivaldi, Beethoven and Goethe; they were not the products of some alien culture. They sprang from the most profound beliefs and passions of the highest cultures in the world (and those passions and beliefs spread to France and England, as well as to central and eastern Europe), which is why there was hardly any effective popular resistance in fascist Europe. The great evil was only abandoned by the Europeans when it was defeated on the battlefield.
The horrors of Communism have been similarly removed from active memory, albeit through a slightly different mind game. The ideals of Communism are still unaccountably admired in our popular culture ââ¬â just a few days ago the Brits themselves voted Karl Marx (who lived in London for many years) the greatest intellectual in recent times ââ¬â even though it is grudgingly admitted that it worked out badly in practice. This sort of deception sank to dramatic depths in Italy during the dark years of the Red Brigades terrorists, when the leaders of Europeââ¬â¢s most sophisticated Communist party proclaimed the brigadiers "misguided comrades."
Both fascism and Communism inspired mass murder and individual martyrdom for "the cause," just as radical Islam does today. Like Osama bin Laden and his ilk, Hitler and his cohorts raged against the democracies. Both blamed the free peoples for Germanyââ¬â¢s and the Muslimsââ¬â¢ misery and bragged of the superiority of Aryans and Muslims over decadent, corrupt, and self-indulgent free men and women. Stalin went one step further, blaming democratic capitalism for the misery of the entire world, while proclaiming the superiority of the new Soviet man.
There are many ideologies and many charismatic leaders who can inspire blind loyalty, often accompanied by equally blind hatred, even to the point of self-immolation. The operational model for the suicide terrorists of today comes from Japanââ¬â¢s kamikazes ââ¬â soldiers from a highly civilized country ââ¬â in the Second World War. Freedom and democracy do not protect us against such people; Indeed, in the past century, free nations elevated them to power, and kept them there until we dominated them. The evil can't be explained by economic misery, or social alienation, or even by the doctrines adopted by the terrorists. The problem lies within us.
Nasra Hassan, who interviewed terrorists and their families, noted in Saturdayââ¬â¢s London Times that
None of the suicide bombers ââ¬â they ranged in age from 18 to 38 ââ¬â conformed to the typical profile of the suicidal personality. None of them was uneducated, desperately poor, simple-minded, or depressed. Many were middle-class and held paying jobs. Two were the sons of millionaires. They all seemed entirely normal members of their families. They were polite and serious, and in their communities were considered to be model youths. Most were bearded. All were deeply religious...
To be sure, those terrorists came from Palestinian camps ââ¬â not from London or San Francisco or Amsterdam, but we can recognize the London bombers, and the Amsterdam killer, and the San Francisco jihadi. They are not misfits or sociopaths. They are people who find it fulfilling to kill us and destroy our society. As time passes, we will meet more and more of them. And, in the fullness of time, we will remember that Machiavelli warned us half a millennium ago that "man is more inclined to do evil than to do good," and that the primary role of statesmen and other leaders is to contain the dark forces of human nature. Evil cannot be "fixed" by some social program or suitably energetic public-affairs strategy, or by "reaching out" to our misguided comrades. It must be dominated.
DOLGELLAU, Wales - Thank goodness for those history channels that bring back the generals and politicians of the past who, by contrast, make many of today's leaders look indecisive. I saw President Harry Truman on one of them last week. In a speech to the nation near the end of World War II, Truman rejected suggestions that the Allies seek accommodation with Japan, rather than victory. Truman would have none of it, saying only Japan's "unconditional surrender" would be acceptable.
Contrast that with the conciliatory blather of today. Prime Minister Tony Blair is inviting British and Muslim leaders to a meeting Tuesday at 10 Downing Street where it is reported he will urge worldwide action to uproot what he has called the "evil ideology" and "twisted teaching" that lay behind the London bombings. Here's what Blair should say to the Muslim leaders: "The onus is on you guys. You find and shut down the terrorists and their network. You turn those who incite, plan and encourage violence over to the authorities. If you don't act, we will by closing and bulldozing the mosques and schools that incubate and instruct the killers, prosecuting the terrorists we find and deporting them and their clerics, and closing our borders to anyone from countries that harbor and teach terrorists. Those who are British citizens will be stripped of their citizenship."
As part of its continuing disinformation campaign in America (reminiscent of Nazi, Soviet and Japanese propaganda of the not-too-distant past), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is providing public service announcements to American television stations titled "Not in the Name of Islam." A CAIR press release says the spots are designed to "highlight the Muslim community's condemnation of terrorism and rejection of those who carry out terror attacks."
Just who are these spots designed to influence? Does CAIR wish us to believe the jihadists in America will see them and convert to democratic ideals, or is this Tokyo Rose propaganda designed to keep our guard down? It is helpful to quote what two prominent senators have said about CAIR: "(CAIR is) unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect," said Richard Durbin, Illinois Democrat. "We know (CAIR) has ties to terrorism," added Charles Schumer, New York Democrat.
The problem with the cluttered Western contemporary mind is there is little room for anyone or any philosophy based on absolutes and convictions. The terrorists benefit from Western self-indulgence, ignorance about history and aversion to war. If we think of depravity at all, it is in the Michael Jackson vein and not religious fanatics, who kill school children, behead "infidels" and seek world domination. Western secularists cannot comprehend people who link their private faith to public actions. Too many think terrorists can be dissuaded from their bloody goals by using Western logic and trying to "understand why they hate us." I don't want to understand why they hate us, anymore than my father's generation sought to understand Nazis, or the ideological slaves of Hirohito. Like that generation, since the jihadists have declared war on us, I want to kill them before they kill me.
To make us feel better and allow us to "get on with our lives," we make believe the jihadists are a tiny minority and not "mainstream Islam." But what if they are mainstream - part of an elaborate conspiracy designed to dupe the West while the infiltration of Britain, America and all of Europe continues unabated?
What if the "moderates" are too intimidated to speak out for fear they will be killed? If that is the case, it is all the more reason to declare total war on the jihadists, because that is what they have declared on us. Would it not be a clever strategy to put insurgents among us who dress and speak as Westerners, work in our schools and restaurants (as one of the bombing suspects did in London), but are secretly plotting the death of total strangers? They know they don't have the power of a conquering army to defeat us from without, but they believe the virus they are spreading can weaken us from within until we surrender because we favor "peace" over conflict.
Wake up, America and Britain! The jihadists are after us and they will stop at nothing until we all live under the banner of Islam, either by fear or by force.
Where have you gone, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill? Our nations turn their lonely eyes to you. Boo-hoo-hoo.
Posted by: ed ||
07/20/2005 10:05 ||
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#1
We're getting there. It may take another five years, but eventually a majority of Westerners will know what drives the Moslems: our submission to their death cult.
I'm still waiting for the British ultimatum to Pakistan. Tony Blair speaks well, but does he have the courage and sense of justice President Bush has demonstrated? did he go to the bombed bus and train carriages to promise death to those who supported and organised the attacks?
#2
Tony Blair, while a ally in the war on terror, is a flaming liberal and a "multilateralist". I think Kalle is right, we as a society are beginning to see the threats from islam, communist china and immigrant hordes. The dune loons have waged all-out war on us, we have responded somewhat casually, when we decide to annihilate them I think we could do it in short order.
#3
that has threatened to launch âa bloody warâ on the capitals of European countries that do not remove their troops from Iraq within a month.
Abu Hafs al Masri Brigades, an al-Qaeda group that claimed responsibility for the London bombings, has this message for the rest of Europe: "We assure to you that we are men who adore death as much as you love life. Jihad for Godâs sake will go on until the end of days, to defeat the infidels, the dictators, and their followers everywhere."
#4
I agree. This war may very well prove to be one that NEEDS to be fought to an unconditional surrender. If the lefties have their way, it will be. I truly do believe that America is starting to wake up to the trouble in its midst, but, unfortunately, I also think it'll take another attack or two before the gloves truly come off.
Posted by: BA ||
07/20/2005 14:46 Comments ||
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#5
Many in America play the game that what has happened (911) is somehow our fault. There are those in Great Britain that think the same way. We have been in a war with the jihadists long before 911. The jihadists have our destruction at the heart of their beliefs. However, look what happened when Congressman Tom Tacredo said we should bomb Mecca and Medina should a 911 like event occur. Just about everyone denounced and distance themselves from him and his remarks. There is so much crap being passed off as critical thinking. The MSM is a party to this propaganda. I hope it is not too late to save the country. Cal Thomas seems to have his eye on the ball. It may get to unconditional surrender or else.
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