THE car bomb outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta killed nine people and injured 180. They were workers, shoppers, children. The attack on the school at Beslan led to the deaths of 350 parents, teachers, pupils. Trains in Madrid were blown up. Commuters were reading their newspapers and drinking coffee when the bombs went off, killing 190.
The Bali bombings killed 202 holidaymakers, bar staff, taxi drivers. The September 11 outrages in New York and Washington claimed the lives of 3000 office workers, air travellers, firemen, tourists. Then, there are the men, women and children killed in terrorist attacks on embassies, hotels, buses, theatres and churches in Russia, Israel, Iraq, Indonesia, the Philippines and a score of other places both East and West.
Count the bodies and weep. Count the bodies and pity those who still say we are not at war. Though we did not make war on Islam, radical Muslims, including Osama bin Laden, have declared war on us. They hate us just for being free. They despise Western values, Western democracy and Western children — and so the atrocities continue.
We did not invite terrorism through misdeeds of our own. The passengers on Pan Am flight 103, brought down on Lockerbie, had no dispute with Libya or Syria. A wheelchair-bound man thrown over the side of cruise ship was no threat to the Arab world.
War of values
The fundamentalists who have caused the deaths of 100,000 Algerians were not protesting against US foreign policy. The genocide driven by Muslims in Darfur has nothing to do with revenge for Iraq or Palestine, but these disasters have a lot to do with empire-building fanatics who will achieve Taliban-style rule if they keep democracy at bay.
The West can no longer deny it is a clash of civilisations. It is. It is a war of values. We are at war not with Islam itself, but with a fundamentalist movement that enjoys the support of some Middle East leaders. The irony is that al-Qaida and its partners in terror are also at war with Islam, usurping its strength and mocking its teachings as they kill.
As it protects its own interests, the West is also fighting to rescue Islam, not destroy it. The fanatics who are hijacking Islam will fashion it in their own image if successful, leading to endless misery. Demanding that our troops come home to defend our shores is naive. There are no shores in this war. There is no safe haven. There is no alternative to taking the fight to the enemy, wherever he is.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2004 7:24:23 PM ||
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Barbara, that was my own initial response as well. But there's also a tiny little voice inside my head that says this world would be better off if it avoided exterminating some 2 BILLION people.
Too bad there's this other voice that's shouting "who the f&%k cares?"
#6
Zenster, there are not 2 billion Moslems on Earth. Further, most people counted as Moslem most probably couldn't care less, if they lived in a free society with freedom of religion.
#7
Zenster - we need to save that 2 billion from the evil death cult of Islam. Save the unfortunate people who are enslaved by Islam by either destroying it or transforming it into something else.
#9
Before 9/11 I didn't spend much time thinking about Islam, except to consider the exceedingly excited voices coming mostly out of the Iranian mullocracy. Now that I've studied the Koran, Moslem history, and had ample opportunity to listen to their modern-day insanities, I'd say that first of all Al-Qaida is very faithful to the Koran, and second Islam is not worth saving, not anymore so than Nazism and Communism would have been.
In WW II the dagger was aimed straight at Berlin. Today it should be aimed at Tehran and Mecca.
#10
Drats! Now even the Arabs are clued into the continuing and inexorable plan for Jewish Global Domination. They KNOW about the commies and capitalism and how we, the Jews, are behind both. Just as long as they don't find out we're behind 'Mecca Cola' and use deep-fryed pork rinds as the filtering element.
#11
#6Zenster, there are not 2 billion Moslems on Earth.
World Muslim population (Projected in 2000) = 1,902,095,000
Further, most people counted as Moslem most probably couldn't care less, if they lived in a free society with freedom of religion.
And there's one of the really significant problems, Kalle. If those oppressed people are unwilling to rise up against their oppressors, at some point there may no longer be any opportunity to accurately distinguish between them and the violent fanatics whom they intentionally or inadvertently support. Fear not, I don't hope for any mass extinction if it can be avoided, I'm just not willing to play the sensitive guy if it means America having to take even one terrorist nuclear attack.
America brings a lot more to the table than pretty much any other nation on earth, be it any combination of medicine, technology, foreign aid, agriculture or military protection of the weak. One nuclear terror attack could cripple our ability to fight the war on terror and thereby relinquish some portion of this globe's vulnerable and as yet unbrainwashed population to Islamism's not-so-tender mercies.
Given the choice between having to be somewhat indiscriminate about exterminating the vipers' nests of terrorists or America taking a nuclear hit, I feel the choice is obvious.
#7Zenster - we need to save that 2 billion from the evil death cult of Islam.
That's why I havn't banished that "tiny little voice" yet, CrazyFool. I trust you've already seen me take abuse here at Rantburg for maintaining that moderate Muslims actually do exist?
#12
Zenster, we may not have any choice at some point. But until then, saving 1,711,885,500 people is the modus operandi.
About the 190,209,500? According to Bin Turki (Kingdom Of Satanic Arabia's princeling), the radical islamists are tiny minority of muslims, no more than 10%.
#13
There is nothing the West can do to save Islam. The "battle for the soul" of Islam has ALREADY been waged. And irredeemably lost. Satan won. What other power known to mankind would continence the targeting of innocent children as in Russia? None that I'm aware of.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
09/11/2004 22:04 Comments ||
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#14
Except that they're not all like that. Morocco's trying to come out of its Islamic doldrums. Tunisia's trying to come out of them. Jordan's (usually) trying to come out of them. Kuwait and (most of) the UAE are trying to come out of them. The state of Kurdistan would be a Muslim state, or at least Muslim majority. The Iraqi and Iranian bloggers show us Arabs and Iranians who're Muslim but not nuts. Most of India's Muslims manage to get along. Malaysia, for all its faults, is a developing nation, virtually the only Muslim nation with a degree of prosperity that doesn't get its money from oil.
The enemy's a political version of Islam that threatens the entire world, including the Muslim world. As a religion, Islam has its own built-in shortcomings that will always try to hinder development and human dignity, because of the violence and degradation that're built into the Koran. It's Islamism as an ideology that goes beyond separate problem of the religious bucket on the foot.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2004 22:29 Comments ||
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#15
The article falls into the usual trap by saying that Islam is being hijacked. But it isn't being hijacked, the Koran clearly states that Muslims must wage war on 'unbelievers', until they are 'subdued'. Islamic terrorists are not mocking the teachings of Islam, they are carrying them out faithfully, to the letter.
#16
There is only one way. Renounce religion and establish a secular democratic society. Europe found that out 300 years ago. It is time to learn from the experience of the others. OR ELSE UR ASS IS THE FOOTBALL AND THE WORLD IS A FIELD
On this of all days thank you, Fred, for coming forward to drive such an important point home. No matter how much I carp about the thin-ice-on-a-hot-day that Islam is skating upon, I refuse to accept that all Muslims are Islamists. I have worked along side too many civilized people of the Islamic faith to ever declare 100% of them irredeemable.
The enemy's a political version of Islam that threatens the entire world, including the Muslim world.
It's almost heartbreaking to watch a majority of Muslims somehow ignore this one incontrovertible fact. The risk is not only to the West, no matter how many Muslims secretly wish this in their heart of hearts. There is nothing but incredible danger awaiting all of Islam's followers if they cannot disengage from the radical jihadist mentality. A first step would be agreeing to declare Wahhabism and Salafism to be political ideologies and not religions (per Zhang Fei).
I unabashedly predict the most Dire⢠outcome resulting from Islam's inability to disengage with its radicals and often am unfairly accused of promoting a "kill 'em all" mindset, but that is merely disinformation on the part of my detractors.
#12Zenster ... According to Bin Turki
I respectfully ask that you make no further reference to bin Turki without perusing the link I have provided. This maggot is the fox in the henhouse.
#15The article falls into the usual trap by saying that Islam is being hijacked. But it isn't being hijacked, the Koran clearly states that Muslims must wage war on 'unbelievers', until they are 'subdued'. Islamic terrorists are not mocking the teachings of Islam, they are carrying them out faithfully, to the letter.
Mr Gray, there is part of me that is screaming to agree with you. However, there is a worthy core, however small, within Islam that can be reformed and preserved. Should a majority of Muslims pursue this end, I cannot argue against their right to worship. If none of them can find it within themselves to attenuate their faith's obsession with world dominance, then they can all rot in hell.
#16OR ELSE UR ASS IS THE FOOTBALL AND THE WORLD IS A FIELD
Only if that deflated pigskin is destined to be drooped over the goalposts of the home team.
"The Bolshevist revolution in Russia was the work of Jewish brains, of Jewish dissatisfaction, of Jewish planning, whose goal is to create a new order in the world. What was performed in so excellent a way in Russia, thanks to Jewish brains, and because of Jewish dissatisfation and by Jewish planning, shall also, through the same Jewish mental and physical forces, become a reality all over the world." - The American Hebrew September 10, 1920
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