They Got It Right: America Is Their Enemy
One of President Barack Obama’s main themes has been to convince Middle Eastern Islamists and Arabs generally that America is not their enemy. But the reason this strategy never works is that the radicals, be they Islamists or nationalists, know better. They see the United States as their enemy and they are right to do so.
No amount of sympathy, empathy, economic aid, apology, or appeasement will change this fact. Nor did such efforts succeed in making either Obama or the United States popular in such circles and among the tens of millions of people influenced by them. The only thing surprising about all of this is that so few “experts” and politicians seem to comprehend it.
There are a number of reasons why this is true, though many people mistakenly think they must find just one factor that explains this reality. The causes of this enmity include:
–American policies. True, the United States has supported Israel and also many Arab regimes over the years — including countries like Morocco, Tunisia, post-Gadaffi-Libya, Egypt, pre-Hizballah Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, post-Saddam Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates. The Islamists are equally unhappy with the U.S. support for the Palestinian Authority.
In short, U.S. support for any non-radical regime makes radicals angry and will always do so.
So what if the United States is nice to radical or Islamist regimes? Will that help?
No. The radicals still keep their goals — which include throwing U.S. influence out of the region and overthrowing its allies — no matter what Washington tries to do to please them. In the context of their ideology, they interpret U.S. concessions as signs of weakness which thus invite them to become even more militant and aggressive.
In Libya and Iraq, the governments have been pretty much directly installed by America. Thus, anyone who wants to overthrow those governments has a strong vested interest in hating and attacking Americans. The assassination of the ambassador to Libya wasn’t an accident or the result of a video but the inevitable and logical outcome of the political situation there.
As for Israel, giving that country less help would not change the radical view. Only if the United States had the same policy as Hamas, Hizballah, and the Muslim Brotherhood might it be forgiven. Merely putting more space between the United States and Israel, to paraphrase Obama’s stated intention, won’t do it. Even brokering a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which isn’t going to happen of course, won’t help.
On the contrary, the radicals — especially Hamas, its Egyptian backers, Hizballah, and its Iranian backers — would go into a frenzy of denunciation and attempts to destroy the arrangements, which would be blamed on America. In the Middle East, peacemakers aren’t blessed, they’re assassinated.
The ultimate attempt to do away with these problems would be if U.S. policy would actually help Islamist regimes into power, give them money, and whitewash their extremism. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? And we can all see the results have not been good, neither in terms of U.S. interests nor even in terms of U.S. popularity.
–American values and culture. While the mere fact that a highly secular, largely hedonistic, and generally free lifestyle is practiced in the United States raises the Islamists’ ire, there is far more involved here.
Or…we could stop nipping around the edges and go for the soft center, Islam itself.
Just like an octopus, when attacked, pulls in its arms, when the gooey center of Islamic emotion (pointedly not calling it thought) is assailled, a large portion of political energy and cash resources will have to be spent holding the fortress.
A long term, continuous and unrelenting critcism of Islam; a criticism at all levels of intellectual activity, from cartoons and comic books to university papers, each and every facet of the Mohammed myth must be challenged.
I am not worried about supposed responses. After an initial surge of noise and static the anger and hatred drummed up in Islamia would suffer from battle fatigue, making it even easier to gain inroads into their minds. (not to mention that they riot, rape and pillage from time to time anyway!)
‘course it won’t happen. Entirely not PC.
ta
Bingo.
REZKO, OBAMA, AND THE NADHMI AUCHI RAILROAD LINKING CHICAGO, WASHINGTON, AND BAGHDAD (Part 3 of 3)
http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2012/10/26/rezko-obama-and-the-nadhmi-auchi-railroad-linking-chicago-washington-and-baghdad-part-3-of-3/
Exactly right. There really isn’t a military solution. The only one is cultural. Yet thanks to the left, we villainize our own culture above all others
Michael, you are indeed right on target. Bulls eye.
This is precisely why I keep hammering home, the urgency of Professor Paul Eidelberg’s policy paper, as well as helping him place it in the ‘proper’ hands. Moreover, assisting in its review was the greatest labor of love, at least in terms of our struggle!
Once again, here it is – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/07/13/islam-blood-a-groundbreaking-policy-paper-contained-herein-the-world-stands-on-a-precipice-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki-109/
It has caught the attention of some powerful players. Let’s see what happens…
Michael, you must be talking about the “religion of peace” and all of its loving and righteous followers who are busy marching and speaking up against their slightly over-zealous and mis-behaving brethren. sarc/off
Increasingly, people everywhere are begining to recognize that Islam as it stands today is really not compatible with the freedoms of western civilization… and I fear that they will one day commit an attrocity too far.
If such a day should ever arrive… I also fear it will be very bad for them.
Muslims are hypersensitive to criticism because Islam is morally and intellectually indefensible. The Obama regime and the State Department choose to honor and, as the response to the Benghazi attack demonstrates, emulate Islamic censorship and information suppression. The antidote to Islam is precisely the opposite strategy.
When images of Mohamed are ubiquitous we will be on the path to victory. When Muslim scholars are compelled to explain why an ostensibly monotheistic people have raised a mortal prophet to a perfect god and worship a meteorite inside a holy cube we will know we are winning.
The Arab world was Christian once. It can be Christian again. At the very least, if we are firm, we can teach Muslims to walk on their hind legs and not turn homicidal at every petty insult.
“We don’t want to get into a war with a billion Muslims” is cowardly leftist drivel. Overcoming Islam doesn’t require guns and bombs. It requires freedom of information and the courage to enforce it.
Spot on!
I will add, if we are their enemy, (and any glance at the stuff MEMRI puts out will confirm that even at so called moderate street level, we are) will if logic plays any part, mean that they are our enemy.
That’s the real bottom line here, yet western politicians of all stripes deny, obfuscate and whitewash the truth.
We’re heading for a major train wreck with both hostile Arabs and Pakistan but even worse, the massive Fifth Column dwelling amongst us.
Amen. If Islamic origins & history had subjected to the intense historical-critical analyses that Christianity has endured for centuries, the religion of Mohammed would be at best a marginal force today.
“Finally, the radicals (edit:American Left) — which include a large portion of governments, political movements, teachers, clerics, and journalists — will deliberately do everything they can to discredit the United States and foment popular hatred against it.”
Subversion is subversion. Propaganda is propaganda.
Voice of America was created to combat the spread of Communism. It got taken over by the Communists, but it was effective until then. The same approach would be effective against Islam, by showing all the inherent conflicts in the Koran and by decrying the lies, the violence, and the idea of martyrdom.
Well that’s damn unfortunate: we have an unlucky president who sincerely wants peace, will gut the military and convert swords to plowshares before there is peace, cancel current military operations according to schedule as if there is peace, and the enemy won’t say uncle or negotiate a cease fire. Well, that’s almost as disappointing as a hippie joining a commune for the good dope and free love only to discover there’s no women and the dope was ripped off by the brothers last week.
Yup. Well stated. So long as America is the enemy of Islamo-fascism we will forever battle the political Islamists. We are, indeed in a war against them. We have as our allies a potential liberal Muslim Arab populace. They are our only hope to defeating Jihadists. Why? Because they need to have their clash within their own civilization in order to secure the future for a better brand of Islamic values. I believe the good ones are out there. They’re just scared to death to come forward, much less battle their brethren to the death (possibly their own death).
Can we trust “a potential liberal Muslim Arab populace”? Islam promotes lying to achieve your ends. How are we to believe anything they say?
Actions speak a whole lot louder than words. We have tried in several instances to help Muslim populations and the result has been support for Islamists (or, at best, an indifference to the killing of non-Muslims by ‘peaceful’ Muslims). People point to the killing of those who murdered the US ambassador in Benghazi as proof that ‘the good ones are out there’. Too little, too late.
If ‘[t]hey’re just scared to death to come forward, much less battle their brethren to the death (possibly their own death)’, then they are saying Islam is more important to them than freedom. That’s their choice. So let them live with it.
Until they take a stand for freedom then we should leave them in dar-al-islam. If they’re not willing to fight for their own freedom then they have no right to expect anything from anyone else.
For our part, we should ban all Muslim travel (not just immigration) to the US and other countries. There are too many examples of Muslim enclaves in the West where others are driven out or harassed once the Muslim population achieves critical mass.
The West, mainly the U.S., dealing with Islam a socio-culture religion, needs to put up with every gamut of sentiments what Islam stands for. This may touch mainly psycho strategy. Jews are specialists on this area, if there are people who can weave their way through the Muslim’s sentiment-complexes, alone are the Jews. When the Israelites air doubt over a truce, I believe, the world should yield to their distrust.
Obama in the first place should not have taken candidacy, let alone office, and we are seeing, now know the consequences. A tiny foothold on a land or country, sends them on a frenzy claiming the entirety of the country (that’s Islam). Similarly on priviledges, grant them with one, they will aim entire government. Peace talks? Nothing new. Negotiations are infringement bound. Pledges sworn before the face take on a different hue short after.
It is a fact, Islam and West stand for two essentially different orientations, thereby, either one should concede in all points of the pact. Islam however (expect it) would not be the one.
A polygamist society cannot remain peaceful. It must either go to war against outsiders (thereby killing off some of their surplus men and allowing others to take wives from among the captives or just go on a raping spree), or else it turns its violence inward.
test
From the purple dinosaur:
I hate you,
You hate me,
You’re islamic fascists
don’t you see?
Sadly the US national socialist party has co-opted the head-loppers of the mid-east in order to simply arouse anger from the conservatives. Successfully at that. But their “plan” is to use the militant islamists to do their dirty work and when the people feel they have nowhere else to turn, the GOVERNMENT will then (and only then) turn on their bearded brethren.
But don’t count on it happening any time soon. The Benghazi attack is a sterling example of how much the US national socialists are willing to spend to get the islamidiots pissed off enough to attack in droves. But the poor misguided left thinks they can “manage” that, too, not realizing that Hitlery Clinton is as much of a target as Mitt Romney.
They.Want.To.Kill.Us.All.
It’s the “final solution” on mega-steroids. Every muslim is raised to believe that the US is evil and must be destroyed. But it’s also OK to take US money if islam is benefited somehow.
Obama has chosen to get in bed with bugs. He will reap the whirlwind with the US as his foil. It’s coming and he’s done more to bring that day upon us than any other human on the face of the earth. And he’s proud of it.
If foreign powers attempt invasion, they will lose–everything:
“AMERICANS PREPARE TO REPEL BOARDERS”
Islam’s mask, so carefully applied,
Has torn for all to see,
Its unjust rage against our faith,
Threatens our Liberty.
The enemies of freedom gather,
False despots’ begotten sons,
And in America the Beautiful,
Their leader is the traitor; “THE WON”.
God gave this land a Law of Defense,
Which applies to every man
Who lives by the code of “self-control”
Who prays freedom for this land–
Who has pledged he’ll not seek conquest
But take a DEFENDER’S stand.
Hear us, ye craven foes of life,
We are not afraid of your screams.
For a “moment” you may spread your strife,
For a brief space of time you may dream,
Of defiling our women and enslaving our youth
With fanatical zealots’ schemes.
We have watched you burn our embassies,
We have seen you deface our flag.
Our soldiers and envoys have paid death’s price,
While you screamed, and ranted, and bragged.
You were seen unworthy of pride or respect,
As their bodies through your sands were dragged.
Enough of the frauds, enough of the lies,
That your anarchy is “decent” or “just”.
Though you claim false pretext to cover your sins,
We renounce your excuses for lust,
Of the men and their homes we will defend,
With our very lives if they must!
We renounce BO’s MEDIA WHORES as well–
You have bought and paid for their souls.
We deny their lies, we reject their claims,
We reject their so-called “polls”—
Which you believe will cause us to quake
At the “might” you claim to control.
We have prayed, and fasted, and pleaded,
The God of Our Fathers once more.
It was He who gave us Freedom’s gift;
And His might cannot be ignored.
His Law of Defense now applies here,
And it sanctifies our shores!
Aroused, Columbia’s* God prepares,
To repel every foe from this land.
It is He who orders Heaven and Earth,
And with Him we now take our stand.
Once more we Patriots rally and cry—
We shall honor what Heaven commands!
* Columbia = United States; new Latin; from Christopher Columbus; first used 1775.
NO RIGHT RESERVED.
“It begins”–preface to Jihad and pretext for war on America. IT SHALL NOT STAND.
In 1776, a pitiful, yet believing, band of farmer/soldiers defended themselves against the most powerful army the world had ever known—AND WON; against all odds; against every treasonous naysayer, defeatist, and cynic, THEY WON.
They did not win because they went to England and sought conquest or spoil. Rather, they made an oath with the God of Heaven, whose might in defense of freedom HAS BEEN SEEN THROUGHOUT OUR HISTORY. This oath they kept, that they would honor His laws and praise His name in exchange for His pledge to ETERNALLY DEFEND our land on conditions of righteousness. Even our FOES may visit and enjoy privileges and protections of property and person, so long as they will abide by our laws!
There are many more unsafe areas in Europe when it comes to Islam than within the middle east itself. This is a question of resolve and the West is losing. Hamstrung by our own notions of fair play, we have only the resolve that the West is an airport at the service of the Third World. The French are mad, the English are mad, and we are madmen as well. If Europe had any brains, or survival instincts, they’d clean out and deport every Muslim enclave they have.
All of Islam, all the followers of Mohammad, are the problem, not just the “radicals”, “extremists”, “islamists”, “hijackers”, etc.
Hey, let’s not go too far. Remember that after the attack on our consulate the people of Benghazi staged a massive pro-American anti-Islamist demonstration. Also it was onlookers who took the Ambassador to a hospital, something no one forced them to do.
It’s a conundrum. The “good Muslims” actually aren’t Muslims at all if you go by the Q’uran. (They should be trying to convert you and killing you on your third refusal for starters.) These are people who call themselves Muslims because they’ve been raised that way, and cannot overcome mental habits deeply ingrained from infancy. Not everyone has the intellectual strength of a Wafa Sultan or a John Henry Newman. Most of these people live good lives and somehow abide their contradictions. Of course the trouble is, they’re indistinguishable from dormant jihadists.
I don’t know what to do about it. Prying some harmless person off the faith of his fathers is a recipe for trouble, isn’t it?
How very very true ‘arthooley’ The REAL misunderstanders of Islam are ‘moderate’ Muslims.
If a Muslim chops off your head he is just following the example of Mohammad if a Christian does it he is going against all the teachings of Christ.
Oderint dum metuant. If this analysis is correct (and I see no reason to dispute it) then the main policy goal of the West vs. the Islamic world must simply be to make hostile acts against us so costly that either a) they are deterred by the savagery of our response or b) we attrit the enemy so thoroughly that his capacity to commit such acts is removed. Either way the ludicrous hearts and minds approach of Afghanistan etc. is not merely useless but counterproductive.
Nice quote David. I suggest also: Metus improbus compescit non clementia. Kill an American, lose an airport or seaport. Kill another lose a city. No nation building (get it Bush, you moron?). Could even warn populace to evacuate before it is destroyed. Get rid of your own murderers or there are consequences. Just sayin’. I know – won’t happen. Still shrugging til then.
My instincts exactly. In 79 what I wanted President Carter to do was send in the B52s after destroying their air force and leaflet Iran promising to eliminate a list of cities one a week until they released the hostages. Point out that if they wanted to avoid casualties they would have to evacuate all the cities on the list. Kill the hostages and we would simply destroy all the cities. I recognized that was a bit savage of me, but unlike Mr. Carter I have always been in touch with my inner savage. Seriously, that is what really came up at the time. I have Iranian friends and as as one of them points out (he is an exile) the problem in Iran is the government. Ironically I think the Iranians are the most ‘advanced’ Islamic culture because they have suffered under radical Islam the longest. There is certainly evidence that the traditional Shiites would be glad to see the backs of the radical mullahs. Broadly I think that the Muslim world is going through an acute totalitarian phase like the West did in the first half of the 20th century. If we remain blind to the real threat of Islamic totalitarianism (described by Barry so accurately above) then they will continue to try to impose their culture on the West. At some point they will trigger our instincts for self preservation and then we shall see.
I’d to see us bomb the airport outside Mecca. Make it VERY difficult for Muslims from outside the Middle East to perform the hajj, for at least a year. It would also put a crimp in the Saudi economy, since hajj travelers are an important source of revenue for them.
Another 9/11: obliterate the Grand Mosque.
If they continue with the violence they will have to decide what matters more:
killing us or losing their heritage. We love acronyms, so this is the new MAD (Mecca’s Assured Destruction).
The USURPER raised and schooled as a MUSLIM in Jakarta, and a frequent visitor to Muslim countries such as Pakistan, who wears a gold ring on his wedding finger (predating his marriage to the Moocher by many years) inscribed with the Islamic Shahada just ‘lurves’ the Muslims his every action and reaction just goes to prove it.
Islam’s aim is a world dominated by Islam all others would either convert, or as Muslims call it REVERT didn’t you know EVERYONE is born a Muslim and you only become something else because you have been CORRUPTED, or become tribute paying second class citizen Dhimmis. There is Dar al Harb , the world of war, and Dar Al Islam , where Islam rules.
You really do need to understand what Muslims mean when they talk. For example ‘innocents’ sounds straight forward doesn’t until your realize that in Islam ONLY Muslims can be innocent all others are GUILTY of not following allah. Next DIALOGUE or NEGOTIATIONS how can you negotiate with people whose CULT not only sanctions but recommends the use of TAQIYYA (lying to protect or PROMOTE Islam). Then you come to TRUCES or TREATIES now Muslims will of course agree to almost anything to get what THEY want but wait they may call it a TREATY ot TRUCE to your face but to each other its a Huddinaiya a term limited agreement Muslims make when they are weak and which they can UNILATERALLY break when they feel strong enough to do so.
So can we have peace with a CULT whose aim is to LIE and CHEAT and control the World. Of course not don’t be stupid.
The clash of civilizations consequent to the birth of Islam has been re-ignited. That is obvious to anybody with eyes to see, ears to hear, and half a brain. Unfortunately, that leaves out many in the State Department, and the Obama administration. The intent of Islam is replacement of, not accomadation with the West; their way or the highway. The famous ‘Arab street’ is composed of hordes of indigent, ignorant drudges easily manipulated by the educated minority of Arabs. Trying to influence the detritus of the Arab world is a waste of time. The solution is Western energy independence; cut off their only source of revenue and their economies will wither and die. Absent billions of petro-dollars, their access to modern weapons will evaporate. If their choice is to place their faith in Allah, suck on dates and hump camels, so be it. Nobody will give a rats’ damn about their future. Consider it tough love.
“If all men were just, there would be no need of valor.”
The West needs to awaken to the fact that there can be no compromise with Islamofascists, just as there could be no compromise with Fascists.
How did we defeat Fascism? We kept killing Fascists until there were virtually none left to kill.
Of course, the world had to get rid of Chamberlain, lose Poland and France, and suffer Pearl Harbor before we Americans finally got it. You’d think after 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now Syria, we’d be getting it now, too.
re: “Yet it is also true that the masses have also been fed anti-Americanism for decades and that their worldview, news, and spin come from a radical direction,”
Barry, the viewpoint you identify is also broadcast into America. Where? One example is Brooklyn, NY – via the homes and shops of some green card foreigners. How? Via Time-Warner satellite tv. Don’t believe me? A little gum shoe work on your part will find you a growing number of blocks in Brooklyn where you can hear with your lying ears stations broadcast from another continent, and in the “home” language of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Check out the hundreds of rooftop satellite dishes broadcast into apartments and shops. Contact a building owner and climb to a roof. Look around: what are families who do NOT speak English at home listening to?
The thing that always puzzled me was how families which received tens of thousands in benefits (free food, free docs, dentists, meds, hospitals, etc.) could afford the Time-Warner charge for foreign-tv channels which are broadcast several continents away.
Barry, please do some homework on this. If Jews who vote for Democrats knew their party was helping a segment of green card foreigners indoctrinate their children with Jew-hate-tv, they might think twice about Dem ideology.
“If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting”
-Curtis LeMay
In addition to the reasons noted, Radical imams must foment hatred of the United States for the same reason that Obama has to inflame racial hatred and class war. Hatred of perceived enemies is what holds fascist collectives together. This is a deep, primal instinct that both gives fascism it’s awesome power and makes it irredeemably evil.
Also, while the fundamental values that created the US make it a natural enemy to totalitarian lunatics, the I, me, this country, version of the US that exists in Obama’s deranged cranium is their natural ally.
Is there some reason we can’t start a good old fashion propaganda effort by dropping leaflets? Most muslims have no internet, TV, or even radios. Other than the large and populated cities it is a miserable existense for most. Drop leaflets for the next 10 years regardless of the complaints diplomatically. I realize we rebuilt Iraqs cell phone towers, and that technology is out there-but dirt poor is dirt poor. Leaflet the cities too, not just the remote or rural areas. **Pick the message**
Forget leaflets, drop copies of Dragonball Z manga on them. Watch as the mullahs make themselves even more ridiculous by issuing fatwas against Dragonball Z.
most of them can’t read – needs to be simple pictures.
Islam is a success gospel, no diff from the ZBW we know.
Saudi stands tall because it enjoys Allah’s favor and Iran wants on that team.
The only way you deal with them is to humiliate them in every possible way something that Israel refuses to do.
You’ll have not peace until they admit they are beaten, but that will take better people than we have now.
It really isn’t all that difficult to understand. There is this really intractable difference between Islam and the West. However, other than really egregious aspects of Sharia law where we will do whatever we can to help the victims, we are OK with letting them live as they wish. But they do not give us the same deference and this sets up all kinds of problems for our society.
So you have Obama and his cronies, full of grossly over-inflated confidence in their intelligence and their ideas about how to deal with this, sitting on the sidelines and waiting for a chance to grab the ring of power and apply their theories. But once in place they are mugged by reality – as is easily seen by anyone without ideological blinders or some kind of hero worship syndrome.
The students have had their crack at running the university. The junior achievement club has had their day in the mayor’s office. Time to bring back some adults who can look at this seriously, without naivety and without the distortions of an unworkable sophomoric ideology.
The president of the United States took up arms against Libya and helped depose one dictator. Without a declaration of war.
We have been in wars to defend Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia at least with congressional okeydoke but no formal declaration of war.
Why? Perhaps we could quit letting Saudi go to American flight schools and save ourselves a lot of money.
The middle east needs a dictator. Fine. Let someone else be that dictator. Go ahead. You first Israel, or Russia or China.
We have had ample warning to develop nuclear and conventional energy resources. So has the rest of the west. Its 2012. The Arab Oil embargo of the 70′s was 40 years ago.
And no there is no earthly way Iran is going to take out the United States. So why spend trillions when a few millions in ICBM’s and a little unfair immigration policy could be so much cheaper and effective.
Islam, either morally or politically is in a ” kulturkampf ” with the western world.
No matter how low Obama and his appeasers will bow, the kulturkampf of Islam will goes on.This drive to war is exacerbated by the continuous and free flowing comparisons of their backwardness in respect to the western world.Internet is a terrible eye opener for the muslim masses. Mr Rubin is right in pointing out that the western world is a living proof by its mere existence that Islam will have to fight the west to death or will disappear. we are well into the spanish war of 1936 and so far Chamberlain ( Obama ) has let Franco-Mussolini-hitler eat their cake all over the Mideast. The appeaser in chief tries his best to mollify Tchecoslovakia ( Israel ) in becoming willing to self sacrifice. And some many moronic jews who are still blind, deaf, ignorant , will vote for the hangman of Israel. the political stupidity of jews is above all explanations.
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