An Apologetic 9/11?
The minus side
So on the minus side, we still are a conflicted people, especially now in the age of Obama. We worry whether a nut and his 49 nuts of a nation of 300 million offend fanatical Muslims, who were quite willing to kill a novelist, a cartoonist, an opera producer, a pope, and anyone else they deemed not properly deferential or tolerant enough — this from the most intolerant of all on the planet. We apologize for “Infinite Justice,” and talk of “overseas contingency operations” and “man-made disasters.” Cannot the president just say, “The price for free speech is tragically bad taste and worse among a small minority.”
(Has anyonr noticed that a pathetic and repulsive broke Pastor Jones is merely a cruder media version of the money-mongering, slick Imam Rauf? Each in his own way is otherwise not newsworthy, each trying to con his way into attention, each cashing in on 9/11 in differing ways. The chief divide between the two is that the mellifluous Rauf has mastered the veneer of the snarky educated elite, the twangy Jones has reinforced the stereotype of the yokel lower middle-class clinger. Note the clueless media fell for one faker, but not the other. Note further: cannot the president keep out of these “teachable moments”? Even a book-burning creep has the constitutional right to be a creep without the president of the United States, the secretary of Defense, and a 4-star general trying to silence his crude expression. Are we so afraid of radical Islam that one Florida holy roller endangers the security of the United States? Surely there are enough of us around to make it clear Jones does not speak for America without DOD, Coalition Forces-Afghanistan, and POTUS. This is getting very tiresome: Skip Gates, the Arizona victims in danger of being snatched while having ice cream, the ad nauseam sermons on the Ground Zero mosque, now Pastor Jones: enough, Mr. Obama, you have enough to worry about without being sermonizer in chief.)
America needs a Lincoln to give about a 10 minute speech — nothing more — about whom the Muslim world should really fear: perhaps the Russians who destroyed Muslim Chechnya, or the Chinese who curb Islamic expression, or the Arab tyrannies that slay their own, but not the U.S., not us who have welcomed in millions from the Middle East and saved Muslims from Bosnia to Indonesia. The people have heard enough lectures that “sometimes we have let ourselves down.” Or “sometimes we haven’t always been…” Blah, blah,blah.
A final word on 9/11. Our president is not connecting with the people on the matters of radical Islamic terror. Yes, we do not wish to be hard on Muslims and yes we are not prejudicial. But at some point, Mr. Obama should think deeply and ask why a Major Hasan murdered his own army comrades, evoking Allah as he butchered innocents (do we know even their names?). If there is a torched Times Square or another jet imploding, it will most likely be due to a proverbial “home-grown” — the euphemism for the American-born or American-residing terrorist who, after enjoying all the benefits of American liberality, affluence, and leisure, hates his benefactors for their liberality and their appetites that grow within him.
Or what exactly drove a Mr. Mutallab to want to blow up a jet, or other Muslims to wish to torch Times Square?
Was it really the Jews, or Iraq, or cartoons, or something we did? Or rather a warped radical religious ideology that is allowed to spread too often without censure?
If the Imam Raufs of America would spend three times as much time condemning madrassas, Wahabbism, anti-Muslim oppression by others abroad, and the silence of so many in the Muslim community about the radicalism that spreads among them as they do warning us to be more liberal — or else — then there would be far fewer Major Hasans and his fellow zealots who on over 30 occasions have tried to trump the mass murder of 9/11.
What a weird society — each time a radical Islamist is stopped before killing the innocent, we keep going back to the single Timothy McVeigh murdering of 15 years past, and mouth some banality like “there are all sorts of terrorists.”
So maybe just a tiny bit of George Patton and a bit less of Tony Robbins.
you are asking for a statement of moral absolutes, not moral relativity. You shall not hear it from the Left. Never. They cannot afford to allow a dialogue about right and wrong, because it would open the floodgates of discussions of right and wrong in all areas. They would lose every time, because they… Always. Choose. Wrong!
This is their tool to tear down this country. If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing. Then, who cares who’s in charge? With no moral absolutes, there is no reason to resist.
It reminds me of the film, “They Live”. Sleep. Conform. Do not Question. Stay asleep.
I am a great fan of VDH, and read everything he writes. But I wish he had addressed the conspiracy theories that blame 9/11 on a predatory animal called “Wall Street” that was the target of the Islamists. I wrote about it here: http://clarespark.com/2010/09/11/is-wall-street-slaughtering-the-middle-class/. It is true what you say about moral relativism, Marc, but that is part of the “internationalism” that is so basic to the utopian desires of Woodrow Wilson and every progressive who followed his agenda. We are left with no guides to moral action, for fear that we will fail in the Wilsonian task of mediation and better communication and cross-cultural “understanding.” As a result, we have no vocabulary to describe conflict that is sufficiently precise to distinguish between necessary wars and those conflicts susceptible to compromise.
In your desire to tie an evil group’s dastardliness to a pet peeve you have seemed to give bad behavior an inappropriate and unwarranted excuse. “The Twinkies made me do it”. Shame on you. If you can’t make your case against “Wall Street” on its own merits without becoming an excuse-nick for wild-eyed foreign terrorists you need to rethink your meme. It’s probably not valid.
Great post, Clare. I rely on people like you to inform and provoke thought.
Kudos to you, Wolfy
Left/libtards do hold to one set of absolutes: America always sucks and our enemies are always “misunderstood” and deserve to rule us like kings (as Imam Rauf and his Mulism Brotherhood buddies would happily agree).
I believe the Ground Zero Mosque Imam should have been treated in the press like Jones was… one simple pastor against a multi billionaire media and Imam..pitiful.
We don’t have the nerve to put the things in print about the imam as was put in print about Jones.
We are being overtaken by p.c., crap and muslims are dancing a jig on our heads.
America needs a Lincoln to give about a 10 minute speech — nothing more
Early yesterday morning, September 11th, 2010 I turned on the TV to NBC, then local FOX, to ABC and finally CBS. All 4 channels were talking about Obama.
Next I turned the TV off and tuned the radio to our local ABC owned AM broadcast station; they were talking about Obama. A quick check of the traffic and weather on the FM station had to wait for the crew to finish their segment of talking about Obama.
I turned off the radio and spent the rest of the day outside enjoying the beautiful weather.
It is now 04:30 AM, September 12th, 2010 and the articles on PJM are talking about Obama.
What America needs is November to get here fast. Then the speeches will be about 10 seconds long..
Obama is finished!
DIVIDE AND CONQUOR. NOT THIS TIME. VICTOR DAVIS HANSON FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012. NO MORE INSIDE THE MACHINE CANDIDATES AS APPROVED BY FOX NEWS. STAND UP AMERICA. DON’T JUST SAY NO, SAY HELL NO.
While traveling about today I inadvertently listened to a brief [12 minute?] snippet of the speech. It’s probably just me but it sounded less sincere than a used car salesman’s pitch. I could sense boredom in his rote delivery. And I thought he was supposed to be such a great speechifier?
You meant “apoplectic” right?
Right?
We have a rage-filled, spoiled rotten, pampered, affirmative action “knee-grow” for president.
Apologetic?
No.
Insanity fueled by vanity and faux victimhood?
Yup.
Prof. Hanson is right President Obama is apologetic; to every dictatorship and terrorist state in the world, along with their supporters. He is apologetic to ever anti-American person, institution or country in the world. If you hate America President Obama wants to give you an apology.
I think Prof. Hanson hit the nail on the head a few months ago when he wrote that President Obama is auditioning for UN Sec. General or some other such meaningless international figurehead. After we remove him from the White House he will tour the world blaming the evil, racist Americans for not appreciating him. He will get rich inciting hatred of the US and finally find his rightful place.
It takes a set of balls to do what you desire. Note soon how Obama-Mao, our muslim metrosexual commander in chief (the lower case is on purpose) will step before the cameras and present three Medals Of Honor; one to a living warrior.
Watch how he will try to bask in this warrior’s bravery!
Cowards find a way to look anything but cowardly. We are led by cowards…presently, and not for long I hope!
“If the Imam Raufs of America would spend three times as much time condemning madrassas, Wahabbism, anti-Muslim oppression by others abroad, and the silence of so many in the Muslim community about the radicalism that spreads among them as they do warning us to be more liberal — or else — then there would be far fewer Major Hasans, and his fellow zealots who on over 30 occasions have tried to trump the mass murder of 9/11.”
It’s interesting that nobody has ever asked Imam Rauf if he ever, EVER, gave a speach in the Middle East to a Muslim audience stating how good, open, and free the United States is. Has he ever given a speech to a MUSLIM audience where he freely supports America’s efforts against terrorism and denounces radical Islamic jihadists? Have you ever seen such a video tape?
Have you seen ANY speech come out of this imam’s mouth that didn’t always “qualify” his support for this country? According to Rauf, “The United States is just OK but…” His support for this country is always followed by a “but.” “But” for it not for America’s support for Israel, “but” for it not for America’s animosity towards Iran, “but” were it not for our lack of interest in totally embracing Sharia law in this country, Muslims everywhere would just “love” us.
What utter nonsense. Radical Islamists have been around for centuries and have slaughtered other Muslims for centuries. Americans are relative newcomers to this mass murder. Radical Islamists will always hate somebody because they always need somebody to hate to show how “relevant” they are to the Muslim world. They are the lowest form of life on this planet and imam Rauf isn’t going to change any of this. He feels that if he can suck up to these maniacs,they will leave us alone. I doubt that and I also doubt Rauf’s motives. I think he’s a duplicitous radical Islamist using the American Government to further his agenda of spreading Sharia law in this country.
If Rauf is what he says he is and really wants to spread “tolerance” around the world, why doesn’t he start with the MUSLIM world? There seems to be plenty of tolerance for Muslims here in America. After all, even after the recent Ft. Hood shootings, did you see any major attacks against Muslims around this nation or in the US Army? No, you did not. Rauf should be giving speeches on tolerance to Muslims in the Middle East, and NOT to Americans here in the United States. And this time, I’d like to see those speeches on video tape. I want Rauf to prove that he is what he says he is, a “bridge-builder” and a “diplomat” for peace. Start proving it.
Well said.
Sadly, much of the criticism you direct at Rauf could as easily be directed at the current President of the United States,a man who thinks making Muslims feel good and lecturing his benighted citizenry on tolerance is a high priority. After “I,” “but” is his favorite word.
Great response!! It is the duty of all Muslims to destroy any semblence of democracy and christianity. Rauf is a muslim.He stands by all that is Islamic. he can not denounce something that he believes in totally. Islam is an evil cult. it must be stopped or we risk a dictatorship, slavery, and extreme poverty. God help us if we don’t fight the Muslim with their same mentality.
Radical islam once again dominated the stage at what should have been a solemn remembrance of our loss nine years ago. This year, the cloud that hung over the observance was the threat made by imam Rauf last week that we could expect more muslim violence if his planned victory mosque isn’t built.
The renewed imposition of islamic beliefs on a day when we only wish to mourn in silence merely proves that our enemy is relentless: their only wish is for us to give in to their every demand. Like undisciplined children, nothing is ever enough. Once one demand is met, another one, even more outrageous than the one before, becomes the next rallying cry. “Do what we say or you’re (racist/xenophobic/nationalist/a knuckle-dragging Christian fundamentalist/conservative) and we’ll start a riot because of it and it will all be your fault!”
There can be no doubt that we, as a nation, have been extremely tolerant in the years following 9/11, as hate-crime statistics prove. Charges of any national backlash towards islam are the fabrication of radicals like Rauf and his wife, Daisy Kahn. We welcome all who wish to live here in peace, but what are we now to do with the increasing demands of those who clearly and openly despise us? As 9/11 demonstrated, our enemy is adept at using our own resources against us. Imam Rauf is currently showing how to use our Constitution and First amendment rights in his efforts to construct what we know is an islamic trophy: a mosque constructed on land they consider conqured. How can we possibly deny our own laws when it comes to something as important as religious freedom? he says.
As Obama pointed out in his weak remarks yesterday, we’re not at war with islam. Islam is nevertheless at war with us, and has been for over a generation. Their war began with America actually began at our founding, but the most recent assaults started with the Iranian hostage crisis, capably bungled by Jimmy Carter. Imam Rauf and his ilk hold nothing in their hearts but a barely-suppressed hatred for the US and her values, which enable him to openly display his contempt for the feelings of a nation on a day of mourning.
I’d like to invite him and his wife to leave. Leave us in peace, us to our lives and values, and he to his. Obviously, his wish to impose his way of life on us conflicts with our laws. Sharia law is antithetical to our Constitution and an affront to a truly free people. Mr. Rauf would be better off in a land where that law he so holds so dear is already established.
So would we.
The invitation to leave will have to take a stronger wording. Rauf will be adamant about that. Also, the State Dept. will have to let go of his services, which makes it even harder.
Backwards Boy,
Unfortuanately, its the Masses in America who have failed to realize just how big the threat of Islam is. the Muslims are murderering cowards who cut the throats of their victims with the same ease that me and you would slice through butter, and Americans are too stupid to understand it. There is no love, morality, culpability or accountability in Islam. The only way to stop the islamization of america is to ban the religion and force all Muslims to leave.( Mo. forced the Christians of Arabia to leave and then murdered the Jews of Medina. the Paks forced over 25 million Hindus to leave Pakistan, and no one batted an eyelash. so it can be done.) Of course, our politicans don’t have the guts to do such a thing. they’ll sit idly by and wait for massacre and mayhem to break out and then hop on their soap box and say they hated the Muslims all along. In the long run, we will suffer just like the Christians have under the Ottomans if we don’t do something now.
Great stuff and vintage Hanson as per usual. Dr Hanson is so good that when he says, “I could go on…” I usually say back, “Please do” He never disappoints and the drubbing he administered to lefties is so thorough that I am surprised they have the strength to rise again. But like zombies many of them are they need industrial strength cleanser.
For those of you who have never had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Hanson speak I highly recommend it and there are many places his talks are archived.
A good place to start is youtube
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=victor+davis+hanson&aq=0
here he is in conversation with Peter Robinson of Uncommon Knowledge
http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uncommon-knowledge/26801
Here he is talking about the election of 2008 with transcript
http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2008/11/transcribed-audio-of-victor-davis.html
Here he is at the Commonwealth Club
http://www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/06/06-10hanson-audio.html
Here is a list of 14 videos archived by http://fora.tv
http://fora.tv/search_video?q=victor+davis+hanson
His website is here. http://www.victorhanson.com/ and is a repository of clear thinking and analysis.
Iceman-Thank you for a good place to hear Dr. Hanson speak. VDH, is a generator of higher learning. I always get an education from his views. In fact, Pajamas media is my first hit each day as so many proficient writers are on board.
It is oft said, “We are not at war with Islam”. And this is factually correct from our pluralistic tradition.
But is Islam at war with us?
Every time the radical Islamists act out their own presumably extremist view of their religious duty by attacking the “infidels”, the silence amongst the greater multitude of “peaceful Muslims” is deafening. This lack of response, regardless of motivation, is what is called tacit endorsement; by their lack of counter action, they are expressing silent approval.
Islam is by Mohammedan design a theocratic political movement. The religious can’t consciously be separated from the political side. The radical attacks are political acts ostensibly based on religious principle. This simply must end, or an open recognition of an actual state of war must necessarily be recognized, with all the ugly consequences it will entail.
The only other pathway is to gradual surrender.
Great Read Dr. Hanson-
9 going on 10 years later America is starting to recover from Post Traumatic Stress.
Or as I call it, the fog of battle.
One day you wake up,
look around,
and say:
“What the hell is going on?”
Well, this is that day.
Government leaders trying to make pacifist out of us,
and Islamic fundamentalists trying to build a Mosque close to ground zero.
-
As one Japanese military leader stated:
“I am afraid all we have done is wake a sleeping giant with a terrible resolve.”
-
-
November 2, 2010 we get some ‘Payback.’
I do so much admire you. I think it takes a kind of inner determination to listen through one of Obama’s speeches. I don’t have that myself but I’m glad others do. Well, November is not so far away.
waterwillows, surely you understate when you say “it takes a kind of inner determination to listen through one of Obama’s speeches”. I’d say it’s more like masochism! (Unless one is listening for professional purposes, like the estimable VDH.) The sound of the Zero’s voice is, to me, like chalk on a blackboard: I push the MUTE button the second he starts blathering.
(And could someone, please, get rid of that horrid, far too yellow—but good symbolism for Obama, I guess—atrocity, I think it’s a curtain, that looms in the background? In this matter of style over substance, where on earth is Michelle, ma belle?)
On 9/11 I took my sons to the national archives to see our founding documents. Outside the building at each of the corners are four statues inscribed as follows:
Study the past
What is past is prologue
The heritage of the past is the seed that springs forth the harvest of the future
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
Question: How many people today grasp the truth of these words?
Let me ask you a question – WHO did you voted for? Honestly, please.
what did you expect ?
“Or rather a warped radical religious ideology that is allowed to spread too often without censure?”
At some point America and Islam will come into direct conflict. The two-America and Islam- cannot coexist. They will attack us again. Nothing we-as a single citizen or a nation-do or does affects them more than the hate they have for us and our liberties and freedoms. So all this talk about agitating them is just the talk of progressives.
“…not us who have welcomed in millions from the Middle East, and saved Muslims from Bosnia to Indonesia.”
That’s just it. They don’t care who we have saved. Their hatred is so visceral that rational has been lost. Even the muslims living here don’t care who we helped. If they did they would be rejecting the very madrassas, amd mosques and the anti-American filth that is being said in these places. But nope. The mythical “moderate” muslim is nowhere to be found even here in America.
We know the left has made a pact with Islam to help destroy America. My question is when the next successful attack occurs, what will be our response to our left?
About Pastor Jones: Why have we let the left tell us we should be more condemning of him instead of say a lefty who burns the American flag, who burns bibles, who thinks it is art to put a cross in urine? Are we as a nation so stupid to let the left tell us what we are to find offensive and not? It all comes back to the left. We must deal with them and the muslim problem will address itself.
Every American needs to read the koran. Churches need to see that it is studied, discussed and understood.
Perhaps when we do that, we will open our eyes to what the hell our politicians/president are up to and where they are trying to lead us.. I have no need to respect or tolerate muslims in my country. Moderates? nnooooo, not if they follow those writings.
A bit late perhaps but we’re finally beginning to wrest control the dialog from the left. They are learning that calling us racist simply for opposing their agenda isn’t working – that a 5% budget increase instead of their wishful 10-20% isn’t a budget cut after all – and the list goes on. Calling me a tea-bagger or Neanderthal doesn’t win the argument – the reflection back on them is beginning to look bad and even the dumb among them are beginning to see how this looks. Those in the middle ground are beginning to see the name calling that is the chief tactic of the left for what it is – the only arrows left in the quiver of ideas – basically nothing.
Their two-faced actions when it comes to the victory mosque vs burning the coran – holding one up as a second amendment right while condemning the other as ‘stupid’ etc, show us which side they are on. In due time they’ll pay for these positions. November will be the first in a long line of down-payments for these transgressions against the American people as long as the republican party doesn’t get stupid and greedy again.
I’m not holding my breath.
The left wing has to go back to Timothy McVeiigh because there is nothing else for them to grasp upon. There are no white-power madrassas, religion, and telethons for white-power suicide bombers like they have in the Arab world for the Jihadis. Remember it is Saudi oil money that funds most of these mosques that turn children into murderers. Radical moslems are murdering people on a daily basis and the self-defeating apologists of the left can’t wrap their warped sense of reality around the fact that their version of the poor downtrodden Moslem is not the one of reality. No, not every group of people have terrorists, but when these groups find that one of their own commit acts of mass murder, be it in the US, Israel, or any western democratic nation, the nation’s people do not jump and give out candy as they did in the Arab world when the Twin Towers were destroyed. We try to figure out why some of us are so imbued with such tendencies and aim to correct it.
It is time the left took a long look at itself and recognized its own failings. But I don’t think they will. Their philosphy also is imbued with a self-righteousness that equates their sense of society to that of the prophets of the Bible, so why would they think that they need to change anything if they speak for God. Don’t expect the President to change any of his philosphy about the world as he sees us , the US, as the cause of all evils. Even in his speech on 9/11 he couldn’t bring himself to utter the cause of the terrorism which was and is Islamic radicalism. Instead he called it a small band of evil men.
Not until we have leaders who truly recognize the reality of the world will we live in will we be in danger and our belief in freedom, democracy and the humanity of all mankind, will be under attack.
For as much reason and intelligent wondering as Mr. Hanson brings to his columns, I’m afraid he has a hopelessly benign perspective on Islam. The “murderers” of “innocent” people is strictly by the book — the Koran — in the creed. The 9/11 hijackers were soldiers of Allah, the “innocent,” the enemy. Islam declared war on the West, and all infidels and non-believers are the enemy. No amount of excuse-making and rationalizing will change that; to borrow a line from a religious song: the Koran tells us so. Yes, what we needed immediately after 9/11/2001, was not a George Bush telling us Islam was a “religion of peace” that was “hijacked” by “extremists,” but a George Patton telling the nation that Islam was a theocratic, totalitarian ideology that must be tossed into the dustbin of history after we had kicked butt in Saudi Arabia and Iran. A better foreign policy would not have gone on a hunt for the kamikaze pilots devoted to their own deaths in the name of Allah, but after the government that loosed them on us as policy and in conformance with their ideology. As Gilliatt did in Victor Hugo’s compelling novel, “Toilers of the Sea,” when he was being enveloped by an octopus’s arms, we need to free ourselves from Islamic jihad not by cutting off its arms: but its head. It is the ideology that must be damned, renounced, repudiated, and defeated., with no apologies or regrets. And then we will be free. Then we will have the time to turn our attention to performing the same surgery on the collectivist ideology that also wishes to vanquish this country.
I share your impression of Dr. Hanson’s view of Islam, as well as his opinion of Dubya Bush’s response. I am also struck dumb (though many would say, not for the first time) by the comment that ‘the US is now out of Saudi Arabia.’ The invocation of the Japanese analogy is instructive. The Japanese wanted to dominate Asia and the Pacific. I don’t think they had a goal of the permanent destruction of American society and its replacement with the Japanese monarchy and its theological beliefs. I suppose VDH would say, ‘neither does Islam, just al Qaeda.’ Which then explains his affection for Bush’s policies on Islam, because if the issue is ‘al Qaeda’ then Bush did a very good job; but not if the issues are Islam itself and the Saudi role in spreading it.
President Bush skirted around those issues. He declared Islam a religion of peace. He let Norquist bring a host of Islamists into the White House and Admin. The penetration of various key points of US gov’t by Islamists, which some are now pointing out was ongoing during his Admin as well.
VDH basically ignores the nexus between US businesses of all sizes and the Muslim world. There are lots of sales, and desire for lots more sales. There is Bloomberg in Dubai, and the GZM. There is the mass media absolutely ignoring the Geller-organized rally in New York yesterday, which makes the media not only an accomplice to creeping Sharia but also very Pravda-like in its collective orientation and behavior. There is the ongoing ‘narrative’ about the ‘Israeli-Palestinian conflict’ (also encouraged by Israeli elites) that is absurd. Even the controversial journalist and historian Benny Morris, who once blamed Israel for the ’67 War, now admits that the ’48 War from an Arab-Muslim perspective was a Holy War designed to extirpate ‘Palestine’ of the Jewish presence and commit genocide.
There is a sad and recurring theme on websites like this, on FPM and on Geller’s own AtlasShrugs. It is that ‘all the problems with regard to Islam reside with the Democrats and the Left, or most of them.’ This is just not so. This self-flattering view blocks a real examination of policies and the realities beneath them.
Regarding Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq, to which VDH refers, this was not only about ‘saving Muslims’ but also about pleasing Islam via pleasing the House of Saud and perceived Muslim opinion. There was a large element of appeasement in those policies, and the media in fact smeared the Serbs ‘religiously’ and made them into Nazis against all evidence of Muslim and Croat aggression. Even more specifically, the US, Britain, Germany and NATO embarked on a policy in the early 90s of dismembering Yugoslavia. Had they not encouraged both Slovenia and Croatia to aggressively break away from a Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, many of the civilians who later died throughout the Balkans might have survived. US policy led to the creation of two Muslim mini-states in the Balkans, a fact and policy that very few question today.
Thanks Larry– fleshes out the subject closer to the way I see it
the DEMS foreign policies (ie ISLAM) suck but the REPS were only slightly better – my only consolation was that I hoped GW and CO were just saying that stuff to be PC in public but behind closed doors–they KNEW.
OR like many accused LIBS he was just in for the Saud money like so many others……..
Thanks. About the closeness of Dems and Repubs on Islam and Saudis, I think they’re pretty close. As to whether Bush volunteered to be pals with the Saudis, was forced to, or alternated between that and his pro-Israel urges, it’s hard to say. I think he had pro-Israel ‘flashes’ that were strong, but ultimately overruled by the State Dept; that is, let himself be. But it’s a bit complicated, given that Sharon seems to have engineered the disastrous ‘disengagement’ on his own, and for his own reasons. Still, it’s all pretty much the same, Admin after Admin. It’s simply not true that a sound ME-Islamic policy existed before Obama.
the day CONDI said she identified with the “apartheid” as she saw it in Israel – I FLIPPED-
and when BUSH said “Islam is a religion of peace”
I knew it was not just DEMS drinking the KOOLAID-
once I was a DEM, I hated Bush- but his strong support of Israel and strong policies on Middle East changed my mind about him. I KNEW what Obama was about long before his election, I voted Mc C,
now I feel no party represents me
Well put, Larry. The Norquist/Bush/Islamist special relationship is still being whitewashed in some prominent conservative forums, though I imagine VDH has addressed it. If we can’t acknowledge the similarities between a Norquist and a Clinton slurping up Middle Eastern cash in exchange for political cover, or, for that matter, a Michele Obama and a Marco Rubio profiting richly from make-work, taxpayer-funded political patronage gigs, then what precisely is our complaint about any of these politicians? Having watched the Choctaw Indian/Ralph Reed/Abramaoff/Norquist affair pungently unfold in Georgia, I am also amazed that anyone asserts that these shake-down artists are genuinely anti-government or even anti-tax: they are, in reality, silk-stockinged lobbyists in bed with a startling range of anti-American players and the tribal gambling set-aside crowd (ironically, one of the biggest tax scams on earth).
That sort of irony doesn’t just rise up out of nowhere. The political classes all hold us in some type of contempt.
If Dr. Hanson was a student of Islamic history then perhaps he would get it right, (it’s never too late Dr. Hanson) for there is a long history, all though not as long as the Greek. But the God of the Bible focuses entirely on the middle east and it is Islam that He seeks to destroy. In this matter we will be with Him or against Him. I know which side I choose. We can’t just fence sit any longer, so whatever it takes, let’s get it done. Road blocks have a tendency to get blown up in the path of an on coming army. This war is “The Father Of Us All”. Our soldiers know it, so should we.
I certainly don’t question the policies of the Clintons in their attacks against a christian nation, Serbia. It was pure evil what the Clinton administration did to the Serbs. The Clintons, as well as George W. and Barack Obama are part of the plan to weaken and then bring down the Christian foundations in the US as well as Europe and the Balkans. When I was younger I thought the attack against Serbia was out of ignorance. Not so. the more I research the more heartsick I get. Read Rebecca West’s Black Lamb/Grey Falcon. it was written the 1930′s. Actually a travel book of the Balkans. Its very long winded but it has many passages that actually made me cry. History will repeat itself again, if we don’t take a stand. At least, the Serbs fought back. What don’t we?
I am afraid blotto @11 has the order of action right, not you. It is impossible to deal with an external threat effectively without first dealing with the internal enemy. The body needs to be strong within, that is where it starts; else, a collapse may be on the cards.
What we SHOULD have done after 9-11: “The Muslim world has one week to deliver the mastermind of this deed into our hands to stand trial or Mecca and Medina will be glowing smoking holes in the ground.” End of story.
Instead, we have followed the path of the fool Chamberlain: APPEASEMENT. Appeasement of tyrants and mass murderers is the province of fools. When Mormonism, with its aberrant doctrines and private army, stood in open rebellion against the United States, President Buchanan sent in the US Army in 1857. Mormonism capitulated. Its aberrant doctrine conveniently ceased, its private army disbanded. When the Barbary (Muslim) Pirates began snatching American shipping and demanding ransom, the United States sent in the Marines and kicked butt. Problem solved. Those were the days when America had B A L L S. Yes, testicles. Man-parts. Despite the fact that we were a relatively new nation, we dealt with our enemies from a position of strength. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, again America showed balls. We took a few licks, but we rolled up our sleeves and put foot into the buttocks of our enemies. AND THE WORLD RESPECTED US!
Is there anyone amongst the readers who really honestly think that our ENEMIES respect us for this stance? Is there anyone amongst the readers who really honestly think that our FRIENDS respect us for this stance? Is there anyone amongst the readers who really honestly think that our OWN PEOPLE respect us for this stance? If there is such a person or persons, you wouldn’t be the first fool I’ve ever met, and unfortunately, you won’t be the LAST either.
Are you so dense that you just ignore the fact that we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq? I guess that cannot compare to Buchanan going after the Mormons. Are you so lost in your “vision” that you cannot connect to the real world?
Johnston’s Army and the Mormons is a poor example with which to prove your point. It did not quell the uprising, since there was none. After being attacked all along the final 200 miles, Johnston marched peacefully through Salt Lake City, with companies of his men raising their hats in salute, and agreed to occupy a fort 40 miles west of the city. This was 1857. Mormonism discontinued their “abhorrent practices”, as you call them, in 1890 — 40 years after Buchanan, Johnston, and most of the other principles were long dead.
May I suggest that a few minutes with a history text will add some value to your life.
On the plus side, the protocols put in place — Guantanamo, tribunals, renditions, Predators, wiretapping, intercepts, the Patriot Act, the offensive operations in Afghanistan, and (yes) in Iraq have decimated al Qaeda , and prevented another 9/11 at home — so far. Iraqis worry about us leaving rather than staying. So do most Afghans.
If the Bush administration hadn’t been so inept at communications, and if the MSM weren’t controlled by ignorant, idiot leftists, this would be common knowledge.
Al Qaeda is indeed weaker than it was 9 years ago. The main reason is that al Qaeda entered the Iraq war in 2004/2005 and attempted to establish a Caliphate in Iraq. In the process it killed a lot of innocent Iraqis as it attempted to incite a civil war in order to sustain the insurgency and encourage the U.S. to leave. Iraqis responded with the Anbar Awakening and President Bush with the Surge. Both targeted and devastated al Qaeda. Thousands of al Qaeda volunteers were killed and peace broke out even as Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the traitorous Democrats were claiming that the Surge was not working.
In the result, not only was Al Qaeda devastated militarily but, as a result of its brutal tactics, it lost support among Muslims.
Al Qaeda is now sending its recruits to Afghanistan – where they would have been all along if they had not been fighting – and losing – in Iraq.
Clear and concise statement of the truth. Thanks, Terry.
Why would anyone be surprised at President Obama’s speech on 9/11 which bore no teeth, no threat, no warning to those who would dare think to attack us in the future? In his own words, in his book, he said that he would side with the Muslim world if it came to that.
He is our Coward-in-Chief and will do worse than turn tail and run if we are attacked. He will stand with the enemy.
He’s a real putz, we deserve what we get until he either crocks or hopefully resigns prior to his impeachment which will be when the new representatives enter Congress and the Senate in January~but then again there might be something else happening prior to those two events…personally I would like to see him impeached and not receive one single benefit and fined for the economic turmoil his and the democrats have caused to my country!
The terrorist who hates “his benefactors for their liberality and their appetites that grow within him….” is showing natural human behavior. “They’re just jealous” said a yuppie running with a briefcase on CNN during 9/11.
You find the same resentment turned to violence in the welfare recipients of our inner cities as well as among the unwarrentedly affluent of the postmodern states (Bill Ayres Weathermen, Baader-Meinhoff, Red Army Faction, even Lenin, all come to mind).
Can we correct them? No. But we CAN “nuke ‘em” if we have to. And at home we can CANCEL welfare. When Western Civilization failed to stop them last time around 90 to 120 million people got murdered 1917-1989.
No, VDH. Not “a tiny bit of Patton” is needed, but a whale of lot of Attila the Hun.
Amen, Doc.
I listened to all of the speeches, too. I was most impressed with Laura Bush’s heartfelt words of sympathy, solidarity, and comfort. Both Obama speeches sounded like they were written by high school students. Michelle’s speech was particularly clumsy, trying to push the 9/11 as national day of service meme. The President’s was merely trite. Biden’s was the closest to what should have been said. Who’d a thunk?
And how strange a country when an ignorant Florida pastor who wants to burn a book is compared without any proportion to genocidal Muslim mass murderers. The man may be odious, but we’ve had that forever – every society does. So what’s different now? We never had to apologize to 1.4 billion Muslims at every ignorant utterance, even after Islam began raping us with terrorist Muslim atrocities. The difference is Obama – a man so confused about our American identity that even otherwise intelligent people who should know better begin tripping over themselves to distance America from the little pastor in Florida lest the Muslims rape us again. Talk about blaming the victim! If Jones’ Koran burning precipitated more Muslim murders, the responsibility rests SOLELY on the Muslims for their butchery.
We’ve had book burnings and flag burnings and all manner of obnoxious free speech in America since before I was born. Is some of it ill advised? Of course! But since when do we equate such action with mass murder, or exterminationist creeds like Islam? Since Obama. This is a sickening form of moral equivalency which degrades our civilization and weakens our will to fight our enemies by blurring the distinctions between us and them.
And because we once knew ouselves to truly be a magnificently tolerant nation, there was no need before Obama to jump over ourselves to condemn rubes such as Pastor Jones – nor was there any need to wildly equate such rubes with the genocidal non-counterparts the Muslims cough up on every day ending with a Y. We don’t have a mass movement in America calling for the extermination or subjugation of 3/4 of the planet, whereas the Muslims do.
Isn’t it high time we stop taking responsibility for the Islamic tendency toward barbarity and butchery to get their way? If Muslims slaughter and threaten in response to an action by a Westerner (such as publishing a cartoon or flushing or burning a Koran), shouldn’t we concentrate on the insane Muslims rather than the cartoon or the Koran? It all reeks of the “context” the Left always uses to explain away atrocities and treason. And isn’t anyone beside me uneasy with the fact that so many now sound like enforcers of Sharia which forbids any and all real or perceived slights against Islam?
This is not to celebrate the actions (which never happened, btw) of a little man in Florida, but to warn against letting the prohibitions of Sharia creep steadily into our hearts through Muslim terror. THAT is what the Islamic terror is all about. It forces you to think twice before opening up your mouth. That is the beginning of Islamic indoctrination.
I admire VDH immensely, but I fear that Sharia has crept into your heart too. We must not permit Muslim terror to change us so that we fear to use our free speech, odious as it may sometimes be. The teaching moment was lost, and many on our side seem to have deeply internalized the Islamic forbiddance of criticism in this incident. This makes this 9/11 anniversary doubly tragic as a result.
Wow! Thank you for putting the Koran-burner in perspective. Of course, the reason is that we have been / are / and will be smeared by identification with the lunatic.
More significantly, I want to thank you for writing a comment superior to most blogger’s blogs.
Thank you, VDH, for your usual appropriate and tersely written comments.
I’d add only one thing: …an emphasis on the idea that we Americans are far, far, too much concerned about our international “popularity”.
My own intentionally rude thought is that we should “flip the bird” internationally as often as we deem appropriate; and at the same time start withdrawing the boatloads of United States Green Dollars which, ever since the Second World War, has come to be seen as the third world’s entitlement…in some cases as unsubtle “protection money” demanded by the threatening elements popping up as opportunity prompts.
Respect will then be forthcoming very rapidly, albeit grudgingly, from unsuspected quarters.
We Americans will be much healthier for all that.
Probably the main difference between ordinary life in the time of The Founders and the lives of citizens today is the speed at which people move and information is conveyed[see note]. Perhaps the libs are right. The Constitution may be out of date. We’ve seen and heard enough of Obama by now to clearly see he is unfit for a host of reasons to be President. Four years of damage are too much to tolerate in this age of information. I submit that Presidential and Congressional office terms should be cut in half and that Supreme Court terms be limited to five or seven years.
Note: Just as an example, Michael Moore is saying at this moment that the 70% of Americans who favored war with Iraq and with terrorists in the Afghan are the same thugs and brutes who oppose the Rauf trophy center. In other words, he wants us to believe that 7 out of 10 Americans are always wrong and that the libruls at 30% know best that all of Islam is a peaceful religion in spite of all the violent activities that some of them seem to engage in on a daily basis. Think of it, I, Moore, know better about virtually everything political than seven out of ten of my countrymen. I know this man would support taking the “representative” out of representative republic. There Jabba sits looking out at beautiful Torch Lake and all he can think of is how to get back into media notice because he has become irrelevent…again.
I fear we have caught up with the rest of the West in being ruled by cowards.
In the days after the September 2001 attack on my country I was in a funk trying to make some sense of it all. As I sat on my couch.watching TV I stumpled on CSPAN and some author named Victor Davis Hanson talking about his newly published book. He seemed to be making some sense of it all. So I started to read his books. From those books I gained a perspective that allowed me to move forward. For that I thank you Dr. Hanson.
The problem is that the little diversion with Iraq along with bin Laden still being on the loose pretty much completely messed up being able to comment on 9/11 in a good, inspiring way. I caught both the MSNBC special last night on 9/11 that repeated the live NBC Today Show’s “coverage” of the even as it happened (which reminded me how awful and badly confused all of the news networks were, cable or not. It was so bad that me and a friend ended up watching a Spanish channel even though we didn’t speak Spanish – their graphics and video coverage was still far more informative.), as well as the History Channel’s much more gripping collection of personal videos, including the one that caught the 2nd plane in the act.
The invasion of Afghanistan, where bin Laden and his crew were operating out of, was righteous, spot on, and something not even our enemies would begrudge us. But then insane politics and even more insane policy reared their ugly heads to take cynical advantage of the widespread post 9/11 anxiety to take out Hussein, who had no connection whatsoever (which was known at the time) to 9/11 or the people behind it. The net result was a massively destructive and bloody side adventure that ended up completely dwarfing in deaths and destruction what happened on 9/11. By the time Obama came to office and wanted to return attention to al-Qaeda and bin Laden, people in the US were just burnt out and confused by the whole thing.
Thank you, BC, devotee of Michael Moore, for demonstrating the views of that 30% that Moore, MPBUH, appeals to.
Fred Beloit: The only thing I’m a devotee of is reality, and in understanding why human progress is so friggin haphazard and slow. And maybe a really good pastrami sandwich from time to time.
BC, I believe VDH is talking about the difference between the reality of what was accomplished by our military in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Saudi Arabia over the last 7 1/2 years, and the corresponding domestic political realities during the same time. We just can’t have it both ways. We can’t seem to cheer for the accomplishments of our military at the same time as we continue to belittle our politicians for the decisions to take these same military actions. And, sadly, because politics ids all we seem to care about in America, the military accomplishments go largely unnoticed. 9/11 would have been a great day for our President to celebrate those achievements, but Obama’s reality is political, and he has played his cards as a derisive opponent of the people who had to make those decisions, and he has no wiggle room to praise our military. And this is one more of many reasons why I detest this shallow minded charlatan that we call a President.
To Jim Baker: I don’t see anything whatsoever at all “accomplished” in any sense in the Middle East. Taking out Hussein eliminated Iran’s primary enemy and made Iran a greater threat, and things are still at the status quo with the Israeli – Arab World spitting match. And not to mention that bin Laden is still on the loose. Those 7 1/2 years might as well have been a long drinking binge for all the real good they did.
And quit bashing Obama — he’s head and shoulders above both Bush’s and even Reagan.
Thanks BC for that belly laugh. I needed it after watching the Whiner and Chief. Hehe, better than Bush and Reagan, I’ll have to tell some of my friends that one. They’ll be rolling!
BC, you have a fundamental disagreement with both Dr Hanson and myself. You don’t believe our military has accomplished anything in 7 1/2 years. You can’t understand why Bush and Obama haven’t even gotten Bin Laden even though he is likely of more value to us alive than dead. Fine, I can’t understand why John Kerry still hasn’t told Obama where Bin Laden is. I think you are wrong about our military, but I wonder how your opinion places you in the world of reality while people who disagree with you must be in a fantasy world? We both exist within the same real world. How else could I want an occasional good pastrami sandwich, too?
There were a lot of reasons to go into Iraq. UNSCR 1441, 686, 660 etc. aside, Iraq was a threat to the stability of the ME, and Israel, and was known to have harbored and trained terrorists.
“When I left office, there was a substantial amount of biological and chemical material unaccounted for. That is, at the end of the first Gulf War, we knew what he had. We knew what was destroyed in all the inspection processes and that was a lot. And then we bombed with the British for four days in 1998. We might have gotten it all; we might have gotten half of it; we might have gotten none of it. But we didn’t know. So I thought it was prudent for the president to go to the U.N. and for the U.N. to say you got to let these inspectors in, and this time if you don’t cooperate the penalty could be regime change, not just continued sanctions.”
–Bill Clinton, July 22, 2003
It wasn’t about a Bush/Saddam grudge match, much as the Michael Moore/Sean Penn crowd would like to think. Iraq was seen for its potential as a beach head in the middle of the Middle East. If we could eliminate Saddam Hussein, establish a democracy — or at least an ally — located between Saudi Arabia and Iran, we would have a great strategic advantage over Iran, Syria, et al. In addition, the “evil doer” nations around the world would recognize regime overthrow in terms even their underperforming intelligences would appreciate.
Not to mention air bases in strategic locations.
Why is this pastor dismissed as a publicity seeking nut? Maybe he is just disgusted as many are at the murders and persecution of Christians as well as Buddhists, Hindus and Jews throughout the muslim world. This is his expression of the contempt of the book that inspires this murderous ideology. He may be seeking publicity but he is not a nut. Mr. Hanson you are an excellent perceptive writer but we didn’t didn’t do ourselves a favour by bombing Serbia and appeasing muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo we have just created another breeding ground for Wahhabiists.
I totally agree. I see absolutely no problem in a quid pro quo that if Obama and Bloomberg succeed in allowing the Muslims their ginormous mosque at Ground Zero, then there should be a free speech platform directly across the street from its entrance where the Koran is burned daily by any Methodists, Buddhists, Hindu’s, Catholics, or Wiccans who happen to wander by and feel like taking part in a little Constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of religion. Said free speech platform to be protected 24/7 by armed and beady-eyed Marines and attack dogs.
The Imam should be treated like Jones has been treated. The imam gets a pass, Jones gets a kick in the head from the press.
The USA was wrong-WRONG to have gone after Serbia, and to have turned over Kosovo to those pathetic Muslims. Its the ignorance of history that will destroy us in the end. The Muslim is our enemy. what don’t the politicians understand??
Obama may have been elected president, but he is NOT PRESIDENTIAL. They are two distinctly different things. He is NOT A LEADER. Never was and never will be. He just doesn’t have it in him. Even during his campaign he did not lead. The campaign of Obama will go down in history as the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the American public. What I want from a president is what President George W. Bush did on September 11, 2001. He stood up in New York amidst the rubble of the twin towers and became a leader with a bull horn. Obama whimpers. He is no leader. The only time I ever see a spark in him is when he is trying to take our freedoms, i.e., healthcare. Obama will go down in history as the absolute WORST PRESIDENT this country ever elected. I just hope we can survive until 2012. Pray for America and beware of the tsunami that is going to wash over America in November. Let’s take our country back.
I’m sure next year, 10 years after the murderous attacks, will be a big years for 9/11.. To bad we have apologist in chief, maybe they will have GWB speak at GZ next year, I sure hope so…
We are a tolerant people, but we do not have to tolerate evil. Islam means surrender not peace as George Bush would have us believe.
Where to start with you, Mr Hanson? Perhaps thus:
America is a sick nation with a godless government. It is not alone in this predicament, since Europe is full of it. Godlessness, under the guise of secularity, pervades all strata. Not that it is general and overwhelming yet, but it is rampant amongst the current “ruling class” (vide Codevilla, although I am not happy with the “class” denominator; quasi-elected oligarchy would be closer to my drift) and its institutions. They have become perverse: up is down; left is right, and right is wrong. They are decadent (Bill Clinton, the gloating president, was an example par ecellence), and men of straw. They have no principles, no substance, and no spine. I have never in my life seen an American administration as incompetent and harmful as Obama´s, even though I thought Carter´s was the pits at one time. By the way, my physical experience only goes back to Kennedy.
In God We Trust? Patently and as heard from on high (Let me be clear…), not now. Instead, it is everything for the people if we say so, from us and by us. Man rules OK. “… we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation.” That must have gone down really well in Turkey. (Well, never mind Christian or Jewish, but perhaps you could be Islamic at least a little bit, what?) There is a price to pay for godlessness, and America is paying it already. It breaks my heart when I see it. America is being dismantled from within, and the American people is to blame for allowing it to happen. Obama and his merry men are just a symptom, nothing more. A clash of civilizations? Oh, no, just one mighty decline presenting an unparalleled opportunity to the salivating vandals. Their hordes do not even need arms to gain entry – they are invited in and coddled by those to be vanquished. Nurture a death wish, and your demand shall be supplied, it is that simple. Decadence is giving way to degeneration, and rather fast. Publicly expressed contempt for the laws of the land can only mark a descent into anarchy.
That would be the fall after the decline. It need not happen if remedial action is taken, but it well could unless the American people rouses itself. It has developed a malignant growth in its body, and surgery is mandatory. It may be bloody, with prolonged recuperation, but health will ultimately resume. One could even assume the patient will be leaner and fitter once it is over. It is not clear to me yet what shape the operation will take, what the procedure will be; that will be up to the Surgeon-in-Chief, or perhaps to a team of surgeons, each performing in his own field. Be it as it may, plenty of nuts will be needed: You see, nuts are generally healthy. Admittedly, some will have to be cracked, too, but that is another story.
So if I were you, I should not be dismissive of nuts. They are useful, especially if they invoke God. The holy roller is on your side, whether you like him or not and call him a lunatic. Remember, there is no middle ground now, no standing aloof. The die is cast.
VDH is too kind in this piece and I applaud him for it.
Tony Robbins I can handle, but BHO is more like Tony Trotsky. I kind of wish BHO wasn’t so wimpy and would just be honest with us and express how much he really despises America, its culture and people (his wife at least is honest). BHO favors Islamic culture, radical leftism, anti-americanism (americaphobia), and racialism, because that is the culture he is most familiar with. He is mostly unfamiliar with most of the rest of America and her culture, but he must be a pathological liar–this is how he got elected (fyi, ALL of America was not hysterical for BHO in 2008).
But in the end he is yet another puppet of the international ruling elite (‘we are defined by our bonds not our borders’), and so was Bush, Clinton etc.
The fight is not a left/right fight, its not an Islam/West fight. In the end its a fight between the sovereign people of the nation, society, and culture of the United States of America and the borderless arrogant ruling class elites who think that the former are “bitter clingers” to guns and religion–all the while holding up other groups of bitter clingers as somehow virtuous.
“we still are a conflicted people, especially now in the age of Obama.” At the Somme in 1914, facing unrealistic odds, the British Calvary had a motto, “We’ll do it. What is it?” There is absolutely nothing that this country cannot do under unrestrictive and unregulated conditions. Whatever needs to be done we can and will do it.
Love the motto, Whistling Dixie, and couldn’t agree more: it’s us all over. Evidently it’s going to take a lot more of their stick-poking through our collective cage, but the old sleeping giant WILL wake up and sooner or later we’ll get the job done with these poor, benighted devils, and then they’ll wonder what hit ‘em.
Liberals will never sincerely ask “why” questions in a manner actually to learn something (such as truly why do Islamic terrorists hate the US) because they think they already have all the answers. That is why they distort “facts” in such irrational ways to fit their theories. Life on earth as it actually exists discredits liberals because they fixate only on how they wish life to be. I can only imagine the pain of the families of that murderer Hasan feel that no one even knows the names of those he murdered? I for one am so sick and tired of insulting and intimidating ways the liberal elite suppress honest inquiry into Islamic terrorism, social issues, economics, etc.
Remember on 9/12 when Michael Moore was mad about the attacks — not so much the attacks themselves, but that the terrorists had targeted sites and airports in Blue State areas. In Michael’s mind, why didn’t the terrorists fly a plane into buildings in Texas?
That’s the “All politics is personal” mindset of the left that was briefly submerged by the horror of 9/11, but has re-emerged. The terrorist attack isn’t a strike at them unless it threatens their hold on power. Nine years after the fact, only an attack that would threaten an Obama presidency would be considered a true affront against the United States to the left, though on the mitigating circumstance side, the coarseness of the “Get Over It” argument by the most strident on the left probably has lifted the commemoration of and public attention to this September 11th anniversary above those of the last 2-3 years, since it’s exposed to many people across the country that a significant number of the elites really want to forget about the causes of that day (or in the case of someone like Ted Koppel, seem to want to pretend there were no al Qaida attacks on U.S. interests or even on the World Trade Center itself before 2001).
Bush’s finest moment? Probably so. Too bad he peaked 8 months into an 8-year run.
” . . . even a book-burning creep has the constitutional right to be a creep without the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, and a 4-star general trying to silence his crude expression?”
That’s one way to look at it. Then again, they were trying to stop a “crude expression” that could, as Gen Petraeus said, “”I . . . endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan. It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world.” I know all that because the right is suddenly quiet about the ideological actions putting our military personnel and operations at risk.
As for Obama’s commemorative speech, you offer plenty judgment but no examples, no analysis. I suppose Obama could have strutted around in a codpiece barking “Bring it on!” Is that what you miss? Cuz that didn’t help.
Betty, do you even know what a codpiece is?
Yet another Betty Watch!
What a hysterical little troll seeking attention with another irrelevant little leftie talking point. I swear – I’ll bet Betty is about 6 or 7 years old. It just astounds me that someone could be this clueless and still remember to breathe. Lets just review some recent wisdom from little Miss Betty. We will start with this one:
This time – Miss Betty introduced the term codpiece into a discussion of the apologetic nature of the President’s 911 remarks. This one looses me completely. You are slipping honey. Mommy should make sure you take your medication.
Last time – the Koran burning issue is a chance to spout abortion talking points! There is some relevant debate sweetie!
A previous topic was the use of stimulus money to buy propaganda promoting the stimulus. Miss Boop’s input? She randomly and irrelevantly drops the name of a defense contractor. Wow Betty – you have us there. We should drop the whole propaganda sign issue.
Betty’s earlier answer to the planned Koran burning? Betty is going to have her mom drive her right down there and she is going to toss some bibles in the fire! That will show ‘em Betty!
When lil Miss Boop here REALLY wants to make a point she jumps right in and makes a random little post and gives it increased credibility with her own brand of creative punctuation. Anyone remember this little ditty?
Conservatives overreact to EV.RY.THING!
Wow! That is indeed profound. You win!
You know – I really enjoy engaging the trolls who come around here. But Betty just spouts reused talking points that she herself doesn’t understand. You would think her parents would try to keep her from embarrassing herself.
This is not quite as bad as what she usually spouts out..codpiece? she has a fetish for these parts..petards and the ladies of ill repute jumping on them….remember that one? It was a couple of days ago.
The subject matter does not concern her. Her comments are always against the right and America. Every time she posts people tear her comments down as they are usually without fact, reason, or they are out of context that she’s copied from somewhere. She’s a troll.
Back to old George again, eh Betty. Has it not occurred to you that old George only rarely spoke for anyone but himself. We elect these guys in the hope that they will speak for us occasionally. I am still waiting for that moment from our current President. My opinion is that ALL of BHO’s speeches have been self-serving, so far. But I can’t figure out why you worry about what an ex-President, who will never run for office again, will still be able to do and offend you?
Re Betty’s codpiece problem:
Baby, here’s the term that you probably wanted to use – that’s “merkin” -
Now check the word out it, then acknowledge your new stage of personal growth =
And from now on, Betty Merking be thy name -
You just gotta wonder where betty’s nose goes and just why and how long it stays there.
I guess that’s why people like Seth McFarlane, and Comedy Central mercilessly mock Christianity. They aren’t facing death. I suppose, Betty, you’d be equally condeming of Comedy Central inflaming hatred if a Christian blew up themself and others in their headquarters, right? You’d be all “I think Comedy Central was asking for it by inflaming Christians with their dispecable mockery.” No, you’d start pointing your finger at Christianity as a whole.
I think that Obama has a deep emotional attachment to Islam.
My view is that Obama was essentially formed as a near finished psychological product when he was a young boy. It was then that he moved into a permanent mode of a clinical narcissist whose only means of interacting with others would be to control them. He does this by misinformation, emotional manipulation and accusations of bias if you reject his will.
He also, I think, moved into an emotional bond with Islam and with strong dominant angry women.
With regard to Islam, his bond is not to its ideological content but merely to its existence. I suspect its rituals provided him with an emotional security as a young child flung from caretaker to caretaker.
We must notice that Obama never, ever, criticizes or confronts Islam as an ideology. Indeed, he fictionalizes it, claiming great scientific achievements for it – when it has none, and claiming great benefits to America for it – when it has had none. He also adamantly refuses to associate Islam with terrorism, redefining terrorism as caused by ‘rogue individuals’ and setting up Al Qaeda as a non-Islamic aberration.
His support for Islam is obvious, from his weird insistence that NASA move from space research to focusing on Muslim reaching-out, to his current support for the GZmosque. His hypocritical stance on this mosque, with is supporting it within the ‘freedom of religion’ and his refusal to consider its placement within ethical and ‘sensitivity grounds…contrasts with his public comments on the Jones Koran burning. There, Obama admitted Jones’ freedom of expression but didn’t hesitate to move into the ‘ethical and sensitivity’ argument against the action.
As for Obama’s reliance on strong angry women, that seems obvious. His attendance at Wright’s black liberation theology ‘church’ for 20 years was obviously due to his reliance on Michelle and his thereby feeling ‘rooted’ within a community. Just as his bond with Islam also expresses that childhood need to be rooted within a community.
Obama feels no sense of community or commitment to America, to democracy, to capitalism or freedom. He’s a pathological individual.
Just debating it is surreal.
It’s another version of the Big Lie.
The problem isn’t America’s intolerance. That’s the Alice in Wonderland version.
The problem is that the Ruling Class in the United States has allied itself with the Islamists and a new European Aristocracy to wage war on the American Middle Class. WE are the common enemy of all three.
Like Russia and Germany in 1939, they choose to set their own differences aside to defeat what the fear more than each other…..free people.
The GZM, the Koran burnings and Pravda’s predictable salivating reaction to them….view that crap like the blow-up tanks in England prior to D-day.
Our focus needs to be on the real enemy. Obama and his criminal cabal. They have and will do a thousand times the damage that Islam can possibly do.
Actually Tony Robbins would be much better than Obozo.
THE 9/11 OF LIBERALISM
“Once upon a time I bought into the leftist myth that for every problem there was a government solution. And that government had the capability to perfect human society. A myth that the clueless wonder in the White House is providentially burning to the ground. It was no wonder, and no accident in my view, that Ted Kennedy (Obama’s kingmaker) in a moment of rare oracular clarity once called Obama by the name OSAMA BIN LADIN, confusing him with the terrorist. For Barack Hussein Obama is the 9/11 of Liberalism.”
This is part of a short article being featured by USA Today and India Times. Click my name to read the rest.
Another great reflection of our society VDH.
A related piece in NRO today – read Michelle Malkin’s piece on “The religion of eternal outrage”.
“I listened carefully to the president’s commemorative speech ” . .. and yet, no content about the speech.
Thanks Dr. Hansen ! If only you would run for president. Or at least be in the loop as advisor. Your insight, clarity, and patriotism is desperately needed as our country seems on the track of further loosing its way for generations.
Yesterday Obama displayed once again that he is “Divider in Chief” across all issues of security, religion, economics, race, and the American Way. He is not out of touch as many say. He is very much in touch with his agenda in opposition to the majority of Americans. Thus his mild speech was intended to downplay American strength, courage and goodness.
With respect, I believe you under estimate the Muslim agenda and are drawing too great a distinction between the radicals and the non-radicals. They all live in fear of not obeying their leadership – thus their fear of speaking out. This reluctance would also seem to apply to Obama. Thanks again for your thoughtful commentary.
John Bolton would be fun to support in a Presidency run. He probably wouldn’t get far, though, since he’s a white male.
Yep Doc, the ‘Trifecta’ team on PJTV.com broke down the speech very well I thought.
To appease a fanatical bunch whose religion is frighteningly barbaric to its women. A religion encouraging ‘taqiyya’. A religion whose ‘deity’ is a child molester and phony. A religion calling for ‘jihad’ in response to ‘non believers’. Etc etc.,
The Islamic nutjobs are fanatical, I believe due to their homeland being a sandy wasteland and dump. Whereas they haven’t improved living conditions; societal, Governmental, quality of life conditions AT ALL.
All the while blaming ‘infidels’. How about a little self perspective? What has the Muslims, let alone the M E contributed to civilization? Their conquering, occupying days by the Moors doesn’t count as ‘contributing’. Sorry. Next?
The ONLY M E locale resembling ANY kind of forward thinking is Israel and Dubai. The rest is a dirty, stinky wasteland with no positive changes, outlook in sight. ‘Fantastic job’!
Hanson points out how involved the president and his team gets in the day to day actions of the little people Obama clearly despises. In this last example, why would they get involved in the little ravings of a little preacher in a little church in a little town? They elevated that littleness onto the world stage! It will be their actions, less his, to blame for any resulting bloodshed over Muslims becoming somehow, oddly and surprisingly, even more enraged at US intolerance.
The obvious answer is that team Obama is running a marketing plan and working hard to sell the same tasteless bag of air as usual. Team O leaps at every chance to sell the vision of a bigoted, intolerant USA that has a chance at greatness but fails because of its ignorant population of “clingers” or red necked, foot shooters.
But regardless of what we do, or how much we change into gutless, guilt-ridden drones feeding the state machine, there will always be a few of us who will disappoint Team O. And there is the key to his marketing plan: find that vocal few and generalize them into the majority; keep picking at them, never admit progress, never allow them to relax and never, ever relieve them of guilt for moment.
We have a small-minded community activist for our president. He spent his adult life refusing all career options except that one. He fights for those victims on his approved list, no others, and in his fight there can be only be one approved villain in front of only one approved evil.
By now, we should have no doubts whatever as to the identity of Obama’s single villain or single evil and we should no longer hold any hope that his high office will broaden his concerns for the larger group we call US citizens. But what still confuses me is how he gathers support from others. What are they thinking?
A very sensible and concise article by Robert Fulford in The National Post expands on some of Dr Hanson’s points about the timidity of western democracies in the face of agressive Islamic expansion. The link is
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/11/robert-fulford-lessons-of-911/
Mr. Hanson, exactly what are your thoughts on Mohammed and Islam, Do you believe it can be a “Moderate” religion! Do you believe “Islam” is even a truly what it says it is? Have you read the Koran (Qu’ran), hadith and Sira? As man of history surely you know of Mohammed’s thirst for his enemies blood which the murdering continues through Islam history to the current day, there is no comparison between Mohammed’s “god” and Jesus father… Mohammed’s God wants his followers to sacrifice themselves and all others to him while Jesus scarifice himself to G_d for all of us, the messages given by Jesus are nearly opposite from what Mohammed spoke AND practiced!
VDH:
“Nine years after the mass murders, where do we stand?”
Pretty much where we stood on 9/12/01. We have some beefier cockpit doors with locks on them, and pilots MAY be “allowed” to carry sidearms, but the only thing really keeping us safe from another mega-attack is the threat that every American with a duck-gun or a deer rifle might undertake the Mother of all Pogroms against every Muslim/Arab within range in retaliation.
The lesson of United flight 93, the only victory we had that day, Pyrhhic though it was, was that we cannot count on the government or our leaders to protect us.
In fact, they largely represent impediments to the task of protecting ourselves.
One of the greatest scandals that no-one talks about was that it was unarmed civilians over Pennsylvania that saved the Government, in the form of the Capitol.
Had Bush been any kind of Churchillian figure, he would have taken his second Oath of Inauguration in the crash site field outside of Shanksville,PA…and dragged the rest of those Federal bozos up there with him to bear witness.
I live within easy driving distance of Shanksville, and for the 10th anniversary, I plan to be there to celebrate OUR victory.
And come to think of it, I think I’d prefer that no-one from the Feds bother to show up there for it.
Bilgeman, great idea about Shanksville next year, I’ll be there as well. Our victory indeed.
Shanksville is also hallowed ground, as you so rightly imply. I too would hope the “Feds”, meaning the majority of our ruling class, along their MFM hangers-on and other assorted Leftist groupies never set foot on that field of honor. I’ve said this before about our other battlefields (re suggestions that Obama give a speech at, say, Gettysburg), the only problem with the idea is the thought of all the accompanying history-ignorant anti-American lowlifes trampling on sacred ground, tossing their trash hither and yon, that such an event would entail.
On days in which I am able to assess this more objectively, I still find the thought of it makes me want to puke.
hanson vora thusen
Beware: This post is phishing!
Where do we stand today ?
Simple:
- The money of oil from saudi Arabia is buying more and more media, universities, and politicians.
- This administration allows Iran to go nuclear and to arm all the muslim terrorists with nukes.
- This administration claims that we will NEVER be at war with islam…while islam is evidently at war with all the free world (and with the not-so free world too, but in there it gets the answer that it deserves).
A ferocious storm is gathering against Freedom, and the marxist subversives are doing everything they can for Freedom to lose.
That’s were we stand today.
We can start by kicking out of the Congress all the marxist suversives and islam appeasers, next November…but we will still have a multitude of Norquist(s) and of “islam is a religion of peace” traitors and appeasers.
A long way to go…
Let’s pray.
And please see
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/
for the rally against the Ground Zero “Terrorism Headquarters” (a.k.a. “mosque”), rally ignored by ALL the media.
That’s where we stand, in a place where the media are already controlled by islam.
Dr. Hanson:
Thanks, as always, for a wise, challenging essay. May I add what I hope will be a bit of clarification?
What we’re doing wrong nine years after 9-11:
(1) Cowering, or appearing to cower, before the threat of Islamic violence anywhere in the world for any reason. As Michelle Malkin has so wisely noted, Islam seems to be the religion of perpetual outrage. Our mere existence provokes Islamists to killing fury in countless nations around the world every day. Such evil cannot be reasoned with or moderated. It can only be obliterated. Muslims are angry in Lower Goofanistan because a few lunatic muslims don’t like Americans eating hot dogs? Get a life, or we’ll take yours should you try to kill anyone over your outrage. American values will not allow us to indiscriminately kill the innocent, but may I humbly suggest a great deal more General Patton and no Tony Robbins whatsoever? We need much, much more national backbone. Muslims can be as mad about anything as they like. But trying to kill Americans must be an act that not only will never be tolerated, but that must be immediately, brutally and irrevocably punished. George Orwell was correct. We sleep soundly in our beds only because rough men–and women–stand ready to do violence on our behalf. There are times when we must allow them to do just that, and without threat of reprisal from the sleeping souls who sent them.
(2) Even bothering to think about how we might be responsible for the barbaric hatred and murderous behavior of medieval psychopaths. Those who beat, mutilate, torture and kill in the name of any religion or no religion need to be killed themselves. Blaming the most generous, tolerant, humane nation and people that have ever existed is self destructive lunacy, which is just what those who would kill us want.
(3) Allowing our enemies to dictate the terms of any controversy and to control every debate. No, not every religion is as moral as another. No, not every culture is as moral as another. Yes, there is evil in the world and trying to negotiate with it is suicidal. Our enemies are our enemies. The word “enemy” has a common, easily understood definition. Failing to accept that reality is suicidal, individually and nationally. Tolerance is a luxury affordable only in advanced, western democracies, and only when all parties involved are willing and able to accept the benefits of such tolerance and to extend them to others. Tolerance is against the written word and nature of Islam and of virtually every Islamic culture/nation. When Saudi Arabia–for example–allows construction of Christian churches as America allows construction of mosques, we can begin to talk about tolerance between Islam and Christianity and America. Absent that, tolerance is best defined by one simple, easily understood word: Appeasement. Dialogue and understanding speak only to attitudes; they do not inexorably lead to action, negative or positive, yet some would have us believe that dialogue with and understanding of those who have no intention of being tolerant toward us and every intention of killing or enslaving us is among the most noble acts that can be imagined and is, in fact, among America’s highest values. Preserving America is America’s highest value. Dialogue, tolerance and understanding of and with our sworn, declared enemies is destructive of American values and ultimately, of America. Our enemies know the difference between mutual respect and appeasement, and they delight in and exploit our failure to understand that crucial difference. Understanding an enemy determined to destroy us should extend only to knowing them well enough to utterly obliterate them.
(4) Allowing our enemies to define our Constitution. There is no such thing as an unlimited right for any sect to build a house of worship where and when it wishes. State and local zoning and building codes apply. President Obama has said that Islamists have a right to build the Ground Zero Mosque and while he has not actually said “I believe they should build it there,” his comments have taken him 99.9% of the way to that statement. He is wrong about the Constitution, in direct opposition to the American people (as usual), and giving aid and support to our enemies. He has suggested that if mainline Christian churches wanted to build there, no one would complain. He is correct, but (as usual) he is making a fiendishly misleading argument. Catholics did not cause 9-11. Methodists are not given to Jihad. Baptists do not, in the name of the Bible, kill their female family members within American borders to preserve family honor, nor do they cut out their clitorises. The attempt to build the Ground Zero Mosque is an act of war, enemy propaganda in a time of war, nothing less. It is not a matter of “insensitivity,” but an act of war. Once again, our fake constitutional law professor in chief demonstrates that he not only knows nothing about the Constitution, he cannot manage–philosophically or intellectually–to confront the real and deadly, imminent threats that face us, and he cares nothing for America, and in the (paraphrased) words of Jeanne Kirkpatrick, always blames America first, last and always.
(5) Believing that Islam is a religion of peace and allowing anyone to get away with stating that lie. Islam is not only a religion, but a murderous, totalitarian political philosophy whose holy text commands all observant muslims to work for world domination through universal imposition of sharia. Islam is completely incompatible with freedom, democracy and religious liberty. There is no separation of church and state in Islam; its holy book and traditions cannot allow it. Muslims who are peaceful, who respect the law and customs of America, and who are genuinely tolerant of other faiths are not living the clear and unequivocal demands of their faith. This speaks well of their individual character, but observant muslims would be completely justified, by the letter and intent of islamic law and tradition, to consider them apostates. Those who take the path of Jihad are faithful muslims. Those who do not, are not, at least not according to Islam.
(6) Electing politicians, and a president, who don’t understand numbers 1-5, and who will therefore not take appropriate action to protect Americans and to preserve America.
What we’re doing right nine years after 9-11:
(1) Preparing to remove the politicians, and a president, who don’t understand numbers 1-5, and who will therefore not take appropriate action to protect Americans and to preserve America.
(2) Hopefully, continuing with the will and unquenchably burning, undying anger necessary to correct numbers 1-5 and to not only throw out anti-American politicians with a large, indelible star spangled boot print on their hindquarters, but to force the weaklings who remain, Republican and Democrat, to legislate in the public interest. God help us.
YES ….and thank you.
Mr. McDaniel – I look forward to your posts nearly as much as to Professor Hansons and today’s is no exception.
I would like to point out however, not as a quibble but as a matter of something that sticks in my craw, that when the First Dog states that no one would object to building a Christian church or a Jewis synagogue at Ground Zero he is lying. The banshee-like screeches from the Left would deafen us all and their litigation would send platoons of lawyer’s children to college for years to come. As an example I would point out the Seal of the City of Los Angeles, which had a very small cross on it, sharing the heraldry with the likes of the goddess Pomona. Yet that cross was like……well, a cross to a vampire. It had to be removed and it was. So much for tolerance towards even the hint of faith in today’s America. Harumph!
Professor Hanson:
When will you be entering the 2012 presidential race?
You have my vote!
Hanson-Bolton?
Just kidding (sort of!).
For every action (or movement) there is an equal and opposite reaction in Physics as well as Government, it is my belief that the opposite reaction to Barack Obama as president and his followers in the democrat party are coming soon short of rebellion!
Obama and the Congress and Senate have gone too far and their comeuppance is right behind it. If there is massive voter fraud along with fraudulent voter registration there will be rebellion of the masses…we let this pass in 2008 but ACORN or whatever they call themselves now days will be held to vigilante justice since the AG will not.
God Bless America and may he curse others that wish to do us harm!
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of patriots and tyrants.” One of the Founding Fathers.
“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
~Thomas Jefferson, November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith
I actually agree with some of the Right Wing rhetoric when it comes down to the mosque building on, or near, ground zero. I served too many years and see that angle. If any religious stuff is built there, it should be Uni-faith, and not just one faith. So the Muslims should back off on that one. But the President has this one down good. Let face it. Most of the extremist wing would even agree on that. Freedom of Religion is who we are, and what we are. Any …any attempt to take that away is wrong. So I must disagree Mr. Hanson, .. this president/s statements concerning this anniversary, under the circumstances that the right wing religious wing nut pastor caused, was very understandable. And I am sure that in your heart you agree !!
Thanks for the Article.
Had irresponsible media outlets ignored the insignificant event, then nobody would have known anything. The MSM trotted this out in order to inflame Middle Eastern sentiment. This is the “tolerance” you are on about. Has the MSM been so quick to inform that the Koran burning did not happen? No. They are content to have the elevated danger to ur troops because it serves their talking points. Then, to have Petraeus get so easily used like that. You dolt, Dave. I would tell him to stick to killing insurgents, but he isn’t allowed to do that.
With even more cynicism, I would say that the whole purpose of this story has been the Democrats need to talk about anything BUT health care, the stimulus pork barrel bill, cap and trade tax, auto company bailouts,..etc..etc. The usual chants about bigots, racists, and homophobes don’t seem to be working this year.
When the phenomenon of ‘islam’ is evaluated in terms of it’s treatment of women or girls, it loses all legitimacy by which it can be considered a religion by any reasonable standard. Females in ‘islam’ are considered property, subjected to genital mutilation in puberty, often by their grandmothers with a pair of scissors, named, blamed, “tried” by “shariah” law and punished as adulterers when they are (gang) raped, as though they had “provoked” the rape. Are hung, beheaded, or buried up their necks and stoned to death by a series of brutal and agonizing head wounds. Bodies of those murdered by “islam” are subject to desecration and post-mortem mutilations, and body parts collected as trophies (the hallmark of the primitive “tribal” “society”).
When evaluated in this light, by this criteria, “islum” is completely indefensible and unacceptable by any standard.
I wish it were not so. I wish I were wrong and such practices in the name of ‘islam” did not take place. But they do. And I, we, are not subject to the morose, fatalistic, morbidity such as this from other religions, actual religions such as Buddhist and Hindu which are peacefully practiced.
We can decide and choose not to be at war with ‘islam”, but “islam” has been at war with the entire world for fourteen centuries, and they will go on being at war for another fourteen more. There is almost no place left untouched by their slaughter.
And that is the muslim contribution to the world. Muslims in Britain spent the last weekend celebrating the attacks and slaughter in New York nine years ago for that very reason. That the murder and slaughter of thousands, or millions of people is it’s greatest contribution. “Islam” is not a religion, nor a civilisation. “Islam”s stated purpose is the destruction of those institutions.
We’ve got to move on beyond Obama-san. It is obvious to all that the emperor has no clothes. His presidency is a failure. His words are meaningless. His soaring rhetoric is merely verbal masturbation. The apppropriate response to the events of 9/11 is not sadness, not regret, not melancholy, not guilt nor endless searching self-analysis. The only appropriate response is fury; white hot fury. Obama is incapable of that. He is not a war time (if anytime) leader. Nobody bleeds or dies in his bubble world. We need a Churchill. We’re stuck with a Chamberlain. Woe is us.
“… Bin Laden is an outcast…”
No, Osama Bin Laden is dead, killed in the early days of our fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. He, and his most important lieutenants, most likely were killed in a cave bunker that was totally destroyed by our bombs or artillery. We never dug up the bodies, so the Bush administration and the Pentagon wisely kept quiet about Bin Laden’s highly likely but not absolutely proven death. To me, the real proof of his death is that his billions of dollars remain untouched in Swiss banks. If anyone in al-Qaeda or the Taliban had the account codes, there would have been massive spending on international terrorist attacks and on arms for the Taliban fighters.
Of course.
Either that or the esteemed terrorist is humbly abstaining from the public eye, and passing up the opportunity to organize and inflame his base and take credit for every terrorist murder around the world.
Not.
I love it when an over-eager liberal will Freudian slip and call Barack “Osama” … and then catch themselves, and in confusion, stop to try to sort out mentally exactly which lunatic it is they are talking about.
I’ve seen this happen more than once.
Thanks for the laugh, Dr. Hanson.
There should be a Pew Poll or a Rasmussen Poll about the effectiveness of Obama and Bin Laden. My money is on Bin Laden.
If only Bin Laden could counter some of Obama’s blithering ineptitude, with some of his own rambling generalities, and engage Obama in debate, it would be quite entertaining, and would fetch a good price on HBO.
Have you heard the news of the old redneck threatening to burn a copy of ObamaCare?
#1. Marc Malone
“you are asking for a statement of moral absolutes, not moral relativity. You shall not hear it from the Left. Never. They cannot afford to allow a dialogue about right and wrong, because it would open the floodgates of discussions of right and wrong in all areas.”
I think that’s the gist of where we stand 9 years after 9/11. Much has happened since, but this is still the crux of the problem. We’re a center-right country that’s relatively tolerant of others, including our own who are not so conservative. But the Leftists here (and abroad) find that reality intolerable. We can’t debate specifics with them because they refuse to accept any notion of right or wrong, good or bad. They cannot agree to any ground rules in the debate because, as you say, to do so threatens their entire mixed-up world view, a view which is an all encompassing groupthink-vetted house of cards.
I found myself wondering along the same lines as I watched the coverage of 9/11/2010. I wondered where the country of my youth had gone. Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s the memory of great men’s words and actions just a couple of decades before seemed to continue to resonate even with the more profligate of society.
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge—and more.” – JFK Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 1961
But those of lower moral standards today have reached such depths they can scarcely understand freedom beyond fulfilling their own dark desires. They defend a religion that would execute them if it was to assume total control of this land. What strange bed-fellows they are – and I use that term expressly because only something with a sexual connotation would get their attention. What are they united in except the rejection of the Judeo-Christian world and its true Lord Jesus Christ? It is the only thing they have in common. Rejection of the one truth allows you to accept and embrace any one (or combination) of a number of lies and find solidarity with those who would seems to be your opposites.
Whatever the motivation of Pastor Jones is of no consequence when the freedom is attacked not only from enemies foreign, but also enemies domestic…
“Are we so afraid of radical Islam that one Florida holy roller endangers the security of the United States?”
“Radical Islam?” From this term I guess I am supposed to deduce that there is a non-radical form of Islam, but I have yet to see any evidence of it. If Iman Raufs really were a “moderate” and spoke in public about tolerance for the beliefs of those who are not Islamic he would shortly find himself the victim of murder at the hands of the non-moderate version of Islam.
The face of Islam – that which is presented to the world – is of Hamas, Al Queda, Ahmadinejad, The Hausa tribe of Nigeria, Quadafi… I could go on. There are so many “radical” Muslim groups covering the world I am hard pressed to remember them all.
Was it the moderates who killed 2 million Catholics in East Timor? Are the moderates circumcising (mutilating) their young girls? Perhaps the moderates are the ones who burn America flags and Bibles. Or the fathers and brothers who kill daughters and sisters in the name of honor? What exactly identifies moderate Islam?
It’s past time to pull down the façade of the so-called moderates on both sides of this issue. The plain fact is Islam is, according to its principles, opposed the founding principles of western freedom. There is no freedom for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness available to adherence of Islam. These simple yet profound principles are based on the fact that they are granted by our creator – the same one who “freed us for freedom.” Not a capricious god who demands we kill those who opposed to him because he is impotent to execute judgment himself.
You said it rightly – “a warped radical religious ideology that is allowed to spread too often without censure.” As it should be with any form of tyranny, it cannot be called “moderate” except in the tortured minds of those who reject Christ.
We cannot fulfill the dream of Martin Luther King that one day this nation rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal” if we succumb to a “warped religious” tyranny.
Let Freedom Ring America! Pay the price of liberty, even for the fool who lives next door, down the street, across town or in another state.
I, for one, am not in conflict. Until “moderate” muslims (which is nothing more than a sugar coated media contrived word for islam) can learn to live in our country by our laws, quit screaming everything and everyone offends them expecting all of us to change for them, and they do nothing to control their own radicals I say DEPORT them. If they love sharia law so much then stay in the countries that live under such barbaric, insane rules. I want them out of my country now. I am tired of these people controlling the world and expecting everyone to kiss their ass and if we don’t the radicals will be violent, while moderates keep their mouths shut or cry “poor us, we are innocent, it’s not our fault, we have rights”.
There is no moderate and radical, I can lump all of them in one basket since the “good muslims” do absolutely nothing to end the violence or lunacy of their so called religion, birds of a feather do flock together. They are the only “religion” on earth that promotes killing if you don’t conform, and the only one that wants to take over the entire world so then there can be peace by their standards.
The notion of a mosque at ground zero where thousands of souls were blown up and burned to the point of no DNA being left is a good enough reason for me for expel all of them out of the USA, I don’t care if they claim to be Americans, they aren’t, when you put your religion over the loyalty of your country you are not American. Americans love our country, we love freedom and we love the freedom to worship as we like, not as muslims want us to worship and them shoving their rights and beliefs down our throats. We are no longer fighting them “over there”, they are HERE. I will defend myself and my country.
And if makes you feel better to call me a bigot, then please feel free to do so. I am SICK of these people.
Ellie9, excellent retort. I wish more people were willing to act on your belief system. To be frank, Islam should be its own amendment in the Constitution. It should read: “Islam, due to its conflicting nature with American ideaology and current belief system, shall not be practiced in the United States. It is a treasonous belief system that, in whole or part, defies the Founding Fathers’ intentions of a free nation. Due to its theocratic requirements it is non-compliant with the Bill of Rights. Any practicing Muslim within the jurisdiction of the United States will either unsubscribe from their religion or be deported to a country of their choosing. Any who choose to unsubscribe from Islam will be welcomed with open arms as fellwo Americans, providing they meet citizenship criteria. This will include safety under judicial law, and simultaneously will include criminal indictment for anyone found supporting or subscribing to Islam after this Amendment has been sent forth.”
If our “ruling class” would be willing to publish and enforce that amendment, I may have some restored faith in them. Until then, they are worthless, spineless cowards who deserve nothing but a hovel to live in. They do not deserve any benefits whatsoever because in terms of job performance they all would have been fired in the private sector years ago.
Unfortunately, as a military man I can only write these words behind an anonymous face with no physical representation to back it up. I will be blunt in saying that the “ruling class” has definitely destroyed my ideal of serving for 20 years and retiring. Looking at what the elected officials do with taxpayer money makes me want to find a wastebasket and deposit my lunch. So instead of doing 20 years in the military serving a domestic enemy I think instead that I’ll struggle to survive in the private sector. I feel as though my soul has been dirtied working under “The One”, and the only cleansing I can do to get rid of it is to leave the public sector.
–Zamir
Nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice Teucro! Do not give up, but try and wait for Teucro. Army and the National Guard are the places to be when the going gets tough, and it likely will before too long. Private sector may need your services where you are. Armed, not bare-handed.
I feel Americans who loosely practice their ‘Muslim’ faith are in a similar jugernaut in their lethargy as the vast majority of Americans with Hispanic lineage who allow (look the other way – same thing) their illegal countrymen and countrywomen inundate the U.S. and abuse the system so greatly for so long. Crying ‘racism’ or contest the ‘wrongs’ of the West who attempt to stop the bloodletting/acceptance of failure. Even though these actions are in THEIR and the country’s best interests. Opposition to this is of the utmost moronic, go down in flames result in our country’s history.
The ‘extremist’ Muslims.. in existence since its inception 1300 + years has had few/no attempt by ‘moderate/loosely’ practicing Muslims to quell or ‘shake the disease’ (thank you Depeche Mode).
It has been and seemingly ALWAYS will be Western/Christian societies slowing/crushing these swells of violence albeit enduring many casualties on our part. Perversely sad..
Tahdaaahhh~~~
…there are NO moderate muslims, politicians will allow you/anyone to burn the American flag and the Christian bible. BUT DO NOT even SAY you are going to burn a koran!!! you get treated like pastor Jones. The name calling by the MSM was unbelievable..
Obama will NOT be impeached, ANDANDAND..unless there is a star in the east and Americans actually take notice of the crap he’s up to and do something about it, for a change..
HE WILL be re-elected..
politicians (esp American politicians)are AFRAID of muslims and AFRAID to speak out. Vote them out of office as soon as possible!!!
The Ground Zero Mosque, which is spit in the face of all the people who have fought/died in service to our country/or died in the Twin Towers, will be built..Blookberg needs the money. He will not be re-elected.
When Obama apologizes to the world for Americans , I do not want to be included..I apologize for nothing.
Regarding Imam Rauf’s implied threat of violence if the GZ mosque is not built I’m reminded of the defender’s of Wake Island who, after their success repelling the initial Japanese assault, in response to a query from Pearl Harbor, replied “Send us more Japs”. The story may be apocryphal, but their spirit and gallantry were not. I wish General Petraeus had responded similarly with “Send us more bullets”.
Dr. Hanson;
I used to cringe when Bush would say “fighting them over there rather than here,” etc but you know what? He was exactly right. I would venture a guess that in the major and not so major engagements where the enemy chose to fight, or we could identify their locale relatively safe to non-combatants, the numbers of foreign fighters and jihadis (sp?) generally, numbered ten of thousands dead or put out of action.
I am all for the Mosque in New York. I am for it as soon as there are gathered 100 Imams and they proclaim a fatwa that all attacks made in the name of jihad are banned and all those committing them will go directly to hell. The second point would be that all Muslims must turn in all those who threaten such attacks. The final point is that all Muslims living in democratic countries must abide by those countries laws.
That is what it takes for me to forgive.
Then I am all for the Mosque in New York.
Dr. Hanson,
Some great points in your latest post, but your assessment of Imam Rauf as merely a huckster, “…trying to con his way into attention…cashing in on 9/11…” ignores the more strategic aspect of the (GZM) that is in play here…
I mean that our absurdly media-caricatured, “feel-your-pain” Imam (and his “foreign friends”) has more transcendent, longer term goals for this “project”. It’s historically understood that Mosques built this close to a battle field (Ground Zero) in foreign lands are so built not to “reach-out” or “understand” as our good-ol’ Imam would have us believe but to plant the flag of victory – rally the faithful. In front of “sympathetic” audiences (“friends”), Rauf has previously made no secret of his goal of bringing Sharia to America. What better way than by establishing an iconic center from which to “educate” the infidels? Too easily I think we may underestimate the determination and the perspective of folks like Rauf. If we take him at his word – and how can we not? – then his huckstering (annoying as it is) is simply adding insult to considerable, if not longer term, injury.
The President doesn’t know whether he is afoot or on horseback. He’s flailing at what he perceives to be his opposition now resorting to ad hominem attacks rather than addressing the issues.
52. mikemcdaniel – Masterfully-done post. It cannot be stated often enough that Islam and the Constitution of the United States are incompatible. Individual Muslims may be sterling people and observe our traditions and laws, but they are de facto apostates, whose tolerant version of Islam appears nowhere in the Koran, the Hadith, or elsewhere. As Colonel Ralph Peters (USA, ret.) has noted, Osama Bin Laden may be a terrorist, but he is doing nothing more than following the commands of Muhammed, as set forth in the Koran. Until such time as Islam can undergo a reformation and thus recognize the legitimate separation of church and state, it will remain fundamentally at-odds with our foundational values.
Dr. Hanson, I usually agree with your analyses, but in the matter of Imam Rauf versus Pastor Jones, you are wrong to dismiss him as a crackpot. As a life-long student of WWII and Nazism, I abhor book-burning. It is very nearly an act of violence to burn books. However, this situation is about much more than the Koran; it is about our fundamental civil rights. It is a test case, if you will, pitting sharia on one side, versus our constitution on the other. As distasteful as book-burning may be, it is protected as free speech under our constitution. Or, have you forgotten Maplethorpe’s immersion of a crucifix in urine, and the frequent burnings of the flag by leftists here and abroad? We would be better served by reading the Koran (know your enemy), rather than burning it, but if push-comes-to-shove, and our foes attempt to prohibit the burning of the Koran, then we should stand aside and let the bonfires begin.
No one should be permitted to dictate to us our rights, or deprive us of them. Andf surely you know that the U.S. army burned copies of the Bible, under political pressure in Afghanistan. Is that what America, a Judeo-Christian nation, has come to? Sparing the Koran, but torching the Bible? These are dark times in which we live. A final point: if Muslims are so incensed about threats to burn the Koran, let them agree to move the ground zero mosque in return for assurances that the planned book buring will not occur. The Saudis, to name one example, refuse to permit ownership of a Bible or Torah in their nation, and also prohibit construction of churches and synagogues. Conversion to either of those religions is apostacy, punishable by death. While we sit hand-wringing, the Saudis are putting to death people who wish to convert to another religion. Why are we tolerating the intolerable? Against this backdrop, our concerns over Islamic sensibilities seem to me to be quite excessive.
Personally I wish Jones would have gone through with it and here’s why:
1) People burn the US Flag regularly as a form of protest, why not the same symbolism for the Islamists? Fair for the goose, fair for the gander. It is within his 1st Amendment rights to do so.
2) All this crap about “offending Muslims”, well did anybody tell the terrorists that they you know might offend the Americans when they were planning to fly 4 planes into various buildings? How about when Muslims were dancing in the streets in celebration afterward? Screw Muslims and their “delicate” sensibilities. They see us worrying about stuff like this and see not empathy, respect, or compassion but rather weakness, stupidity, and fear. How about no more Mosques in the US until Muslim nations repeal laws restricting the building of churches, abandon the jizya, and give equal protection under the law to non-Muslims?
3) It is fear and weakness. Anything that may offend Muslims is often dropped like a hot potato by publishers and producers for fear for their safety. Muslims know we fear them so they toss around a few death threats and we capitulate. We need to take a different approach, simply explain that if the US is attacked by Islamic terrorists we will start bombing or nuking Islamic holy places. Then if attacked do so, no empty threats. For those of you who are aghast at that thought let me point out that Muslims have destroyed, defaced, or co-opted many places that were holy to another people.
4) Media. If the media and the government had just ignored Jones it wouldn’t have been a big deal anyway. Most people would have never known about it and he would have remained obscure.
Think of the 80s. Libya. Iran.
The entire Mid East was a scary black box. We had no idea what was really there. The reporting on the Iraq-Iran War was spotty, vague. Lots of people got killed, no one said anything.
Think of Lockerbie. Even when the truth was found out, nothing changed.
Think of World Trade Center 1993. Hillary Clinton heard about it, and went to see “Godspell” on Broadway. No justice was meted out.
Afterwards, we let our intelligence gathering decay.
Now, nearly a decade after 9/11, we have them pinned down. We’ve laid out the ground rules. You attack us. We destroy you. No questions asked or answered.