Amir Taheri describe’s al-Qaeda’s “Plan C” in an article in the New York Post. Plan A, based on Osama Bin Laden’s assessment of the President Clinton’s reaction to the Blackhawk Down incident was that one short and sharp rap would send America tumbling down. But that didn’t work so well and so Plan B, advanced by Ayman al-Zawahiri, called for seizing power in various Islamic countries, such as Iraq. But since that didn’t turn out very successfully either, al Qaeda’s chief theoretician, Sheik Abu-Bakar Naji, has come up with a new and surefire scheme.
Since 9/11, Islamist terror movements have been debating grand strategy. Osama bin Laden had theorized that the “infidel,” led by the United States, would crumble after a series of spectacular attacks, just as the Meccan “infidel” government did when the Prophet Muhammad launched deadly raids against its trade routes. Yet the 9/11 attacks didn’t lead to an “infidel” retreat. On the contrary, the “Great Satan” hit back hard.
That persuaded some al Qaeda leaders that a new strategy of smaller, slower but steadier attacks was needed. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s No. 2, has advocated such a strategy since 2003, arguing that the jihad should first target Muslim countries where it has a chance of toppling the incumbent regimes.
Now Naji takes that analysis a step further - suggesting that low-intensity war be extended to anywhere in the world with a significant Muslim presence. Islamists in the “wilderness” must create parallel societies alongside existing ones, Naji says - but not set up formal governments, which would be subject to economic pressure or military attack. … In a notable departure from past al Qaeda strategy, Naji recommends “countless small operations” that render daily life unbearable, rather than a few spectacular attacks such as 9/11: The “infidel,” leaving his home every morning, should be unsure whether he’ll return in the evening. Naji recommends kidnappings, the holding of hostages, the use of women and children as human shields, exhibition killings to terrorize the enemy, suicide bombings and countless gestures that make normal life impossible for the “infidel” and Muslim collaborators.
“Exhibition killings” is one of those sayings which bids fair to enter the lexicon of regrettable phrases, together with such gems as “suicide bombings”, kamikaze, and arbeit mach frei, not only because it is vivid but threatens to mark the start of a psychotic, but ultimately useless campaign. Whether the rampage a few hours ago of a bulldozer driven by a Palestinian on Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road, conveniently in front of the CNN office, is coincidental or inspired by Naji’s writings remains to be seen, but at least two persons have died and 20 others were injured in the attack.
Injured people sat dazed on the ground amid piles of broken glass and blood stains on the street. A baby had blood all over its face. The driver of the bulldozer was slumped motionless over the steering wheel.
“I saw the bulldozer smash the car with its shovel. He smashed the guy sitting in the driver’s seat,” said Yaakov Ashkenazi, an 18-year-old seminary student. Yosef Spielman, who also witnessed the attack, said the bulldozer picked up a car “like a toy”. “I was shocked. I saw a guy going crazy,” he said. “All the people were running. They had no chance.”
In a statement, police said a “terrorist” had carried out the attack.
Taheri’s article goes on to emphasize that the new al-Qaeda strategy aims to bring terror to very heart of the non-Muslim societies, which they believe are on the brink of rejecting the last few leaders determined to stand up against them. By spreading fear everywhere they will wrest the right to establish Islamic pockets and finally bring about the capitulation of society. Far fetched? Ask Mark Steyn.
Once parallel societies are established throughout the world, they would exert pressure on non-Muslims to submit. Naji believes that, subjected to constant intimidation and fear of death, most non-Muslims (especially in the West) would submit: “The West has no stomach for a long fight.”
The only Western power still capable of resisting is the United States, he believes. But that, too, will change once President Bush is gone.
‘Just a few more bulldozers driven into buses boys, and we’ll have the infidel on the run.’ Somehow I don’t think so. Personally, I think al Qaeda should resort to enumerating their plans along the real number line, so that they will never run out designations for their successive and hare brained bloodthirsty schemes. Plan C will fail, along with all the rest because it is fundamentally the same plan as the first two. Terror, fanaticism and stupidity can be combined in exactly 3! ways, though the fact may escape them. Sooner or later, after all the combinations of mayhem have been endlessly repeated, either an exasperated world of infidels or sane members of the Muslim community will ask the obvious question: what can you do to us that we can’t do to you?
Maybe they never thought of that. What a sad belief system. What pathetic villains. There is nothing that differentiates them from all the punks in history except the imagined distinction of their appearance and phraseology. The darkness they worship is ancient. But there too from the first was the light; and life will prevail against death, though hell may bar the way.
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1. Weary G:Pathetic though they may be, they DO seem well aware of Lidell Hart’s dictum on warfare; will is the deciding factor.
Just as with Hitler, and I suppose with so many threats in the past, what is needed was the WILL to fight, to show the enemy that there was no chance for easy victory.
Hitler sensed the Western powers would not fight, and even when war was declared, they remained reluctant to fully grapple with him until France fell.
It was not the Third Reich’s tanks or planes or soldiers who garnered their success; it was the will to use them decisively and the lack of the same sentiment among his opponents.
It took 3 major powers to defeat him, and while their massive amounts of armament and soldiers helped, it was the steeled determination that Hitler had to go at any cost that decided the final outcome.
So, give the Islamists their due; as you have pointed out yourself, much of the West no longer believes in itself, moreover, a collective eats at its soul, saying its sins far outweigh its virtues and must be destroyed.
The jihadists smell the rot, in some part they have helped promote the decay, and they believe they will be there to take control by default when the Western body collapses.
They may be pathetic now, but when they start seizing formally Western nations and converting them to the cause, they won’t seem as impotent.
I still think we’ll win, but I shudder at what the world will look like when that battle is over.
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:14 am 2. Bob Murphy:Far better than the alternative Weary G
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:21 am 3. toad:The thing is plan C type opperations have already gotten al-Queda into trouble at the tactical level in Iraq and Afghanistan. They pissed off enough of the local Muslims that they either started killing them selves or ratted them out the first chance they got.
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:34 am 4. Richard Fernandez:Also, while the current leadeship in much of Western Europe seems soft their security forces have been nailing terrorists operations before they could be carried out. There is a fair degree of institutional memory from the Red Brigade days and they are starting to change their immigration laws on who they let in and who they let stay.
I’ve noticed that a lot of the Muslim leadership think things will change if Obama is elected POTUS and his party has control of Congress. That Congress want’s to keep their jobs come 2010 and judging by current US polling data that might be a pretty rough job especially if they let everything go pear shaped in Oil producing ME.
Here’s where the battle shifts to culture. Plan “C” depends for its success on the ability of al-Qaeda to create a permanent ghetto; to erect walls, not of brick, but fear around it, not just to keep the infidel out but the Muslim in. It’s a classic terrorist tactic. But it won’t work unless Western society maintains its unquestioning “multiculturalism”. In any self-confident society with its eyes wide open, Plan C would be laughed to scorn.
There will be some who prefer to in see resentful, seething and rancid extremism a kind of colorful faith tradition; one to be preferred over the dull, hard working immigrant who simply tries to blend in; and who is consequently dismissed as pedestrian and inauthentic by those jades who prefer edginess at all costs, even if the edge is a razor at their throats — until it is drawn across their windpipes.
The regular military struggle is over. Al Qaeda has admitted defeat. Even in Iraq. What they have not conceded is their ability to shelter under the wings of political correctness. In fact it is their only hope. Let’s disappoint them.
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:39 am 5. BigBird:The UK is soon to fall, killed from within. Look how sad they are. They don’t even stand up to anything anymore. CAIR?? That’s the purpose of those folks, death from within. And from within the systems that we love so much. Mark Steyn is living proof of destruction from within. The silly show trial going on. Liberalism tries to do the same. liberalism is a want of power, willing to destroy the fabric that gives it the power, for the “Idea” of power, that they believe. Funny how the lower wage earners toe-the-line, with the Democrat party, when throughout history, that party has and still does fail them so much.
I don’t worry too much, loaded gun in every room of the house, I can take care of myself, except from within, one small thing at a time. You see, you can’t fight one small thing at a time. It makes you a bully. It must be a large thing to fight. An Ideal. One small thing like an uncover photo for a drivers license, you can’t win that one…
Ponder
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:42 am 6. Weary G:Bob,
“Far better than the alternative Weary G”
No doubt, but its worse than depressing to think that, once again, the larger calamity could have been averted had the will to act NOW existed.
Hell, forget will to act. How about the ability to see the threat in the first place? After 9/11, and the following seven years of blatant evil shown by the Islamists, some of it even displayed proudly on video, there are many STILL thinking these are rational actors with some sort of legitimate cause.
WHAT crime is left for the terrorists to commit before everyone but the certifiably insane are forced to see them for what they are?
The willful blindness here leads me to one of two conclusions:
1) Mankind has a built-in self-destruct mechanism in its DNA.
2) Evil is an actual active force, clouding people’s minds as part of the plan.
Sound fantastic? Not anymore so than the mental contortions people, whether Reids/Pelosis on the left or Buchanans/Paul on the right, go through to come to their deluded conclusions that the problem is with us.
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:42 am 7. Bob Smith:“Funny how the lower wage earners toe-the-line, with the Democrat party, when throughout history, that party has and still does fail them so much.”
It is amusing, isn’t it, how comparatively wealthy the Democrat leadership is compared to the Republican, yet they’ve convinced so many to believe the Democrats are the “party of the poor”.
As to Islam, until Western leadership is willing to publicly confront and name Islam itself as the enemy Plan C will be successful.
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:53 am 8. davod:“What they have not conceded is their ability to shelter under the wings of political correctness. In fact it is their only hope. Let’s disappoint them.”
I see no change of the general attitude, short of visible major death and destruction or the kidnapping and ritual torture and killing of some left wing politicians by the rat-bags. Only then will the peaceniks, BDS crowd, and the MSM change its approach.
Jul 2, 2008 - 5:20 am 9. Joshua:So does this mean al Qaeda is abandoning their nuclear ambitions, which wouldn’t fit in with this “Plan C”? Or would WMD attacks simply become “Plan D”?
Jul 2, 2008 - 5:22 am 10. Richard Fernandez:Me, I’m just counting the minutes until somebody argues this bulldozer attack is payback for Rachel Corrie.
Jul 2, 2008 - 5:25 am 11. ADE:what can you do to us that we can’t do to you?
There is a weapon; cheap, devastating, permanent, and leaves assets intact.
Ridicule - the one thing that the freak show that is islam cannot stand.
But first we must remove the freak show that is post-modernism. Ironically, the first front in the removal of post-modernism may have opened in Canada, the permanently embarassed, the the bastion of Western apologetics. With the show trials of Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant, they are hoist on their own petard.
ADE
Jul 2, 2008 - 5:28 am 12. Richard Fernandez:The BBC also “happened” to have an office right opposite the attack, and here’s a vivid account from that source:
I told somebody once that human see with the brain. Our eyes project in inverted image upon the retina, but it is rectified in real time. To a Filipino a car is an recreational vehicle; to a Chinese it’s a delivery van. To a Jihadi it’s a bomb. When you see a bulldozer, remember that it’s not a bulldozer.
Jul 2, 2008 - 5:31 am 13. Wadeusaf:It will be treated as a local law enforcement issue. With any connection to the GWOT Pooh poohed as an overreaction in an attempt to stymie any class warfare or worse outright racial style riots against the followers of Mohammad. If it gets that far the pooh-poohing won’t work. If started even the Modern American Democrat Party leadership won’t have of hope of reining it in.
Jul 2, 2008 - 5:50 am 14. moose:As usual over the last few years, Al Qaeda seeks to brand new jihadist tactics and successes with its imprimatur. In this case, the low level jihad described is practiced successfully worldwide, and has been for a number of years. Life is increasingly made unberable for non-Muslims, ex-Muslims and truly moderate Muslims both in Western countries and in dar-al-Islam, a shadowy confrontation is in progress and it is not the Islamist side that is making the concessions. While the number of kidnappings, murders and other forms of low-level terror are indeed increasing they are still rare in the West. More common is what I refer to as the “Grey Jihad” : beatings, threats, lawfare, growth and consolidation of no-go areas, increasing number of hijabs, niqabs and mosques, greater demands for sharia finance, sharia courts, a parallel legal system and most importantly attacks on the rights of those who would criticise these things, in parallel with extra-judicial violence or threats thereto.
Jul 2, 2008 - 6:02 am 15. Cardozo Bozo:This is the part of the jihad which is working splendidly while the kinetic war in going less well.
What will the political powers of the West make of this new front ?
Plan C is already collapsing in Iraq. If the US can build a spy network within an all-Muslim foreign country, surely we can infiltrate the Muslim community on our home turf. One Muhammad McVeigh (preferably caught in the act, not after) will clear away any political obstacles in this country.
As for the UK or Spain, perhaps it would take two or three.
Jul 2, 2008 - 6:02 am 16. Mark:ADE wrote:
“There is a weapon; cheap, devastating, permanent, and leaves assets intact. Ridicule - the one thing that the freak show that is islam cannot stand.”
If you’ve read “Freakonomics,” you may remember the chapter on the KKK. Public dissemination of KKK codes and signals resulted in widespread ridicule and subsequent declineof the KKK.
I haven’t seen humor do much good yet. Oppositon-in-exile in Iran has been trying to ridicule the mullahs to political effect for years with little to show for the effort. But perhaps we could see it regarding terroristic Islam (which tars the mainstream as well).
The attention of Islamists to western p.c. is evident in their adoption of thought crime categories such as “Islamophobia.” No wonder the left can’t resist supporting them. One might counter that the Islamists exhibit “democraciphobia” and a host of other ailments that require diagnosis and subsequent pubic mental health intervention.
On the other hand, Americans are very reluctant to ridicule someone else’s religion. But maybe we’ll get to that point. Hirsan Ali is doing her part.
Jul 2, 2008 - 6:29 am 17. Mike Anderson:At some point, Plan C will annoy enough Americans that we will treat al-Qaeda and their ilk like wolves, poisoning their dens and shooting them on sight, whether or not our leaders approve. Unfortunately, lots of innocuous folks will look like wolves.
Jul 2, 2008 - 7:28 am 18. Snowflakes in Hell » Al-Qaeda Plan C:[...] Richard Fernandez links to an interesting article in The New York Post, describing Al-Qaeda’s Plan C: In a notable departure from past al Qaeda strategy, Naji recommends “countless small operations” that render daily life unbearable, rather than a few spectacular attacks such as 9/11: The “infidel,” leaving his home every morning, should be unsure whether he’ll return in the evening. Naji recommends kidnappings, the holding of hostages, the use of women and children as human shields, exhibition killings to terrorize the enemy, suicide bombings and countless gestures that make normal life impossible for the “infidel” and Muslim collaborators. [...]
Jul 2, 2008 - 7:38 am 19. Storm-Rider:“much of the West no longer believes in itself, moreover, a collective eats at its soul, saying its sins far outweigh its virtues and must be destroyed.”
This refers to the anti-American Marxist/Socialist left which, unfortunately, is now deeply embedded within the Democratic Party leadership. The totalitarian Islamist Plan C has a chance to work because the American left is now their ally, and a nation divided can be defeated. There is a common thread between American Marxist/Socialists and Islamists; they would both rule without the consent of the governed, and they would both become the enemies of our rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
What the American left hasn’t yet realized or accepted is that, as compared to the Islamists, they are the weaker horse; and they can’t bring themselves to believe that in the end, after serving their purpose as useful infidel idiots, they will be beheaded.
Jul 2, 2008 - 7:49 am 20. Gary Shawver:Terror, fanaticism and stupidity can be combined in exactly 3! Six ways, actually:
TFS
TSF
FST
FTS
STF
SFT
It’s going to be a long war.
Jul 2, 2008 - 8:40 am 21. wretchard:The Left is the Mr. Hyde of Western civilization, and as such probably ineradicable for as long as the civilization itself exists. As practical matter, it has to be treated as a golf handicap. There’s no use railing against it. All that anyone can do is make allowances for their inevitable input.
Jul 2, 2008 - 8:41 am 22. wretchard:3!=3×2x1=6 ways
Jul 2, 2008 - 8:42 am 23. Gary Shawver:Oops, missed the “!” Still a long war.
Jul 2, 2008 - 8:43 am 24. Captain Ramen:It seems as if we are in for a repeat of the 30 years’ war, only all over the world this time.
Jul 2, 2008 - 9:22 am 25. NahnCee:For the first time since 9/11 I recently read that some wannabe terrorists has been busted because the imam at their local mosque had turned them in. I don’t remember the details or the country where this happened, but I thought to myself, “hallelujah! the war is won” if they’re finally starting to turn each other in.
Plan C, dependent as it would be upon keeping Muslims “in” and everyone else “out” will surely fail if all Muslims start to turn the no-goodniks among them into the authorities before they can do their no-good. I think in Iraq we can see that Plan C most assuredly *is* failing, and given the example of Iraq, surely Afghanistan, Londonistan, Canadastan and all the other Muslim enclaves throughout the world will not allow themselves to be hemmed in by a bunch of illiterate head-hackers.
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:26 am 26. abu al-fin:The Trojan Horse invasion of western countries only works if the occupants of the horse keep quiet. Once they start rioting and creating havoc the jig is up.
Muslims immigrants in Europe are replacing indigenous europeans without much violence. If they change tactics now, Euros will elect new leaders who are closer to Churchill than to Obama or Chamberlain.
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:38 am 27. fred:Isn’t it tragic that Maj. Stephen Coughlin was isolated and ostracized at the Pentagon by the hoi poloi from SecDef’s office, the State Department, and the White House?
Let me explain why this was an important event, for those who might be wondering what it has to do with the current topic (many interesting viewpoints above, which I enjoyed reading). The enemy has a doctrine for how to fight a war. First, in order to determine that doctrine and to understand it, you have to go to where the enemy gets the doctrine from. The enemy IS Islam. Specifically, the founder of Islam, Muhammad, waged war almost continuously when he and his few followers set foot in Yathrib (Medina), which, by the way, was overwhelmingly a Jewish town (for those who may be curious). Muhammad himself never acted as a warrior on raids or in battles. He directed these attacks, staying well behind the front lines. He only bloodied his sword afterwards when executing captives. Anyway, sowing terror is THE template of Islamic insurgent violence when they are militarily weak, but also when their enemy is culturally and politically weak (even if the enemy is militarily strong). Today we are militarily strong, but politically very weak. Half of our populations do not have the stomach for this fight and would try to buy off the terrorists (it’s called paying the jizya). Muhammad was exceedingly very good at probing his enemy’s weaknesses. He was an extremely shrewd personality disordered narcissist who just knew the weaknesses of others and how to exploit them to his advantage. This is where we find Islamic terror organizations imitating the Prophet.
And this is why the ostracizing of Maj. Coughlin is significant. Because we will not study the enemy’s war doctrine contained within his scriptures and traditions, we will not be able to be effectively organized against the Islamic enemy. You cannot win a war without a doctrine and a strategic vision, which is utterly impossible without naming the enemy.
Sheik Najeri is correctly reading the West as it is right now. Things could change, but I see not important changes on the immediate horizon. He sees a U.S. population in the mood for surrender and escapism. Not all of us are that way. It may even be that a simple majority are not that way at all, but a very large minority have no stomach for this fight. Now that may change in the future and I suspect that running parallel to that change the Left will find itself finally delegitimized and disgraced. If we can just get through the next four years more or less intact I think America will come back. The Party of Jackasses will be on the outs for perhaps decades to come. We might have to kill some judges along the way and take some extraordinary measures to undo what Obonga is going to do, but eventually I think most Americans will be brought back from the brink of a supine insanity.
In the long run I think we are going to win this fight, but we will first have to deal with the nearer enemy, who are the socialists/Communists/”progressives” that want to have a crack at the socialist utopia. The internal enemy will overplay their hand and will be finally exposed for the frauds they are. Once we get that crowd out of the way, Islam as the scourge of human civilization is finished.
And then that sock puppet deity called “Allah” will be just one more false god whose cover has finally been blown. Evil is most effective when we have no name for it and it can hide behind various, deceptive fronts that prey on people’s fears and weaknesses. But once the mask is dropped and the horrifying visage stares people in the face, they “get it” very quickly. For the rest of us, we already “get it” and we note the subtle deceptions.
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:42 am 28. Lifeofthemind:There are two problems to deal with.
One is the ineffective and pusillanimous response of key elements in the West to threats and acts of violence. This encourages al Queda and costs lives. Many who advocate appeasement do so in the sincere belief that by demonstrating a more humane and tolerant alternative we can tease individuals out of the grip of the Ummah and get them to embrace the creative civilization we are proud of. Others encourage our enemies because they are so emotionally addicted to the cult of grievance and self pity fostered by gender, ethnic and social special interest advocacy identity politics over the last 45 years that they truly believe the West is the problem. The current election in the US may be the last chance for the traditional moderate center to reject the self destructive fringe.
The other problem is the remarkable grip that the Islamic view has on it’s disciples. Islamism isn’t the only system that induces people to ghettoize themselves. Ultra-Orthodox Jews choose to live in Mea Shearim. It is certainly the most successful system extant at both getting it’s members to imprison themselves and then attacking the host community to expand. We keep expecting people in the ghetto to try to escape but it isn’t simply a prison that others are forcing them into. The cage is in the human mind. Maybe this is tied to a sexual dysfunction like masochism that gets women who have choices to don the burqua. This phenomenon needs to be publicly studies and challenged.
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:48 am 29. Drive Time Happy Hour » 7-2-08:[...] Richard Fernandez: Amir Taheri describe’s al-Qaeda’s “Plan C” in an article in the New York Post. Plan A, based on Osama Bin Laden’s assessment of the President Clinton’s reaction to the Blackhawk Down incident was that one short and sharp rap would send America tumbling down. But that didn’t work so well and so Plan B, advanced by Ayman al-Zawahiri, called for seizing power in various Islamic countries, such as Iraq. But since that didn’t turn out very successfully either, al Qaeda’s chief theoretician, Sheik Abu-Bakar Naji, has come up with a new and surefire scheme. [...]
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:55 am 30. Doug:Westhawk Threat to Peshawar wakes up Pakistan’s generals
Areas where the Taliban are doing well are around Kandahar and the tribal areas.
Jul 2, 2008 - 11:54 am 31. Chip:There was a report citing polls showing plunging local support of Taliban/Al-Qaeda in the tribal areas, but I have seen no commentary about it.
Puzzling to me how people can stay hidden in the absence of local support.
According to our government, when Muslims act on these and other exhortions to independent violence (See, Osama’s 1998 fatwa, inter alia) it’s not terrorism. And even though all jihadis say their goal is to implement sharia law, we’ve written sharia into the Afghani and Iraqi constitutions. It’s even making inroads here as ‘alternative dispute resolution’ — as if some poor Afghani immigrant is going to think that when she finds hereself in front of a sheik or mufti in a western nation.
We’re ’solving’ the terror problem while losing the war, and it’s not close.
Jul 2, 2008 - 11:58 am 32. fred:LifeOfTheMind, et al,
If anyone wants to probe into the mindset of the emotional/cultural/psychological dimensions of Islam, I HIGHLY recommend Ali Sina’s book, “Muhammad: A Psychobiography.” It is outstanding. He writes pretty well for a guy whose first language is not English. He had studied extensively, in his younger days, to be an Islamic cleric and scholar, eventually rejecting Islam as a fraud, idolatry, and a psychological prison. That’s where I got the pithy phrase that I use frequently, because IT FITS SO WELL: “Allah” as Muhammad’s sock puppet deity.
Once you read this book, you will understand the mind of the enemy like you’ve never understood it before. Being armed with a psychological profile of Muhammad, one can then understand how this enemy wages war and how it manages to avoid being pinned down by our faulty Western understanding.
Jul 2, 2008 - 12:03 pm 33. thought of the day < Stringybark and Greenhide:[...] the first was the light; and life will prevail against death, though hell may bar the way.” (Richard Fernandez, on the nihilistic terror as a political tool) Comments closed | Trackbacks [...]
Jul 2, 2008 - 12:47 pm 34. Chip:Exhortations?
I should stick with fatwas.
“The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it…”
Stephen Coughlin (mentioned above) is one of the few honest analysts to put Bin Laden’s fatwa into the proper context: mainstream Islamic law of religious duty. That’s why Bin Laden has staying power and jihadis so much support.
Jihad has always been viewed as the Sixth Pillar of Islam to make Allah’s relgion supreme over all others and to subjugate the entire world under God’s Law (sharia).
Jul 2, 2008 - 12:56 pm 35. Chip:Wrong fatwa
Both are critical reading. Note particulary in the 1996 fatwa I posted by mistake the swipe at Clinton’s cowardice for the Somalia withdrawal of 1993.
Jul 2, 2008 - 1:01 pm 36. Lifeofthemind:Thank you Fred.
Jul 2, 2008 - 1:15 pm 37. Nile:Fred,
The book is titled “Understanding Muhammed”. It’s in stock at Amazon.
Thanks.
Jul 2, 2008 - 1:28 pm 38. mkunert:Pain has a wonderful way of converting people. With pump prices skyrocketing, the media is already abuzz with how many people are switching from feel-good conservationisim to drill, drill, drill.
Should the pain of “plan c” be inflicted on America, the “cultural rot” and appeasement will likewise disappear.
But Jihadists failed to learn the lesson of American reaction to Pearl harbor. So I doubt they have learned the lesson that by the end of WW2, the American public hand no qualms with fire bombing hundreds of thousands of German civilians.
Jul 2, 2008 - 1:45 pm 39. Doug:While Pakistan has mobilized its military in FATA regions, it has yet to aggressively and directly combat Taliban and al-Qaeda with significance.
Previous reports indicated mortar and other indirect engagements. Pakistani television reports 30 members of security forces have been abducted in Kurram agency.
Jul 2, 2008 - 2:11 pm 40. Alexis:Does Senator Obama stand up to bullies?
I keep on hearing about how Senator Obama is the hope for America and how his campaign “is what there is out there if you’re in the party of hope”. I’m not looking for hope, but for a man with a proven record of standing up to bullies. Where was Senator Obama when people in Maytag employees from Galesburg, Illinois got laid off? Collecting campaign contributions from Lester Brown, who was also on the Maytag board of directors, perhaps?
The Register-Mail of Galesburg has an interesting article with remarks from the President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
http://www.galesburg.com/news/x1295924892
Here is a recent publication by that union on why it isn’t endorsing Senator Obama for the time being.
http://www.goiam.org/publications/imail/pdfs/06_26_2008_IPBuffenbarger.pdf
Oh yes, Senator Obama is supposed to be a man who lights up a room as soon as he steps into it. And yet, I am skeptical.
Yes, I think it is possible to share an ideal with another person who disagrees with me on how to achieve it. I do recognize that people who share many of my views do support Obama, but their support does not translate into my support. I am increasingly opposed to Obama’s candidacy, and yet it is people like me who are important to a democratic system of government because I will insist on holding him (and all other politicians) accountable if he does get elected. Professor Goodwyn may be an authority on late nineteenth century Populism, but he isn’t an authority on everything, and his endorsement of Obama doesn’t convince me.
If, as a Democrat, Senator Obama won’t go to bat for workers in Galesburg when it really counts, how can I trust him to defend America from men who are worse bullies than Tony Rezko and Lester Brown? Remember, as a Republican, Ronald Reagan broke PATCO and this gained him critical credibility as a tough international statesman. Do men from the Left really expect a PATCO moment from Obama?
Given what I know about Senator Obama, and I am learning more as time passes, I would vote against him if he were the only man left on the ballot. I think America needs a tough, courageous person who stands up to bullies and who also has a big heart. I don’t think Senator Obama is that person. And yes, I do feel something about Senator Obama in my bones – danger.
Jul 2, 2008 - 2:22 pm 41. Eggplant:Wretchard said:
“The Left is the Mr. Hyde of Western civilization, and as such probably ineradicable for as long as the civilization itself exists.”
I prefer to think of “The Left” as entropy. The Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that we always get entropy as a by-product of producing useful work. Western civilization has made enormous social progress in the last two centuries. Unfortunately the unwanted by-product of that social progress as been The Left.
If you want The Left to go away then you must end social progress. Obviously the price is too high so we are brought to Wretchard’s conclusion:
“There’s no use railing against it. All that anyone can do is make allowances for their inevitable input.”
Key point: Permit The Left shriek to their heart’s content (allow them to dissipate like waste heat) but never willingly grant them political power.
Jul 2, 2008 - 2:28 pm 42. Bob Smith:“Pakistani television reports 30 members of security forces have been abducted in Kurram agency.”
Could this news item to a coverup for troops that are in fact defecting to the Taliban? Can we be certain the defections aren’t approved by their superiors, up to and including the President himself?
Jul 2, 2008 - 2:55 pm 43. Alexis:Has anyone considered reviving the old tradition of ringing bells six times a day in major cities? Islamists hate bells.
More to the point, one of the key problems al-Qaeda is facing isn’t its failure but its success. That is, the main lesson al-Qaeda teaches to non-Muslims through its terrorism is to teach non-Muslims to never trust Muslims. Utter distrust of Muslims as a group would ordinarily be classified as bigotry, but when al-Qaeda practices its trade, such behavior becomes completely rational.
Al-Qaeda’s plan of proselytizing assumes that people will necessarily choose the most evil religion available. So, if al-Qaeda proves that Islam is the most evil religion in the universe, al-Qaeda’s adherents think that all of humanity will necessarily flock to al-Qaeda’s banner. But what if some people flatly refuse to convert to an evil religion, flatly refuse to surrender, flatly refuse to stop fighting, and flatly refuse to die? What if al-Qaeda is confronted by a man like Moses who stands up to the fearsome power of Pharaoh and refuses to cave in to the power of evil?
As long as there is good in the universe, al-Qaeda has not won.
Jul 2, 2008 - 3:22 pm 44. Al_Batross:I agree with Wretchard and Eggplant on The Left being the Mr. Hyde of Western civilization. What a way with words you have !
Jul 2, 2008 - 3:22 pm 45. Ric Locke:Regarding Plan C, I think that is where we are headed now.
I have become more or less tranquil.
I live in a small town in a Red state. There are Muslims here — the store I trade at most often is run by Pakistanis — but there are also guns in profusion, and very few targets for Plan C.
The Left fails to perceive what I regard as a major lesson of the WTC bombings: most of the world sees the United States as composed of New York City, Washington, D.C., and a few hinterlands. The World Trade Center was selected as a target because it was a visible symbol in the middle of the visible part of the country, as seen from outside.
Targets for Plan C will be precisely what they should be, concentrated in the urban zones currently inhabited by the blue-state appeasers and wafflemeisters. I have great hopes that the experience will concentrate a few minds on important issues. Meanwhile I will go about my business, staying away from airline travel to the extent possible, in the confident knowledge that in the very worst case I am “of the Book” and therefore eligible to convert.
Regards,
Jul 2, 2008 - 3:38 pm 46. NahnCee:Ric
The one thing Al-Q has neglected to take into consideration in Plans A, B or C is how furious everyone in the West - left (can you say PETA) and right - are going to be once some bright propagandist starts feeding us pictures of Muslims abusing dogs. We simply will never, ever, allow a group of people who routinely torment puppies and think of dogs as being unclean and forbidden to ever be our neighbors, let alone our overseers.
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:01 pm 47. Grimmy:The strat outlined in “Plan C” has been well under way in France and the Scandinavia countries for some time now.
What the EUnix need to wrap their heads around is this. As the current battle spaces get cleaned up, the thousands of already trained (prior to 9/11 and since) and motivated jihadiscum will need someplace to play. It’d be rather foolish to assume that they’re not already infesting the muslim strongholds in various EU countries.
In the next year or so, things may be real “interesting” in that AO.
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:19 pm 48. Chip:It’s an interesting argument to say people won’t ‘choose’ Islam. I’m sure that’s exactly what the Persians, Byzantines, and every other seemingly powerful civilization thought before being ground down over time. Islam makes people think it’s better to surrender. That’s the ‘peace’ in Islam — if you accept second-class status or convert. Over time you’ll simply be outnumbered by the four wives and dozens of kids formulation. Muslim women, OTOH, are completely off limits. Look at Lebanon for a recent example.
Look at our multinational companies, their abject surrender in everything from the Khartoon Krisis, sharia finance, to Burger King’s ice cream design. Everything from schools to the Pentagon have adopted special rules for dealing with Islam, lest we anger them. It’s Squeaky Wheel Theory writ large. Newspapers like the NYT and WaPo clear their Islam stories through special panels of Muslims before printing anything: just as Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) designed it in their grand plan for wrecking western civilization.
Once territory becomes ‘Muslim land’ it’s in the grip of a black hole. And we’ve shown no signs of realizing that any place on Earth — to them — is or should become Muslim land. Once the percentage of Muslims reaches the critical mass of about ten percent the eventual outcome seems to be determined.
Is there any place in the world becoming less Islamic? Not Afghanistan or Iraq, our ‘victories’. That they don’t like terrorism as much in Iraq these days doesn’t have anything to do with Islamic subjugation of Iraq, which nobody disputes.
There’s the ongoing assault on our fundamental freedoms by the EU, UN, and OIC. The NYT is in favor and the rest of the media silent.
If by winning you mean we probably won’t lose in our lifetimes, granted.
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:54 pm 49. Lifeofthemind:There are reports that Iran is becoming less Islamic. When that regime collapses it might be like the Restoration in England. There could be a great reawakening in which they rediscover their pre-Islamic roots and reconnect with the heirs of Judeo-Greco-Roman civilization.
Jul 2, 2008 - 5:00 pm 50. fred:Nile,
I gotcha. Missed a word in the title. I finished it three weeks ago. I’ve since moved on to Jonah Goldberg’s book, “Liberal Fascism.” I got both books at amazon. I think Sina’s analysis is very sound and brilliant, but I rather suspect that he is likely to be ignored, as is Robert Spencer, in academia. And that’s where the policy makers of the future are educated. Prof. Esposito at Georgetown has way more influence than Spencer or Sina, even though they are solidly grounded and he is not.
Jul 2, 2008 - 5:17 pm 51. Storm-Rider:“Esposito at Georgetown has way more influence than Spencer or Sina, even though they are solidly grounded and he is not.”
Yes, another example of the difference between Modern American Conservatives and Modern American liberals; the latter value rhetoric and style much more than truth and substance.
Jul 2, 2008 - 5:25 pm 52. trangbang68:I’m in the “can’t happen here” camp. A lot of things can go wrong in America including societal breakdown and chaos in the event of some unforeseen catastrophe. That said, Plan C resulting in suicide bombings, or other atrocities would loose a hell storm against anybody who resembled a Muslim. Having lived in Alabama for many years, there’s no shortage of well armed wild eyed Southern boys ready to mobilize. Throw in Vato Locos, ghetto thugs, NRA marksmen, meth freaks, laid off and pissed off factory workers and Jihad here would be a serious mistake.
Jul 2, 2008 - 6:01 pm 53. Jamie Irons:Wretchard,
Rather OT.
You wrote (not entirely seriously!):
Personally, I think al Qaeda should resort to enumerating their plans along the real number line, so that they will never run out designations for their successive and hare brained bloodthirsty schemes…
…which put me in mind of my struggles to learn analysis (the formal underpinnings of calculus, for non-math-mavens).
I’ll never forget how excited I was with my first glimpse of the understanding — a formal, complete and detailed understanding — of a certain kind of infinity, an example of which is the proof that there is no smallest real number which, when squared, exceeds 2, and no greatest real number which, when squared, is less than 2.
Jamie Irons
Jul 2, 2008 - 6:08 pm 54. NahnCee:Define “becoming less Islamic”.
IF they’re turning each other in to the authorities, they’re becoming less Islamic.
If their women refuse to wear hijab or burqa’s, they’re becoming less Islamic.
IF they are educating each other, and especially their females, they’re becoming less Islamic.
If they are immigrating out of where they were born and into a foreign society and then having their children there, they are becoming less Islamic.
IF they get rid of their terroris -spouting imam because he’s an uneducated embarrassment, they’re becoming less Islamic.
If they’re marrying out of their tribe, if they’re not having 13 children, if they’re not starving to death because it’s Allah’s will, then they are becoming less Islamic.
Just because Muslims are not - yet - converting to Judaism or Hinduism or Christianity does NOT mean that the religion’s practitioners are not changing, and that as they change, they will, sooner or later, also change their nasty and backwards religion. I wonder how many of them will opt for atheism when it become ever more clear that Allah is an also-ran as a god figure.
Jul 2, 2008 - 6:22 pm 55. Charles:The Left is the Mr. Hyde of Western civilization, and as such probably ineradicable for as long as the civilization itself exists. As practical matter, it has to be treated as a golf handicap. There’s no use railing against it. All that anyone can do is make allowances for their inevitable input.
//////////
I disagree here. AQ is also a creature of the decadence in the west. they are two sides of the same coin(as opposed local conflicts along the periphery of islam.) as much as the awful decadence in the west a sign of late empire so also is aq. they are in fact banking on the fact that the west will continue to increase in its decadence. so far they have not been disappointed. nor is this something that any one or two election cycles can turn around. any attack on aq has to coincide with a right turn of the culture in the west. as it is now the liberal agenda in the west has many generations of inertia behind it. and it moves forward unabated. aq can be tactically defeated but not strategically defeated– they will not be silenced until the worms turns against the steady internal decay in the west. it is toward that worm turn that we should also set our minds.
then of course it will be something else. but that’s for another generation to puzzle over.
Jul 2, 2008 - 6:35 pm 56. Budmanx:these sons of swine pig f”king jihadis better remember that Americans just had their 2nd. amendment rights upheld and most Americans are well armed. Before 9/11 Americans thought Muslims really did have a higher value system and deserved respect thanks to Hollywood versions of Islamics. All that changed after 9/11 and all the beheadings and kidnappings and butchering of innocents done by the ardent followers of the so called religion of peace. Something just didn’t ring true when the words “Islam is peace” came rolling out of George W.’s piehole. So nowadays most Americans wouldn’t give a muslim a golden shower if he was on fire. In the words of Dirty Harry… “make my day” scumbuckets.
Jul 2, 2008 - 7:03 pm 57. Rufus McDoofus:McCain needs to hammer Obama on this topic, both to expose his utter cluelessness on important national security issues, and to remind citizens to think about the whole topic again. Many Americans just don’t think about any of this, at all, ever, and think the whole deal is a big scare tactic foisted on us by evil Republicans.
Jul 2, 2008 - 7:27 pm 58. fred:“Many Americans just don’t think about any of this, at all, ever, and think the whole deal is a big scare tactic foisted on us by evil Republicans.”
Which is why I think it most certainly is going to take some more horrific events on our soil to focus the mind a little more. Apparently, over 270 million people and counting murdered by Islamic jihad down through fourteen centuries is not enough to get our attention.
Jul 2, 2008 - 7:46 pm 59. Chip:NahnCee
“Define “becoming less Islamic”.”
Showing more respect for secular or constitutional governance over sharia would be the most important step.
It’s interesting you mention hijabs, clothing, and whatnot. By that measure the Middle East to Indonesia (ummah) was far more modern in the 1950s-1970s. Bernard Lewis in his survey of the Middle East suggests clothing is very important in showing adherence to modernity. Well, that’s equally true now that clothing is moving towards antiquity. Look at the Bin Laden family photos from the 1970s — they look like the Partridge Family. Not today.
Female education is not improving. Girls’ schools have been attacked all over the world since the sahwa Islamia got underway in the 1970s. Afghanistan has provided dozens of sickening examples by itself since 2002. Famously the Saudis burned quite a few female students over letting them escape without cover.
Assimilation into new nations cannot be assumed as you do. Most jihadis in the UK are third generation or so. Islam has always been a “portable theocratic state” over anything else.
None of your assertions are backed up by the facts I’m aware of. Nor am I interested in converting Muslims to something else. My solution is containment: stop Muslim immigration to the U.S. completely.
Jul 2, 2008 - 9:07 pm 60. 3Case:“But Jihadists failed to learn the lesson of American reaction to Pearl harbor. So I doubt they have learned the lesson that by the end of WW2, the American public hand no qualms with fire bombing hundreds of thousands of German civilians.”
Spent an afternoon with a German man who, as a teenager, lived through the firebombing of Dresden.
Been sayin’ a long time; will keep sayin’:
Slaughter now or slaughter later.
Jul 2, 2008 - 9:12 pm 61. fred:Slaughter later = slaughter more.
What are we to do when we have lawyers like Noah Feldman who are advocating that we bring in some Sharia Law into our own country? Feldman is a disciple of Prof. Esposito; he believes that Sharia Law is quite enlightened. Prof. Feldman himself his incurred the wrath of his fellow Jews on many occasions. How can we shape policy to be protective of our civilization and enhance our deterrence posture when we have people like this who are close to the organs of power? Feldman apparently played an advisory role in helping Iraq to write drafts for its new constitution.
Jul 2, 2008 - 9:18 pm 62. Grimmy:Chip:
Closing off our nation to muslim immigration would accomplish nothing useful. The enemy now has the ability to reach out and touch us in a multitude of harmful ways through our commercial linkages to the rest of the world, such as via container ships or trans oceanic commercial flights. There’s also the reality that non muslim anarchist and revolutionary leftist organizations are linking up with muslim belligerents in order to provide non muslim persons to better infiltrate and, eventually, carry out operations on our soil.
We either wrap our heads around the reality that islam can not peacefully coexist with any other belief system and therefore must be destroyed as a belief system, or we keep half stepping and excuse making and pulling our puds until this fight devolves into a war of extermination.
Destroy the ideology now, or destroy every man, woman and child adhering to the ideology later. Our enemy will leave us no other options.
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:03 pm 63. NahnCee:Grimmy - can we give them the option of denouncing Islam and the Koran and converting to something else before we herd them into the ovens?
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:17 pm 64. Chip:Grimmy,
You’re assuming the real problem is terrorism. Terrorism is just a method to make Islam supreme over all other religions and to establish sharia law.
I wish you’d reread all my posts, and perhaps search “Hugh Fitzgerald dawa demography dhimmitude”.
This:
“We either wrap our heads around the reality that islam can not peacefully coexist with any other belief system and therefore must be destroyed as a belief system…
Destroy the ideology now, or destroy every man, woman and child adhering to the ideology later.”
Isn’t helpful. In fact it looks like a comment made in an effor to discredit people who oppose Islamic supremacism, sharia, and jihad. Not saying you are, and I understand the frustration.
I don’t give a rat’s behind if someone bangs their head against the ground five times a day towards Mecca, Jerusalem, eats pork or not, or believes semen and dogs are ritually unclean. There are many aspects of Islam which don’t threaten anyone but the dupes who believe it.
Thanks to Wretchard for discussing this important Taheri op-ed.
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:18 pm 65. Charles:Colombian rebels tricked into freeing hostage Ingrid Betancourt
That McCain was in town while this happened I think was no coincidence. Likely someone in the bush administration clued him to the event in the offing. the light the operation casts on mccain defines him to latin audiences down to the shadows in the wrinkles of his clothes. Its a piece of magical realism.
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:18 pm 66. Alexis:Should America revive the Merchant Marine in order to ensure safety on America’s docks?
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:22 pm 67. Dave:This illustrates that we are in a theo-cultural conflict to the death.
Fundamentally, we hold the upper hand. Their notion of victory requires they gain and maintain a global hegemony. Our victory only requires that they fail to gain said hegemony. As long as it is a readily and inescapable apparent failure that is.
In the West, and even in the Far East, those who object to domination have (varying) means of resistance at their disposal. Therefore the “Dar al Harb” will remain UNLESS the “Dar al Islam” becomes a hermitcally sealed privileged sanctuary for our enemies. A caliphate in short.
Therefore we absolutely must continue to practice our imperialism in the Mideast. Our presence, along with that of Israel, guarantees that our folkways, both religous and secular, are felt there and get adopted by the locals. Do that and there will be no caliphate and all their plans will fall short of expectations.
No, I do not consider this the same thing as a war of attrition. However it is going to be a sitzkrieg, not a blitzkrieg. Resolute patience is a must.
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:31 pm 68. NahnCee:…fight devolves into a war of extermination.
I have absolutely no problem with nuking Iran as a first step example of what will happen to the rest of them unless they grow up. GulfNews editoral tonight agrees that “bombing” (they can’t bring themselves to use the “n” word) Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities is an increasing likelihood, but the Arab editors think it will be before the election so Bush can claim credit. Which is another indictor that Arabs simply do not understand the political process.
John Bolton and I think it will be after the election and before the inauguration.
Jul 2, 2008 - 10:37 pm 69. Kirk Parker:Chip,
I didn’t see where NahnCee was asserting any of this was actually happening; it looked much more like setting benchmarks–and fairly useful ones, it seems to me.
Jul 2, 2008 - 11:22 pm 70. whiskey:Wretchard, Plan C is likely to be quite successful in the West.
IT WORKED in Spain.
IT WORKED in Britain. [Brits are now apologizing for dogs! In Britain!]
IT WORKED in the Netherlands (it’s probable that the Dutch will hand over Wilders to the Jordanians for “trial” for “offending Allah”).
IT WORKED in the Democratic Party, the Media, and the Judiciary in America.
Should Plan C be unleashed in America, Democrats would use that to surrender some rights. Among them, free speech, the second amendment, and so on. “Insulting Islam” would be a “hate crime” punishable by thirty years. It would certainly work on the elite who after all, form everything BUT the military.
Plan C has ALWAYS worked. It has worked wonders in Pakistan. It is working wonders in Afghanistan (where it worked against the Soviets). It is working in China. It is working ALL ACROSS EUROPE. It is working in Indonesia!
Only in Iraq, backed by the US military, with local sheiks seeing THEIR tribal authority threatened, has Plan C not worked. The rest of the Globe, SMASHING success!
British police are now apologizing for a flyer distributed in Britain with a puppy’s picture on it! Because Muslims were offended and (threatened violence).
In fact, Plan C ALMOST ALWAYS WORKS. Only when people meet it with counter-violence, and larger amounts of counter-violence, does it fail. In Iraq, AQ got outgunned. Here?
Democrats, the Judiciary, Hollywood, the Media, and most of the Executive Branch regardless of who wins in Nov. will have us surrendering very, very quickly. Look how well the London bombings worked out! Britain could not surrender fast enough. Same with the Car-b-ques in France.
[Only in Naples did the Muslims and Roma run into tougher folks -- the Camorra.]
Jul 3, 2008 - 12:38 am 71. Grimmy:NahnCee: Yeah, I must be a nazi, eh? Right.
Chip: I do believe it is you who is working from a misunderstanding. Islamists are doing exactly what islamists have always done since there was islam. Islam was born under the sword and mandates militant expansionist empire. Islam is every bit as much a program of cultural suppression for conquered peoples as it is a religion. For so long as there is islam and anything other than islam, islam will be at war. It is a foundation principle of that ideology.
Islam can not coexist with anything else.
Even if we manage to beat down this current outbreak of islamism, it will re-surge again as soon as enough time has passed to raise a new generation of jihadiscum to restart the fight. And, the next wave will begin with an even harder opening blow. And, the cycle will continue. Massive opening blow. Battle against resurgent islamism. Defeat that current crop of islamists. Rest and recovery. Massive opening blow… And each opening blow will be ever more massive.
Eventually, either everyone submits to islam, or enough rage is awakened to obliterate any and all associated with islam.
And remember, we, the US and even Europe, are not the only peoples at risk, nor the only peoples with the means to inflict massive death upon muslims.
In the long run, the only way to be sure we are not faced with the prospect of a rage induced mass slaughter is to remove the source of motivation and the ideological source of constant violent instigation.
Jul 3, 2008 - 1:10 am 72. Zenster:I advise everybody to go look at some video footage of the Jerusalem terror attack.
Pay close attention to who is telling you that the attack was committed with a “buldozer”. IT WASN’T.
The attacker used a “skip loader” or scoop tractor. Bulldozers travel only a few miles per hour. The driver could have easily been shot out of the saddle had he been driving a bulldozer with a top speed of 3-5 miles per hour.
The attacker was driving a skip loader with a top speed of ~20 MPH. That is why he was able to inflict so much damage, not to mention decapitate a bus driver in her seat. Video:
http://video.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wv
As someone over at Gates of Vienna noted, the reason you keep hearing traitors like BBC and CNN use the term “bulldozer” is to create a false moral equivalency with Israel’s use of bulldozers to level Palestinian homes being used as arsenals, sniper outposts or hideouts for terrorist operatives.
A little clarity goes a long way.
Jul 3, 2008 - 1:12 am 73. Zenster:As to the article at hand:
Naji recommends kidnappings, the holding of hostages, the use of women and children as human shields, exhibition killings to terrorize the enemy, suicide bombings and countless gestures that make normal life impossible for the “infidel” and Muslim collaborators.
All that a constant stream of low-level intensity terrorist attacks will achieve is to make normal MUSLIM life impossible. Perhaps even for all time.
The West will not tolerate having daily life disrupted on such a regular basis. That is the most SURE WAY to piss off everyone all at once. When that happens, Muslims will start to die in huge numbers.
Remember:
ISLAM WOULDN’T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY
Jul 3, 2008 - 1:16 am 74. cedarford:NahnCee - John Bolton and I think it (starting war with Iran) will be after the election and before the inauguration
Unlikely unless the President-Elect and the people with the majority in Congress wish to be handed a major ME War, 9 dollar a gallon gas and heating oil amidst a vicious economic downturn well underway before.
Support of the C-i-C in the military will be at it’s nadir for such a stunt, basically a new vast Neocon aggression on behalf of Israel, in the midst of what appears to be another massive bloodletting coming of his Party in Congress, an Administration changeover, and the military being used as a tool to usurp the electoral Will of the People.
Not unless there is a “Yellow/Green” light from the President-elect, and an AIPAC-purchased one with the Democratic Congress.
Even if the President-Elect is McCain. If he decides to hit Iran, it will be with his people and his assessment in place, not as Bush’s stooge in a last-gasp stunt that would condemn a McCain Administration to condemnation before it started, domestically and internationally.
As for Bolton, the unreconstructed Neocon and Christian Zionist was sent packing out of policy-making after the 2006 elections for many good reasons.
Jul 3, 2008 - 2:33 am 75. Lifeofthemind:He won’t be back in any Administration or championed by an adequate number of Congress in any case. He will be at the margins the rest of his career like Wolfowitz and Feith, writing fiery essays from think tanks and hawking books and speeches to receptive “old school” Zionists and Cuban-Americans.
Didn’t know that Pat Buchanan posted here under a pseudonym. OK not fair, PB writes better.
Jul 3, 2008 - 3:50 am 76. NahnCee:Grimmy - bad analogy on my part. I do think we should give them the choice of repenting before dying, though. Although give that lying is an approved part of their religion, maybe we couldn’t be sure that they were giving up their beloved Religion of Pieces. But since they’re so fraught about apostasy, just *saying* “I promise not to be a Muslim any more” should count for something, Paradise-wise.
Jul 3, 2008 - 7:51 am 77. Storm-Rider:“Destroy the ideology now, or destroy every man, woman and child adhering to the ideology later.”
Not exactly true; we destroyed Nazi Ideology, Nazi Law, and the Nazi Military during World War II without destroying every German man, woman and child. We must destroy the ideology which supports Islamic Sharia Law and Islamic Jihad, and we must destroy the Islamic Jihadist soldiers; but as in World War II it would not be necessary or justified to kill all Muslims. After removing the evil ideology, law and military forces of Islam, which overhangs all Muslims, they would be freed from their religious tyranny; just as Germans were eventually freed from the overhang of Nazi Law and the Gestapo and the S.S. After Muslims are freed from their religious tyranny they can reform their religion or convert without fear to another.
Where the multicultural leftists have gone wrong is to believe the Islamic culture is just like other cultures, say Peruvian culture or Australian aboriginal culture. They fail or refuse to see that Islamic culture is truly contaminated by evil - the evil of Islamic Sharia Law and the evil of Islamic Jihad; and those two are our enemies to the death. Sharia Law and Jihad are the enemies of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness; and they are a means to rule over us without our consent.
Plan C has a chance because the Marxist/Socialists in the American Democratic Party are forming an alliance with the Islamists; and they have great legislative power in this country, and they have partial control of our Supreme Court - not to mention control of much of Hollywood and most of our educational system. We are in trouble, and I believe a second American Revolution may be required at some point to secure our sacred human rights and to ensure that government power in America only derives through the consent of the governed.
I fear the Marxist/Socialists in the Democratic Party more than the Islamist enemy; they are an internal enemy of liberty.
Jul 3, 2008 - 2:17 pm 78. Brian H:Doug:
Jul 3, 2008 - 5:24 pm 79. whiskey:… Pakistan … has yet to aggressively and directly combat Taliban and al-Qaeda with significance.
…
Jul 2, 2008 - 2:11 pm//
=======
“Significance” sounds like a fascinating weapon; how is it deployed? What damage does it cause? How much does it cost?
:p
_________
Chip; “Is there any place in the world becoming less Islamic? Not Afghanistan or Iraq, our ‘victories’. ”
…
Jul 2, 2008 - 4:54 pm//
=========
You might be surprised: ME youth hate Islam. And Sufism doesn’t wash in Kosovo. Totten: “(Kosovo feels like a pro-American spa compared even to my home town in the United States.)”
Plan C has already worked in Britain. Britain’s Top Judge has said Sharia SHOULD be used in Britain.
Jul 3, 2008 - 6:49 pm 80. NahnCee:Britain’s top priest has said not — no Shariah, Islam is bad. Who do you suppose will win in a country where once upon a time the Archbishop’s predecessor was assassinated after the then top government person muttered, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?”
I wonder how Queen Elizabeth feels about her loyal subjects, the Muslims.
Jul 3, 2008 - 10:37 pm 81. Grimmy:NahnCee: The issue wont, and shouldn’t escalate to an abrupt either/or all at once. I do agree with you, wholeheartedly in that.
Storm-Rider: I agree with much of what you said in your last post, except for the possibility for the ideology of islam to reform. There’s a false analogy that is often used in relation to the reformation of Christianity that is put forward as a potential for islam. Christianity reformed away from a tool of state control because Christianity was originally designed as a non-state religion. It was perverted into a tool of empire and in reform, sought its original intent.
Islam is a tool of empire. It was created as a tool of empire and can not be separated from that format. Also, islam has had it’s reformation in the Wahhabi Movement.
Also, your words concerning the lack of need to kill all Germans but remove nazism is the point I am trying to drive home. Islam is and always will be a hostile ideology that refuses to allow anyone to coexist outside of islam. For so long as islam exists as an ideology, islam will be at war with all who are not islam. Not spiritual war, not an intellectual contest of ideology, but a bloody, brutal, bestial war of predation and slaughter.
If we do not want to paint ourselves into the kind of corner where our own survival demands the absolute destruction and obliteration of every mulsim on the planet, then we must steel ourselves to the reality that islam itself must be destroyed.
As in times past, appeasement and/or half steps in confronting this will only serve to increase the cost in bloodshed at the end.
Jul 3, 2008 - 11:27 pm 82. Belmont Club » The seen and the unseen:[...] more iterations in al-Qaeda’s policy toward civilians Recently, some al-Qaeda ideologues have proposed random civilian attacks in the West, because the opinion of infidel civilians is ostensibly less relevant to their organizational [...]
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