Up Against Fanaticism

The News Herald, Panama City ^ | April 18, 2004 | Phil Lucas

[An Old Man]

From: MVB--- Below is an editorial from Sunday's edition of a Florida newspaper, The News Herald, Panama City. Someone who reads this paper thought that the editorial was worth a wider distribution and retyped it to send out over the Internet. Phil Lucas, the paper's Executive Editor, wrote this article for Sunday April 4, 2004. The News Herald web site is found at http://www.newsherald.com/

Up Against Fanaticism Commentary: Up against fanaticism Sunday, April 4, 2004 By Phil Lucas, Executive Editor plucas@pcnh.com If straight talk of savagery offends you, if you believe in ethnic and gender diversity but not diversity of thought or if you think there is an acceptable gray area between good and evil, then turn to the funny pages, and take the children, too.

This piece is not for you.

We published pictures Thursday of burnt American corpses hanging from an Iraqi bridge behind a mob of grinning Muslims.

Some readers didn’t like it.

Mothers said it frightened their children. A woman who works with Muslim physicians thought it might offend or endanger them.

Well, we sure don’t want to frighten, offend or endanger anybody, do we? That’s just too much diversity to handle. I mean, somebody might get hurt.

We could fill the newspaper every morning with mobs of fanatical Muslims. They can’t get along with their neighbors on much of the planet: France, Chechnya, Bosnia, Indonesia, Spain, Morocco, India, Tunisia, Somalia, etc. etc. etc. Can anybody name three ongoing world conflicts in which Muslims are not involved? Today, where there is war, there are fanatical Muslims. We might quibble about who started what conflicts, but look at the sheer number of them.

One thing is sure. Muslim killers started the one we are in now when they slaughtered more than 3,000 people, including fellow Muslims, in New York City.

Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state and feckless appeaser who helped get us into this mess, said last week Muslims still resented the Crusades. Well, Madame Albright, if Westerners were not such a forgiving people, we might resent them too.

Let’s recap the Crusades. Muslims invaded Europe, and when they reached sufficient numbers, they imposed their intolerant religion upon Westerners by force. Christian monarchs drove them back and took the battle to their homeland. The fight lasted a couple of centuries, and we bottled them up for 1,000 years.

Now, a millennium later, Muslims have expanded forth again. Ask France. Ask England. Ask Manhattan. Two-and-a-half years ago fanatical Muslims laid siege to us. We woke up to the obvious. Our president announced it would be a very long war, then took the battle to the Islamic homeland. Sound familiar?

Let’s consider the concept of a “long war.” Last time it was 200 years, give or take.

Anybody catch Lord of the Rings? You know, the good part, the part that wasn’t fiction, the part that drew us to the books and movies because it was the truest part: the titanic struggle between good and evil, between freedom and enslavement, between the individual and the state, between the celebration of life and the worshipping of death.

That’s the fight we are in, and it never ends. It just has peaks and valleys.

There may be a silent majority of peaceful Muslims –– some live here –– but that did not save 3,000 people in the World Trade Center, the millions gassed and butchered in the Middle East, the tens of thousands slain in Eastern Europe and Asia, the hundreds blown to bits in the West Bank and Spain, or the four Americans shot, burned and hung like sausage over the Euphrates as a fanatical minority of Muslims did the joyful dance of death.

Maybe we are so tolerant, we are so bent on “diversity,” we are so nonjudgmental, we are so wrapped up in our six-packs and ballgames that our brains have drained to our bulbous behinds. Maybe we’re so addled on Ritalin we wouldn’t know which end of a gun to hold. Maybe we need a new drug advertised on TV every three minutes, one that would help us grow a backbone.

It doesn’t take a Darwin to figure out that in this world the smartest, the fastest, the strongest, and the most committed always win. No exceptions.

Look at your spouse and children. Look at yourself in the mirror. Then look at the pictures from the paper last Thursday. You better look at them. Those are the people out to kill you.

Who do you think will win? You? Or them? Think you can take your ball and go home and they will leave you alone? Read a little history. Start with last week, last month, last year, and every other year back for half a century. Then go back a thousand years. Nobody hides from this fight.

Like it or not, that’s the way it was and that’s the way it is.

But many Americans don’t get it.

That’s why I made the case to my boss and fellow editors to publish those pictures.

If they jarred you off the sofa, if they offended you, if they scared your children and sent you into a rage at mass murderers or heartless editors, then I say, it’s a start.

[broadsword]

Death to Political Correctness

Amen to that, my friend! If America hopes to survive, the first thing is to stop being so damned PC-whipped!

[Tired_of_the_Lies]

If Bush was the American President, instead of President of the World, he would put American interests first.

That is a very interesting observation. I think he thinks he is putting America's interests first, but his messianic zeal has blurred the lines.

[My2Cents]

Excellent! I want a guy like this editor next to me in the foxhole. He knows what the fight's about. He sees the big picture, and communicates it with clarity.

[Milligan]

We need to JOLT more people. Terrorist will wipe out our very existence. I see very smart people put on blinders on. They don't want to see the AQ network and SH connection or refuse to understand. The don't want to remember all the other attacks that have been going on since 1979. They think its really made up somewhere in Texas. They don't take the threat seriously.

[Milligan]

That's how fanaticism starts. They want religion to rule their affairs. They live in the dark ages. They want people to live in ignorance, fear, proverty and blame the Western World for all their problems. If we break this terrible monopoly and introduce a democracy...fanaticism will dissappear.

[Milligan]

I don't think Bush is misguided. I really believe he sees the dangers ahead if we sit on our hands, pretend the problem will go away and the problem will just fix itself by letting the Iraqi's kill each other off. We shouldn't abandon what we started or let the UN take on this important commitment. We made inroads in Afgan. Iraq has been a hot bed of violence. You have terrorist and Saddam loyalist who are trying keep oppressive way of life. They want the Iraqi population to live like battered woman. I hope we have a enough sharpshooter to pick off the trouble makers. We need to stay and finish the job. Iraq has been a secular government since the '60's but it was a socialist one. They can adobt to a democratical system. If people have a chance to have a better life with higher education and having a better standard of living...I don't think they will resort to fanaticism ideals or brutal dictators.

[fatidic]

Just keep believing Bush's propaganda and pretend that Muslims want democracy, and that the only "trouble makers in Iraq are the foreigners, etc. and years later after many more Americans have died and billions of tax dollars have been spent on Iraq's infrastructure to the harm of America's infrastructure you might regret projecting your idealism onto the barbarians as a basis of U.S. policy.

[Milligan]

You sound like my spouse. Be careful who you hate or you will become like them.

[fatidic]

I take offense at your insinuation that I hate rather than I think or I know or that I understand what Americans are up against from Islamic aggression/goals.

[mlmr]

Do you think that there would be anyone interested in doing a "Daily Muslim Report?" It would be interesting and the media scans FR frequently.... could change the news!

[tpaine]

Bush seems like a sincere, though misguided man when he breaks his campaign promise against nation-building. Bring our troops home and let the Iraqi Muslims go back to killing each other and hit 'em hard if they come after us. We did them and the world a kindness by deposing of Saddam. Now let us look after our own interests and bring our troops home and spend our tax dollars here.

28 posted on 04/21/2004 6:44:05 AM PDT by fatidic


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To: fatidic

I don't think Bush is misguided. I really believe he sees the dangers ahead if we sit on our hands, pretend the problem will go away and the problem will just fix itself by letting the Iraqi's kill each other off.
We shouldn't abandon what we started or let the UN take on this important commitment.

-Milligan-

______________________________________


Bet on it, -- we will not abandon our Iraqi bases once they are built..
We are there for the long haul, -- but this cannot be admitted politically.
I see us gradually withdrawing from the Iraqi political mess.. - [Who really cares if they kill each other off?], -- while we 'keep the middle east peace' from our fortified bases.

-- Of course, this scenario may be too rational for our DC numb-sculls to follow..
Time will tell.

[Doc On The Bay]

Either we accept the Psychopathology of "Islam," or we accept That There can ONLY BE a "Better Way!!"

Doc

[VOA]

"...fanatical Muslims...can’t get along with their neighbors on much of the planet: France, Chechnya, Bosnia, Indonesia, Spain, Morocco,
India, Tunisia, Somalia, etc. etc. etc. Can anybody name three ongoing world conflicts in which Muslims are not involved?"

Good reference sites (that also tell the truth):
http://www.jihadwatch.org/
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/

[VOA]

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[RetiredArmy]

A retired Navy guy showed this to me today. I could not believe it when I first read it, that some newspaper guy wrote this. I came home and immediately searched it out on the Internet and found it. Then came here to see if it was posted yet. Thanks for posting it. This article is so full of truth. Way too many Americans are stupid of these facts and ignore what is going to happen to Western Civilization if this bunch wins this war. The stupid liberals think these people want to be their friends. They are simply stupid that these people will kill every stinking one of them, Dean, Dashhole, Kennedy, Kerry, Klintons, all of them are dead meat. These people are sitting in their caves laughing at us and rolling on the dirt laughing as we destroy ourselves and fight among ourselves. We are doing 90% of their work for them. They just have to set back and watch us implode and kill ourselves with our political correctness. Do you think they worry about political correctness over in bin Laden's hole? Not a stinking chance. This article hits it all on the head. We are sitting on our butts saying it will not happen to me, it does not bother me, my house, my job, my car, etc. etc., so they ignore it. Go on watching stupid ball games and stupid TV shows to see who is the next singing star. All the time the bad guys are planning their next attack and laughing at we stupid Americans, fighting among ourselves. The stupid liberal/leftist/socialist democrats think they are going to be pals with these people. Ain't gonna happen, simply ain't gonna happen. Western civilization is under attack and we are going to implode like the Soviets and it will all be gone.

[An Old Man]

I could not believe it when I first read it, that some newspaper guy wrote this."

I had a little trouble with it myself. The author, Phil Lucas, who wrote this for The News Herald, in Panama City, Florida certainly has a way with words. Straight to the point with no beating around the bushes , as we used to say.

I sure wish more people here would read it also.

Sempef Fi<p.

[bfree]

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[Dr. Marten]