Posted on 06/24/2004 6:48:48 AM PDT by veronica
That they have done it again is no surprise.
We have come to expect of them the most barbaric, the most vile, the most inhuman of conduct. And the most cowardly: In the atrocious videos they so proudly spread on the Internet, these warriors of Allah cannot summon the courage to show their own faces.
They did it again on Tuesday, beheading an innocent man whose pitiful pleas for mercy and deliverance were broadcast over the weekend in an effort to weaken the resolve of those hoping to restore some semblance of civilization to Iraq. They did it again even though they first hinted it might be possible to negotiate his release.
Thus, Kim Sun-il joins Daniel Pearl and Paul Johnson and Nick Berg, who likewise have been beheaded in the fanatical Islamist crusade against humanity and civilization. He joins every Israeli victim of every suicide bomb, everyone ever blown up in a hijacking perpetrated in Allah’s name. He joins the 3,000 who died on our shores that dreadful late-summer day not yet three years ago, and the hundreds slaughtered in attacks in Moscow, and the scores blasted to bits in Bali and Madrid and Beirut and Istanbul.
It is perhaps time to acknowledge in frank and honest terms just what is going on here. The Western world — that is, a world of modernity, of tolerance, of science, of discovery — is under attack by an enemy that is the antithesis of all those things. It is not, as President Bush has so euphemistically expressed it since Sept. 11, 2001, a “war on terror.”
Terror is but the weapon of the real enemy, and the real enemy is the fanatical, jihadist wing of Islam. Bush’s credibility would rise, by the way, were he to summon the courage to say as much.
It is a religious war, the most dangerous kind. It is already a long one, and we have been slow to catch on. We had early glimpses more than a generation ago, in the butchery at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and in various bloody hijackings. It has since gone on apace, decade after decade, outrage after outrage, until the present moment when it appears the jihadists are bidding for no less than the control of Iraq and of Saudi Arabia, and for weapons as fearsome as the human mind can conjure.
What they would hope to do with those weapons is clear. They would hope to cow and terrorize the world into submission to the kind of subhuman tyranny they imposed on Afghanistan until that unfortunate land was wrested from their grasp.
That aim was articulated most recently just Wednesday in a recording purportedly made by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, currently the leading terrorist in Iraq. He threatened to kill interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and fight ‘‘until Islamic rule is back on Earth.”
That his dream of some bygone Islamist paradise is hallucinatory does not make it any less dangerous. The world’s most perilous moments of the past century came at the hands of those who envisioned paradise for themselves and their kind — and hell for everyone else.
This is nothing less than a seminal moment in the history of the world, and the very least we can do is pay attention and stop the mindless bickering that is taking our eye off the ball.
With regard to paying attention, it is of note that the No. 2 Internet search phrase of the past week, after “Paul Johnson,” was “Paris Hilton.” “Britney Spears” was not far behind. Could many of us, ill-served by a pandering and celebrity-crazed media, be missing the true import of our times?
And with regard to the partisan bickering, no better example emerges than the movie “Fahrenheit 9/11,” an anti-Bush film that is either being hailed or excoriated depending on whether red or blue is the critic’s color of choice. Knee-jerk reactions to the movie abound, even among those who have not seen it. Another example lies in the dispute over whether the Sept. 11 commission has or has not supported Bush’s assertion of links between al-Qaida and the deposed Saddam Hussein. It might be best for everyone to just put aside their preconceived notions and look at the facts, which are much more nuanced than many partisans would let on.
The facts also are chilling. Whether the war in Iraq was justified, whether its aftermath has been wisely handled, who gave the orders that allowed Abu Ghraib to become a U.S.-run torture chamber, the veracity and competence of the Bush administration — those are questions of no small consequence. But they miss the larger point: We are in a potentially decisive struggle against an enemy whose depredations til now are but a shadow of the horrors it will gleefully inflict if it ever has the means.
Bush was criticized when, a couple weeks back, he likened the current struggle to World War II. And in a sense, the criticism may have been warranted. The current war, albeit global in scale and against an innumerable and ruthless foe, may not be like World War II at all.
It may be bigger than that.
"The current war, albeit global in scale and against an innumerable and ruthless foe, may not be like World War II at all.
It may be bigger than that."
Excellent editorial. Here are some people who get it.
If islamist extremists' demand is that the world population should become believers in their religion....their heinous acts are the biggest deterrent to that end. Who in their right mind would want beheadings on the list of duties to their God? I am just flummoxed at the insanity of it all.
"Terror is but the weapon of the real enemy, and the real enemy is the fanatical, jihadist wing of Islam. Bush’s credibility would rise, by the way, were he to summon the courage to say as much"
Am I missing something? I think for most people the words terrorists and radical islamists are interchangeable. Most understand fully well who we are fighting.
Finally, we are starting to see this type of editorial in the press. We at FR(at least most of us) have understood for a long time that we are at war for our survival against islam. I will not qualify it as "radical" islam, either - it's islam. President Bush needs to make this clear to Americans, and to the world, even at the risk of "enraging" the so-called "arab street". The truth shall set us free to do what needs to be done. We cannot prevail against an enemy we do not define - and make no mistake, the enemy is islam.
OBL has been saying this since 1996.
How long before the world wakes up?
We're working on WOrld War IV.
Pssst liberals think if we "understand" them and roll over for them all will be well again.
This is the strange shape
of modern war -- cruise missles
with robotic death
flying from our side,
and machetes chopping heads
from the other side.
The new book Imperial Hubris by Anonymous (of the CIA), which is being used to indict GWB for Afghanistan and Iraq, also is said to take exactly that position: that the real war is against Islam and the Muslim world, and not against "terrorists" or "criminals".
Of course Bush realizes we're dealing with a religious war here, not simply some "War on Terorism".
There may be a benefit to keeping the rhetoric downplayed.
I'm sure the so called "Jihadists" would love for us to respond in kind.
Probably some Sun Tsu "Art of War" thinking going on here.
I believe the Saudis are persuing the only possible course in dealing with these vermin. They are finally using terror against the terrorists. We find such tactics abhorrent but when the threat of terrorism is great enough to destabilise an established Islamic government they know what must be done. Let those who practice Islam police themselves. Those who indiscrimately kill others will soon find themselves cowering, dreading the midnight raid on their filty hidy holes. They will dare not to show themselves when they know that their brother Muslims are determined to end their reign of atrocity and horror. Their faces and names are known and one by one or in bunches they will be exterminated.
These actions will prove ineffective.
It will change to full blown brutal torture before beheading.
This will also be ineffective.
Then it will move onto children.
Then onto kidnapped American kids.
What will it take before we take off the gloves??
If you don't deliver the horror of war there is no reason to stop the war. They give us horror, we give them honor,they have no reason to stop,we do,therefore we lose.
These barbaric murders are not "beheadings."
Beheading is what the execrable french did to their condemned until, relatively late in the twentieth century, that ghastly people's ghastly state made its only ever contribution to the advancement of Human Civilization -- and ceased the practice.
Islamofascism's putrid psychopaths do not "behead."
They slaughter!
BUMPping
Wat?
Good point. Christianity civilized this world.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Their demands are non-negotiable. We'd better make up our minds quick.
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
We have choices...surrender and convert, die or fight back till its over......simple choices.
Until a majority of Americans fully understand this we are going to be sitting ducks. Civilization cannnot afford to sit still.
It's very interesting to be in the middle of reading the book 'Fly Boys', which details at length the fascination the WWII Japanese had with beheading prisoners (or innocent Chinese citizens), which then progressed to actual canabalism. Islam looks a lot like the militaristic, Emperor as God, era Japan.
"... the No. 2 Internet search phrase of the past week, after “Paul Johnson,” was “Paris Hilton.” “Britney Spears” was not far behind.
Could many of us, ill-served by a pandering and celebrity-crazed media, be missing the true import of our times? "
Do you want fries with that... ?
I think that is wisdom too. The people will be calling for an all-out crusade soon enough. Let the government respond to the the will of the people -- not vice versa.
This will allow time for those of Islam in America to convert their assets and boogie back to Baghdad or elsewhere. If Bush would have said the war is against all of Islam to begin with, many innocents in this country would have not made it back to the border.
Personally, I think all of Islam should be isolated and quarantined in one area of the world, as was Cain, who was given safe passage. Let their belief system be proven and refined in isolation -- away from civilization upon which it depends for blood sacrifices. Perhaps after a thousand years in isolation Islam may have cured itself of whatever it is that prevents it from joining the family of man.
Yes. The 'Cain Sanction' -- while there is still time.
I agree. Remember the furor when Bush uttered the word "crusade?" He's playing this the right way for now. But sooner or later people are going to have to face the fact that this is, in fact, a religious war that can and will be lost through inaction.
I really question whether this country has the stomach to fight anymore. Could we, like the Roman Empire before us, have become so fat and happy that we'll just look away from the barbarians at the gate?
It may be bigger than that."
IMO it is.
will not qualify it as "radical" islam, either - it's islam.
IRAQ THE MODEL
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
:: Here’s this week’s round of Arabs’ comments from the forums on the BBC Arabic website.This time the visitors are discussing the murder of Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia.
Most of the posts came from Saudis of course, the rest came from Egyptians, Iraqis, Jordanians and from people in the Emirates. What caught my attention here was the total absence of comments from Syrians and Palestinians who used to flood the forum with their posts!!
The majority of comments showed frank condemnation and shock but I selected posts that reflect varying points of view and I have to mention that the positive/negative posts ratio you’re going to find below is a little bit less than the actual one I found in the forum.
I hope that reading these comments will provide a better view about the reactions of people who are close to the field where events happen.
“ Thanks to this site for providing this opportunity, especially for us-the Saudis-who are the most concerned about this issue. We are innocent from what those ignorant criminals did.
I’ve studied the Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet and I find nothing that supports the doings of those criminals who are in great need to understand Islam; the religion of forgiveness and kindness before sword and violence”
Hakeem-Al-Riyadh/KSA.
“Condemning this crime won’t have any real influence on those who are damaging our countries.
Enough talking, yes, the murder of Mr. Johnson is a coward terrorist attack, etc. we, as Muslims and Arabs must agree to say to the whole world NO TO TERRORISM. YES FOR FREEDOM AND REFORMS. The Arab regimes that are oppressing their peoples and depriving them of their freedom must leave peacefully. I believe that these regimes contributed-directly or indirectly-to the foundation of those fanatic groups, especially in KSA that have always encouraged violence elsewhere. My point is that the Arab world will change and his thoughts will change, only if we decided to deal with the origin of the problem (the persistent regimes) not with the branches. Finally my condolences to the family of Mr. Johnson.”
Abdullah-Al-Zarqa/Jordan.
“Each human being has the right to live, no one has the right to deprive him this right no matter what he did unless by a clear law from the creator who brought us to life and changing one’s mind should be done with reason and only reason, not with violence”
Mohammed Shakir-Al-Riyadh/KSA
“Why do all these disturbances appear now in KSA in this particular timing? Isn’t KSA one of the countries that the US want to make changes in them? Who’s going to benefit from this crime? Islam and Muslims? This crime was carried out by Muslims but these are most likely to be hired and there are foreign hands behind them and these should be the ones to be sued.”
Wafaa’Al-Qadhi-Egypt.
“I’m against killing foreigners because they came to our country for work and to serve our country. We can invite them to become Muslims rather than murdering them”
Mohammed Zahrani-KSA.
“Everyone is condemning this crime and saying that it’s against the teachings of Islam but still we’re doing nothing about it. I think that fighting these sick ideas is the clerics’ responsibility; they should start to educate people and they have to announce Fatwas that forbid and condemn murdering innocent people. Why do they clerics spend their time giving Fatwas about kids’ toys while they bury their heads in the sand when their words are needed to save lives”
Michael-Alexandria.
“Slaughtering the American hostage is much less than what America did to harm Muslims in general and Abu Ghraib prisoners in particular”
Abu Hasan-Qutaif/KSA
“Killing Mr. Johnson is a crime that ignores all the values of humanity”
Rayan-Al-Riyadh.
“ This is a reaction to the American terrorism in the ME”
Ashraf Mohammed/Cairo.
“Terrorism is a serious phenomenon that must be dealt with, not only condemned. All this is because of the wrongful concepts that some clerics, who know nothing about Islam, call for. Moreover, poverty and lack of education create fanaticism. Governors of the Arab and Muslim nations: fear Allah and be fair. May all the fanatics and the radical extremists be damned forever.”
Mohammed Sherif-Baghdad/Iraq.
trad_anglican -- Me too. ["Home:" www.livingstreams.org.sg ]
It's not so much the beheadings, as it is who the victims are and the fact that the victims are innocent
Beheadings are nothing new, it was a popular form of punishment in Europe up through the 19th century - people would take their families, etc. (just like a hanging in our west in the 19th century).
The difference is, where Europeans beheaded one another or we hung people, they had it coming.
The extremists, on the other hand, are using the act itself as part of their propaganda machine.
I think it's working against them though. The beheadings, the way they treat women, etc. are showing people just how crude and uncivilized they really are. I could even see it earning some sympathy for what Israel has had to deal with over the past decade or two.
"He's playing this the right way for now. But sooner or later people are going to have to face the fact that this is, in fact, a religious war that can and will be lost through inaction. "
What will happen, what is inevitable, is a large attack in America that kills thousands. Retribution will be easier after that (unfortunately). Once it becomes a religious war, you have to contemplate the destruction of the holy sites in Mecca and Medina. How long will this take? Could be twenty years, could be less than five.
I used to think that but not any more.
We've not yet begun this fight.
If this conflict breaks out on Main St USA, all of those family rifles and shotguns will be put to efficient and swift use.
My wife has been floating an observation over the last few years.
It's rather odd, but most of the children that are being born to friends and aquaintencies of ours for years now have been BOYS.
She's thinking that God is preparing an Army.
This from the woman who scoffed at all of my political obsevations that ALL panned out.
We'll see.
MrConfettiMan recently loaned me the book "Ghost Soldiers" about some survivors of the Bataan Death March. In an odd way, it changed my mind about the war in Iraq. Truthfully, I didn't think that Sadaam posed an immediate threat to the U.S., and was content to milk the oil for food thing for all its worth. However, after having read a couple of books about the war in the South Pacific, and now watching these brutes continually behead innocent civilians (thankfully we haven't seen any of our soldiers, but that is only a matter of time, isn't it?) I am convinced that we need to be in Iraq, and we need to win.
Do you realize that in one POW camp, about 2700 Americans perished because of disease, malnutrition, and outright murder? Hmmm, that number rings a bell.....can anyone say 9/11? And now, we have the left wailing and gnashing their teeth because we have lost 800 of our beloved troops. (no sarcasm there....my younger brother was nearly one of them...instead, he watched one of his friends die from a roadside bomb.)
Somehow, the parallel between Imperial Japan and Al Qaeda has grown very stark in my mind. We need to go kick ass.
I've made that same observation myself.
If the conflict makes it to Main St USA, I fear we will have already lost. They don't have to take over our territory in order to bring us down. Their goal is to wipe out our global influence. They can do that without bringing the fight to our shores. Until we lose the baby boomer notion that wars are things to be protested rather than won, we're going to be vulnerable.
Example:
..“I’m against killing foreigners because they came to our country for work and to serve our country. We can invite them to become Muslims rather than murdering them” Mohammed Zahrani-KSA
"We cannot prevail against an enemy we do not define - and make no mistake, the enemy is islam."
Yup.
"Once it becomes a religious war, you have to contemplate the destruction of the holy sites in Mecca and Medina. How long will this take? Could be twenty years, could be less than five."
No, it would take only as long as it takes to turn sand and stone to glass. About as long as it takes to blink one's eyes.
Hey, I'm a baby-boomer, and am a Vietnam vet in my 50s. There are a lot of baby boomers like me who understand that sometimes it's necesary to fight, and to wage war, and to win. Don't count out old farts like me when the SHTF; we will surprise you with how much fight we still have in these old bones and tired muscles.
I didn't mean to imply that all boomers feel that wars are meant to be protested rather than won. I'm a boomer myself. I do believe that the notion is a creature of the early 70s anti-war mentality that, while not universal among our generation, is prevalent, particularly among the intelligentsia and the elite media, and is indicative of the Peter Pan syndrome that seems to have affflicted so many of our brothers and sisters.
Mohammad was a head-chopper.
Al-Zahawi's most recent communique includes the language alluding to "the tastiness of infidels."
Unhinged deviltry.
Or demon possession. Satan controls his mind.
A friend of mine who served in Vietnam holds exactly the opposite opinion. The other day he went as far as to tell me that since I am not serving, I dont have the right to send others to war.
Governments who have little to do with the radical religious mullahs which are behind the terrorists.
Actually in the mid east they have a great deal to do with the radical religious mullahs. Without the millahs directing the peoples anger outward it would be directed inward. Don't have a free press, it's the Jews fault. Don't have a job, it's the fault of the giant American corporation. You're poor, it's the crusaders fault. Can't win a war, it's because of the crusader/zionist who gang up on you....well you get the idea. And what do the Mullahs get out of it? Well some really believe it, and for others, they get to be a big fish in a little pond. This is why Iraq is so important, if we are in anyway successful there it will show the lie they've been putting out for a long time now.
bttt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.