No Evidence Of Moral Equivalence

Earlier this summer, Private First Class Stephen Tschiderer - a medic attached to the 101st "Saber" Cavalry Division in Iraq from Mendon, N.Y. - was standing patrol on a street corner in Baghdad when he was hit square in the chest by a sniper's bullet. The insurgents responsible for the attack were filming the incident as a snuff movie intended to build morale among murderers. Their camera was unsteady, but the recovered footage shows Private Tschiderer collapsing under the force of the bullet, then springing back up, adrenaline surging, his life saved by the protective body armor worn beneath his uniform. His fellow U.S. soldiers returned fire as Private Tschiderer sought cover behind their Humvee. The insurgents were hit and scrambled to get away. They were caught, and Private Tschiderer handcuffed and applied medical treatment to the man who had tried to kill him minutes before.

If there is a better story of forgiveness and grace under fire in this war, I have yet to hear it. This little-known incident, first reported by the Army Times, is fresh evidence of the fact that there is no moral equivalence between the sides in the war on terror. War does not make much room for St. Francis of Assisi-like behavior, but Private Tschiderer's actions stand out as among the least sordid acts ever recorded on a battlefield. In the long history of humanity, a far more normal thing to do would have been to blow your attacker's head off with extreme prejudice. The stark contrast of this Hippocratic oath in action was not just a matter of personal kindness, but also American military training. Our troops may not be perfect - we are human beings at war, not angels in heaven - but there is no moral equivalence between terrorists who target innocent human life, and the soldiers of the civilized world who try to bind the wounds of those who have just tried to kill them in combat.

On a battlefield diary level, this attack and its aftermath replayed the larger contrasts seen during the London subway terrorist attacks 10 days ago. On one end of Great Britain, the elected leaders of the civilized world were meeting to discuss ways to alleviate global poverty - in what amounted to world history's largest charitable gift - while on the south side of the nation, radical Muslims targeted their fellow citizens with homemade bombs designed to kill as many people as possible as they quietly commuted to work. Actions speak louder than words, and apologists who like to paint this war as a misunderstanding between essentially peaceful peoples at the hands of equally intolerant leaders are not paying attention with any sense of perspective.

Another lens to use to view the clash of civilizations is the recent election of a new president in Iran. Reformist forces were dismayed when the mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appeared to win what many believe was a rigged election. This disappointment was thrown into sharper relief when former American hostages identified Mr. Ahmadinejad as one of their armed captors during the 444-day siege. Photographs later emerged corroborating their allegations, despite strenuous denials from the Iranian government. In a darkly comic way, with serious long-term geostrategic implications, this elevation of a war criminal to the presidency of Iran offers yet another useful cultural contrast in the war on terror. In the United States, youthful indiscretions usually tend toward fraternity parties, cheerleaders, and smoking pot. In the world of Islamic fascism, a youthful indiscretion is about storming embassies and taking hostages. It is a matter of freedom versus fanaticism.

When the history of the war on terror is written, the attempted murder of Private Stephen Tschiderer and his morally courageous response may not rise to the textbook level, but as an anecdote it confirms what has been true since the attacks of September 11 - we are meeting the worst of humanity with the best of humanity. When the will gets weak and the purpose gets murky, it only takes a quick step back to recognize that this is a conflict between a culture of death and a culture of life; the differences cannot be more stark or the stakes higher.

I am not the author of this......a departed FReeper posted this two years ago.

Let’s be realistic. Enemies of the United States are enemies of mine. But despite the pressure some liberals, socialists, Arabs and similar ilk feel from me, I am not a racist. A racist is not someone who simply criticizes you. Racism is a derogatory view of your essential nature as a human being; someone who believes that you are inferior by birth, by genetics. Usually a classic racist discriminates by skin color. I simply do not fit the definition.

An Arab is a full human being physically and spiritually. I see no division in being Arab and being the complete equal of myself or anyone else in the world.

HOWEVER, Arab culture does have major limitations which I have previously noted. Culture is not race. I can regard your culture as inferior to my own - and you are a fool if you think that qualifies me as racist. It just shows you don’t know how to think, that your thinking is emotional and sloppy. That is not a racist characteristic, it is a cultural characteristic.

A sloppy mind is your fault or your culture’s fault; it is not dependent on your race at all.

Just because I regard some as prone to sloppy thinking and Arabs as ineffective and fantasizing, has nothing to do with your race. Your culture makes you sloppy, your culture makes you fantasizers who can’t form solid analytical images of the real world as it actually exists.

Arabs have a mind set which is due to culture. This mindset is not racial - it is cultural. Your culture has conditioned you to hate the Jews. This is inferior - patently so, obviously so - and it reveals you are driven by jealousy of the Jews, envy of the Jews, and FEAR of the Jews.

You are jealous and envious and piss smelling sweat afraid of the Jews because subconsciously you see that the Jews have succeeded in the same environment you have and that they are prosperous and efficient while your own societies are collapsing failures.

You are economically and socially inferior to the Jews. You hate the Jews because they make you look stupid. You are inferior to them and their economies are superior to yours. Their armies are superior to yours. They are FORTY times more powerful than all of you put together and they are one percent of your size. You ARE inferior and it hurts. You hate their talent and their success. You are standing there right next to them on the same ground with the same resources and you look like a pile of Arab crap. You hate them because they are better than you and their success shows the differences between their culture, their values, and you and yours.

And this is just one small factor. Your religion is based on the Koran and its image of reality has produced what you are. Your values are based on Islam. Your values have produced your poverty and your complete inability to claim any COMPETENCE in the real world. There isn’t a single Moslem country that doesn’t slobber all over itself like a retard when confronted by the 21st century.

You want to “confront” the West, you want to have your “Greatness” recognized. You are a feeble snarl of oppressive dictatorships with illiteracy and fear and ignorance as your heritage.

The West feels SORRY FOR YOU. The only dependable feeling anyone has for an Arab is pity. And that isn’t when we find you murdering children for money like a Shaheed. How much money was Saddam paying for dead Moslem children with bombs strapped to their guts?

You have had a rub-rump wank-sucking-pervert like Arafat who was a duplicitous thug idolized as a role model. Show me an Arab hero. You don’t have a single individual in your whole culture today who inspires anyone with anything except disgust and contempt and pity.

You are impotent people. It is not your race. It is your culture. Your values produce failure. Your entire reality is an escape from responsibility and a fleeing from achievement.

Don’t tell me about your financial future either. Your veneer of modernity is about a millimeter thick. It can vanish as soon as the West doesn’t supply you with spare parts or repair people.

You didn’t invent it and you can’t fix it. You are a nutless, pointless, ghost town waiting-to-happen society.

And acting like you are our equals has nothing to do with your race or mine…it has everything to do with the fact that your culture is totally incompetent.

You are fifty to a hundred years behind the West. Politically you are back in the 1930’s Technologically you are in the fourteenth century and you don’t produce anything modern. You buy our culture and think that entitles you to some equality. You are parasites on our abilities.

Socially and economically you are waiting to die. You seek to challenge the values of the West. You attacked the United States. You want nothing more than to have atomic weapons so we will respect you.

You might as well stick a modern pistol in your mouth and pull the trigger if you think that we will ever allow you to have atomic weapons. We will go to war with the first Islamic nation which has an atomic we don’t control. It is a sure guarantee of a certain war. You are not fit to stand beside us as equals.

The Jews are, but you aren’t.

The Jews are like us - they are also different from us - but all things considered they are our kind…and you aren’t. You are Arabs and you produce nothing of any value - politically, socially, economically, or philosophically.

You are a dead society with dead values. That isn’t a racist statement. It’s an autopsy of your culture. And I don't hate you - I just don't want you to rot in my gutter so I have to smell it. Go someplace else to die.

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