Posted on 02/06/2006 8:50:08 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is warning that Western countries must increase their defense budgets in order to prevent the rise of a "global extremist Islamic empire" that could be as deadly as Hitler's Third Reich.
Speaking at a global security conference in Munich on Saturday, the U.S. defense chief said that Islamic radicals "seek to take over governments from North Africa to Southeast Asia and to re-establish a caliphate they hope, one day, will include every continent.
"They have designed and distributed a map where national borders are erased and replaced by a global extremist Islamic empire," he added.
Rumsfeld urged Western leaders not to delude themselves about the growing threat, saying: "We could choose to pretend, as some suggest, that the enemy is not at our doorstep . . . But those who would follow such a course must ask: what if they are wrong? What if at this moment, the enemy is counting on being underestimated, counting on being dismissed, and counting on our preoccupation."
The remarks echoed his comments the day before in an address to the National Press Club in Washington, DC, where Rumsfeld warned that radical Islamists "have designed and distributed a map where national borders are erased and replaced by a global extremist Islamic empire."
He cautioned that "that this is not war between the West and the Muslim world" but instead primarily "a struggle between the relatively small fringe groups of extremists -- violent extremists -- who seek to hijack an ancient religion against the overwhelming majority of Muslims."
Still, the U.S. defense chief warned that the rise of Islamofacism could by just as deadly as Nazi Germany and the early decades of the Soviet Union:
"During the 1920s, few people took seriously what some characterized as the mad ravings of a failed painter's book, Mein Kampf," Rumsfeld said. "Similarly, most people earlier ignored the excited utterances of an exiled lawyer -- a so-called rabble rouser -- named Lenin, who had published the pamphlet, 'What is to be Done?'
"But imagine," he posited, "if we could go back today, knowing what we know now about Adolph Hitler and Lenin, to warn the world about those two individuals before they spawned their movements and before literally tens of millions of human beings on this earth were victims -- were killed?"
PING!
Um, yes it is, Mr. Rumsfeld.
Quite right. Who is it between, Mr. Green Jeans and Bunny Rabbit?
It's us against them - all over again. Only this time we gotta win. Please see my tagline.
Okey dokey, so where's the overwhelming majority who's speaking out and condemming this violence?
"...that this is not war between the West and the Muslim world..."
islam v The World, more likely, Mr SECDEF. I just wish *someone* would tell the truth...
Agreed.
no, it's not. It's a war between radicalism and modernity for the souls of a billion + mulsims. If all of Iraq hated us, we'd have to nuke the country to pacify it. That is not the case. But a large enough percentage of mulsims are islamo facists that we need to exterminate them before they infect the general populations more than they have.
I have written an entire series of novels about that real possibility.
But, of course, in War, one does not have the luxury of making such fine distinctions. Our goal in WWII was to destroy the German capacity for war. As part of that, we killed a lot of Germans. We fire-bombed whole cities. War is hell.
And now we're fighting "radical" Islam. We need to get serious about how to win that. To quote Hillary: "You know what I'm talking about".
"global extremist Islamic empire" will be made up of muslim's so will = the muslim world
It is already war between the West and moslems...why can't our leaders acknowledge it?
You are correct. If the radicals achieve even a small measure of real success, the "moderate Muslims" will become very big cheerleaders regarding their success against the "Infidels". The momentum will be difficult to slow from there. If the "genie" of momentum and an emboldened Muslim world becomes a reality, they will make Hitler and Stalin look like choirboys . . . IMHO. The boys in Iran are doing what they can to create that momentum . . . we cannot afford to let that happen.
Rumsfeld/Cheney 2008? :-) Of course that's never going to happen but it's nice to dream. Can you imagine all these heads exploding? Well, let's just hope that we don't end up with Howard Dean and Hitlery instead...
Over tyhe weekend, I watched an old movie called "Battleground" made in 1949 about the battle of the bulge. About 30 minutes before the end of the movie in a small open field day before christmas prayer - the priest discussed why they were there in Europe, freezing in the snow and was it worth it.
Some enterprising soul should get that movie and trascribe his speech. With only changing 2-3 words, the same could be said today.
Because they believe that the muslimes in our country are just okey-dokey! They seem to think that CAIR and even the very word of the Koran are just misunderstood.
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