Warmongers Have A Point: Its A War (Mark Steyn On Primitivization As A Global Export Alert)

Chicago Sun Times ^ | 06/11/06 | Mark Steyn

[goldstategop]

Here are four news stories from the last week: Baghdad: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi found himself on the receiving end of 500 pounds of U.S. ordnance.

London: Scotland Yard arrested a cell of East End Muslims allegedly plotting a sarin attack in Britain.

Toronto: The Mounties busted a cell of Ontario Muslims planning a bombing three times more powerful than Oklahoma City.

Mogadishu: An al-Qaida affiliate, the "Joint Islamic Courts," took control of the Somali capital, displacing "U.S.-backed warlords."

The world divides into those who think the above are all part of the same story and those who figure they're strictly local items of no wider significance deriving from various regional factors:

In Baghdad and London, fury at Bush-Blair neocon-Zionist-Halliburton warmongering;

In Toronto, fury at Canadian multiculti-liberal-pantywaist warmongering -- no, wait, that can't be right. It must be frustration among certain, ah, ethno-cultural communities at insufficiently lavish levels of massive government social programs, to judge from the surreal conversation on NPR's "Morning Edition" between Renee Montagne and the city's mayor;

And in Mogadishu, well, that's just one bunch of crazy Africans killing another bunch of crazy Africans -- who the hell can figure that out? If Bono holds a celebrity fund-raising gala, we'll all be glad to chip in 20 bucks.

If you choose to believe that, as Tip bin Neill might have put it, "all jihad is local," so be it. You can listen to NPR discussions on whether Canada's jihadist health- care programs are inadequately funded, and I'm sure you'll be very happy. But out in the real world it seems the true globalization success story of the 1990s was the export of ideology from a relatively obscure part of the planet to the heart of every Western city.

Take the subject of, say, decapitation. There's a lot of it about in the Muslim world. These Somali Islamists, in the course of their seizure of Mogadishu, captured troops from the warlords' side and beheaded them. Zarqawi made beheading his signature act, cutting the throats of the American hostage Nick Berg and the British hostage Ken Bigley and then releasing the footage as boffo snuff videos over the Internet.

But it's not just guerrillas and insurgents who are hot for decapitation. The Saudis, who are famously "our friends," behead folks on a daily basis. Last year, the kingdom beheaded six Somalis for auto theft. They'd been convicted and served five-year sentences but at the end thereof the Saudi courts decided to upgrade their crime to a capital offense. Some two-thirds of those beheaded in Saudi Arabia are foreign nationals, which would be an unlikely criminal profile in any civilized state and suggests that the justice "system" is driven by the Saudis' contempt for non-Saudis as much as anything else.

Which brings us to Toronto. In court last week, it was alleged that the conspirators planned to storm the Canadian Parliament and behead the prime minister. On the face of it, that sounds ridiculous. As ridiculous as it must have seemed to Ken Bigley, a British contractor in Iraq with no illusions about the world: He'd spent most of his adult life grubbing around the seedier outposts of empire and thought he knew the way the native chappies did things. He never imagined the last sounds he'd ever hear were delirious cries of "Allahu Akhbar" and the man behind him reaching for his blade. And he never imagined that back in his native land his fellow British subjects -- young Muslim men -- would boast to the London Times about downloading the video of his execution and watching it on their cellphones.

Writing about the collapse of nations such as Somalia, the Atlantic Monthly's Robert D. Kaplan referred to the "citizens" of such "states" as "re-primitivized man." When lifelong Torontonians are hot for decapitation, when Yorkshiremen born and bred and into fish 'n' chips and cricket and lousy English pop music self-detonate on the London Tube, it would seem that the phenomenon of "re-primitivized man" has been successfully exported around the planet. It's reverse globalization: The pathologies of the remotest backwaters now have franchise outlets in every Western city. You don't have to be a loser Ontario welfare recipient like Steven Chand, the 25-year-old Muslim convert named in the thwarted prime ministerial beheading. Omar Sheikh, the man behind the beheading of the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl, was an English "public" (i.e., private) schoolboy and graduate of the London School of Economics.

Five years after 9/11, some strategists say we can't win this thing "militarily," which is true in the sense that you can't send the Third Infantry Division to Brampton, Ontario. But nor is it something we can win through "law enforcement" -- by letting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the FBI and MI5 and every gendarmerie on the planet deal with every little plot on the map as a self-contained criminal investigation. We need to throttle the ideology and roll up the networks. These fellows barely qualify as "fifth columnists": Their shingles hang on Main Street. And, even though the number of Ontarians prepared actively to participate in the beheading of the prime minister is undoubtedly minimal, the informal support of the jihad's aims by many Western Muslims and the quiescence of too many of the remainder and the ethnic squeamishness of the modern multicultural state provide a big comfort zone.

This week the jihad lost its top field general, but in Somalia it may have gained a nation -- a new state base after the loss of Afghanistan. And in Toronto and London the picture isn't so clear: The forensic and surveillance successes were almost instantly undercut by the usual multicultural dissembling of the authorities. If you think the idea of some kook beheading prime ministers on video is nutty, maybe you're looking at things back to front. What's nutty is that, half a decade on from Sept. 11, the Saudis are still allowed to bankroll schools and mosques and think tanks and fast-track imam chaplaincy programs in prisons and armed forces around the world. Oil isn't the principal Saudi export, ideology is; petroleum merely bankrolls it. In Britain, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and elsewhere, second- and third-generation Muslims recognize the vapidity of the modern multicultural state for what it is -- a nullity, a national non-identity -- and so, for their own identity, they look elsewhere. To carry on letting Islamism fill it is to invite the re-primitivization of the world.

©Mark Steyn, 2006

[goldstategop]

What's the world's hottest global export today? Primitivization. The head hackers want to replace our civilized niceties with a pornographic infusion of beheading. This is the contribution of the global jihad to distant corners of the planet and it shows no signs of abating. The only question is whether the West's vapid multi-cultural states are equipped to resist it.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[RusIvan]

The only question is whether the West's vapid multi-cultural states are equipped to resist it. ==

The multi-cultiral state isn't equipped to resist it. We need to admit that some cultures are not compatible with us. SO we should expel those incompatible cultures from our countries. It is only solution.

[NutCrackerBoy]

In Britain, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and elsewhere, second- and third-generation Muslims recognize the vapidity of the modern multicultural state for what it is -- a nullity, a national non-identity -- and so, for their own identity, they look elsewhere. To carry on letting Islamism fill it is to invite the re-primitivization of the world. -Mark Steyn

How can a Renee Montagne babble on about the need for more generous social programs and not see before her eyes that the real weakness is the vacuum of cultural will?

[goldstategop]

In a way, they're right. Western liberals believe in nothing sacred. Well if they don't believe Man has a future on the earth, there's no harm, no foul in getting rid of them by extreme means. At least when you're a primitive barbarian, you believe in a cause. Just what do sophisticated liberals believe in besides themselves? Its a good question.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[metesky]

Non-porno Steyn bump.

Somebody wake up the Mods!

[JoeGar]

Excellent piece!

[Candor7]

in Somalia it may have gained a nation>>>>>>>>>>>>

To call Somalia a nation is to name what you find in a garbage can, a complete meal.

The Somalis will simply kill each other off to the point that only a few starving women, children and crippled old men are left.

Thank you prex-i-dent Clinton for not sending in tanks when you should have. I am remnded what a POS Clinton really is every time I read about Somalia.

[goldstategop]

If really want to eliminate Al Qaeda in Africa, just firebomb Mogadishu. No more AQ.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[Beckwith]

How can a Renee Montagne babble on about the need for more generous social programs and not see before her eyes that the real weakness is the vacuum of cultural will?

Because, deep down she's scared sh!tless and thinks she can buy off these people animals.

[goldstategop]

Liberals think every one's into being vegan and worshipping Mother Earth. They don't realize there are some people who place a low value on human life and care even less about protecting the environment. Liberals want to return to barbarism themselves - they just want to do it more delicately.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[blam]

" SO we should expel those incompatible cultures from our countries. It is only solution."

That's okay. We'll just shoot all the SOBs.

[Paladin2]

1st:

Zarqawi found himself on the receiving end of 500 pounds of U.S. ordnance justice(heeh, heeh, W said "justice").

2nd:

'Rats need to start marching around with "Stop Jihad Now!" signs.

[exnavy]

There are some very astute and well spoken concepts contained herein that need more voice in the media.

[yankeedame]

Liberals want to return to barbarism themselves - they just want to do it more delicately.

I question this. Oh, this isn't to say that there aren't a number of liberals who believe the above, knowingly or not. But bare in mind that Liberals,as a rule, consider themselves as:

-- a) the Anointed, and
-- b) (because of this) they are the only ones capable to guiding/directing the bulk of mankind.

The appalling failures of their Marxist endeavors of the 20th century mean nothing. Well, now wait a minute. Check that. That might be a little to neat-and-tiddy. Instead, lets say that if it means anything to them it is ingratitude and/or "sabotage" on our part. You know, us...the great unwashed. Ergo, I wouldn't be surprised if a number of The Anointed consider this Islamic Primitivization as a sort of refiner's fire. A fire kindled and stoked to burn away the dross both in and of (Western) mankind, leaving behind a tablet of metal smooth and shinning.

[gotribe]

And, even though the number of Ontarians prepared actively to participate in the beheading of the prime minister is undoubtedly minimal, the informal support of the jihad's aims by many Western Muslims and the quiescence of too many of the remainder and the ethnic squeamishness of the modern multicultural state provide a big comfort zone.

This is the only reason there are still terrorists for us to fight.

[alwaysconservative]

Excellent find, and thanks so much for posting an unexcerpted Steyn. I also liked the "gem" you quoted in starting this thread; it was core to the idea of the article.

[pleikumud]

"sophisticated liberals"

Now that's a laugh! As Reagan said, it isn't that liberals are ignorant, it just that they know so much that isn't true.

[finnigan2]

"They don't realize there are some people who place a low value on human life..."

- It's even scarier than that. The Islamofascist head hackers and suicide bombers can ruthlessly kill because they don't look upon non Moslem's as being, "human life". They believe that Christians and Jews are no different than pigs when it comes to having any rights to life. Only if you are a Moslem can you be accorded any sort of consideration - in the form of a Sharia based trial.
You cannot appease these people or appeal to their sense of fair play or reason. You can only hunt them down and kill them before they kill you.

[frankiep]

ping

[Pokey78]

Thanks.

Steyn ping!