Posted on 01/22/2007 11:03:41 AM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
Not always -- we didn't "kill" the Soviet Union, did we?
Ronald Reagan ended the policy of containment and confronted the communists head on both militarily, economically and ideologically and destroyed it.
A point Hitchens himself conceeds in his article.
In that regard, I feel bad for him. One gets the sense that in the periphery of his mind, he knows that the left is paralyzed, and will succumb without a fight. His last comment was actually quite sad. He's not far from admitting to himself that the guiding faith of his entire adult life is now in the hands of cowards and fanatics who will fail to stand firm against Islamic tyranny.
When I read Sam Harris’s irresponsible remark that only fascists seemed to have the right line, I murmured to myself: “Not while I’m alive, they won’t.” Nor do I wish to concede that Serbo-fascist ethnic cleansing can appear more rational in retrospect than it did at the time.
I don't know if Steyn or Fallaci have made that mistake or not, but I've been saying this here for a while: the civilized societies of this world have yet to effectively exploit the smoldering resentment of non-Arab islamic peoples around the globe against the suppression & oppression of their indiginous cultures by arab-funded wahabbists who've been aggressively imposing their savage perversions of Koranic doctrine & the peculiar versions of sharia they advocate as the only "true" islam in those places. We'd all do well to do what we can in the way of spreading agitation & propaganda to promote ethnic dissent & instigate rebellion from within these populations against the islamofascistic wahabbists in places like Indonesia et al.
Thanks so much for the CH post. He really does need his own ping list here, you know. I nominate you to manage it! ;-)
Hitchens begins by defending two of his friends whom he argues have confronted the Islamist menace after Steyn quotes them. I don't think Steyn was trying to argue that such men were perpetually blind to the threat, but that there was a position to be held minimalizing it.
He then pretty much praises Steyn but emphasizing that Steyn is overstating the problem. He says this:
a similar consciousness does animate movements like the British National Party and Le Pen’s Front Nationale. (Demographic considerations do not appear to explain the continued addiction of these and similar parties to anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism.)
I can explain this simply. BNP and FN have always been nationalist and against any foreigners (which they take to include Jews, for xenophobic and standard anti-Semitic reasons). But when it comes to Islamization, they are the only ones who speak on the subject. It's the most taboo topic on the planet. Responsible political leaders in Europe refuse to touch it, so it becomes the province of extremists. And so people, who want to put on blinders to the anti-Semitism in order to find some expression for their fears turn to the only place they can. A few, like Steyn and Hitchens, can speak as voices in the wilderness, but disaffected Europeans have turned to fascism before.
Then Hitchens goes on to argue for the divisions in Islam as being part of its weakness. All well and true. And irrelevant. There's nothing that unites the Islamic world like a common enemy. For example, the reason that Israel and the Palestinians get so much play in the Islamic world is that it is one uniting issue. Demagogues there can always distract the people by getting their ire up against the Jews and the Great Satan.
They'll fight each other, but only when no infidels are handy.
He also cites the Muslims who come to the West to embrace its values or to escape Islamism. All true. But even in the best of circumstances, if they convert, they will be under a death sentence from their peers. Because they are not alone in their adopted countries, there is a great deal of peer pressure to maintain the Islamic identity. The first Muslim immigrant in a graduate program is often known for his love of bacon and beer. Then, as the immigration increases, there's more pressure to be more Islamic. Islam is defined by the most radical of the group. All of a sudden, it's a contest to see how Muslim one can be: women go from just modest dress, to the hijab to the burka.
And then there's the children. Maybe they go to an ultra-moderate mosque. Maybe they never pray, but at some time in their lives, they look for an identity. And there's a ready-made one in which they are a soldier of God, they are allowed to have many subservient wives, get a paradise of kinky sex and get to be head honchos in a brave new holy world.
Hitchens should know that the 7/11 bombers were not immigrants, by and large, but Muslims born on British soil.
Still, he's a thoughtful guy and I think improves on Steyn's fundamental point. Of course, some of his prescriptions, We should not allow a single Saudi dollar to pay for propaganda within the U.S., for example, until Saudi Arabia also permits Jewish and Christian and secular practices, are unrealistic and unconstitutional. Some are great, including the change in quotas in favor of India (and I would argue Europe).
I wonder if Steyn has a response.
Interesting review of Steyn by Hitchens...
I agree that one can not "outlaw" an evil ideology. However, one can humiliate and invalidate it, as was done with Communism.
Placemarker for later ... I'm a Hitchens fan, his writing I mean.
ole Hitch sure believes in the State and Law doesn't he...how bout this ,,,cull the muslim herd by 40%...see if that doesn't quiet them a bit
So we have to put up with it??
Let's not!
I wonder where the author thinks all those Christians went?
Regards,
TS
Re post 21, actually "we" that is "the west" led by the USA, of course, did kill the Soviet Union. It has been wiped off the map. Splintered into many parts.
Compounding the problem, Europe’s multicultural authorities, many of its welfare agencies, and many of its churches treat the most militant Muslims as the minority’s “real” spokesmen.
BINGO - as does the european MSM and BBC.
Hitch Ping.
Thanks for the ping. I prefer Steyn.
There is an Arab saying:
I and my brother will fight my cousins.
But if a stranger appears
I and my brother will join my cousins
to fight the stranger.
I think this saying can be extended to the entire Moslem world.
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