It is no wonder that jihadists everywhere imagine we can so easily be beaten when western MSM outlets are often filled with capitulators and defeatists. The Wisconsin State Journal has just such a foolish, western dupe in it's May 10th issue in a column by Kevin J. Mack who is scolding us all that these "so-called terrorists" just need a little understanding... as if they are merely errant teenagers who need a stern talking to and a little parental lovin'. And, Mack's sentiment that it is really all our fault is all too common in the media today.
In a column titled "Let's try educating 'terrorists' [We're not all like Bush/Gingrich so leave us alone!]", Mack claims that Newt Gingrich helped lead him to his conclusion that we just don't "understand" those poor Islamofascists.
I heard Newt Gingrich say, on "Face the Nation" Sunday morning, that "...we're up against a savagery and a ferocity that we don't understand..." and I wanted to say, stop right there. Don't speak for me. Don't think you speak for all of us. We don't understand? You don't understand.After scolding Newt (and those of us who support him by extension), Mack proves it is he, rather, who doesn't understand...
These people (he's talking about the "Global War on Terror," and these "terrorists" around the world, though the subject was the Iraq war) act as so-called terrorists because they have become convinced that it is in their best interest to do so."So-Called terrorists", Mr. Mack?
Mack ultimately shows that he falls into the category of American Dhimi who views Islamofascism through the prism of U.S. domestic politics and western, democratic templates instead of with any grasp of the subject upon which he expounds when he pleads with them to understand "that we're not all like George Bush (or Newt)" in his closing statement.
So much for his "understanding".
He compounds his interjection of American politics into his misunderstanding of radical Muslim's motivations by imagining that -- in classic leftist group think fashion -- it is poverty that causes them to suicide bomb women and children.
They have little to live for in this world, especially when what they have in this world is compared to what they shall have in the next world if they just... what? Serve Allah? Kill the infidels? Die for the cause? Not so hard to understand, is it?Ah, the old poor-people-have-no-hope argument, the one so often used to support socialist programs of income redistribution. Only, that argument holds no water and never has. It isn't poverty that causes hopelessness and violence. If it was, crime during America's Great Depression would have been at a high never before or since equalled... but it wasn't. Somehow, I can't find all the times when poor Americans suicide bombed their fellows during the Depression, either.
Mack goes on to show his hatred for religion, which he constantly puts in quotes to show his disdain ("Christian", "religious", etc.), and to make the claim that all we have to do is "educate" those "so-called" terrorists and all will come up honey and roses. Mack also imagines that our declaring war against them is "pointless, homicidal, suicidal and completely wrong."
Mack does seem to vaguely recognize that they wish us ill will...
So how should we respond? They do, after all, want to "kill us all" (some few of them anyway) and while they'll never be able to, I don't think we should just sit on our hands and let them blow up buildings and airplanes either.But his "solution" is a utopian, foolishness that will only get us killed and them in power.
What should we do? Well, lots of things that are both proactive and reactive but mostly, how about we educate them?Geeze, it's so SIMPLE. Why didn't we all think of that? And if they don't want to learn this lesson do we send them to the corner for a little time out, Mackie?Educate them to the fact that they are being deluded. That murderers of innocents don't go straight to paradise. That asking questions is not a bad thing and that blind obedience to anyone or any group is.
This guy is completely clueless and his wonderful, pie-in-the-sky ideas will just get more of us killed. But his obvious disdain for his own people/traditions is quite obvious.
Now, I have spent much time on this inconsequential fellow in a back water paper that no one reads, so you might be asking if I am making too much out of this? I would reply that Mack's example isn't, by any means, the only MSM source that exhibits such ill conceived notions as is evidenced by an article in the Seattle Times that assures us that radical Muslims see the USA as the problem for a legitimate reason, in essence giving jihadists their blessing and showing that they "understand" their hate.
And why does Times Columnist Bruce Ramsey say it is understandable that they hate us so? It's because of Abu Ghraib, our "immoral culture", and our agreement to support Denmark when they went and published those cartoons he calls "blasphemous to Muslims".
Yes, fake torture, TV and movies and a newspaper cartoon legitimizes their "anger".
To Ramsey and Mack, it's really all OUR fault. And since these two columns are echoed across the MSM it is evidence that the rest of the MSM agrees with the premise of our "guilt".
So, when jihadists look to our media and see all agreeing with them, why wouldn't they imagine they are only a day away from total victory? After all, even their enemies (us) agree that we are the problem. How long could we hold out when we are so in doubt of our own virtue?
Thanks, MSM. Thanks for giving an enemy that wants all of us dead or subjugated the resolve to continue their efforts. At least you are supporting someone.