The liberal media: keeping a friendly face on Islam.
Posted on 07/07/2007 10:09:49 PM PDT by DieHard the Hunter
It was one of the many extraordinary acts of heroism which ennobled the dreadful slaughter of 9/11: the storming of the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93.
Realising that their Boeing 757 airliner was about to be used as a massive cruise missile against either the White House or the United States Capitol building, some of the passengers decided to try to overpower the terrorists who had hijacked their flight.
One of those passengers, Todd Beamer, communicated the details of their plan to Lisa Jefferson, a cellphone credit supervisor.
As they readied themselves to storm the cockpit, she heard Todd say: "Are you guys ready? Let's roll."
"Let's roll" immediately became America's battle cry in the War Against Terror.
But, had the departure of Flight 93 from Newark International Airport not been delayed by 40 minutes, it is doubtful the passengers would ever have apprehended the hijackers' true intentions.
Having seized control of the plane, the terrorists attempted to lull their victims into the false belief that they were involved in nothing more than a routine hijacking.
Air Traffic Control recorded the reassuring words of Ziad Jarrah, the terrorist "pilot": "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking, please sit down and remain seated. We have a bomb on board the aircraft and are returning to the airport. Please try to remain calm."
It was only through the in-flight telephone service, and by using their personal cellphones, that passengers learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
They knew then that there was no bomb on board the plane.
The plane was the bomb. That Todd and his friends failed to force the cockpit door in time to prevent Jarrah from slamming the aircraft into a near-vertical dive and crashing it into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, is less important than the fact that they did not "go quietly into that good night".
They went down fighting, and saved the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of their fellow citizens.
The heroic resistance of the passengers on Flight 93 offers us a potent metaphor of the dynamics of authority and obedience. It is also a powerful demonstration of the courage that flows from facing an awful reality and then doing something about it.
Finally, it bears testimony to the critical importance of accurate information to effective decision-making.
Since the 1980s humanity has been made hostage to an ideology every bit as fanatical as that which inspired the hijackers of Flight 93.
Deranged bureaucrats and ruthless corporate leaders smuggled their box-cutter lies on to the aircraft of state, wrested control from the pilots and the crews, and set us all on a new and deadly course.
Their mouthpieces, too, have attempted to secure our compliance by telling us that there is a bomb on the plane; that if we attempt to regain control, the "markets" will "lose confidence" in our governments and our economies will crash.
But, as the friend to whom I am indebted for this metaphor put it in a recent e-mail: "What nobody seems to have realised is that neoliberalism is not, in fact, sustainable, that if you let the hijackers do what they want they will fly the plane into the ground."
Because the fanaticism driving neo-liberalism's behaviour is remarkably similar to that of the jihadists, both groups are seized by an overwhelming fear of failure.
The neo-liberals believe that human happiness is born of selfishness. The jihadists equate it with universal submission to Sharia law.
They've staked everything on their definitions of social perfection being true.
But Sharia law is cruel and oppressive and creates societies in its own image while selfishness, enforced through market mechanisms, undermines the ethical values that make long-term economic relationships viable.
Like all fanatics, however, the neo-liberals and the jihadists "can't handle the truth" of their ideology's/religion's failure and so project it on to the rest of us. We are the ones who have failed; we are the ones who are weak; we are the ones who must be punished.
The jihadists scourge us with hijacked aircraft and car bombs; the neo-liberals with an out-ofcontrol economic juggernaut that ploughs nations under while spewing out greenhouse gases.
As evidence of their failure accumulates, the punishment intensifies.
That, ultimately, they will share the fate of their victims never occurs to fanatics.
How much longer before humanity cries: "Are you guys ready? Let's roll."
My interpretation is that the 'Fanatics' he is talking about are believers in the free market, whom, he thinks, have 'taken control' of Socialist New Zealand!!
> My interpretation is that the ‘Fanatics’ he is talking about are believers in the free market, whom, he thinks, have ‘taken control’ of Socialist New Zealand!!
That is certainly one way to read it. But what of the “neo-liberals” that he speaks about?
I’m hoping this signals the Left biting and scratching and eating itself. There is Buckley’s Chance of Chris Trotter joining the right, but I’m quite happy if he leads a charge against the Loony Left.
There is a real problem with liberalism because it has been throughly hijacked by what can best be described as an insane crew. When a group of people who claim to be humanitarian can’t find a bad thing to say about people who want to remove their heads from their bodies and institute a world wide hard line religious law then there is something seriously wrong. It isn’t really that complicated. We don’t have to hearken back to perceived misdeeds of our forbears to understand the difference between oppression and freedom. One does not excuse the atrocities of the present because of the errors of the past but that is exactly the tack of the left.
They celebrate Chavez and Castro, defend Kim Jong Ill, seek to ameliorate Ahmadinejad. There doesn’t seem to be a ruthless dictator they can not tolerate but ask them to show the same for the leader of the free world and they sling slurs of fascist as if they have no idea what the word means. My personal opinion is that it is quickly becoming apparent that the only way to deal with the crazed and traitorous left is to imprison them otherwise the free world will be left at the mercy of the new barbarians.
What I suggest may seem radical but it was not so long ago that the La Times was supporting internment camps for Japanese Americans who had committed no crime at all after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The left today is by even the most strict definition traitorous, they are worse than the radical Muslim threat because they sow the most poisonous propaganda which disables us from within. If the left succeeds in opening us up to another attack they will not find a safe place to sleep while those of us who love our country persist. The black hooded cowards who burn our soldiers in effigy and cheer the enemy will find a darker hole to occupy than they ever imagined existed.
IMHO 'neo-liberal' refers to those who follow the ideas of 'liberals' of the 18th and early 19th centuries, such as Adam Smith and the younger John Stuart Mill.
The liberal media: keeping a friendly face on Islam.
Have you heard of this term “nihilism” or “byronism”? It is defined as extreme skepticism, rejection of all moral distinctions, complete denial of all established authority and institutions, total and absolute destructiveness including oneself. It developed in the late 20th century U.S.S.R., and immigrated to the U.S. educational system during the Cold War. The Cold War continues to be waged within America’s borders, eating us alive like a cancer. I see various aspects of nihilism in the modern liberal attitude. The only cure I can think of is that these people need God (Christ).
> Flight 93 is a real life example that disproves the pacifist left: when people DON’T fight back, MORE people get killed. What would have happened if the passengers in the three other flights would have fought back? The body count may have been under one thousand; compared to three thousand or the originally estimated tens of thousands. Its comforting to discover kindred thinking from a place so distant from the U.S.
Amen. I was disappointed that Chris Trotter forgot to mention the lone Kiwi on Flight 93: Alan Beaven, environmental lawyer and martial artist. It is almost certain that he was involved in the storming of the cockpit. I have heard that his voice is recognizable on the black box (he’d have a distinctive South Pacific accent).
Not to take away from Todd Beamer (a true Hero) but there *was* one of Our Own — a Kiwi battler — on that flight, and I’d like to think he accounted for one-or-two terrorists on his way to Immortality...
This might have deserved a mention from a Kiwi journalist. But hey! The general thrust of the editorial I agree with.
Worldwide economic boom = “ the neo-liberals with an out-ofcontrol economic juggernaut that ploughs nations under while spewing out greenhouse gases.”
> My personal opinion is that it is quickly becoming apparent that the only way to deal with the crazed and traitorous left is to imprison them otherwise the free world will be left at the mercy of the new barbarians.
I’d hope to think there’s a better Way Forward than this. The terrorist mungrels are hoping that our Western Society reverts to fascism: a self-defeating act.
They have a genius plot and leverage that way: they are forcing us to stoop to their level, using our rules and laws against us to achieve their own evil ends (because they recognize neither rules nor laws nor even morality: but they shall cower behind our Morality and Laws and sense of Fair Play.
That is why they are mungrels! The Rules must apply to us, but not to them. Our challenge is to outsmart ‘em! And outsmart ‘em we shall and we must!)
And, in the background, the mungrels can rely upon a significant number amongst us to agree with them, and thus weaken our Civilization’s Last Stand. Witness Gitmo, and the number of well-intentioned morons who thing Gitmo, renditioning and Waterboarding are Bad Ideas.
Crikey! How depressing...
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Thus, the radical Muslims are the liberals’ friends ‘cause America is the liberals’ enemy
Chris Trotter - idiot fodder appears to be saying that the free-market inspires Islamic terror.
Deranged bureaucrats and ruthless corporate leaders smuggled their box-cutter lies on to the aircraft of state, wrested control from the pilots and the crews, and set us all on a new and deadly course.
Their mouthpieces, too, have attempted to secure our compliance by telling us that there is a bomb on the plane; that if we attempt to regain control, the "markets" will "lose confidence" in our governments and our economies will crash.
By regain control he means return to failed Keynesian machinations.
But, as the friend to whom I am indebted for this metaphor put it in a recent e-mail: "What nobody seems to have realised is that neoliberalism is not, in fact, sustainable, that if you let the hijackers do what they want they will fly the plane into the ground."
Flight 93 flew into the ground because the center of mass drastically shifted with the rush of patriots from the back of the plane to the front, thus overcoming the trim that the inept hijacker pilot had dialed-in, causing it to nose down drastically out of control.
Because the fanaticism driving neo-liberalism's behaviour is remarkably similar to that of the jihadists, both groups are seized by an overwhelming fear of failure.
I understood that Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and those other neoliberals had a fear of Socialist or Keynesian "five year plans"
The neo-liberals believe that human happiness is born of selfishness. The jihadists equate it with universal submission to Sharia law.
The nobly human concept of enlightened self-interest equates to Islamic Terrorists' theocratic desideratum. Stuff and nonsense!
...out-of control economic juggernaut that ploughs nations under while spewing out greenhouse gases.
Oh my God! Those evil corporations causing Global Warming. /s
For decades, the rules of hijacking were consistent — do what they say, get on the ground, and then re-evaluate whether to negotiate or storm the plane. From Entebbe to Beirut, it was the strategy that worked best.
The passengers on 93 had information the passengers and crews of the other three planes lacked. They knew the old rules were gone, and that the hijackers had no intention of landing anywhere. They were not interested in negotiating anything.
When they stormed that cabin, they must have known — even if they did not allow themselves to think about it — that they were very likely sacrificing their lives, and those of some of their loved ones, to save unknown numbers of others.
Like those who laid down their lives at Thermopylae, Masada, The Alamo Gallipoli or Bataan, the passengers are Flight 93 are heroes, and they deserve every honor and reverence.
But while those heroics represent great personal courage, they are not a plan of action.
Our goal must be to identify, track, pinpoint, prepare against and defeat our enemies. To arm and prepare before anyone is backed into such a corner. To draw the battle lines before another Thermopylae, Masada, Alamo, Gallipoli, Bataan, or 93.
Bit of a stretch here, I think. If the passengers on the three other flights had fought back, would they have saved lives, since their own were lost anyway? Certainly. It's also true that lives would have been saved if fighters had shot down the errant airliners. That's pure 20-20 hindsight. If only someone had strangled Hitler in his crib ...
The standard approach of going along with terrorists, with getting the plane on terra firma and dealing with the situation from there, was not the child of fuzzy liberal or pacifist thinking. It was the result of empirical evidence of what had worked before.
It was also smart tactics -- take the hijackers from someplace they're in total control to someplace they're surrounded. Worst-case scenario is that they set off the bomb on the tarmac instead of in the air. Worst-case scenario on the ground, you might lose all the innocents -- best-case scenario in mid-air, you almost certainly lose them all.
Before 9/11, hijacked planes and passengers were hostages, and the rules of hostage negotiation applied. I can't blame anyone -- not the aircrews or passengers of the first three planes, and not the government -- for following a plan that had worked before. Everything is a surprise the first time.
The flip side is that everything is ONLY a surprise the first time. Try to pull a 9/11 again, to threaten people with a box cutter, and you'll have ten people on your ass. On your best day, you might take two or three with you. But they're gonna need to sample your DNA off my shoe or out of my teeth, whether I survive or not, because there won't be enough to use dental records.
I was disappointed that Chris Trotter forgot to mention the lone Kiwi on Flight 93: Alan Beaven, environmental lawyer and martial artist. It is almost certain that he was involved in the storming of the cockpit. I have heard that his voice is recognizable on the black box (he’d have a distinctive South Pacific accent).
Not forgotten. I didn't know he was a Kiwi -- with so many casualties, there was a lot of confusion between the official home, the home on the passenger manifest, and the person's place of birth/origin. From all accounts, Beaven did y'all proud.
> From Entebbe to Beirut, it was the strategy that worked best.
Yes! And wasn’t Entebbe a nasty surprise for the hijacking scroats! They weren’t counting on the Israelis doing something heretofore unheard-of in the annals of modern warfare and doing a daring commando raid on foreign hostile soil, led by Yonatan Netanyahu and his band of merrie men, machine-gunning the lot and bringing the hostages home...
(God rest Yonnie. Well done, Lad!)
It’s table-turning actions like Entebbe and Flite 93 that will be the end of these vile terrorist scroats. They expect Civilization to play by “The Rules”. It might just pay for “The Rules” to be changed from time-to-time. That is why Gitmo, renditioning and the waterboard are great ideas. The Bad Guys are relying on Civilization to play faithfully to defined rules of engagement. They need to learn that Rules are a professional courtesy only extended to Civilized people and not to terrorist scroats.
*DieHard*
> Like those who laid down their lives at Thermopylae, Masada, The Alamo Gallipoli or Bataan, the passengers are Flight 93 are heroes, and they deserve every honor and reverence.
Amen. Well said!
The 5:30 highjacking is all sold out but tickets are still available for the 7:00 highjacking.
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