World War IV? IV?
Posted on 09/09/2007 8:49:52 AM PDT by goldstategop
Likewise, those 9/11 families should know that, if you want your child's death that morning to have meaning, what matters is not whether you hound Boeing into admitting liability but whether you insist that the movement that murdered your daughter is hunted down and the sustaining ideological virus that led thousands of others to dance up and down in the streets cheering her death is expunged from the earth.
In his pugnacious new book, Norman Podhoretz calls for redesignating this conflict as World War IV. Certainly, it would have been easier politically to frame the Iraq campaign as being a front in a fourth world war than as a necessary measure in an anti-terrorist campaign. Yet who knows? Perhaps we would still have mired ourselves in legalists and conspiracies and the dismal curdled relativism of the Flight 93 memorial's "crescent of embrace." In the end, as Podhoretz says, if the war is to be fought at all, it will "have to be fought by the kind of people Americans now are." On this sixth anniversary, as 9/11 retreats into history, many Americans see no war at all.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
World War IV? IV?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Hear, Hear!
It's only about 14 centuries overdue, too.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Insanely futile, too; none of that other stuff matters at all if the "clear and present" - and real -danger isn't dealt with properly.
Yup IV. Even back when it was on, Podhoretz, and a fair number of the rest of us insisted that the ‘Cold War’ was World War III.
It was fought on every continent save Antarctica and Australia (though the Diggers help with the fight in Asia in both the Korean and Vietnamese campaigns). Sure it was done in slow motion, and the principals never went head to head, save in some all-maneuver battles (the Cuban Missile Crisis and Berlin Airlift)—but there have been all-maneuver battles before in history, notably in the early gunpowder era in the Iberian peninsula.
It was a curious war in its ending, in that the decisive campaign consisted of constructing weapons and faking telemetry results, but it was a World War, nonetheless.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
In many ways this WOT is very much a continuation of the Cold War, the players are very much the same, the Left/Communist aligned with their anti-West Jihadist vs the Free West, mainly the US and Australia and the recovering Eastern Europeans.
Could also be called WW 3.5, however, IMO it will be fought to the death this time!
I'd almost be grateful for that. I fear they would rather have us capitulate.
If the HillBilly couple had not inhabited the White House for 8 years, I absolutely believe that 9/11 would not have happened. The HillBilly couple were only in DC to further their own interests....Bill-women and Hill-power. If there had been a rational mature adult in charge during the 90’s, the 9/11 plan, years in the making, hopefully would have been uncovered. I find it appalling that so many want the Clintons back in our White House.
Half of our citizenry needs to wake up and confront the reality of fanatical Islam. Our half of the country already is aware and fighting. Only when we have a united populace will we be able to win. This is a forever war and we will forever have to be vigilant. The global warming/universal health care crowd is either completely ignorant or they so loath the USA that they would celebrate our cultural destruction.
ping
Bullseye!
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L0L! Slap'em silly Mark!
Steyn is profilic. What a way with words...
Hard to pick one excellent point, but I choose this one:
“Yet the meaning they’re after surely strikes our enemies not just as extremely odd but as one more reason why they’ll win. You launch an act of war, and the victims respond with a lawsuit against their own countrymen.”
Excellent article. I’ll be buying that book, too.
Don’t forget: 1/3 of Americans, during the Revolutionary War, joined the fight; 1/3 left for Canada; 1/3 wanted to keep their heads down and be left alone.
In Germany in the 1930’s, Karl Stern wrote that the Jewish women were the ones who sensed danger and insisted that their families leave. The men were too engaged in day-to-day activities and were busy putting out ‘brushfires’ around them.
The Battle of Lepanto (1571), a decisive battle that finally stopped the MUSLIMS in the Mediterranean, was fought by the very few in Europe who understood the Muslim threat. The Protestants were so busy with the Reformation that they buried their heads in denial and refused to join in.
Many were in denial in these past chapters; it is THE default mode of humans, I suspect. The ‘sheepdogs’ have to honor their suspicions of danger and step up to the fight. It takes too much energy to convince those who choose to not see.
Whether it’s WWWIII, WWIV or WWWV, it’s a world war.
Meaning?
As Andrew McCarthy pointed out, a legalistic culture invariably misses the forest for the trees. Sen. Craig should know that what matters is not whether an artful lawyer can get him off on a technicality but whether the public thinks he trawls for anonymous sex in public bathrooms. Likewise, those 9/11 families should know that, if you want your child's death that morning to have meaning, what matters is not whether you hound Boeing into admitting liability but whether you insist that the movement that murdered your daughter is hunted down and the sustaining ideological virus that led thousands of others to dance up and down in the streets cheering her death is expunged from the earth.
In his pugnacious new book, Norman Podhoretz calls for redesignating this conflict as World War IV. Certainly, it would have been easier politically to frame the Iraq campaign as being a front in a fourth world war than as a necessary measure in an anti-terrorist campaign. Yet who knows? Perhaps we would still have mired ourselves in legalists and conspiracies and the dismal curdled relativism of the Flight 93 memorial's "crescent of embrace." In the end, as Podhoretz says, if the war is to be fought at all, it will "have to be fought by the kind of people Americans now are." On this sixth anniversary, as 9/11 retreats into history, many Americans see no war at all
Nailed It!
Moral Clarity BUMP !
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Every time I think of the 9/11 Commission I get ill.... What a joke !
It's a forever war until islam is reformed or destroyed. Which do you think will happen?
“It seems odd that a fascist regime that thinks nothing of killing thousands of people in a big landmark building in the center of the city hasn’t quietly offed some of these dissident professors – or at least the guy with the sticker-printing contract.”
This is exactly what I’ve been thinking. I watched part of that 9/11 conspiracy-theory show last night, and with all the blowhards on there talking about how it was the US gov (mostly, Bush) doing everything from dropping the ball deliberately to planning the whole thing, I’m thinking, “WHY AREN’T YOU GUYS *DEAD*, IF IT’S SO TERRIBLE HERE?”
Of course, they’d probably say it’s because the conspiracy is so complete that they wouldn’t kill of dissenting individuals to make it obvious.
“You launch an act of war, and the victims respond with a lawsuit against their own countrymen.”
Know why? Because we’ve become a society that is not only so spoiled rotten, but that thinks there must be something to punish for every problem they have (think of Katrina - a natural disaster).
Since the hands are tied about punishing the foreign miscreants - and I mean directly, such as Saudi interests and beating up Osama, etc. - they turn to those they can easily confront and whip. Anything outside the US is hard to punish, so they turn inward. It’s the blame game, and people seem to need someone to beat on - and who easier than an inside US party?
One of the reasons Bin Laden attacked us on 9/11 is that he thought he can get away with it and can escalate the slow boiling war of relatively small attacks into something bigger without significant consequences to himself. From our side one of the reasons to respond with a war was a message - don’t mess with us - it will be painful to you.
What happens in reality is that this message is diluted to nothingness. Qaddafi is probably kicking himself that he surrendered his nuclear programme way too soon.
One of the biggest contributors to this situation is anti-war Left. All the convoluted rules of engagement and “you can’t do this” and “you can’t do that” lead to a prolonged struggle that did not have to be that long. I am not saying that it would have been a cake-walk, but we’d be perceived as a strong horse and jihadists as not. As it now, the question of who is the strong horse is very much open, and that makes the fighting so much more difficult and ultimately bloodier. If the “bleeding hearts” really had suffering in mind, they’d support the quick “get over with it” strategy minimizing suffering in the long run.
bttt
Likewise, those 9/11 families should know that, if you want your child's death that morning to have meaning, what matters is not whether you hound Boeing into admitting liability but whether you insist that the movement that murdered your daughter is hunted down and the sustaining ideological virus that led thousands of others to dance up and down in the streets cheering her death is expunged from the earth.
BINGO
Ping
I don’t know. I suspect that the resolution will be years in the making. I’m hoping for reform but acknowledge that the fanatics will not settle for reform. Sane Muslims (and I DO believe that there are sane Muslims in this world) must stand with the rest of the world in condemning the fanatics. So far that hasn’t happened. The USA seems content to cater to Muslims at every turn and this will not force their hand. We need some strength in running this country. Sadly, I don’t believe I have seen this in any who are running for the nomination. Even those who are running on the ‘strong USA’ platform are too PC for me.
Until we, as a country, declare that we have had it with those who would try to destroy us (including the delusional lefties) it will be a forever war.
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