Why the Left Loves Osama [and Saddam] by Daniel Pipes

Cite the column by URL, please. I'll make up my own mind; I'm in the habit of doing that. Everything I've seen from Pipes so far has been admirable.

"Charlatan" and "fascist" are strong terms of condemnation, loaded both denotationally and connotationally. I look down on persons who fling them around without sufficient reason. We shall see if I consider your reasons to be sufficient.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason:
http://palaceofreason.com

41 posted on 08/21/2003 6:05:03 AM PDT by fporretto (This tagline is programming you in ways that will not be apparent for years. Forget! Forget!)

42 posted on 08/21/2003 6:11:20 AM PDT by JohnGalt (For Democracy, any man would give his only begotten son.)

43 posted on 08/21/2003 6:17:42 AM PDT by JohnGalt (They're All Lying)

I've read the article. Pipes is unimpeachably correct.

When one deals with nations and "movements" and "non-State actors," one is involved with collectivities. Though regrettable, this is inescapable, and will be so for as long as there are nations, "movements," and "non-State actors." Collectivities cannot be dealt with according to the same rules and methods that govern justice among individuals. Would that it were otherwise! We could simply have arrested Hitler and Tojo and clapped them behind bars, rather than mobilizing 12 million men, sacrificing a quarter million dead and spending many billions of dollars.

The Muslims of the Middle East, by all the measures we can apply, are solidly behind Osama bin Laden, militant Islam, and the Palestinian irredentists. They are enablers of these killers: sometimes passive, but sometimes horrifyingly active. Were the United States to destroy their entire "civilization" down to the last babe-in-arms, on the simple ground that they cannot or will not control their own maniacs, we would be amply justified. If there are Muslims who deserve better, it's up to them to sort themselves out from the rest and prove it to us.

The Bush Administration is probing for an effective measure short of that, of course, which is admirable. But if it should come to pass that nothing else will work, then killing them all to prevent even one more act of violence against a non-Muslim would have my blessing. These are people, after all, who believe that non-Muslims -- "infidels," in their charming term -- have no rights a Muslim is required to respect. They believe Allah has licensed them to deceive, defraud, coerce, enslave, and kill non-Muslims whenever it is expedient.

There's quite an irony in that. An "infidel," etymologically, is one who is unfaithful. That is, he cannot be trusted to keep his given word. To which community does that epithet better apply: the Judeo-Christian West, or the world of Islam?

Your condemnations are therefore dismissed, as are you.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason:
http://palaceofreason.com

44 posted on 08/21/2003 6:46:55 AM PDT by fporretto (This tagline is programming you in ways that will not be apparent for years. Forget! Forget!)

If you think 'we should become more like them,' you lose credibility. You once were a worthwhile thinker in these parts but now you are just another 'me too.'

It's too bad.

45 posted on 08/21/2003 6:51:02 AM PDT by JohnGalt (They're All Lying)

To: Revolting cat!

Daniel Pipes is a dangerous man!

The key question: Dangerous to whom?

46 posted on 08/21/2003 6:58:14 AM PDT by steve-b

All Pipes says is true, but he doesn't make that final leap.

Leftism is death worship.

Please demonstrate what you mean. Why is Leftism death worship? How is Leftism death worship?

47 posted on 08/21/2003 7:46:11 AM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla (You can't see where we're going when you don't look where we've been.)

DATELINE: March 19, 2003

Why did you post this pre-Iraq war piece on August 20 Dennis?

48 posted on 08/21/2003 7:50:15 AM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla (You can't see where we're going when you don't look where we've been.)

49 posted on 08/21/2003 11:50:12 AM PDT by spodefly (This is my tagline. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)

To: Avoiding_Sulla

Please demonstrate what you mean. Why is Leftism death worship? How is Leftism death worship?

See post number 21 (not mine). They are all in favor of things their "allies" would kill them for.

50 posted on 08/21/2003 11:50:52 AM PDT by Salman (Mickey Akbar)

So all you meant by their death worshipping was that they are rushing headlong, blindly, in typical liberalist inconsistency, to their own destruction?

I thought you had something more specific in mind. In my experience, Lefitst's nihilists rarely intend themselves included in the mayhem they wish on the establishment they despise. They want to survive both to make sure "reactionaries" don't survive, and to see what new may arise from the ashes. In both cases (your understanding and mine) they are deranged, but at least in the latter case they have some semblance of a wish to see a future.

51 posted on 08/21/2003 12:11:15 PM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla (You can't see where we're going when you don't look where we've been.)

To: Avoiding_Sulla

Lefitst's nihilists rarely intend themselves included in the mayhem they wish on the establishment they despise...

It's both. All of their schemes tend toward destruction, including of themselves.

52 posted on 08/21/2003 12:59:23 PM PDT by Salman (Mickey Akbar)

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