Not enough attention is given in the Western, and especially in the American, press, to all those Al Qaeda bulletins about "bleeding" the West of its economic resources. There is a keen understanding of how much this "war on terror" costs the West, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Administration, no doubt, would prefer that the public not focus on this. But the "wealth weapon," or the economic weapon, is a key instrument of the worldwide Jihad. Money that the Muslims possess is used to spread Islam, to pay for mosques, madrasas, propaganda, and Western hirelings. And simultaneously, there is an effort to bleed the West, to have it engage in the most expensive counter-measures.
The Administration appears unable to consider the cheapest ways to weaken the camp of Islam, and hence the camp of Jihad. It thinks only in expensive military terms. It thinks of huge expenditures to swat a gnat or two -- three terrorists over here, and on a good day, perhaps as many as twenty, or thirty. Are they crazy? These numbers are absurd. They are absurd by comparison with any other war. And they are absurd because these terrorists are easily replaced -- replaced by recruits who simply continue recruiting, aided by the texts of Islam, by what it says in Qur'an and Hadith.
It is the Western world that should be inflicting as much economic damage as it possibly can on the camp of Islam, and hence the camp of Jihad. It should, at a minimum, cease any unnecessary transfer of wealth from Infidels to Muslims. This means no more foreign aid, which is merely disguised Jizyah. Let poor Muslims ask for support from rich Muslims, and either get it (and then they will promptly ask for more, and more) or not get it (in which case they will threaten the wellbeing of those rich Muslims, and show that Muslim solidarity means that the rich Muslims will pay for poor Muslims to fight and die but will not pay them so that they might live and prosper -- and that is a lesson that needs to be learned by everyone).
Take that half-trillion now spent, or irrevocably committed to, the wars in Iraq and Afghnanistan. Suppose instead we had spent that $500 billion in the United States on building nuclear reactors, on building wind farms, on research and development of new kinds of solar collectors, and on subsidizing mass transit, and on biofuels, and cleaner coal scrubbers, and so on? What would the effect have been?
Would that way of spending $500 billion done more to cripple the camp of Islam, and thereby reduce the threat that the ideology of Jihad could effectively be put into practice, than the wars in Iraq? At this point Iraq is nothing more than a colossal waste. Still worse, the continued presence of American soldiers actually prevents the only kind of "victory" -- sectarian and ethnic strife both within Iraq and outside Iraq, in other Muslim countries -- that the West should not be seeking to discourage, any more than it should strive for "stability" in the Muslim lands that are sponsoring in various ways the worldwide Jihad. Constant instability, constant fear of threats from within or from bullies without (as with Qatar and Kuwait fearing Iran, and Saudi Arabia, and possibly a revived, if slightly diminished in size, Shi'a Iraq), is what we should seek.
A la guerre comme a la guerre. This is something that Bright Young Conservatives at My Weekly Standard, elderly pomposities uttering their portentous obviousnesses (Anthony Cordesman comes immediately to mind), never realize. Neither do students of international affairs who know neither history, nor Islam, nor the world, because they have gone from the Johns Hopkins or Yale or Princeton or Harvard degree programs in international thisandthat, or possibly gotten law degrees as the credential to be turned into "international NGOish expertise" -- careerists on the make, breathlessly presenting their messianic views on What Is To Be Done, and never stopping to read a few books.
Look at them. Look at weapons-systems analyst Wolfowitz. Look at the assorted "terrorist experts" appearing on the Nightly News. Look, and listen, for mention of Islam and the Jihad. See if it occurs to any of them to suggest that our goal in Iraq should be one thing: to weaken the camp of Islam, and hence the camp of Jihad. Those who support the war have the wrong goals. Those who oppose the war, oppose it for all the wrong reasons.
A fantastic situation.
I am defining a term “Indian jihadi sympathizer”, including non-Muslims, as someone who:
* supports special assistance and in particular, reservation for Indian Muslims
* supports the existence of special laws for Indian Muslims at the expense of uniform civil code
* rejects deportation of Bangladeshi Muslims in India
* Exaggerate Muslim losses in acts of violence while downplaying Hindu losses; ignore or downplay Muslim violence but magnify or even invent a Hindu role
* supports Article 370, defining special status for Kashmir
* discourages close Indo-American or Indo-Israel relations
In addition to the above requirements, I am defining another category called “Indian jihadi”, as a person who in addition satisfies three more requirements:
* An Indian Muslim leader who has recently and consistently demanded “secularism” in Muslim minority India but supports Islamic law in Muslim majority countries
* An Indian Muslim leader who exaggerates Muslim losses in acts of violence while downplaying Hindu losses; ignore or downplay Muslim role in acts of violence but magnify or even invent a Hindu role
* An Indian Muslim leader who accuses the majority of “oppressing” Indian Muslims and asks Indian Muslims to confront the majority on “grievances” while the reality has been that from every Muslim majority area of South Asia non-Muslims have been mostly driven out
Our failures we do to ourselves, and we fight in Iraq for ourselves. The West has developed a conscience when it comes to waging war. In order to satisfy our conscience, we must first attempt to "help" the Muslims.
Our endeavor here in Iraq will fail. At some point after we leave, the Iraqis will devolve into either a chaotic bloodbath or yet another failed authoritarian regime. You are right: the sectarian violence is only a problem for us. This is what a Muslim country looks like when it is "stabilizing". But after this effort goes down the toilet, we will be able to say to ourselves, "We have tried." We have tried to be good; we have tried to be humanitarian. These values are only important in our civilization, so it was necessary for us to attempt to honor them here. But they are not compatible with THIS civilization - the Islamic one.
The next time around - the next 9/11 or what have you - perhaps we will then be able to finally say, "No more." We should invade Saudi, take the oil, Mecca, and the Kabba. Maybe even fly Old Glory from the minerets of the Great Mosque, and have a Jewish soldier come down and fry bacon on the top of the Kabba in the mid-day sun.
Muslims would explode, of course.
A side benefit is that our actions would poke holes in their very understanding of what is possible. They would assume we, as infidels, would be struck down by Allah himself for any such transgressions. Yet we would not be. This is why it would be so important to televise our intentionally incindiary actions in Mecca to the world. You think the Danish cartoons were bad? Can you imagine?
They would cross the deserts en masse and finally in the open against us. Then we could have it out, once and for all. They would be compelled to attack in the name of Allah, without their famed abilities to conspire, hide, slither, disguise, or otherwise deceive, thus rendering them critically vulnerable.
Countries have not attacked us - religious fanatics have. We should stop pretending that we are at war with countries, and start fighting a war against the actual enemy - the religion of Islam.
Oops. What was I thinking?!
Jewish soldier frying bacon? Hardly likely. OK - maybe we can find a Hindu soldier. Even better, since they are pagans by Islamic standards and it's the Kabba of Mohammed idol-smashing fame and everything.
The Jewish kid could just spraypaint the Star of David on it - that would be good.
Well said, as usual, by Hugh. And the Chinese and the Russians are happy to see the U.S. bleed as well, and they do everything they can diplomatically to fuel that bleeding.
We in the free world should all save our nation building and charitable instincts for the non-Muslim territories on this planet. There is plenty to do there to satisfy our noble psychological need to do good in the world.
Islam, on the other hand, should face only our eternal wrath. It is they who must be constantly bled, and they must pay a swift and terrible price--ferocious punitive military action--whenever and wherever they dare to harm a hair on the head of any person from the civilized world.
It is time to stop tolerating Islam. To facilitate, feed, excuse, or tolerate Islam is ignoble. Rather, such behavior is a betrayal of human liberty, and a shameful act by anyone in the free world.
Infidel Pride,
We once discussed biodiesel. This is about alternate, too.
I think it is the beginning of the end of islam. Yesterday there was an ad in the paper for a battery powered bike. I rushed there. There were e-bikes before, but their pick-up was way too low, and they crawled up flyovers. This one was different. It had pick-up, and looked like a bike rather than a cross between and cycle and a bike. And it has pick-up. Top speed is 60kmph which I think is okay for any average rider. I booked one. (They are not giving instant delivery, get it within a month). And they had a model at display that is waiting for RTO approval. This one was bigger, really a killer bike. Triple the power of the model I got. Will get this one soon as it passes approval.
I am being optimistic, because I live in a small city, and most products are launched here much later than the bigger cities. The fact that e-bikes, and fully loaded ones, with superb mileage, are here means we are going to get thousands of them on the streets in a matter of two years or so. The price is good too. 600$ for the smaller, 900$ for the bigger. The petrol bikes we buy are between 800$ to 1500$. This is going to be a success. This, combined with the various different versions of biodiesels coming out (some farmers are making biodiesel from jethropa, they have to, petrol is 1$ a litre here, and it is hitting everyone).
Sometime next month, I shall get that machine. I fell in love with it at first drive. I am optimistic. :)
one of the more effective tactics in fighting terror was indeed, to trace the money trail and eliminate it. It the past few weeks we have seen large emergency cash payments by various Islamic governments to the Palistinians and Hezaballah. The US has tried to locate and freeze any monies it finds associated with Islamic terror. The US has frozed many millions of US dollars. This has an immediate effect on terror opperations. It forces the terrorists to seek more money from its Islamic friends (and in large amounts). I believe Osama's operations has been severly limited by the seizure of a lot of his known assets.
The War on Terror is indeed, as much financial as it is military. THe terror groups have been know to be spending large amounts as payments to families of suicide bombers as well as paying large payments to Jihadists who kill American soldier. This makes them mercenaries as much as it does a loyal Muslim. This money is coming from somewhere. These are cash transactions. The US forces have occassionaly captured individuals transporting large sums of money, usually crossing either the Syrian border or the Iranian border. THis could be a clue as to whom is providing the cash to carry on the terror operations.
Let us keep seeking the money trail and eliminating it as well as seeking the terrorists and killing them.
Hugh,
Could not agree more. What will it take for the real misunderstanders of Islam, who happen to abound in places of governmental leadership all over the Western world, to understand?
From Hugh - "And they are absurd because these terrorists are easily replaced -- replaced by recruits who simply continue recruiting, aided by the texts of Islam, by what it says in Qur'an and Hadith".
Exactly so. Take a look at this website from the Maldives. Its in Dhivehi the local language. THer are articles glorifying the palestianan murderer Sheik Yassin, UBL Etc..articles deriding the USA..the whole Jihadi Propaganda works.
http://www.kavaasaa.com/khabaru/file/sheik_yaseen.htm
Arjun
This sounds like the eV cars that are here. One can use them for short drives, but have to charge them frequently, as well as overnight in the garage.
I once drove one at a Saturn dealership. The strange feeling was no engine noise, so it was tough to tell whether the car was on or off. This type of vehicles haven't caught on here - but hybrids, like the Toyota Prius have.
Only problem - hybrids seem to cost some $10k more than your normal gasoline powered cars. No one would save that much in gasoline costs even over 10 years of driving the same car. For those basing their car buying habits on the jihad, I wonder whether such a price differential would be easy to overcome.
I have altered my driving habits, and reduced my driving. I used to drive at a minimum 75 miles/hr. These days, I avoid freeways, take surface streets and inroads, and just let my car coast along. Gasoline is going to surge again - I am minimizing my consumption, and the funding of the global jihad.
Infidel Pride,
Yes, I noticed that too. The bikes run silently. The college campuses here would appreciate this. The range of the bikes also was a question that came up. The smaller bike that I booked has a range of 50 kilometres, and since my city is small, it wil do. Also, I can top up the battery wherever I am. I mean, these things are getting better, if these models are on the roads, then even better ones are sure to follow.
We do have an electric car. The factory is in Pune. Trouble is, they make only around 25000 cars per year, and the waiting period is 3 years. Now they are exporting to Japan, and even with expanded capacity, they are not able to shorten the waiting period.
Another good thing I heard today. Honda has developed hybrid bikes and scooters and cars and planning to launch in India. Only thing is coming from Honda, these will be expensive. The bike that I am buying for 600$ will be free within a year. That is how much I spend on petrol for my Yamaha Racer.
I think all this is good news, and pretty soon you shall have biodiesel and ethanol based vehicles/conversion kits. Expect them within a year. I am smiling. :)
Arjun
That isn't surprising. Here, such eV cars typically cost $50-60k, and usually aren't bought; they can only be leased for 3 years, and the leaser is allowed 36k miles. It just hasn't caught on. As for the 3 year wait time you are referring to, it's not worth it.
I think the next wave would be solar powered cars, which for a tropical country like India, would be really handy. You can read about some below
http://www.extremesolarpower.com/
If that catches on, see the oil market crash, without an energy crisis taking over.
Infidel Pride,
I forgot to give you the name of the car. You can go to www.revaindia.com. The name of the car is Reva. I read that they have found a financier, and now they plan to expand aggressively.
I fail to understand why these cars cost 50 - 60 K in the U.S. Reva runs on batteries, and is available for the price of a Tata Indica. There is the question of waiting, however.
I converted my car to LPG. Just put a cylinder and it runs for 250 km. So, for the most part, I am off crude, or will be as soon as I get that bike. Most people I know also have converted their vehicles to LPG, and a LPG filling pump is coming up in my city. New Delhi made a law some years back, and all its public transport is now on CNG (compressed natural gas). The capital is remarkably unpolluted now.
Changes are coming, they were slow in the beginning, but now analysts talking about petrol costing 2$/litre is making people device their own means. No way we can afford petrol at that rates. We have to go to alternatives.