DER FUEHRER’S FACE
Spike Jones & His City Slickers
CHORUS
When der fuehrer says we is de master race
We heil (pffft) heil (pffft) right in Der Fuehrer’s Face
Not to love der fuehrer is a great disgrace
So we heil (pffft) heil (pffft) right in Der Fuehrer’s Face
When Herr Goebbels says we own the world and space
We heil (pffft) heil (pffft) right in Herr Goebbels’ face
When Herr Goering says they’ll never bomb dis place
We heil (pffft) heil (pffft) right in Herr Goering’s face
Is we not the supermen?
Aryan pure supermen?
Ja we is the supermen
Super duper supermen
Is this Nutzi land so good
Would you leave it if you could?
Ja this Nutzi land is good
We wouldn’t leave it if we could
We bring to the world New Order
Heil Hitler’s world New Order
Everyone of foreign race
Will love der fuehrer’s face
When we bring to the world dis order
When der fuehrer says we never will be slaves
We heil (pffft) heil (pffft), but still we work like slaves
While der fuehrer brags and rant and lies and raves
We heil (pffft) heil (pffft), and work into our graves
When der fuehrer yells I got to have more shells
We heil (pffft) heil (pffft), and so we make more shells
If one little shell would blow him right to (hell)
We heil (pffft) heil (pffft), and wouldn’t that be swell
I oppose the Qur’an-burning. I don’t like the burning of books. I’d rather that the contents of the Qur’an, and the ways that jihadists use those contents to justify violence, be known. However, these people are free to do what they want to do. Petraeus would do better to tell the Afghans that in America we have freedom of speech and expression, and that we put up with speech and expression that we dislike without trying to kill the speaker. He would do better to tell them that their likely murderous rage over this event is an outrageous overreaction, and that any bloodshed over this would be a heinous crime, far dwarfing any crime they think the people in Florida are committing.
The idea that in wartime one should be careful not to do anything that the enemy is likely to respond to with irrational and even murderous anger may seem tactically wise at first glance, but ultimately it is a recipe for surrender. One is already accepting the enemy’s worldview and perspective, and working to accommodate it, instead of working on various fronts, not just the military one, to show why it is wrong and should be opposed.
Of course, to that Petraeus and his ilk would respond, Well, we are not at war with Islam or the Qur’an, and so to burn the book is a needless provocation. This ignores, however, the war that the Organization of the Islamic Conference and other Muslim groups are waging today against the freedom of expression — and ignores also the ways in which Islamic jihadists use the Qur’an to justify violence and make recruits. Without approving of the burning, Petraeus should be defending the Florida church’s right to do as they please, and using it as a teaching moment in Afghanistan to say, We are going to defend our vision of society, no matter what you bring against us.
“Planned Quran-burning could endanger troops, Petraeus warns,” from CNN, September 7 (thanks to all who sent this in):
(CNN) — The U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday criticized a Florida church’s plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, warning the demonstration “could cause significant problems” for American troops overseas.
“It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan,” Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.
The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, plans to mark the anniversary of al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington by burning copies of the Muslim holy book. The church insists the event is “neither an act of love nor of hate,” but a warning against what it calls the threats posed by Islam.
The event has drawn criticism from Muslims in the United States and overseas, with thousands of Indonesians gathering outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sunday to protest the planned Quran burning.
“The burning is not only an insult to the holy Quran, but an insult to Islam and Muslims around the world,” said Muhammad Ismail, a spokesman for the hard-line Indonesian Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
With about 120,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops still battling al Qaeda and its allies in the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, Petraeus warned that burning Qurans “is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems — not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.”
And one of his deputies, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, told CNN’s “The Situation Room” that event “has already stirred up a lot of discussion and concern” among Afghans.
“We very much feel that this can jeopardize the safety of our men and women that are serving over here in the country,” said Caldwell, the head of NATO efforts to train Afghan security forces.
Caldwell said American troops “are over here to defend the rights of American citizens, and we’re not debating the First Amendment rights that people have.” But he added, “What I will tell you is that their very actions will in fact jeopardize the safety of the young men and women who are serving in uniform over here and also undermine the very mission that we’re trying to accomplish.”
“I would hope they would understand that there are second- and third-order effects that will occur that will affect that young man and woman who’s out there on point for America, serving their nation today, because of their actions back in the United States,” he said….