These particular useful idiots are the hikers that Iran just freed from captivity. My column in FrontPage this morning:
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, the leftist American hikers who unwittingly ventured across the Iran/Iraq border and were convicted of espionage and imprisoned for two years in Iran, have been freed – and at a press conference Sunday, revealed that they were none the wiser for their ordeal.They indulged in some moral equivalence: “Two years in prison is too long, and we sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran.” They assured the right-thinking world that their hearts (obviously not their minds) were in the right place: said Bauer, “The irony is Sarah [another hiker who was freed earlier], Josh and I oppose U.S. policies towards Iran which perpetuate this hostility.”
They thanked some of the world’s leading enemies of freedom and Useful Idiots for fighting for their freedom, including Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, limousine leftist Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Code Pink’s manipulative propagandist Cindy Sheehan, hard-Left America-hating pseudo-scholar Noam Chomsky, and the addle-brained actor/activist Sean Penn.
Bauer appeared to be on the verge of an independent thought when he said: “We were convicted of espionage, because we are American. It’s that simple. No evidence was ever presented against us. That is because there is no evidence and because we are completely innocent.” But any hope that he might realize that the Iranian hostility toward the United States is similarly irrational and unjustified proved unfounded. For above all, Bauer said: “The only explanation for our prolonged detention is the 32 years of mutual hostility between America and Iran.”
The “only explanation”? Really? Well, actually in other remarks Bauer made it clear that he thought that America was more culpable than Iran: “In prison, every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would immediately remind us of comparable conditions at Guantanamo Bay. They would remind us in other parts of the world and the conditions that Iranians and others experience in prisons in the U.S. We do not believe such human rights violations on the part of our government justify what has been done to us. Not for a moment. However, we do believe these actions on the part of the U.S. provide an excuse for other governments, including the government of Iran to act in kind.”
It is clear from this that Shane Bauer, like Barack Obama, Ron Paul and so many others on all points along the political spectrum, believes that the actions of the United States provoke Muslims to behave badly, and that if the U.S. would only behave decently, then the Muslims would calm down, and a new era of peace would dawn. While this view is common among followers of Paul on the Right, it is much more prevalent on the Left, and indeed forms the underlying assumption of all of Obama’s foreign policy.
The bitterly ironic aspect of this assumption is its underlying paternalism. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, as well as Barack Obama, no doubt regard the nineteenth century British colonialist notion of the “White Man’s Burden” to civilize nonwhite peoples as racist, arrogant, and ethnocentric; nonetheless, they hold to a modern-day form of the same racist, arrogant and ethnocentric notion....
Thank you, Robert.
Truthfully, I don't think much ought to be read into the reactions of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. They were leftists before, and as you pointed out, they didn't change. They didn't distinguish themselves through either bravery or insight. They gained nothing from their experience.
But, I'm happy they're back and safe. Part of our heritage as Americans is that we have a right to security and justice, regardless of our opinions. More than that, we have an affinity for freedom-loving people of all nationalities. We gained many valuable citizens by giving refuge to the Russian refuseniks.
Unfortunately, we now no longer judge potential immigrants for their adherence to the ideal of freedom. We cheapen the value of American citizenship by giving it away so freely, so cheaply, and without thought as to how well the new citizen will contribute to the advancement of our core values.
Morons.
Clowns!
OT:
I noticed that on "Frontline" tonight is "The Man Behind the Mosque."
Anyone already know whether this segment is revoltingly PC?
these are nothing more than young jane fondas.. spoiled little children
There is no hope for these misguided young people. Anyone stupid enough to go hiking in the war-zone deserves to be incarcerated and i dont fill sorry for these guys. They probably dont like America and our beautiful mountains.Lack of patriotism is one of the symptoms of decaying society. Is only down hill now folks.
This is the result of "brainwashing" our kids are receiving in the universities. The academia is the biggest source of of this nonsense about 'moral equivalence' between Muslim atrocities and our fighting back. These morons will never understand or change even at point when they are being beheaded by followers of Islam!!
Baur and Fattal may have been freed from Iranian jail but they're prisoners still chained and shackled to political correctness the prison of leftist fools.
Such gratitude for the 1 million dollar ransom that was paid for them.
They are young, clueless, and probably looking at a huge book deal. Besides, they studied Hegels and Nietzsche and are way too educated to get caught up in mere nationalistic loyalties (otherwise known as patriotism to the bourgeoisie).
/sarc off
How much would we have to pay the Iranians to take them back?
Nice one Tans!
I too studeis Hegel and Niche and I too used to think like them but in time I changed 100%. hopefully they come to their senses. the people who are at guantanom bay are theone who kiledd our people to the tune of 3000. this two idiot just crossed the border. so for the Iranian guards to compare their situation to the ones in Guantanomo bay is a bunch of.... that this two guys have bought into it.
M
What can I say?I have never heard such a lack of intelligence,they are very closed-minded,they only accept the information that suits them.They are hopeless.
Most people don't care about if Islam is a problem because they say:"The REAL problem is the ECONOMY,getting jobs".
That is a problem,I know several who are struggling,but the thing is that a MAJOR TERRORIST ATTACK would affect the economy NEGATIVELY,millions of jobs would be lost,more recession,etc.
So it is in EVERYBODY's INTEREST that Islam should DISAPPEAR as a religion.That is what I would tell the blind leftists.
The Koran has the words of a man,Muhammad,said in the course of 22 years,so being human,he CONTRADICTED HIMSELF without realizing it.Read:
"A Koranic Contradiction Impossible to Explain Away".It is so obvious:
http://www.antisharia.com/2011/04/17/a-koranic-contradiction-impossible-to-explain-away/
"We are anti-American Americans, we support the locals and they surely are aware of this and will not harm us".
They left their brains back home, surely. But perhaps in that case they were suspected of being Jews? I understand this is a part of the world where anything unexplainable is a zionist plot?
I hear ya. I think many of us go through a deconstructionist phase when we're in college. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it gave us rock and roll music after all! Its a different matter entirely for leaders of state in the west to look at things with the same sophomoric relativism and moral equivalence ideas they had as college students. Time to grow up!
If wishes were horses blog. I wish that these three could be taken on a tour of Guantanimo. I wish they could sit in a cell for a few days with the inmates.
And as for the whitemans burden, China would have continued foot binding because it is cultural, India would have sutee, Fiji would be still having cannibalism, the south American indians would be head hunters etc. Just to name a few of the dear cultural practices the whiteman ixneyed.
agreed!!!
Ditto, you took the words out of my mouth.
We take you captive, you do what we tell you, we hold you till we want, you have to wait until we choose your fate, we make you pay money (ransom) ha, hahahah. You cannot do anything about it. You are the biggest despots, the worst bullies, allha is with us, hehehe.
"These are the characteristic mental mechanics of the islamically afflicted."
They are so incredibly clueless to their psychic infirmity.
"And as for the White Mans Burden, China would have continued foot binding because it is cultural, India would have sutee, Fiji would be still having cannibalism, the South American Indians would be head hunters etc. Just to name a few of the dear cultural practices the White Man ixneyed"
Good one.
CBS Evening News mentioned that at times during their presser, they were expressionless and stared straight ahead.
In the pic, you can see this in the hiker on the right.
They need shrinks.
I think most of the hippie generation are too far gone to ever grow up. They truly can only think of themselves. I said to a 60-year-old friend the other day, "You don't even care, do you!" (about Islam). He just shrugged and said he will be gone by the time it gets really bad. The fact that his four kids will have to put up with the problem bothers him not one whit. And that was just ONE of the exchanges I have had with that (my) generation about this problem. Another man, yesterday, said to me,"Well, Muslims don't worry ME."
ME, ME, ME!
Don't forget that you and I are supposed to believe that the LORD can heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead. Including those who at the moment appear to be 'brain dead'.
Pray for your idiot friend.
And pray for his four children...at least he *has* four. With any luck they will rebel against *him*, as *he* did against *his* parents...his kids may well figure out that Mohammedans are the real-life Death Eaters, far far worse than the fictional variety they (the kids) have grown up reading about, and join the Resistance.
Just wait till millions of Gen Y and Gen Z kids work out that the movement of Resistance to Islamisation is the nearest thing in real life to the "Order of the Phoenix"...you will get a paradigm shift in the free world that will make a force 9 temblor look trivial.
I question the mental condition of these guys to begin with. There plan to go for vacation in Iraq during the hay days of terrorism and then venture in the border area. They were fools to begin with.
Chef Anthony Bourdain filmed an episode in the Kurdish area of Iraq & Turkey. I reckon he had loads of security. Still, I considered it reckless.
How absolutely pathetic can you get?! They look haggard enough to hire out as extras in a WWII concentration camp scene. Christ what a couple of RE-tards! Only someone mentally challenged or criminally misinformed about Islam would select anywhere in the Middle East to go on a hike. That was the tip-off. If they had responded any other way, it wouldn't be keeping in character. Is it too late to ship these zombies back and trade them in for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani; someone that deserves and would appreciate the freedom of the USA? What an opportunity to speak the truth to the entire world about mohammad's idiot followers. What do these morons do? They spread more of the same MSM bullshit we've been subjected to for who knows how long. They don't deserve to call themselves Americans. They should be executed for sedition.
And some people theorized these are CIA agents? These ass clowns don't have enough intelligence to be fit as dog catchers let alone CIA agents. The million dollar ransom to the pirates of the Arab gulf and the head pirate buccaneer achmadinjad was not worth it.
Why the surprise? Has everyone forgotten the Brit sailors that were 'captured' by the Iranians as spies, even though they were in international waters?
And having ordered the sailors not to resist arrest, what did the spineless Brit leadership do besides fall on their knees and praise the Iranians for releasing the captives after just humiliating them for a few weeks?
30 years ago Carter taught the Iranians - and the world - that the West is incapable of confronting the radical Islamic state with more than hollow words and ineffective sanctions. Clinton, Bush and Princess Obama have since reinforced that lesson.
Timidity is no match for a dysfunctional ideology like Islam. Face it, either democratic niceties are set aside for long enough to trounce the scourge using its own barbaric principles and tactics, or future generations will scratch their heads in disbelief that the most advanced civilisation in history so easily capitulated to the most backward.
Since the conditions were compared to Guantanamo by the Iranian guards, I wonder if our fellow citizens were offered access to a full library, including Harry Potter and their religious texts, the full works of Karl Marx. I also wonder if they were served 3 squares a day of culturally sensitive meals, such as Starbuck's, hamburgers and pizza?
My instinct tells me no....
30 years ago Carter taught the Iranians - and the world - that the West is incapable of confronting the radical Islamic state with more than hollow words and ineffective sanctions. Clinton, Bush and Princess Obama have since reinforced that lesson.
Unfortunately, as regards Islam, Reagan was as bad as any of that trio (quartet if you include Bush snr). He didn't distinguish himself in the way he should have in the aftermath of the US Embassy and Barracks bombings. To him, the Soviet Union was the enemy and Islam was overlooked, much as it has been for 100 years or more.
lols!
Josh Fattal's father emigrated to Israel in 1951, and it was kept a secret during his "stay" in Iran.
It does show some awareness of facts.
It annoys me whenever the msm referred to these fools as "kids". They are 29 years old, for heavens sake! Certainly old enough to know better. Anyway, it was polite of them to get dressed up for their media event. Fools.
The extremely sad thing is . . . they could really be CIA operatives. One of the jobs of an operative is to guide the use of information obtained. They could have had a mission to observe, align themselves with, and spread the absurd ideas they are spouting. And, unfortunately, our "intelligence" agencies are politically hogtied and are not allowed to be intellectually independent. So, the CIA and FBI and even Homeland Security are open to abuse by the rich and powerful, even against what is in the best interest of the U.S. citizen.
So, these 2 idiots made lots of press. How about the poor Christian pastor who may have been executed by now, Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani? He has refused to recant his christian faith.
Please contact the Iranian embassy and pray for this man.
Link: http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/2011/09/pastor-yousef-nadarkhani-refused-to.html
......This statement of yours is such sophomoric, silly prattle; no different,really, than that uttered by those two 29 year-old adolescents expensively ransomed recently out of Teheran via Berkeley, California:
"And, unfortunately, our "intelligence" agencies are politically hogtied and are not allowed to be intellectually independent. So, the CIA and FBI and even Homeland Security are open to abuse by the rich and powerful, even against what is in the best interest of the U.S."
It's obvious you've no idea what you're typing.
“In prison, every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would immediately remind us of comparable conditions at Guantanamo Bay....."
So you had easy access to a Bible, or perhaps al gore's earth in the balance, three squares a day (American plan with bacon), and sports equipment?
Could it be that these three are just aligned with the adage "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"?
jus wundrin
I thought that the country of Oman paid the $1 million to free these two hikers. Like others, I agree that they deserve what they got. Nobody in their right mind would even dream of going hiking close to a country of a sworn enemy of the U.S. What were they thinking ??
Thanks, Charles, for that issuance to Mary.
Write more, please.
Me likee...