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I have seen websites that were initially about many topics become attack sites narrowly focused on one man only, and that is never going to happen here: after three posts on Obama this morning it is useful to remember that neither Obama nor McCain has a clear and comprehensive understanding of the nature of the jihad threat, and both are recommending wrong remedies, as Michelle Malkin shows today in "Diplomas won’t make jihadis go away":
In all the brouhaha over the New Yorker’s satirical cover cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama, a truly “tasteless and offensive” passage in the magazine’s feature article got lost. The magazine piece quotes Obama’s recommendations for how to stop jihad, which he had previously published in a local Chicago newspaper eight days after 9/11. It’s a self-parody of blind, deaf, and dumb Kumbaya liberalism:We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, and may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. Most often, though, it grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.Is this man for real? Osama bin Laden’s murderous legions are plenty able to “imagine” the “suffering of others.” Go watch an al-Qaeda beheading snuff video. Just Google it or surf YouTube. Imagining the suffering of infidels is covered amply in basic Jihadi Training 101.
You’ll note, too, that Obama’s fresh instinct in the week after the 9/11 attack was to diagnose it as a “tragedy” stemming from lack of “empathy” and “understanding” — instead of as the deliberate, carefully planned evil act of the long-waged Islamic war on the West that it was.
As for Obama’s continued delusion about the “climate of poverty and ignorance” that supposedly breeds Muslim terrorists, can American politicians ever rid themselves of this unreality-based trope? This belief is part and parcel of the same idiocy that led the State Department to embrace “spa days” for Muslims to “build bridges” with the Arab world and President Bush to open up our aviation schools to more Saudi students to “improve understanding.”
John McCain also alluded to education-as-cure for Islamic terrorism at the L.A. World Affairs Council in March, when he declared, “In this struggle, scholarships will be far more important than smart bombs.” Just what we need: more student visas for the jihadi-infested nation that sent us the bulk of the 9/11 hijackers.
Author and National Review Online blogger Mark Steyn’s sharp rejoinder to McCain then applies to Obama now: “There’s plenty of evidence out there that the most extreme ‘extremists’ are those who’ve been most exposed to the west — and western education: from Osama bin Laden (summer school at Oxford, punting on the Thames) and Mohammed Atta (Hamburg University urban planning student) to the London School of Economics graduate responsible for the beheading of Daniel Pearl. The idea that handing out college scholarships to young Saudi males and getting them hooked on Starbucks and car-chase movies will make this stuff go away is ridiculous — and unworthy of a serious presidential candidate.”
Read it all.
Posted by Robert at July 16, 2008 7:50 AM
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Unfortunate, but so true. Washington cannot wrap their mind around true Islam. This will likely be at our peril.
Posted by: Spot on![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 16, 2008 8:03 AM
I'll feel more comfortable once McCain is elected and Robert Spencer is one of his valued advisors.
Posted by: Abu_Lahab at July 16, 2008 8:03 AM
I don't disagree at all with this charcterization of the candidates, but we still have to choose one to lead us for the next for years.
As Robert often says, good luck with that.
Posted by: Haid Dasalami at July 16, 2008 8:15 AM
Oy. Too early, too many typos. Sorry.
Posted by: Haid Dasalami at July 16, 2008 8:17 AM
Why don't more people notice some of the uncomfortable facts which surround Islamic Jihad? With all the feigned anguish over poverty and despair in the Muslim world (poverty and despair, such as it is, brought on directly as a consequence of Islam), why don't more people observe the fact that terrorism and Jihad are manifesting themselves at a moment in time when the Islamic world is receiving more wealth through oil revenues than ever before in history?
After exhausting the looted plunder of more than a thousand years of rape, pillage, mass murder, and genocide, the Islamic world was poised for extinction at the beginning of the 20th century. Then the accident of oil began, at first slowly, to revive the monstrocity of Islam until today, not yet 100 years since the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate, Islam is again on the march, burning, looting, raping, pillaging, and waging genocide.
Without knowing much about Islam on 9/11, it took me only a few months to put many of the puzzle pieces together. Why do our leaders and academicians still have so much difficulty nearly 7 long years after the atrocity of September 11th? Obama had it catastrophically wrong mere days after the attack, and has clearly done nothing to improve his comprehension in all that has ensued since.
For myself, 9/11 was a sufficiently alienating experience to enable me to reexamine my suppositions about the world without being hampered by old thinking. Why did so many instead cling to their extinct frameworks of thought? This paralysis among our leaders and thinkers is a far greater cataclysm than the Muslim onslaught on that day, for it guarantees that we must suffer and lose far more before we rectify our trajectory. What is worse, such paralysis among them may auger our eventual annihilation by the Islamic enemy.
Posted by: jsla at July 16, 2008 8:38 AM
I will say it again: it is not lack of Robert's and Hugh's efforts, nor the lack of suitable reading material, nor the ability to look at world events and add two and two together and reach the correct conclusion of 4. Politicians do not want to know, otherwise to acknowledge the existence of the militancy of Islam would require real action, and politicians, not leaders, avoid decisive action as often as possible because it will, inevitably, cost them some votes somewhere and threaten their ability to be re-elected.
AND WE LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT!
Posted by: OolongChung at July 16, 2008 9:20 AM
"the most extreme ‘extremists’ are those who’ve been most exposed to the west"
Exhibit A is Sayyid Qutb.
He had a modern education in Egypt and became a great admirer of the Western and Western literature. His visit to the US in the late 1940s (which no American would consider a decadent time) convinced him of the moral decadence of the West and made him more religious.
From Qutb's Milestones:
"Look at this capitalism with its monopolies, its usury...at this individual freedom, devoid of human sympathy and responsibility for relatives except under force of law; at this materialistic attitude which deadens the spirit; at this behavior, like animals, which you call "free mixing of the sexes"; at this vulgarity which you call "emancipation of women"; at this evil and fanatic racial discrimination."
On the last: racial discrimination? What is going on in Darfur? What is the notion of Arab supremacy but racial discrimination?
Posted by: PMK at July 16, 2008 9:52 AM
AND WE LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT!
Posted by: OolongChung
So what are we going to do about it? When will we STOP letting them get away with it? As long as we vote for either of these parties they will continue to get away with it. We are the only ones who can change it.
In January we will inaugurate the president we deserve and we will deserve the president we get.
Posted by: PMK at July 16, 2008 9:55 AM
So what are we going to do about it? Posted by: PMK
In November for every race that has an incumbent running, vote the challenger regardless of party. That way we will get rid of all of the incumbents and put the newly elected reps on notice that we want term limits.
Maybe I need to start a website called "throwthe bumsout.org" and advocate real change, not just the pocket change that Obama keeps spewing.
Posted by: walterc at July 16, 2008 11:02 AM
People need to be prepared to do more than write letters.
They're not going to stop walking and sneaking through the gates or climbing over the walls. And those already inside the walls are all too eager to help them... the enemy.
When you're out with loved ones and you see something "suspicious" that is quickly turning deadly and suddenly your life is in jeopardy, will you whip out your Blackberry then? A pen, perhaps? Maybe a hand-held recorder: Note to self...
"Men, even so-called great men, are wonderfully weak and timid. They are too damned polite. War is simple, direct, and ruthless. It takes a simple, direct, and ruthless man to wage war."
~ George Patton
What makes this war different than any other?
Nothing.
Posted by: undaunted at July 16, 2008 11:18 AM
We clearly see the influences of Hitler's "Mein Kampf", or the Russian Hoax that is the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and how words matter in this post-facto WW II World.
But today there is never any open discussion in the MSM, or on any cable news network station that will speak to the specific sources of what drives the Muslims to commit terrorism. That source is of course the Quran,Syrah,and the Hadiths. You will never see a specific surah pointed out in the MSM, or TV news, you will only hear that some Taliban, or Al-Qaeda operative blew up this or that, or that the arrested terrorist suspect got his training in some madrassa in Pakistan.
What and where did that specific training come from, and wasn't it from some particular book? What was the name of that book and what does it actually say in that book that would promote jihadism?
We have allowed the teachings in this book to be off limits to public discussion in the media simply because it is defined as a religion even though most experts on Islam would say that more than 75 Pct.of Islam is political, or totalitarian. Everything that goes on in Islamic countries is controlled by the teaching in the Quran,Syrahs,and the hadiths through sharia law.
But the Quran is only stealthy if you fail open it up as it slowly creeps into our Western societies and culture.
We would ask more than ever that our elected leaders, and soon to be elected leaders open up this book and read what Mohammed's message was to his followers when it came to jihad. We should demand that they be informed by experts on Islam that are non Muslims and not members affiliated with CAIR that will work to deceive you. We must demand that they seek out people who do not promote Islam like Robert Spencer,Ibn Warraq,Serge Trifkovic,or they should read Major Coughlin's thesis on Islam,or excellent articles like Tawfik Hamid's "The development of a jihadist's mind".And key books that trace the collapse of Europe like "Eurabia" By Bat Yeor, and so so many more that giving us clear warnings every day.
To many of are political leaders see the Trojan Horse that is coming through the gate but don't have a clue of what is in it and continually fail to find out before it is fully through the gate..
Posted by: Mackie at July 16, 2008 11:34 AM
Some comic relief . . .
Obama, Clinton, McCain and jihad via Jib Jab
Posted by: heroyalwhyness at July 16, 2008 12:06 PM
This has been my point all along. For the immediate now it appears McCain
will be the better choice, but for the long run, and where we will be in 10 to
20 years I don't know. If McCain wins it will mean the GOP will not have to
change anything in relation to Islam. The same old clowns who have built the
Bush doctrine, strategy, etc. will still be in charge. That could have dire
consequences for the presidential elections in 2012.
I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but people can only deal with a losing
strategy for so long. They will turn to anything, even if the new strategy is
equally wrong. It is different and that is all that matters. That is why I keep
getting into fights/debates with the “stay in Iraq folks” on this site, and on
other sites. They don’t seem understand human nature, and especially American
nature. The people demand a winner, and the current strategy is not a winner.
Obama is so appealing to some, because even though he does not have clue one
what he is doing, it is different, although if he keeps back tracking as he has
been doing it may not be any different than the current strategy.
For the GOP to be successful in the future it must adopt a winning strategy for
the long term. What is a winning strategy? I would say what Robert Spencer, Hugh
Fitzgerald, and others have put forward, on this site and a few others, is a
good frame work to start from. That means the GOP must confront Islam in the
open, and in a clear voice state Islam has these structural problems which
contradict our way of life, and Islam is not just a faith, but a way of life and
a government, which is a competitor to our government and constitution.
If the GOP does confront Islam, it will bring a firestorm from the Islamic
world, leftist, multiculturalists, media, some within their own ranks and some
in academia. It will be criticized by all sorts of hacks, but so what. No major
issue, like the one we are facing now from Islam, has ever been easy to tackle,
or come without a major expenditure of time, money, and even blood. If the GOP
wants to be relevant in the future, it must deal with one of the most critical
issues facing us today, which is Islam.
The people demand a winning strategy….as of now, neither Obama nor McCain has
provided one, however, that also means the position is still open for the
taking. The first to do so will claim the fruits as well. This is why people
must challenge the GOP, not praise them because they get it right once in a blue
moon. That strategic hill is still open, and first forces to occupy it will win
the future.
So press on….press on…take that hill!
Posted by: greatcometof1577 at July 16, 2008 12:32 PM
greatcometof1577: Actually, I would love to see what you propose for the GOP------announcing to all what Islam really means, what it really stands for. At the top of such a revived GOP, though, would have to be an extremely capable, talented, electable politician. And I know of none on the American landscape today, though I can dream of a Ronald Reagan type who would dare call Islam an evil religion the way Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire.
So, for the time being, I'm going with the tired old GOP led by a good, old guy who really doesn't understand Islam but at least is someone who will appoint sane judges to our courts and actually order the most radical Islamic nutjobs killed. But, oh, would I welcome the day when a major poltical party in the West, and what better one than the Republican Party here in America, says something to the effect that Islam is an enemy to Western freedoms and traditions just as Nazism and Marxism were. I'd pop open a few extra cold ones celebrating that moment. Oh yeah.
Posted by: Wellington at July 16, 2008 1:44 PM
"...the Islamic world was poised for extinction at the beginning of the 20th century. Then the accident of oil began, at first slowly, to revive the monstrocity of Islam ...."
posted by jsla
And at the same time, the West began its collective suicide, with the first active phase of its 30-year civil war (most active phases, 1914-18 and 1939-45), and its demographic decline.
A few figures: the combined population of the largest European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the U.K.) pre-WW1 was 324 million; recent censuses give a total of 514 million, an average annual increase of 0.5% (and of course the recent figures include millions of Islamic immigrants).
By contrast here are the combined figures for Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Morocco, and Turkey: pre-WW1 -- 82 million; recent -- 494 million, an average annual increase of 2.0% (and of course, these figures do NOT include the millions who have emigrated to the West.)
Advice to the European "first peoples": start having more kids! At once! Now!
at July 16, 2008 2:06 PM
I give up. I don't get it. Is it a case of pandering? The inability to think clearly?
The need not to offend the Saudis? How can
these people not finally get it? More visas
for Saudi males to come here -- being encouraged as the solution??!! Stop the world; I want to get off.
at July 16, 2008 2:39 PM
GreatComet
I couldn't agree more. Whenever anybody suggests what Lee Rodgers calls a 'constructive destruction', he is ridiculed by the Michael Medveds of the world, who argue that if the Dems win, the GOP will become more Liberal. By that logic, after 2004, the Dems should have become more Conservative. They didn't, but they still won.
Of all the GOP candidates who might have been able to make the case that he was tough on Islam, nobody makes it worse than McCain - be it Prisoner interrogations, Gitmo, micro-managing the Iraq war (i.e. second guessing Rumsfeld, and turning out to be right in terms of quieting down the place, although not making it possible for US drawdowns), and now the scholarships for mujahids program. As you point out, if he wins, the GOP inertia on Islam will continue, and actually even get worse, since McCain loves getting along with Dems, and so if the Dems persuade him to go easy on Islam, he will, in the name of bi-partisanship. And the GOP will get the blame for that in 2010 and 2012.
No, just as in 1996, we got our opportunity to get rid of Dole, this year, we have our opportunity to get rid of McCain. One thing I hope he does is quit the Senate while running like Dole did, so that after he loses, he'll be gone, and the hands of bipartisans like Goober Gramm, Snowe, Specter, et al will be considerably weakened.
Posted by: Infidel Pride at July 16, 2008 3:10 PM
I'm sure a JW follower or someone out there has or can calculate the billions/trillions of (taxpayer) money the USA has sent to these Arab Muslim countries under the guise of aid for food, books, etc ad nauseum. And this is not counting the billions/trillions of oil we have bought from these same countries. Now tell me Senators McCain and Obama, how MUCH MORE do you want us to send? Perhaps the US and the West just cannot buy or bribe these people to "like" us? Perhaps their so called religion really isn't a religion but a cult and let's start treating them the way we treat the Mormons in Texas. I am amazed how we in the US and the West can so arbitrarily decide that this "religion" is worthy of respect and this other is just a cult and can be prosecuted and hounded, etc. Depressing isn't the word for how I feel...
Posted by: HOV Dummy at July 16, 2008 3:23 PM
Please God...save us from Obambi. And give McCain a clue.
How can people be so incredibly ignorant?
It's like those twits that had to be forced off the volcanic island before they were killed by an eruption.
Poverty and despair in the Muslim world. A direct result of practicing a religion of war, deceit and intolerance. Ya reap whatcha sow...and they plant nothing but death, despair and hatred.
They have what they provide for themselves, just as we have what we, the free people of the world, provide for ourselves. So...why should I care? Feed em' fish heads.
Islam is a lie and truth is killing it. Keep killin' guys...truth is in short supply.
Posted by: Alaskan at July 16, 2008 3:53 PM
Barack HUSSEIN Obama (PBUH)(SAW)(SWT), the new Messiah!
Posted by: Dale in Atlanta at July 16, 2008 4:29 PM
Saw Obama on TV the other night (Larry King?) where he said he intends to reach out to some of Geo. H.W. Bush's former advisors. He named James Baker, Brent Scowcroft, and Colin Powell. I hope this wasn't lip service. Obama is so new that we have to pay special attention to who he hangs around with.
If he selected a smart outsider like Sec Def Robert Gates as his Veep, I'd feel very good. Little chance of that.
Posted by: Bingo at July 17, 2008 5:30 AM
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