A long piece by Robert Tracinski on the inevitability of war:
We can’t avoid this war, because Iran won’t let us avoid it. That is the real analogy to the 1930s. Hitler came to power espousing the goal of German world domination, openly promising to conquer neighboring nations through military force and to persecute and murder Europe’s Jews. He predicted that the free nations of the world would be too weak
I just got a review copy of the book “Debunking 9/11 Myths,” which is a book version of the in-depth investigation that Popular Mechanics did. It’s in a similar format to Snopes, with a “Claim” (the myth), then a “Fact,” in which the evidence and physics are brought to bear to debunk it. It looks like an interesting book, from an engineering standpoint. What the book doesn’t explain, of course, is why (besides Bush derangement) people buy into these nutty conspiracy theories. I hope that PM sends a copy to Cynthia McKinney, though she doesn’t seem like the type that reads books, particularly factual ones.
…of killing children.
“It is our love of these innocents that endangers them. If we did not care if children died, they would be in little danger.”
“That cannot be,” she replies in anger.
“But it is so,” I contest. “If we did not care if our children died, they would not be targets. There would be no reason to target them, because we would not be moved by their deaths.
“If we did not care if their children died,” I add, “there would be no reason to clutter military emplacements with their presence. If it were not that we are horrified by the deaths of children, the enemy’s children would be clear of all places of battle — because they are, except for the fact that we love them, a hindrance.”
She bites her lip.
“Of course, we cannot cut out our hearts,” I tell her. “Nor should we — as we wish to remain men, and good men, rather than monsters. Yet it is our love that is the chief danger to the innocent now — to our own innocents, and theirs also.”
Gerard Baker says that it’s counterproductive to blame ourselves:
Events such as yesterday
Gerard Baker says that it’s counterproductive to blame ourselves:
Events such as yesterday
Gerard Baker says that it’s counterproductive to blame ourselves:
Events such as yesterday
…the terrorists are having a major impact on our society. There have been enough successful attacks (9/11, London, and Madrid to name the most obvious) that each foiled attack still heightens the public fear level, causing a predictable government overreaction. Today’s news will certainly cost us a little more freedom and a lot more treasure.
It became a standing joke in the months after 9/11 attacks that, if we did not continue some trivial activity, “Then the terrorists have won.” Sadly, it’s no joke.
I’m glad that the President has finally stopped calling this a War on Terror, and is now identifying the enemy. Unfortunately, I have to agree with Keith Burgess-Jackson that “Islamofascism” is the wrong term:
Why would President Bush use
Martin Bright says that “the left” can take a few lessons from “the right“:
…the Foreign Office seems determined to press ahead with courting radical Islamists. Just this month, the British government paid for Yusuf al-Qaradawi to attend a conference in Turkey to discuss the future of European Islam. At home, it funded two Islamist youth organisations, the Federation of Islamic Student Societies and Young Muslim Organisation, to help run a roadshow of Muslim scholars to tour the country. Fosis and YMO, while condemning violence, are ideological allies of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-i-Islami. It is ironic that conservative thinkers categorise these organisations accurately as part of an Islamist extreme right, while many on the left continue, wrongly, to see them as part of some wider international Muslim liberation movement.
While this situation remains, there is no shame for those on the left opposed to the rise of radical Islam to build alliances with conservatives prepared to call fascism by its real name.
Yes. Like (finally) George Bush.
Two days after my prediction that the Israelis would move north to the Litani River in Lebanon, they are doing it.
The Israelis see the “300-500” soldiers lives that will be lost in the exchange as worth the cost of the border security. Hezbollah says that Southern Lebanon will be a “graveyard”.
I disagree with Jacque Chirac who says that allowing continued hostilities “would mean the most immoral result”. It is immoral to demand status quo ante borders that are indefensible and an invitation to future hostilities and extra deaths on both sides of the Litani. Expect the second half of my prediction, a wall, to be built as soon as hostilities die down.