Articles tagged as

Islam

The Blame Game

There have been murmurings from the readership of our local newspapers  that there has to be a ceasefire in the current conflict between Israel and Hezbullah. I do feel that they are wrong when they states that we are “stubbornly defending Israel’s right to bomb civilian infrastructures.” No, we defend the right of a sovereign nation-state, Israel, to defend itself against a terrorist organization,
Hezbullah. That group established itself within a weak nation-state, Lebanon and hijacked Lebanon’s foreign policy by waging war on Israel by itself without the consent of the host Lebanese government. Its self-proclaimed end point is nothing less the destruction of Israel (similar to that of Hamas in Gaza).

The highest duty of a nation-state is to protect its citizens. Hezbullah, not the US or Israel, should be the target of your scorn, for it was those state-less terrorists that crossed the sovereign border of Israel and killed its citizens and kidnapped two more. I take it that you believe that Israel should have just ignored this attack and allow this to happen? Do you even recognize the ramifications of the word “sovereign” in this event? I take it that you do not support the right of Israel to defend itself?

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Batty

Israel as “vampire bat”? Terrorist-supporting Arab states run by dictators as “butterflies”? While everyone is entitled to an opinion, this letter to the Monitor shows that some opinions are of value only as examples of poor reasoning.

Despite ample historical evidence, many on the anti-war Left continue to put their faith in international coalitions and the UN to resolve the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. These same folks claim to prefer "diplomatic" solutions even when there is no diplomatic solution. (Where is the diplomatic middle ground with an enemy that fails to uphold international standards of behavior and repeated calls for the annihilation of UN-member states?) They also favor applying a “European approach” rather than American "cowboyism" to dealing with the world’s hot spots.

Post World War II Europeans have spent decades supporting meaningless resolutions and absolving terrorist organizations of blame for heinous crimes while holding the United States and Israel to impossible standards. That is the “European approach,” and it fails miserably everywhere it is tried. (Remember the former Yugoslavia?) The irony is that the United States “cowboy” has spent billions of dollars and sacrificed thousands of lives over the past 70 years trying to mitigate European diplomatic, military, and philosophical messes.

Let us not forget that Israel was created in part because European powers could not be trusted……

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Fight Fire With Fire- Ben Stein

Ben Stein is the smartest movie actor/columnist/economist that I know of… and the only one too, now that I think of it. His writings are at times some of the best you’ll read anywhere. For example, consider this excerpt from a recent American Spectator piece: You cannot fight inhumane people with humane means. You cannot fight savages … Read more

Proportionality vs. rationality . .

With this Posting, GraniteGrok is happy to welcome Bob M!  We have enjoyed his Letters to the Editor in the local papers for a while now as they have been factually based and logically written.  He will be seen here, hopefully, more than occasionally.

Thanks Bob!      -Skip

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Concerning the response by Israel to the terrorist attacks by Hezbollah, there is much talk about “proportionality”. By definition, proportionality means that the relationship of one thing to another will remain the same, even as things change. In current terms, some are asking that the capabilities of Hezbollah be the same after this war, as they were before they kidnapped Israeli soldiers and indiscriminately fired literally thousands of rockets into Israeli cities. Pure pooh!

Since its rebirth in 1947, the people of Israel have had to fight against people who have continually initiated and waged war against them.

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The definition of analogy is….

Update 1

Ken responds to a Letter writer in the Concord Monitor here.  Spotting another Letter supporting him here, he continues

Thank you, Ms. Fallon.  You clearly understand the situation far better than Kenneth Joop of Concord.  He writes a letter in the Sunday Monitor that reads, in part:

It is difficult for me to conceive of anyone supporting Israel’s devastation of Lebanon. We are often cited various Muslim groups who wish to wipe Israel off the map. Israel is in no danger of being wiped off the map, although this is not necessarily true of Palestine.

Israel is fighting against a deadly terrorist organization whose leader states flatly that his goal is the destruction of the state of Israel, a UN member state.  Arab nations have tried to conquer Israel in conventional war since its establishment.  Now they use terrorist proxies.  Using conventional arms, these groups can not destroy Israel.  But a nuclear-armed Iran will pose a mortal threat.  Does Mr. Joop really believe that the Jewish state could survive a nuclear detonation in Tel Aviv?  Death, destruction, refugees, economic chaos – the land would not be "wiped off the map," but the nation would be. 

And what, exactly, is the "Palestine" to which Mr. Joop refers?  A segment of the old Ottoman Empire? The post World War I British administrative region called the Mandate of Palestine, which included the modern Kingdom of Jordan?  The Palestinian Authority has not earned statehood.

Israel has a right to defend itself, even if that means attacking a terrorist enemy that is interwoven with a civilian population.  The Allies destroyed Germany and Japan to win World War II, killing many civilians, many children.  Such is the nature of war.  If southern Lebanon must be destroyed in order to eradicate Hezbollah, so be it.

 

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(Sometimes, people just don’t do their homework – both in the historical sense and in the literary sense.  Ken gets a "twofer" with this one  -Skip)

 

Double standard, JULIE LANOCHA , Hopkinton – Letter  to The Concord Monitor  July 23. 2006 10:00AM
 

Despite the sympathies anyone might have for the Jews following the atrocities of World War II, the fact is they had no more right to be in Palestine than the British to be in Northern Ireland.

To put the current hostilities into perspective, if England had responded to the kidnapping of two soldiers by the IRA with the bombing of Irish villages, destroying hospitals, bridges, airports, killing hundreds of civilians, cutting off water and electricity, how would the international community respond?

If I recall correctly, there was a very active IRA sympathizer community in the United States raising money and providing support to this terrorist group. I don’t remember an enraged U.S. populace calling for the terrorists to be stopped, for the bloodshed to end, for all means necessary to be put to use to stop the menace.

Why the difference?

JULIE LANOCHA

 

Here’s my response:  No Analogy

An effective argument from analogy  must meet two requirements:

 

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Chavez and Ahmadinejad- Brothers in Arms

In several past postings, I have pointed out that in the new world war, one of the players worth keeping an eye on is Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. It has been widely reported that the Venezuelan would-be dictator has been buying fairly large quantities of military hardware from our Russian "friends" as of late. Now, we … Read more

World War IV

Here is my weekly Exercising the First column for the July 27th Laconia Daily Sun:
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There has been much talk of late as to whether we are in the early stages of a new world war. I believe we are. Some have been calling it the “third world war.” I see it more as the fourth, with World Wars I and II followed by a third, the Cold War- a “world” war fought mostly by proxy, with the main opponents never openly engaging each other directly. Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Afghanistan (versus Soviets), Grenada, China (to a lesser extent), Cuba, Angola, and even Berlin itself- all were actual battle zones in the 45 years or so of “warfare.” Additionally, we all know that many covert battles took place, with propaganda and economic conflicts as well. The war played out across the globe with most nations on one ideological side or another.

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Europe- Thy Name is Cowardice

Friend Bill A. of Dover forwards the following email:
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Food for thought from an enlightened European.  
Subject: Fw: EUROPE – THY NAME IS COWARDICE
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This is one of the most straight forward and to the point understandable, editorials, I have read for a long long time. Few people today can appreciate what our President is undertaking for the long term good of our country, and the short term abuse to himself. People just do not believe we are war today, and will be for many years to come. This is one we should all pull together on.
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If any of you still feel that this war on terror is a mistake, here is an opinion from an unexpected source. It’s fascinating that this should come out of Europe. Mathias Dapfner, Chief Executive of the huge German publisher Axel Springer AG, has written a blistering attack in DIE WELT, Germany’s largest daily paper, against the timid reaction of Europe in the face of the Islamic threat.

EUROPE – THY NAME IS COWARDICE

Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG
A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, Europe -your family name is appeasement." It’s a phrase you can’t get out of your head because it’s so terribly true. Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives, as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements.
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Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe, where for decades, inhuman suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.
 

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…are doomed to repeat it

(H/T): The Corner (National Review Online)

From JoshuaPundit:

Once, there was a small nation created by international consensus from the ashes of a world war. It included two main nationalities and it was the only free nation in the region, surrounded by larger neighbors who resented it and coveted its land, which they felt rightfully belonged to them. In spite of that, it was a prosperous and free republic, and its citizens enjoyed one of the highest living standards in that part of the world.

[snip]

The peace plan involved a trade of land for peace, with the former nationals of the larger nation to have an independent state on a large part of the small country`s land.

No one in the Quartet would have considered repatriating the natives of the larger nation back to their original home country, or giving them some of the larger nation`s territory to live on.

When the leaders and diplomats of the small nation protested at this one-sided settlement, they were bullied into acceptance with threats of withdrawal of all aid and military assistance by the very western allies they had counted on for support in preserving their freedom. Instead, they were offered guarantees for the security of their remaining territory.

They were likewise abandoned by the international body that had brought them into existence in the first place. They reluctantly accepted the Quartet`s diktat, counting on the guarantees they were given for their security and territorial integrity. Certain politicians in the small country were even happy at the settlement, since the "occupation" was ended and peace preserved. And the international community congratulated them on making sacrifices and bold moves for peace.

Things are not always what they seem, and history does repeat itself.  Are we willing to put aside Political Correctness, the ability to put aside the equivalence of "stability" for the word "peace"?  

Are we willing to stand up to extortion and blackmail?  I urge you to read the rest….more commentary will happen in a while….. 

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Don’t threaten what is one of my own…

  From Cox and Forkum  Israel pulled back from its south Lebanon buffer zone in 2000 that it had established after Hezbullah kept attacking its northern border, ostensibly trading….land for peace.  Israel pulled out of Gaza, giving in to demands to trade…..land for peace. Hamas from Gaza crosses the border to attack Israeli soldiers.  Hezbullah … Read more

David Gelernter: (Liberal) Jewish Suicide

David Gelernter is considered an important pioneer in the field of parallel computing. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia tells us David Hillel Gelernter is a professor of computer science at Yale University. In the 1980s, he made seminal contributions to the field of parallel computation, specifically the tuple space coordination model, as embodied by the Linda … Read more

Update: New World War- Somalia

In a previous posting, I noted that we should add Somalia/Ethiopia to the list of new or re-emerging fronts in the coming world war. Ethiopian troops began crossing into Somalia to help defend that country’s battered and fragile government against the rising tide of Islamist militias. Now, as the AFP is reporting, comes the response: Somalia’s powerful Islamic council has … Read more

New World War- Update

I questioned in a previous posting whether we were witnessing a long march towards a new world war. As I opined, the list of active "fronts" in the war includes Israel-Lebabon-Palestinian Territories Iraq Afghanistan Chechnya Bosnia-Kosovo India-Pakistan (Kashmir) North Korea We should get ready to add Somalia to the list, where, as reported by the July 21 Times … Read more

“A Reckoning”

The New World War
On this date, July 18th, in 1926, part 1 of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kamf, entitled A Reckoning, was published. As we approach a new world war, it is good to recall the past…
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When studying past wars in history, the machinations in words and deeds of the warring parties leading up to the initial shots of conflict can be quite telling. While the opening salvos in a given war may have taken the involved parties by surprise, a careful study of actions prior generally reveals many telltale signs that should have foretold the events about to take place. Heated rhetoric by history’s long line of psychopathic madmen often contained hints at what they had planned long before their awful deeds were actually implemented.
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On September 1st, 1939, Hitler’s army poured across the Polish frontier from the south, north, and west in what is considered the official start to World War II. Some fourteen years earlier, a book written by Adolf Hitler, Mein Kamf (“My Struggle”), was released with little fanfare. While he was nothing more than a well-known agitator (and ex-con) at that point, the future dictator put forth a blueprint for the coming horrors of the Third Reich within the convoluted writings of that now infamous book.
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On the need for expanded living space for the German people (Lebensraum) in Eastern Europe then currently occupied by other peoples, Hitler wrote:
Nature has not reserved this soil for the future possession of any particular nation or race; on the contrary, this soil exists for the people with the force to take it.
He continued, on the consequences to those who might refuse to yield,
The law of self-preservation goes into effect; and what is refused to amicable methods, it is up to the fist to take.
That fist would ultimately smash an entire continent and then some.
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Back in October, the new president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, caused a minor furor by declaring in a speech that
Israel must be wiped off the map.
In the same speech, he continued
Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?…You had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved.

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Newt: Early Stages of WW3

Newt Gingrich was on Meet the Press today. I think he’s a long-shot presidential contender speaking to issues that resonate with many ordinary Americans, among them borders and health care issues. Today, however, he appeared on Meet the Press to discuss another area where he is strong- foreign affairs. The question comes from host Tim Russert-
Mr. Speaker, what are we witnessing in the Middle East?

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PeeWee Knew- A World War Had Begun

The New World War

The following is the first in what will be a series of posted essays on the topic of the new world war, which I believe started Nov. 4th, 1979. I have been writing off and on about the subject in my weekly newspaper column for quite some time. Lately, others in the media are beginning to suggest a similar analysis.
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In 1980, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie featured a memorable scene in which actor Paul Reubens, aka PeeWee Herman, played a wimpy, whiney desk clerk at a dingy hotel. Soon after the arrival of Cheech’s cousin, Dwayne ‘Red’ Mendoza, complete with a duffel bag filled with “illegal substance” slung over his shoulder, the hotel and its guests found themselves in a classic slapstick uproar. The hilarious scene showed a panicked PeeWee on the phone trying unsuccessfully to get the local police to respond to the mayhem. He then shouted his famous line from that movie, “I think they’re Iranians!” Suddenly the movie showed hundreds of police cars, including SWAT and paramilitary units, helicopters and all, converging on the seedy hotel. Such was the atmosphere in Jimmy Carter’s America in the summer of 1980- Iran was public enemy number one…
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Of course, with Commander-In-Chief Carter at the helm, taking cheap comedic potshots at the hostage-holding Iranians in stoner movies was about as much as America was able to muster as a response to this overt act of war. At least it brought some laughter to a nation otherwise gripped by near military and diplomatic paralysis. You know the story… no, wait- maybe you don’t, or perhaps you’ve forgotten- the hostage crisis that many believe set the stage for Ronald Reagan’s ascendancy to the Oval Office has seemingly been erased from the nation’s collective memory. Why is that? Is it that it was such an awful period in American history that everyone just wishes to forget it ever happened?

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Israel, Gaza, & Our Common Enemy- Know the Facts

David Horowitz writes a fantastic piece in FrontPage Magazine on the goings-on in Israel. The outbreak of combat in that region represents another step in the long march towards world war. He lays out facts about the situation as it exists that all of us need to understand… Americans need to take a hard look at what is going … Read more

Signs of World War?

Are we witnessing more of the long march to world war? Israel gives Syria 72 hours to stop the Hizbullah attacks against Israel and cough up the kidnapped soldier. Click here. Additionally, they finger Iran as having a role in the recent escalation of hostilities. Click here. Don’t forget this. Hugo Chavez, would-be dictator of Venezuala weighs … Read more

I’ve heard of “Land for Peace”…

as that’s all we’ve heard for decades – give the Paestinians Gaza and the West Bank so they can have their own state.  I don’t think anyone is generally against the two state idea, except the Palestinians and their supporters.  As I pointed out here and here (and lots of places out in the blogosphere), … Read more

We ARE succeeding in Iraq – by one who knows

The following is an address given by the US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzada.

Summary (and Conclusion)

In my remarks, I have explained the path to success in Iraq – the actions that the Iraqi government, the United States, and other members of the Coalition see as the keys to achieving the strategic goal of a stable and representative Iraq.  The Iraqis are going through a difficult transition, simultaneously facing the challenges of state and nation building while also fighting vicious terrorists.  Iraq’s leaders have committed themselves to a course of action that can succeed.  None of the steps in this strategy are easy, but all of them are doable.

I want to end by saying a word on the importance of succeeding in Iraq.  I am aware of the dangers of staying too long in Iraq, as well as the risks of leaving too soon, before success is ensured.  A precipitous Coalition departure could unleash a sectarian civil war, which inevitably would draw neighboring states into a regional conflagration that would disrupt oil supplies and cause instability to spill over borders.  It could also result in al Qaeda taking over part of Iraq, recreating the sanctuary it enjoyed but lost in Afghanistan.  If al Qaeda gained this foothold – which is the strategy of the terrorists – it would be able to exploit Iraq’s strategic location and enormous resources.  This would make the past challenge of al Qaeda in Afghanistan look like child’s play.  Finally, a precipitous withdrawal could lead to an ethnic civil war, with the Kurds concluding that the Iraqi democratic experiment had failed and taking matters into their own hands and with regional powers becoming involved to secure their interests.

Whatever anyone may have thought about the decision to topple Saddam – whether one supported it or not – succeeding in Iraq is now essential to the future of the region and the world.  Most of the world’s security problems emanate from the region stretching from Morocco to Pakistan.  Shaping its future is the defining challenge of our time.  What happens in Iraq will be decisive in determining how this region evolves.  Therefore, the struggle for the future of Iraq is vital to the future of the world.

 

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