Virtual War: We Are In A Collective Animal Farm
VDH’s latest:
In the last two months, lunatic Islamic radicals have failed at weird mass murder plots at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and JFK Airport in New York. And now in Great Britain, more incompetent jihadists were foiled again — thanks to their inability to ignite flammable gas canisters.
Spanish tourists about the same time were butchered in Yemen by a suicide bomber. And, of course, al Qaeda and the Taliban daily try to kill as many Westerners as they can in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I’m sure next week there will be more stories of some poor Westerner or Middle East reformer butchered somewhere by some suicide bomber yelling in extremis “Allah Akbar.” That will be followed almost immediately by a warning from a Western minister not to assume such killing is in anyway connected to Islam.
There is much variety in the ways in which radical Muslim jihadists attack Westerners. Indeed, the collective West is like wandering Odysseus, not sure where the next hideous monster is coming from — an Islamist Calypso, Circe, Cyclops, Lotus-Eater, or Laistrygonian always around the next bend in New York, London, or Madrid.
We learn again that British Muslims, both subjects and aliens, want to blow up as many inside the U.K. as they can. Illegal aliens from Albania in the United States and visitors from Guyana and Trinidad wish to slaughter Americans on a grand scale. Sometimes an angry Iranian-American student wants to run over others on campus; sometimes a deranged Muslim immigrant murders those in shopping centers, or seeks out Jews to shoot or run down.
Some terrorists are petty criminals. Others are well-off doctors. Some work for al Qaeda; others freelance. Many are simply al Qaedistic — the failed and bitter especially, who apparently go into hyperdrive after cheering a particularly gruesome DVD of a Marine blown apart by an IED.
All these killers gripe about Israel. Most cite as grievances Afghanistan and Iraq — or elemental Western decadence. Or is the real culprit Salman Rushdie or the Danish cartoons or those supposedly flushed Korans or the pope’s analogies or a Berlin opera?
Despite all our efforts to “reach out” to moderate Muslims, we’ve even forgotten the original reasons that started off bin Laden’s declaration of war — American troops stationed near the “Holy Shrines” of Saudi Arabia and the U.N. Oil-for-Food boycott of poor Iraq.
What has been the systematic response of the West to the serial rampage of terrorists other than temporary “beefed-up” security? The new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown advises us that “the war on terror” is now politically-incorrect since there is no necessary connection between terrorism and Islam. That calm is reminiscent of prior outrage over the images of a British subject caught smoking while a hostage in Iran.
The public at large — after the initial “terrorist news alerts” and warnings about “severe threat-red level” — usually settles down to indifference. Then there is a return to business as usual. Last autumn’s near riots to buy a Playstation3 video game have given way to jostling in long lines for the new i-Phones — both are as essential to madcap consumers as Hillarycare apparently is not.
In the same way, we went right from the postmortem hysteria over Anna Nicole Smith to Paris Hilton’s new “spirituality” after her short jail sentence. With the economy strong and consumers flooded with inexpensive toys, life is very good in the West — much too good to worry about much else. September 11 is as far from us as the Blitz is from Londoners.
For our more engaged and partisan elites, these outrages are more cause for politicking that prompt the old blame game. “The War on Terror” is now a mere bumper sticker, some sort of discredited neocon conspiracy to enrich Dick Cheney and shill for Israel, as the Left alleges unnecessary war abroad and at home a police state followed from trumping up the danger from radical Islam.
Like an oxygen-starved fish flopping about on the pier, we are frenetic, but also exhausted from the press wars over WMD, Halliburton, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. Most of those associated with the Iraqi war are either gone or had their reputations nearly ruined: Paul Bremmer, Douglas Feith, Scooter Libby, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, and Paul Wolfowitz. Dick Cheney and George Bush are demonized as more the real threats for trying to stop al Qaeda than al Qaeda is for trying to wipe us out.
In short, we are much madder at ourselves than we are at the Islamic radicals who wage war to kill us. So while the terrorists keep at it, we keep at it too — suing in our courts over the rights of terrorists and enemy combatants.
Our senators demand only one answer from our generals — how soon can we flee the ‘mess’ in Iraq? Didn’t the Bush administration’s unwillingness to give aid to Hamas, or to negotiate with Syria and Iran, or sending too few or surging too many to Iraq cause our problems?
Can’t we subpoena the president, the vice president, or at least impeach somebody to express our furor? Isn’t there a word in the English lexicon worse than “the worst” for some blathering news reader to rant about George Bush each night on television?
We may disagree over why Westerners are bickering among themselves and why Muslims want to blow up innocent civilians. But the better question is Why does it all continue?
Simple. So far the Islamic radicals have failed to repeat mass murder of the magnitude of September 11.
Their only success in killing Westerners is in Iraq, and to a lesser extent Afghanistan. And in the postmodern Western paradigm of least resistance, thus the response is simple. Get out of Iraq, then most of our losses cease and the good life goes on and on.
It is hard to describe the leftist approach to the present war, much less to lump together all its various strains. But a common, though unspoken, assumption is simply that so far Western intelligence services, law enforcement, and the U.S. military have so infiltrated, thwarted, scattered, or killed off enough jihadists that for the moment the Islamists no longer possess the ability to kill thousands more Westerners.
As long as that dodge from the terrorist bullet continues, we are thus freed up to bicker and slur — but only up to a certain fuzzy point where even the loud Left is somewhat hesitant to repeal the Patriot Act, stop wiretaps, shut down Guantanamo, withdraw from Iraq, ease up in Afghanistan, and let Iran be Iran. Do all that and today’s incompetent jihadists who can’t even light up a propane tank might well have better luck with a dirty bomb. We are in a collective Animal Farm: Good wiretaps bad!
The result is that we are ever so insidiously slouching back into a 1990s Clintonian mood of lackadaisicalness. If we get out of Iraq and 9/11 passes its sixth anniversary in quiet, we can relax and keep feeding al Qaeda a few diplomats, attaches, or soldiers in godforsaken places where they ought not be anyway.
If worse comes to worse, and al Qaeda gets greedy and harvests more than a few dozen, there is always the cruise missile or Operation Desert Something to bomb camps. But then we blink and get to go back to Paris, Anna Nicole’s ghost, Halliburton, and Dick Cheney’s shotgun. Soon the old Democratic two-step may return: Launch a Clinton cruise missile, followed by the landing party of Jimmy Carter to blame the launcher.
I wouldn’t suggest that such a strategy won’t work. While we speak, the formidable powers of globalized communications and commerce, Western popular culture, seductive egalitarianism, consumerism, and informality are relentlessly tearing down the hierarchies within the Muslim world.
Hence follows the real rage of the radical Islamists at our DVDs, Internet, cell phones, CDs, jeans, T-shirts, and belly buttons. Those manifestations of a frantic culture seems to drive Dr. Zawahiri himself almost to the point of giving up his Western-inspired infomercials.
Perhaps, there is no antidote to Westernization. In the end, Ahmed and Buffy will alike soon be smirking to a morning show or on The Simpsons, fake listening to rap, hypnotized by video games, discussing our addictions with worldwide Oprah, and nodding to Anderson Cooper’s banalities anyway.
But until we get there, in the exhaustion after Iraq, we are returning to our therapeutic attitude about the harvesting of our citizens here and there. We caricature and slander those in the West who install video cameras, interrogate killers at Gitmo, slug it out in Anbar — all on the expectation that Islamic killers won’t harvest any more than a half dozen or so Westerners each month.
And mostly those reaped in this virtual war will be soldiers, diplomats, or random citizens supposedly in the wrong job, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time.
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
my sentiments exactly
July 6th, 2007 at 6:20 amal-Qaedistic, good one, can I use that?
July 6th, 2007 at 6:34 amInteresting.
I have yet to really understand why or how Bush lost the PR push on this, and that has allowed many of the issues addressed in the article.
This battle is still waging, and I have not heard bin laden call for a truce, I have not heard ahmadinejad state his acceptance of the right of Israel to exist; we are still very much in danger, and if not for the excellent work of our armed services, intelligence services, and responsible members of our government, and of our allies we would be much worse off then today.
in regards to his closing statement:
“Mostly those reaped in this virtual war will be soldiers, diplomats, or random citizens supposedly in the wrong job, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time.”
I guess you if do not have ‘blood’ in this fight you may find that acceptable as long as you can have your MTV.
July 6th, 2007 at 6:37 amExactly how I feel. And even though he’s only been in power for a few days, I’m starting to dislike Gordon Brown.
July 6th, 2007 at 7:03 amVDH is great, but,…is the westernization of Ahmed really a forgone conclusion, with things just cruising along and only the blood of a few consumed?
Has the fact that no organized large scale attack has occurred in America, been completely due to our diligent efforts, intelligence, security etc.?
Or has this been part of a long-term plan? Hold back until the US is so divided and the opposition of the zionists can weaken America?
Sorry, VDH, you’re understating the possibilities.
July 6th, 2007 at 7:24 amThe fault lies with us. When we elect a President who is incapable of effectively articulating a stance this is what we get. When we elect a president for values that seem to be the opposite of Clinton and then elect him again, this is what we get. Shame on US. When will we have a candidate that rises above party and sees this country for the majesty that it is. I don’t know about you but I don’t see that in any of the candidates that wish to play the most important role in the world.
July 6th, 2007 at 7:26 amKipp, you sound like you liked Reagan!
or Ronaldus Magnus if you prefer
July 6th, 2007 at 7:33 amVery interesting and insightful. Great article.
I would like to add that while it may seem we (the Western masses) have beaten this monster back into a sideshow freak, he’s still there.
He still breathes.
He still wants to kill you, and I, and people like us.
And our brave service personnel are still in harms way daily because of him.
He still gathers other freaks under his wing and whispers obscenities in their ears and incites them to do his bidding.
Most importantly, IMHO, he is still indoctrinating his brood with an idealogy of hate from the moment they can understand Deathspeak.
It ain’t over til we take away his classroom, and then “kill him until he is dead”. And he ain’t dead yet.
July 6th, 2007 at 7:37 amIt’s just that, if we had a nickel for every hose-bag who proclaimed they could defeat the US “without ever firing a shot”, we’d be doing good.
What we are awakening to though is, that Ahmed exists with power because of anti-Americanism within America. The radical anti-war left is in congress, creating the need for another opposing group.
We cannot go back to being a silent majority, not if we want to continue to be the country leading the way to freedom and true forward moving progress in the rest of the barbaric world.
July 6th, 2007 at 7:40 amSteve,
Uh, no. Reagan was an idiot, too.
July 6th, 2007 at 8:50 amsurprised to hear you say that kipp
July 6th, 2007 at 9:39 amKipp,
July 6th, 2007 at 10:24 amIf Reagan was an idiot, what was Carter? Clinton? Johnson? He made them look like single-celled beings. Reagan was, by far, the greatest President since Lincoln. The only complaint I would have about RWR is that he backed off after the Marine barracks were bombed in Lebanon. That was the time to go after Hezbollah and Iran and reduce them to tears. 20-20 hindsight notwithstanding.
VDH is on to something, though Globalization is really Americanization. Our technology drives the dispersion of our culture along with our military presence overseas. Just look at post-war Europe and Japan, and hell for that matter even Vietnam. Wherever our military goes, our culture follows. “Traditional” societies abhor our “bohemian” culture but the youth love it, a way to give mom and dad the finger. Unfortunately, the face of American culture is no longer John Wayne but that of she- whose-name-I-refuse-to-type-made-famous-by-a-pathetic-sex -tape. (someone teach that bitch how to give head) America has become a pejorative, thrown around by Western intellectuals, and like Pavlov’s dog, used as graffiti by “progressive” and their 3rd world “noble” savage kin. It all boils down to individualism, which there is no room for in the collectivistism of Islam nor the modern relativist left.
July 6th, 2007 at 10:30 amThis Collective Animal Farm will get worse if those morons in Congress get their ‘Fairness Doctrine’ passed.
They need to silence the people of this country.
They couldn’t do that with the Shamnesty bill because we broke out over the airwaves and internet.
Now they have to control that. And then they win, and welcome to the Union of Soviet Amerika. Where will our gulags be located, for saying things like “I’m not sure I like glorious leader Hillary”.
The same way we came together for defeating the southern invasion, we must come together and defeat this, the most massive censorship we have ever seen, that will silence us.
Steve in NC, you were right in naming RR as ‘Ronaldus Magnus’…
Kipp, your an idiot. It doesn’t matter how ’smart’ or ‘cultural’, or ‘idealistic’ or whatever you think makes you better than us beer drinkin, truck drivin, gun shootin, yee-hawing ‘rednecks’.
If people are determined to kill you, nothing else matters. Not your great philosophies. Not the works of art in Paris. Definately NOT socialism / communism. Not debating ‘No Child Left Behind’. Not protesting the Patriot Act.
They want you to die. They want all of us to die. You’ll never believe it’s so simple as this. It’s there economies. It’s their governments. It’s Bush and the corporations. It’s, it’s, it’s…
Your philosophy, your protest sign, your Bush tee-shirt, will never, ever stop there 7.62 mmm rounds from there AK’s. Your Che Guevara shirt won’t stop an RPG round streaking in. Your ‘Bush lied, men died’ screen saver won’t stop Muslim Dr’s in Britain who may have access to biological weapons from mass-murdering us. The ACLU certainly will never, ever protect you and your family from a car filled with propane and packed with nails designed to turn you into La Victoria thick and chunky salsa.
And that’s why it’s so simple. A man with a rifle stops them. Because we use it to kill this enemy. Then this enemy of ours stops trying to kill us. It seems very effective.
That’s why Ronald Reagan should be re-named Ronald the Great. Because if he was President on September 11, 2001, the world would have cringed and shuddered at the first sighting of his face on TV making that first address to the nation… of what was going to do. Justice and Vengeance. Shudder.
Defeat the ‘Fairness Doctrine’. It is this bill that is the most important, because it will shut you and me down.
I’m proud to be an American. Let’s not make that a crime… because we have to be ‘fair’.
July 6th, 2007 at 11:23 amone lung sounds right, in the fifties America was a dream, even if your cow-boys were dressed as a coca-cola christmas father ; since the world populattion is increasing, there will not be enough merchandises for all of us; so the christmas fathers became merchandise searchers in the meanwhile, and defend their part of the basket
July 6th, 2007 at 11:25 amRonald Reagan was an idiot, yea sure.
I was really little at the time, but I still remember the end of the cold war. Yea, took a real idiot to end that standoff.
Let’s not forget Granada and Panama. Had Carter been in charge those students would have remained captive in Granada while Peanutbutter talked them to death.
But my all time favorite move was when we bombed Libya for their role in the bombing of Flight xxx (cant remember right now).
Reagan sent a clear message, “Do not fuck with us, because we fuck back.” And you know, nobody did!
Oh, one more thing, kipp go fuck yourself.
Strike first, strike hard, no mercy, Sir!
July 6th, 2007 at 11:36 amKipp:
“The fault lies with us. When we elect a President who is incapable of effectively articulating a stance this is what we get.”
Use the term “you”. You’re not one of “us” That’s what the country was with Clinton, who wagged the dog at the terrorists while he wagged another part of his anatomy at Monica(I did not have sex with that woman…Ms Lewinski…yeah sure Bill….everyone gets a BJ and a cigar while in the WH.)
He swore up and down that he tried to get OBL. No he didn’t. He was too busy CYA’ng himself. So he turned down at least 8 different opportunities to get OBL.
Clinton had 8 years to get his “war on terror” on the right track. Bush had 8 months to get ready.
Result: 9-11.
But unlike your zipper skipper, GW took the war to the terrorist back yard. With less than 350 SF types we conquered the Taliban and freed the Afghanis.
Then he got rid of Saddam and his evil sons. Unlike his predecessor, who played footsie with Saddam.
Twelve years of sanctions and Democratz after Democratz saying how Saddam had to go and that he had WMD’s. And finally one President had the moxy to kick the maggot out.
And now, more and more of Iraq is siding against Ali-Baba and siding with the US.
Civil War my asshole. The US is winning this war. And the MSM and your pussyass reps in Congress can’t stand it.
And oh by the way, Reagan ended the Cold War. And your boy did what? Oh yeah…BJ and a cigar. Some fucking legacy.
Then again, that depends on what one’s definition of is…is?
July 6th, 2007 at 12:52 pmJarhead68
Reagan backed off because the Democratic Congress threatened to cut off funding for the effort. That was a Tip O’Neal special.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:56 pmSuck on this Kipp, if Reagan could run today he’d win in a friggin landslide, and you know it.
We’ll have more Reagan’s Kipp, so why don’t you pack it up now and go live with the tolerant Syrians since their president is so much better than GWB?
July 6th, 2007 at 2:00 pmDan, Reno, Infidel…
Well done sirs.
Dan, zipper skipper? P R I C E L E S S ! !
Oh yeah…
STOP THE FAKE ‘FAIRNESS DOCTRINE’. SING IT LOUD AND PROUD!!
July 6th, 2007 at 2:07 pmOh yeah. Anyone remember the Achille Lauro? And what did Reagan do? He set a trap for the bastard. Sent out F-14’s to intercept the garbage and force his plane to land.
The poor cretin, put up such a struggle, that his hands got broken?
Reagan didn’t ask that asshole to surrender, He MADE him surrender.
RENO You are thinking of Pan Am 103?
That first attack on Ghadafi was in response to the discoteque bombing in Germany. Reagan had a bomb dropped just outside Ghadifi’s tent. It killed Ghadifi’s son.
July 6th, 2007 at 2:09 pmBut it sent a clear message to Ghadafi that he has never forgotten: “Fuck with the US and we will fuck you up.”
thanks bd. but I’m no sir
And Futhermore, we can only imagine that if Ronaldus were here today, would the Iranians be wearing their asses on their shoulders?
July 6th, 2007 at 2:26 pmAchille Lauro? Yes Dan, thanks for reminding us of when the islamo-terrorists showed us how courageous they were by beating up and old man in a wheel chair and throwing him overboard.
Now they threaten us with, “the real holocaust is coming”.
July 6th, 2007 at 2:47 pmInfidel
I sure like that name. LOL
The last time the Iraniacs tangled with us we handed them their hats. I believe that happened in the runup to Gulf War I.
Precision air power vs Iraniac threats. Gee, I wonder what flattened mookie tastes like. Burnt pork perhaps?
July 6th, 2007 at 2:55 pmbd said:
That’s why Ronald Reagan should be re-named Ronald the Great. Because if he was President on September 11, 2001, the world would have cringed and shuddered at the first sighting of his face on TV making that first address to the nation… of what was going to do. Justice and Vengeance. Shudder.
Defeat the ‘Fairness Doctrine’. It is this bill that is the most important, because it will shut you and me down.
I’m proud to be an American. Let’s not make that a crime… because we have to be ‘fair’.
July 6th, 2007 at 11:23 am
July 6th, 2007 at 3:10 pmBravo sir !
Infidel, I apologize. Madame, perhaps? Either way, let the cloning of RR begin immediately!!!
July 6th, 2007 at 3:24 pmIndy, my thanks to you and all the Great Patriotic Americans, who still Love their God, Family, and Country.
Keep kicking and screaming, my Good Americans. Thats how this Great Country of Ours was born. Kicking and screaming. Rebellion and War.
In fact, if possible… Let us all get louder and louder.
Tell the Republican Party that we want a hard-nosed, bulldog, Ronald the Great!!
Who is his heir? One who isn’t so much concerned with the world, but America 1st!
It’s about time.
One more thing about the so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine’:
I say to Congress this…
Regarding this Wall so-called the ‘Fairness Doctrine’, separating the voice, thoughts, and ideas of the Great People of these United States from their Servants, Congress, Mrs. Pelosi… TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!
Spread the word my fellow Americans!
July 6th, 2007 at 3:35 pmYou guys don’t know piss is in your beer when you taste it. Let us not forget that it was Reagan who made a deal with Iran so the hostages wouldn’t be freed until he became president. Let us not forget it was Reagan who sold arms to Iran, of all countries (most likely a gift for waiting on releasing the hostages. Let us not forget it was Reagan who propped up the Islamic extremists not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan (from which the arms were being smuggled into Afghanistan). Carter, Reagan, Clinton…all over their heads so get your dirty stinking partisan thumb out of your ass long enough to stop hero worshipping that senile moron. Hell, I didn’t even get into his idiotic economic policy that had launched our massive debt. Are you sure it isn’t Ronald the Forgetful? Ronald Magnus—yawn. Stupid ass Limbaugh term. Partisanship blows.
July 6th, 2007 at 8:26 pmkippie, we were preoccupied with getting the Soviets to shit or get off the pot. I remember well the screaming the democrats did, ‘he’s going to run us into debt for the next three generations’. Unfortunately we thought we were going to have a peace dividend, gutted the military and that bill was paid off by the middle ’90s. Creatures like yourself try to rewrite history and present that time as a time we ‘chatted’ with the soviets. Couldn’t be further from the truth. Reagan built up the military and presented a very real threat to the USSR. The soviets didn’t give up because we ‘chatted’, they gave up because they were afraid Reagan would unleash the hounds. Everyone has bills, so the US has bills to pay. The stock market is going gang busters, unemployment is incredibly low and we also have 12 to 25 million illegals tripping over themselves to come here to go to work. Speaking of Rush. He made an interesting observation last week, there have been 40 million abortions since they were legalized and we have today a need to have to ‘import’ labor to take up the slack. I feel that female stuff is none of my business because I can’t get pregnant, but, just something to think about, kippie.
July 7th, 2007 at 12:17 amKipp, Put down the Left’s Kool-aid, quit “raging against the machine” and think for yourself for a change — read Mark Bowden’s “Guests of the Ayhatollah” and you’ll see Bowden, hardly an apologist for Reagan, convincingly debunks the notion of an “October Surprise,” that Reagan’s people had anything to do with the hostages being held until after the election. For one, if that was true, why weren’t they released the day after the election, not over three months later? There’s about as much truth to your statement as there is in the evil Bushitler being behind 9/11. Regan sold arms to Iran to perpetuate the release the american hostages in Beriut, not as some friggin’ “thank you” for their “helping” him defeat Carter. And selling arms to Afghanistan? Say pal, uh, remember who else was in Afghanistan back then? Does the “Cold War” ring a bell?? And, lastly, that “idiotic economic policy” only launched the great economic expansion in our country’s history — it was the cumulative effect of the Dems Great Society that riddled us with considerably more debt than Reagan ever did.
I suggest you re-read VDH and quit regurgataing “Anderson Cooper’s banalities.” Or move to Canada.
July 7th, 2007 at 5:33 amWhat we face…
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/07/what_we_face.html
July 7th, 2007 at 8:13 amKipp, If you think that Reagan is an idiot, what are you views on Carter or Clinton?
Yes, Reagan probably wanted the hostages released on his watch, but it was him being elected that made that happen. Not the gutless Carter, what did he do?
Yes, Reagan sold arms to Iran, but what did Clinton give the Chinese and North Koreans…Nuke technology.
What are your ideas on how to stop terrorism? send a team of lawyers? talk to them nicely? embargo? How would you deal with people who have no respect for human life. People who behead girls because they want to marry a different person, people who dress up babies as sucide bombers.
Why don’t you ask Nick Berg or Daniel Pearl about the conditions at Abu-Graib, or Gitmo. . . oh wait, I forgot they were beheaded on TV…my bad
Please Kipp, for the sake of humanity open a history book and read it. Don’t go to the “Daily Kos” or “Moveon” for all of your information.
By the way in regards to history, what would you do to stop Hitler or abolish slavery???????
July 9th, 2007 at 7:12 amI would love to hear your ideas
WASHINGTON….LINCOLN……REGAN NOTHING ELSE NEEDS TO BE SAID
July 9th, 2007 at 7:15 amKipp once said he is not the typical liberal. To me, kipp seems to be pretty far out on the leftist side of everything he spews. He makes less sense than most libs I know.
On the left its all about self these days. Kipp does not help me keep hope for the blind followers - his students.
Lost cause:
Kipp’s rhetoric needs to be qualified for what it is - Leftist crap!
Don’t forget about the topic of original posts though….
July 9th, 2007 at 9:05 am