perfidy

I think in general terms, the distinguished blogger from Washington has made a sound and polished essay. Buckethead's position is solidly based on historical facts and the cohesive flow of events therefrom. Which is the main reason his arguments are entirely ineffective. Because arguing is not the point.

Islamic terrorists are not interested in what has happened, what took the world to this stage. They are interested in killing you. Even translating your essay into Arabic and putting it across every media outlet in the world will not help the anti-terror cause. The terrorists aren't interested in a factual accounting of the Crusdaes, state supporters of terrorist units aren't interested, and the general population- already conspiracy minded and mistrustful of America- might be interested but won't believe any of it. Because America is the devil. Or something. Unless there's a chance to immigrate here, in which case it's not so bad.

As for the network of ideas, it might be nice if more Arabs were actually in the network. A recent Chronicle of Higher Ed piece points out that more books were translated in Spain last year than were translated into Arabic, across the entire Gulf region, in the last 1,000 years. The Arab world is not included in the network of ideas, largely by their own xenophobic tendencies. Unless by ideas we can include novel ways to exterminate large numbers of Jews. And as we send our children to public schools where they are taught to value and respect difference- indeed are forced to, at the risk of their own academic success- madrassas abroad continue to churn out youthful cadres of tiny terrorists weaned on a diet of "Death to America" diatribe. Children, as the PSAs insist, are the future. Here, moms get bent out of shape over toy guns and games that employ them; there, death and destruction against non-Arabs are cause for joyful celebration, dancing in the streets, random and continual gunfire (with real guns, moms!), and a joie de vive rooted, ironically, in the spectacularly violent deaths of others.

I don't know that culturally it's much different. A NY Times article last week mentioned the latest play for what amounts to off-Broadway in Cairo. A comedy, it takes to task Powell, Rice, Franks, and other military and policy leaders in the Bush administration for the Iraq war. Apparently it's not exactly novel, in that it marries tacky consumerism to military victory, ie soldiers don't fix the water pumps but hand out milkshakes and cheeseburgers, but audineces find it amusing. Oh, and especially the part where a suicide bomber sneaks on stage and attempts to blow up the general during a press conference. THAT part consistently gets a deafening roar of applause and brings audiences to their feet night after night. Like I said, it's a comedy.

I think arguing about the Crusades to Arabs is like arguing anything with a drunk. No one's mind will be changed, but everyone concerned will be annoyed or bloody before bed.

The inestimable Lileks whittles the issue down to a nub:

Imagine if you woke from an operation and discovered that your tumor was gone. You'd think: I suppose that's a good thing. But. You learned that the hospital might profit from the operation. You learned that the doctor who made the diagnosis had decided to ignore all the other doctors who believed the tumor could be discouraged if everyone protested the tumor in the strongest possible terms, and urged the tumor to relent. How would you feel? You'd be mad. You'd look up at the ceiling of your room and nurse your fury until you came to truly hate that butcher. And when he came by to see how you were doing, you'd have only one logical, sensible thing to say: YOU TOOK IT OUT FOR THE WRONG REASONS. PUT IT BACK!

Read the whole thing, it's very nearly a screed.

Loyal reader Mapgirl sends us this link about a man from the future, who until recently was posting on the internet. Apparently, he predicts a red v. blue civil war starting in the next year or so, culminating in a nuclear exchange initiated by Russian in 2015. Also, Bush is instituting a police state that will contribute to the civil war, and soon we will have a Waco-style incident almost every month.

He was sent into the past to get a IBM computer from 1975 to solve a Y2K type problem for when UNIX computers run out of numbers in 2038. He stopped off here because of his abiding interest in late period American cultural history.

We report, you decide.

Ace of Spades notes that Kerry called his own eventual vote against funding for Iraq "reckless and irresponsible." He also gave Kerry the nickname "Flippy," but I think "Flipper" would be better.

The death of Ahmed Yassin is being laid at the feet of the United States. An purported Al Qaida franchise has announced on the internet that it vows revenge on the United States for the death of the Hamas terrorist in chief. From the article:

"We tell Palestinians that Sheikh Yassin's blood was not spilled in vain and call on all legions of Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades to avenge him by attacking the tyrant of the age, America, and its allies," said the statement by Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade carried by the al Ansar forum Web Site.
The group, which aligns itself to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, had claimed this month's train bombings in Spain. There was no means of verifying the statement.

Another article reports:

For the first time, Hamas also threatened the United States, saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible. "All the Muslims of the world will be honored to join in on the retaliation for this crime," Hamas said in a statement.

In the past, Hamas leaders have insisted their struggle is against Israel and that they would not get involved in causes by militant Muslims in other parts of the world. Monday's statement suggested that Hamas might seek outside help in carrying out revenge attacks, since its capabilities have been limited by Israeli military strikes.

It is past time that we realize that there is one war on terror. These Islamic terror groups all view us as the enemy. It is time that we stop condescending to them, and realize that they are serious. And then kill them. It doesn't matter if they are Palestinian religious terrorists, or Palestinian marxist terrorists, or Al Qaida terrorists, or if they get their support from Iran, Syria, or Saudi Arabia. They should all be on our list of targets.

By way of Dodgeblogium and Momma Bear at On The Third Hand, we find this essay by the Gray Monk. The Monk is talking about the history underlying our current difficulties in the Middle East, and makes several valid points.

Islam, the religion of peace, was spread by the sword. Beginning in the seventh century, in a matter of little more than a hundred years, Arabs fired with religious fervor conquered first Arabia, then Persia, Syria and Palestine, Egypt and North Africa and Spain. Except for Persia, these regions had been Christian for centuries. Over the next several centuries, Islam reduced the once mighty Byzantine Empire to a nub of Asia Minor and Greece. It moved East, eventually all the way to Malaysia and Indonesia.

For all but the last three hundred years, Islam has been pressing at the borders of Christendom. As late as the seventeenth century, the Turks besieged Vienna several times within a few decades. The great victory at Lepanto ended the threat of Islamic navies only in 1571. For most of a millennium, Islam was an ever present threat to the survival of the West.

The Crusades are a big problem for Osama bin Laden. He forgets that Islam won those wars, and Christianity failed to achieve even the very limited goals the crusaders set for themselves. The Crusades were meant to regain Christian control over the holy lands. No one ever imagined that the Crusades would eliminate Islam, or take back the formerly Christian lands then held by Islam. The tragedy of Andalusia was used as an excuse for the Madrid bombings. The Islamofascists forget that the reconquista was in fact a re-conquest of territory seized by Islam from Christians hundreds of years before.

The crusades were not some sort of proto-colonialism from Edward Said's fevered brain. Hundreds of thousands of Christians died in defensive wars against the Arabs and the Turks. Since the Renaissance, the Industrial and Scientific Revolutions, and the Great Age of Discovery, Europe transformed itself from a marginal, impoverished and backward region at the outskirts of civilization to the center of the world. (Some in America might argue that they're heading back to marginal, impoverished and backward.) Islam has not lost any power or wealth. But they have stood still while Europe, and later America and the Far East made enormous gains in knowledge, wealth and power.

Islam failed to keep up. And the people who say that America and the West need to look at root causes for solutions to the problem of terrorism are missing the point. By saying that, they usually mean that the West should amend its behavior, be nicer to the Arabs, or some other Pollyanna program. They oppose the one real solution that would get to the actual root cause - globalization and the spread of liberty, he network of ideas and habits that allowed the West and other civilizations to advance. And this is the program that we are trying to implement in Iraq.

When I heard that the Israelis had killed Hamas founder and "Spiritual Leader" Ahmed Yassin, several thoughts immediately ran through my head.

The very first thought was, "Good!"

Second, it occurred to me that the Israelis just applied the Bush doctrine. This is no different from our earnest desire to capture; or preferably convert Usama bin Laden into strawberry jam on a Afghani hillside.

As I listened to the Palestinian reactions, I was bemused.

"Words cannot describe the emotion of anger and hate inside our hearts," said Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, a close associate of Yassin.

How is this different from the anger and hate you have expressed for the last several decades, in the form of suicide bombs in buses, restaurants and hotels? And planned by Yassin?

Hamas said Israel had "opened the gates of hell"

Really?

The Palestinian Authority said in a statement that "Israel has exceeded all red lines with this cheap and dirty crime,"

How is this cheaper or dirtier than say, using young women with explosive belts to sneak into Israeli towns to kill the innocent? Or putting bombs in ambulances? At least the Israelis target people who are actually responsible for murder.

[Palestinian] Cabinet ministers stood as Arafat recited a Muslim prayer for the dead. The Palestinian leader, referring to Yassin, then added: "May you join the martyrs and the prophets. To heaven, you martyr."

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said the Palestinians have lost "a great leader," and called the attack on Sheikh Yassin a "dangerous, cowardly act".

If the Palestinians believe that this person was a great leader, a martyr, and destined for heaven, as they evidently do:

...then they are completely outside the pale of civilization.

It also occurred to me that the Palestinians have a peculiar understanding of the nature of war. They have, through their actions and words, declared war on the state of Israel. They bomb Israel's citizens, they call for the destruction of the Jews who inhabit it. Yet when their enemies fight back, they whine in surprise at the perfidy of the Jew. How dare those evil Jews kill a man, an elderly man in a wheelchair! Nevermind that he is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israelis. Are they really that naive? Of course not, but they do know that that sort of whining will find a sympathetic ear amongst certain sorts of people in the west.

One snippet from the BBC had a no doubt unintentional grain of truth. PA mouthpiece Saeb Erekat said the only way to stop violence was to "end the occupation of Palestinian territories." When you remember that the Palestinians also claim the land that Israel currently sits on, this reveals what they are all about.

[wik] This NRO article by Joel Rosenberg offers some useful thoughts.

RKK Energiya, the Russian space company, has announced plans to design a replacement for the venerable Soyuz capsule. Given sufficient funding, the company says that it can have the new capsule flying in five years.

The new capsule, dubbed "Clipper," will have twice the passenger capacity of the old Soyuz, and weigh twice as much. Further, it will be reusable up to 25 times, a significant improvement over the single use Soyuz. While the article does not specifically mention it, I presume that since they're calling it a capsule, the vehicle will not be winged, and will hard land (slowed by parachutes) on the ground like the current model.

At least someone's thinking ahead.

I've given up counting the number of things that I do that are haardous to my health and well being. But this one, I think I'll just have to ignore:

Aspartame Kills.

[wik] As an added bonus, not only is aspartame lethal, it's Don Rumsfeld's fault! Republican conspiracy! Worldviews confirmed! Nefariousness proved! Ack.

This Wall Street Journal editorial is well worth a read.