Ralph Peters, one of my favorite military analysts and one of America’s most creative military strategic thinkers, calls it like it is. Please be warned Peters used a little salty language, but here again sometimes that says it best. (Hat tip to PJ media, where I saw this video first)
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics, Terrorism
“Speaking from the Oval Office and surrounded by members of his national security team, Obama said the shooters perhaps had “mixed motives.”
“It is possible that this was terrorist-related. But we don’t know. It’s also possible that this was work-related,” he said.”
‘Mixed Motives’ in California Shooting by Michele Gorman
President Obama lives in a leftist bubble, where he turns every situation into a college classroom debate forum on his ideological causes. He fixates on “narratives” and word choice over substance. Most of the rest of the world lives where reality smacks them in the face, where brute force decides life and death struggle and where stark truths about human nature can’t be edited out, as some politically inconvenient line. Most of us in America live in the real world too, where we look at a situation like the San Bernadino terrorist attack, quickly assess the facts and form our conclusions based on those facts.
With unerring bad timing, President Obama makes bold declarations about America’s enemies, where events unfold that quickly blow apart his carefully constructed “narratives. “ISIL is contained,” the day before the Paris attack or “No specific threat to US,” just a week ago.
In keeping with the Obama administration bad timing, Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, announced all combat positions will be open to women the day after the San Bernadino terrorist attack by Islamic radicals. Assuredly, Secretary Carter believes that “diversity” makes us stronger, which he stated, but here’s the truth – selecting the best qualified people for military positions and maintaining high standards makes our military stronger.
So, selectivity, not diversity makes our military stronger and that means assessing the qualifications that best meet the mission.
In grueling combat jobs, where even most men fail to meet the physical standards, common sense and endless research can pinpoint with reliable accuracy where the female anatomy falls short on meeting these standards. The Army made sure some females made it through Ranger school, where questions of different treatment to get them through the course have been raised, but be that as it may, in reality very few women will rush to get into the elite units and few (if any) have the physical ability to pursue a career in these jobs. Adding women to these jobs adds no advantage – absolutely NONE. It creates another PC myth that must be maintained, even if the lie costs lives on the battlefield. That’s the truth. The entire hoopla about opening these fields to women is really about female officer career advancement, not about making the military stronger.
In the real world, where America’s adversaries size up our force, they hear the claptrap from the Pentagon, but they watch closely what happens in reality, far away from the DC echo chamber. President Obama has slashed our forces, he has purged top generals and promoted sycophants, his military decisions lack any coherence or strategic sense. And then we come to this latest announcement – yes, while feminists cheer about the prospect of women in combat, America’s adversaries are laughing at us. The day after an Islamic terrorist attack on American soil, the President preened on about “mixed motives”. Then his attorney general publicly announced her greatest fear is not another terrorist attack or keeping Americans safe, nope her greatest concern is that Americans don’t use hate speech against Muslims. And finally the Pentagon announced women in combat jobs…
America sits a divided nation – where every public institution lumbers under the weight of highly-charged factionalized fighting. One can only wonder what event or chain reaction will set the final collapse in motion. If our Republic is going to survive, the last thing to believe is that “diversity makes us stronger”. What made America great was not “diversity”, it was diverse people UNITED by a belief in a set of common civic values. Having common civic values and a common belief in The Constitution would help gird up our once great nation’s crumbling pillars. I’ve written about this need to find common ground many times (here, here, here, here and here) and as I said more than a year ago:
Truth matters and therein the fate of America lies. We have hostile camps in America, left and right, black, white and every shade in-between, who find it easier to treat each other as enemies rather than talk and find common ground as fellow American citizens. We’ve got too much diversity training and not enough American citizen training:
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics, Terrorism
General Mike Flynn, former DIA director, used the phrase that it’s time to “get real” in our fight against ISIS. It’s time to “get real” in putting the pieces together with this terrorist attack on American soil yesterday! The Obama administration will bend over backwards to call it everything except what it is – A TERRORIST ATTACK! The media keeps yammering on about how this shooter in San Bernadino left this workplace Christmas party angry. The shooter happens to be a devout Muslim, who recently traveled to Saudi Arabia – okay, that could be “not definitive”, but come on he went home and returned with his wife and reports indicate a third person and all of them were heavily armed, wearing black gear. Well, here’s a clue from a co-worker of the terrorist:
“Baccari said his co-worker, who said he was raised on a farm with goats and chickens, was reserved. Several months ago Farook grew out his beard. He appeared committed to his family, and never displayed any unusual behavior or discussed any radical political views.”
The suspect left THREE IEDS in the Inland Regional Center before fleeing the scene of their massacre. Sure, random act by disgruntled employee is to go home and gather together, not only the wife and guns, but IEDs lying around the house. Sure, he went home and just randomly constructed some IEDs, because he got pissed at the Christmas party. GET REAL!
I can tell you that for sure, that while the President will fixate on the gun problem in America, he’s barking up the wrong tree, by assiduously avoiding facing the Islamic radical problem. I know, the left will next say the work Christmas party was insensitive and “incited” this violent response… Yes, don’t make them angry, or else. Just wait, this line of insane reasoning is coming.
So sick of the venal politicizing Islam’s dark, radical underbelly, after more than a decade and thousands of American lives lost in a fight where our leaders refuse to identify the enemy – it’s Islamic radicals who are following an ideology that is promoted and funded by some of America’s supposed allies in the Mid-East! That’s not “hate”, that’s called identifying those who hate America and want to annihilate us (hint: America’s enemies).
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Islam, Military, Politics, Terrorism
Time often distances us from realities of our history that, if remembered, would guide us through treacherous waters in the present. America’s difficult past with slavery leads to a glossing over of many inconvenient facts, which seem impolitic to mention in our PC culture. Being fully aware that some will dismiss these facts as mere “conspiracy theory mutterings” or “racist and hate”, I’ve decided to write this post anyway. For regular readers, you’re forewarned, I’ve covered this before in various posts,, but I felt like mentioning it again.
A chronological listing often helps you see connections that you miss when studying history neatly delineated into subject matter or particular eras. Comparing chronological listings from various regions of the world, side-by-side, gives you an added perspective on events. Considering this timeline methodology led me to ponder why the press assiduously avoids noticing the connections between many violent black street gangs in America, Islamic supremacist movers and shakers, and their involvement under the larger umbrella of the ongoing “civil rights movement”, largely controlled by black American groups.
Consider that college kids today have no actual remembrance of the Soviet Union or the Cold War. From the beginning of the Bolshevik control in Russia in 1917, their goal was not just control of Russia, but a spread of Communist ideology world-wide. So, as the Soviet Union emerged, ideological compatriots throughout the West worked to advance their revolution. Just a stone throw’s back on our American history timeline, during the 1930s, Communist Party (CPUSA) made it’s strongest in-roads, recruiting and agitating within the American black community. The Soviet Union directed and funded CPUSA activities. Due to the Great Depression, Marxist ideology gained traction with urban poor. Then add in the alarming fact that many of the most radical activists from the Vietnam-era anti-war movement (many of them communist ideologues and CPUSA affiliated) settled into academia and project an out-sized impact fomenting political upheaval, culture change and divisiveness, in addition to controlling education in America. This anti-American indoctrination, which is institutionalized at the top of our educational system, serves as the springboard for America’s future leaders.
In numerous past posts I’ve chronicled tidbits of information, that while I can’t state absolute cause and effect, form more than just a conspiracy trail leading nowhere. There is some “there” there, the issue is figuring out how much. Let’s look at one such black leader, President Obama and consider his background, minus the conspiracy theory stuff, but sticking to things that are facts. First, his mother and grandparents were not your ordinary American-flag waving, apple pie type folks – that is a fact. His grandfather and likely his mother too, were Marxist ideologues. Growing up in Hawaii, Obama’s grandfather formed a friendship with Frank Marshall Davis, an actual card-carrying member of CPUSA, whom Obama mentions numerous times in his autobiography, “Dreams of my Father,” as his mentor. Obama’s father, likewise, was a Marxist. Looking at Davis, you can see by his political activism in Chicago, there was active recruitment and advancement of CPUSA goals within the black community. Valerie Jarrett’s parents and future father-in-law were also part of this Chicago petri dish of swirling far-left activism.
The Soviet Union directed and funded CPUSA. Here’s a link provided to me in a comment at another blog, which deserves a thorough investigation by US intelligence, because, if true, it would be another foreign attempt to subvert the US Constitution. Back in April 2015, in a comment on another blog I mentioned the connections between violent Muslim black street gangs and these protests in Ferguson and Baltimore. A commenter provided this link to a
“Not strange at all, LB. I commend to your attention this piece concerning Vernon Jarrett, a friend and contemporary of Frank Marshal Davis, and father-in-law of Valerie Jarrett. It explains that connection.”
~M.
This article mentions a 1979 newspaper article written by Valerie Jarrett’s former father-in-law, veteran Chicago newspaperman, Vernon Jarrett, who wrote about OPEC beginning funding of black students and black colleges. The linked article above, by Frank Miele, mentions Jarrett as relating a conversation with Khalid al- Mansour (the former Donald Warden, who a was a founder of the black-power movement in the Bay area). Al-Mansour was a lawyer for OPEC, along with his many other activities. Here’s a link with some bio info on al-Mansour.
While these two articles approach the question raised whether Barack Obama’s law school fees were paid with Saudi money, the larger question is did the OPEC nations or Saudi Arabia undertake a funding project in the 80s and 90s to spread Wahabbi (radical) Islam in black colleges and black communities. Here’s a 2013 piece from The Vancouver Sun:
“In 2003, a United States Senate committee on terrorism heard testimony that in the previous 20 years Saudi Arabia had spent $87 billion on promoting Wahhabism worldwide.
This included financing 210 Islamic centres, 1,500 mosques, 202 colleges and 2,000 madrassas (religious schools).
Various estimates put the amount the Saudi government spends on these missionary institutions as up to $3 billion a year.”
The article continues:
“It is widely believed by western intelligence agencies that in the 1980s and 90s, the Saudi government had a deal with Wahhabist terrorist groups like al-Qaida that their fundraising would not be hindered so long as they only operated in foreign countries.”
If true that would be two foreign subversive elements tossing money into fomenting anti-American indoctrination and radical activities in black communities. Watching the evolving black movements in America, it was noted that ISIS signs showed up in the protests, but the mainstream press dismissed that as protests attract all sorts of kooks. Yes, the same thing could be seen in Baltimore, but what the mainstream press completely missed in Baltimore was violent black (Muslim) street gangs were involved in fomenting the rioting, then pretended they were part of the keeping the peace actions and in the mix descended the likes of Malik Shabazz. From my May 10, 2015 post, “Follow the money”, here is who Shabazz is:
“In light of the racial tensions, our federal government and the media pretend all these race riots aren’t being fueled, in large part, by Marxist radicals, stalwart race hustlers like Al Sharpton, and MUSLIM black gangs and thugs – like the Nation of Islam, the New Black Panthers, Black Guerrilla nation and many more. The media, by and large, tiptoes around acknowledging that radical black Muslim gangs serve as a home-grown terrorist training ground.
Malik Shabazz, formerly in the Nation of Islam, former head of the New Black Panthers, a Muslim black supremacist, virulent anti-Semite and now the head of some nicer sounding National President of Black Lawyers for Justice, became a champion of the black people against the police in Baltimore and here’s the connection of the black Muslim gangs banding together for “justice”. Really, the attempt to cover-up the Islamic connection among American academia, the Obama White House, and even the Southern Poverty Law Center is astounding. You can check out the New Black Panthers at the SPLC website and no where in the first pargraph describing the group is the radical Islamic connection mentioned (way down the page you can find his connection to Nation of Islam):
“The New Black Panther Party is a virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law enforcement officers. Founded in Dallas, the group today is especially active on the East Coast, from Boston to Jacksonville, Fla. The group portrays itself as a militant, modern-day expression of the black power movement (it frequently engages in armed protests of alleged police brutality and the like), but principals of the original Black Panther Party of the 1960s and 1970s— a militant, but non-racist, left-wing organization — have rejected the new Panthers as a “black racist hate group” and contested their hijacking of the Panther name and symbol.”
So, you got that, Shabazz has now morphed into the benign champion of black men. He is the National President of Black Lawyers for Justice… This also is an old tactic of the Communists – they co-opt western democratic language to confuse and deceive people – they’re all about democratic values and fairness and equal rights oh, and of course “workers rights”… Sadly, young people today don’t even realize they’re being conned. I mean, what could be wrong with a rabid Muslim racist, who advocated for the overthrow of the US (an ANARCHIST), being the leader of Black Lawyers for Justice…. The press goes along with the con.
Americans apparently decided to dismiss inquiring deeper into President Obama’s links to radicals in the black community. Sure, no worries with launching his political career in Bill Ayers living room (a Marxist and domestic terrorist). No worries with choosing an avowed Marxist who wrote a entire manifesto on overthrowing the US (avowed Marxist Van Jones and his STORM). Whenever the topic of communist infiltration in America comes up, the political Left recoils and charges McCarthyism, but the fact is the Bolsheviks initiated just such a program, that continued throughout the Soviet Union’s existence and black Americans were a key target of their efforts. Did the Saudis initiate a similar program in the late 70s?
Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, History, Islam, Politics, Terrorism, Uncategorized
Stephen Moore at National Review reminds us of what Americans have to be thankful for, invoking President Ronald Reagan’s farewell speech:
“We’ve got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection. So, we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important — why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. You know, four years ago on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late father, who’d fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, “We will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.” Well, let’s help her keep her word.
If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let’s start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.
And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen, I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven’t been teaching you what it means to be an American, let ’em know and nail ’em on it. That would be a very American thing to do.”
Let’s all start by doing that this Thanksgiving.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/427666/give-thanks-life-in-america-follow-reagan
Filed under American History, Culture Wars, Food for Thought, General Interest
In recent days, due to the unfolding terrorist attacks in Paris, in which at least one of the terrorists (possibly two) got into France using a fake Syrian passport, the US Refugee Resettlement Program has come under fire. Open borders advocates insist that there are no cases of refugees committing terrorist attacks in the US.
Back in 2013, the FBI charged two Iraqi refugees, who had gone through the Refugee Resettlement Program on terrorism charges, as both were known Iraqi bomb-makers, whose bombs were used to attack American soldiers. In 2013 the State Department paused the refugee program to review the process. This ABC story includes a 10 minute video report, which explains the refugee process:
So, only two years ago the FBI believed that dozens of Al Qaeda terrorists may have moved to the US as refugees, yet now the Obama administration insists all is well and it’s safe to allow tens of thousands of refugees from war-torn Syria. For a detailed and extensive chronicling of the problems with the Refugee Resettlement Program, please check out Ann Corcoran’s Refugee Resettlement Watch (here). Sometimes Often, I feel like a broken record, stuck in the same worn out groove, so let me just say, I’ve covered this refugee “issue” several times before, like here, here, here, here, and here. Short version: The State Department pays millions of dollars to religious charities to provide the services in this refugee resettlement program, so as these charities preach about helping the poor refugees, keep in mind these charities are raking in millions …
After being dead wrong so many times, you’d think the Obama administration might get a clue that they’ve made grievous policy blunders, but nope, the narcissist-in-chief and his pompous secretary at the State Department double down, rather than face up to their gross incompetence. In a world where “ISIS is contained” didn’t really mean “contained” but instead meant “geographically contained”, you can be sure that if more terrorists enter the US through this refugee process, which Kerry and Johnson describe as “extraordinarily thorough and comprehensive“, these terms will be up for redefinition. They’ll just churn out more pathetic narratives, penned by some of the best fiction writers in the country,
So gather round the campfire for another tale from the Obama Chronicles…. a 4 and 1/2 page Kerry tale, in the form of a letter sent to the MA state governor to assuage concerns about the Refugee Resettlement Program. Pay attention:
Administration officials outlined the security steps now taken:
Candidates are first interviewed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (pssst, these are UN flunkies with no loyalty to the US) to determine their eligibility for refugee status — whether individuals have been persecuted based on political opinion, social group, race, religion, or nationality.
The State Department then takes over the process, through contracted resettlement support centers (pssst, got that contracted – often religious groups making money off the federal government) that conduct further interviews. The State Department performs background checks using a variety of terror, law enforcement, and intelligence databases.
The State Department then takes over the process, through contracted resettlement support centers that conduct further interviews (pssst, this involves asking them stuff like, “Are you a terrorist?). The State Department performs background checks using a variety of terror, law enforcement, and intelligence databases (pssst, in Syria there is no intelligence database to check against and even the Syrian government can not vet that passports are legitimate).
The US Citizen and Immigration Services and the Department of Homeland Security conduct further reviews and interviews. The process includes vetting biometric information, such as fingerprints,(pssst, places like Syria or Somalia dont’ have governments to check databases for known criminals) for those between the ages of 14 and 79.
For a better description of the actual vetting process, refer back to the ABC 1o minute video, linked above where Brian Ross investigated the refugee screening process. Our national security is being contracted out – that’s the bottom line and don’t you feel much safer knowing Jeh Johnson and John Kerry took so much care in choosing carefully vetted language, designed to dupe you into believing they can actually vet these refugees….
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Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics, Terrorism, Uncategorized
In far more eloquent prose than I’m able to muster, Malcolm Pollack at the waka,waka,waka blog dissects the refugee resettlement argument in an excellent blog post, “The “Refugee” Question: Further Thoughts” Malcolm writes:
“In the discussion thread under our previous post, a commenter directed our readers’ attention to an article by Megan McArdle on the question of settling “Syrian” “refugees” in the United States. Further discussion ensued.
Ms. McArdle’s essay is helpful in that it identifies six low tactics that proponents of Syrian refugee resettlement have been using: Bible-beating, mockery, falsehood, mawkish incomprehension, straw-manning, and Western self-flagellation.
She then presses her case for U.S. resettlement with familiar arguments: we’ve assimilated all sorts of others before now; previous waves of immigrants were also regarded with a wary eye, but look how well it all worked out; most Muslims aren’t terrorists; etc.
She then says this sensible thing:
As long as you believe that it’s a good thing to help strangers at some sufficiently small cost to yourself, then we can have a reasonable discussion about whether the costs outweigh potential benefits.
That’s fair enough, I think. I’ll be happy to reply on her terms.”
He then completely eviscerates McArdle’s arguments. Please read his entire post.
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics, Terrorism
Despite playing with glue and paper today, I did read some news. For once I’ll forgo links to sources to do a quick post of bullet points of concern and also referring back to “old” news.
1. The threat of more terrorist attacks has escalated. Terrorism has not waned, and while the Obama administration tried to spin Al Qaeda as decimated, the truth is an Al Qaeda affiliate, AQI, morphed into an even more dangerous terrorist group. So, while the Obama narrative writers might want to quibble that ISIL (as they prefer to call them) is not Al Qaeda, just keep in mind that these are the lunatics who refuse to see any connection between radical Islamists and Islam.
2. Besides more terrorist attacks like the ones Paris has just suffered, keep in mind that Islamist terrorists have been trying to pull off a WMD attack against the West. The Obama administration lies a lot about WMD – they try to insist their Iran plan will keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons, which is ridiculously naive, but even worse the President fudged on assigning blame and announcing his infamous red line in Syria. He assigned blame for that attack before the investigation was even completed. He had decided on regime change and revving up the propaganda against Assad fit his narrative.
Certainly, there’s horrific violence on all sides in Syria, but it looks like the Obama administration downplayed the Syrian rebels and some of them possessing WMD capability. Recent reports indicate that Syrian rebels used WMD in an August attack. So, we’ve got that capability in the hands of apocalyptic terrorists and Europe is chock full of Islamists and Islamist sympathizers.
The FBI recently cited 900 active ISIS investigation within the US. Let me repeat, these lunatics want to use WMD against the West and the Obama administration has stayed mum about ISIS possessing WMD capability. Europe has that Balkans pipeline that Islamists utilize to smuggle weapons and explosives into Europe. We have porous borders.
We also have American black Muslim gangs with ties to Islamist radicals, in not only many American cities, but across America. There’s a dangerous nexus between America’s illegal drug trade and Islamic terrorism. The press seems to miss this connection repeatedly – in the Baltimore riots – there were black Muslim gangs there too. Reporters and even one of their favorite sources on “extremism” in America, The Southern Poverty Law Center, downplays that Islamic connection in bios of many of these black gangs.
3. There is no way to vet Syrian refugees, where there’s no Syrian database to check these passports against. While the vast majority of refugees are likely harmless, it doesn’t take very many to carry out terrorist attacks.
4. This White House has clueless morons, like Valerie Jarrett and Ben Rhodes, with no real foreign policy expertise, making decisions, while our generals get ignored. 2016 remains a long ways away in this type of grave national security environment.
5. Just hope your state has competent leaders, because this administration falls far short on that metric. Let’s hope the adults in Washington will do what’s necessary, if this administration once again decides to “lead from behind”. The luxury of waiting it out and keeping our fingers crossed until 2016 seems like wishful thinking at this point. Just a few short weeks ago Europeans were blithely wallowing in their EU open borders euphoria and today France and Belgium appear to be living under martial law, fearing an imminent terrorist attack.
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Islam, Military, Politics, Terrorism
Source: Bloomberg’s Carlson: Maybe Terrorists Here Will Become Americanized and Not Kill Us | Truth Revolt
Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Terrorism, Uncategorized
Each time an Islamic terror attack occurs, reporters take to the airwaves and print media scribbles on to report, explain, and ostensibly to inform us about the event. Political leaders, likewise rush to make declarations, lambast those with opposing views, or opine that we must act “NOW”! Along with this predictable reaction comes the dire predictions of larger, more violent attacks by Islamic terrorists in the offing. So, let’s explore the “Circle of Life of Islamic civilization”.
Today’s post is going to be links to other people’s writings, where you can read at your leisure. JK provides copious links to my blog and often very important ones get buried in blog post comments, never receiving the attention they deserve. Nightwatch, another source, which JK recommended to me when we met, provides another important rich resource for understanding of events around the world. Nightwatch is a subscription service, but well worth it. G. Murphy Donovan continues to write in clear, honest, stark terms about what to make of the Islamic war against Western civilization, so I want to add his link too. I leave it for you to decide on the basic question of whose understanding of this Islamic war is correct, President Obama and his “No Islam to see here” assertion, that these are the acts on “lone terrorists” and small groups of haters or the Global Jihad as part of an organized “living system” theory, which transcends individuals and rises to the level of a civilizational conflict.
Under the Obama-type understanding, Islam plays no role in the terrorist acts perpetrated against Western targets. These are just “violent extremists” – acting out of malevolence, but no higher-purpose. You watch people state repeatedly that they are “martyrs for Islam,” yet the American political Left insists there is no Islam in Islamic terror. Minta Marie Morze explains why in “A Naked Phrase Goes Clothes Shopping”:
People wonder why the President and his Administration won’t use the phrase “Jihadi violent extremism” or “Muslim violent extremism”. Even in the SOTU, he used the term “violent extremism”. He has said elsewhere that he is going to convene an international conference on “Violent Extremism”.
From the SOTU:
“. . . and assisting people everywhere who stand up to the bankrupt ideology of violent extremism.”
While there are many reasons for the Administration to insist on these terms and against the others, against any term relating to Islamists, I believe that a major reason for the omission—a very, very important reason—is simply this:
If you use the phrases “Jihadi Violent Extremism” or “Muslim Violent Extremism”, and if you call for an international conference to deal with the problem, then Islamist Violence/Terrorism will be what it is about. If you simply say “violent extremism” and “violent extremist”, you can have conferences and make laws and policies and regulations about generic “Violent Extremists”. Then, at any time, by inserting numerous qualifiers before the term, you can make the laws, regs, and policies turn, with full force of the law, against all of the people and groups on the Right, all of those “fearful and reactive” people who hurt the Progressives.
“Pro-Life Violent Extremists”
“Tea Party Violent Extremists”
“NRA Violent Extremists”
“Right-Wing Violent Extremists”See how easy it is? Now all the laws and regs and policies made to deal with “violent extremism” apply to these factions too!
A naked phrase can be dressed in any attire you choose to clothe it in. Just select the necessary qualifier. After all, note how the Administration’s spokespeople carefully say things like, “There are many people who use violence to further their cause”, and other such phrases. (It’s called “priming the pump” or “preparing the ground” or “working the room”.)
Minta’s explanation explains why Hillary Clinton refused to utter the words “Islamic terror” and tenaciously clung to the “violent extremism” lingo in the Dem debate Saturday night and as she stated in the previous Dem debate, she considers Republicans her enemy, not Islamic terrorists. In her comments, she often posits that within the Republicans are bastions of “violent right-wing extremists” and President Obama brushed rural Pennsylvanians, of which I am one, in one broad stroke as “clinging to their guns and religion”.
So, let’s move on to the big picture, where the “Circle of Life of Islamic civilization” forms the framework from which to understand what in the heck is going on. Often, Westerners will say things like, “Why do they hate us?” or “What are we doing to make them react like that?” (note the accepting blame mentality). The November 15th Nightwatch explains that the terrorists involved in the actual terrorist attacks form only a cell within a much larger system:
“France-Islamic terror: Special comment: The Islamic terrorist attacks on 13 November reinforce several attributes about terrorism that should be well known. Most important is that the attacks were a product of a living system. The news analysts talked about a network, but that word is too limited and anodyne to be a metaphor for a living system devoted to death.
Before the investigations are complete, many dozens of people will be found to have supported the attack preparations. Well-planned and executed terrorist attacks always are the products of a living system.
According to Miller, in Living Systems, every biological system performs 20 separate functions that are essential to sustain life. In every human body, different organs are specialized to perform the functions. In human groups, including a terrorist group, individuals perform one or more of the functions.
The attackers represent only one of the 20 functions. Unknown additional people, usually invisible to the police, perform the other 19 functions that the group requires. The French and Belgian police are rounding up those others now.
The French bombing of Syria betrays some understanding of the relationships in a living system. Communications between the attackers and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria is enough to justify a retaliatory attack to assuage public outrage a bit.
Nevertheless, ISIL operatives outside Syria and Iraq behave as independent actors, deriving guidance more than material support from the ISIL leadership. The more sinister parts of the living system are being found in Europe. These terrorists were locals. The specific targets were locally determined.”
Source: Nightwatch
JK mentioned a 2005 Foreign Affairs article, “Blowback Revisited”, in a comment yesterday, which chronicles the back story on the current crop of Islamist terrorists Europe and the United States must confront. If you don’t subscribe to Foreign Affairs, they allow you to register and view one free article a month. Here’s where we’re at today:
The byline starts:
TODAY’S INSURGENTS IN IRAQ ARE TOMORROW’S TERRORISTS
Here’s the key takeaway:
“Several factors could make blowback from the Iraq war even more dangerous than the fallout from Afghanistan. Foreign fighters started to arrive in Iraq even before Saddam’s regime fell. They have conducted most of the suicide bombings — including some that have delivered strategic successes such as the withdrawal of the UN and most international aid organizations — and the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, another alumnus of the Afghan war, is perhaps the most effective insurgent commander in the field. Fighters in Iraq are more battle hardened than the Afghan Arabs, who fought demoralized Soviet army conscripts. They are testing themselves against arguably the best army in history, acquiring skills in their battles against coalition forces that will be far more useful for future terrorist operations than those their counterparts learned during the 1980s. Mastering how to make improvised explosive devices or how to conduct suicide operations is more relevant to urban terrorism than the conventional guerrilla tactics used against the Red Army. U.S. military commanders say that techniques perfected in Iraq have been adopted by militants in Afghanistan.”
The article closes:
“The lesson of the decade of terror that followed the Afghan war was that underestimating the importance of blowback has severe consequences. Repeating the mistake in regard to Iraq could lead to even deadlier outcomes.”
G. Murphy Donovan perfectly describes the Western response to the threat we now face in a searing piece, “Friday the 13th in Paris” :
“No matter the body count or venue, Europe and America refuse to recognize jihad as a global Islamic assault. And as with the Charlie Hebdo atrocity, the best response that Francois Hollande and France can muster now is a karaoke Marseillaise, a knee-jerk hymn to irrelevant if not discredited notions of liberté, égalité, and fraternité.
Fey responses to terror are now routine in the West. Call it cultural appropriation. Summary executions are accepted by Islamist butcher and infidel victim alike. Atrocity has been routinized, now hallmarks of 21st Century practices in the East and tolerance in the West. Suicide bombers and their victims are joined by the same moral vacuity. The former have no moral compass and the latter are loath to exert any prudence.
Excuses are epidemic. Bernie Sanders on the looney Left actually believes that global warming and ISIS are wingmen. The Sanders pronouncement is of a piece with team Obama’s flawed assessments where ISIS has been described as the “junior varsity.”
Exaggerating a threat might be a no lose hedge but underestimating an existential threat can be fatal. Just ask Paris.”
GMD brusquely sweeps the cobwebs out of the corners of timid reactionary thinking and lays out the reality of Islamic civilization devoid of the burka of political correctness:
“For those with the attention span to notice, global Islamic terror is the most obvious symptom that globalization is not working. Democratic civility and “one-world” comity are not ascending stars, especially in the Muslim world. Societies that venerate 7th Century absolutist monoculture or cult prophets are impervious to fact or reason – much less democracy.
With the possible exception of Kurdistan and a few of the former Soviet Muslim republics, the Ummah is morphing into universal dystopic theocracy. (my highlight)
The quest for Islamic monoculture is facilitated by three trends: a weak or indecisive West, dishonest assessments of the threat, and a generation of leaders in the West who fail to appreciate or defend the virtue, indeed, superiority of their own culture. Indeed, of the three, the most pernicious is the last, the notion that all cultures and religious beliefs are morally equivalent.”
I’ll close with a link to a video on Living Systems Theory:
And in keeping with my Disney theme, above at minute 5:38 there’s a slide on the Circle of Life from the animated Disney movie, “The Lion King”. Below you can watch the entire “Morning Lesson with Mufasa”:
When my children were young, my younger sister came to visit and The Lion King was a hit then. She observed that she thought that movie was too violent for children. One can only wonder what children in war-torn Syria or downtown Paris think about the world they live in…
Filed under Culture Wars, Food for Thought, Foreign Policy, General Interest, History, Islam, Military, Politics, Terrorism
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