Every week, the Watcher's Council nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week’s Council nominations can be found at our fearless leader's site Watcher of Weasels
1. J O S H U A P U N D I T: 9/11, five years later As I expected, there was a ton of stuff on the net this week that dealt with the legacy of 9/11 and I originally was only going to give it a brief mention..but the more I saw and heard of the mourning, the bells tolling, the lachrymous prose and especially the whining speculations on `whether we're safer now than five years ago', the angrier I got..so here's my take on this - and one that differs from what you're likely to see elsewhere. And I don't apologize for it in the least.
2. Gates of Vienna: The Danish Face in the NATO Picture Dymphna writes about the Danish contribution to NATO in Afghanistan, a much needed highlight on one of our most loyal allies in Europe's contribution to this war. Don't look for the Danes to become part of Eurabia very easily!
3.Done With Mirrors: Pronoun trouble Callimachus comes up with a funny piece on the difficulties ingrammer and usage when dealing with stories with a transgender component.
4. ShrinkWrapped: 9/11 Ambiguities ShrinkWrapped has an interesting discussion on the difficulties in political discourse on Islamic terrorism and the difficulties it entails, and expands it to discuss the effect of modernization and globalization on the Muslim world as one of the motivations behind jihad.
Shrinkwrapped writes: "This is why the two sides of the debate at home are so confused. The Left and the Democrats are correct that by fighting back we risk changing a million "Jihadi Armies of One" into 100 million "Jihadi Armies of One." Yet if we don't fight back, we run the same risk! The alternatives for those 100 million young men is not between a job and family in a modern economy, but between high status and enhanced self regard versus humiliation and despair."
I think his analysis is spot on....bit my response would be to say that the way to deal with this attitude is to isolate the problem until the failed societies of Islam crumble of themselves and to make the cost of attacking the west so horrendous that it becomes an unthinkable choice...along with working on propagandizing and changing a lot of this attitude towards a very different agenda.
After 9/11, Ann Coulter wrote a piece stating that in her opinion the remedy for Islamic terrorism was for the west to invade their countries and convert them to Christianity, and she was demonized for it at the time. While most of us would still not agree with that yet, it no longer seems quite so far fetched, does it?
5. AbbaGav - Angel M. Pabon and the 2996 Abbagav writes a memorial to one of the victims of 9/11 as part of the `2996' memorial project.
6. Right Wing Nut House: THE TEARS NO LONGER COME Rick Moran writes a moving and well written piece on the emotions he feels on the anniversary of 9/11.This is a great piece of writing, but my take on how we should be treating this is very different.
7. The Sundries Shack: Bush Only Confessed to a Crime, if You Don’t Actually Read the Law. Or a Calendar./a>: Hah! Jimmie takes apart a couple of lefty writers who accuse Bush of `war crimes'.
8.Rhymes With Right:A Little Journalistic Arrogance Greg has a few things to say to journalists who think they have special rights and legal exemptions that don't apply to the rest of us....smackdown alert!
9. Soccer Dad: Three strands not easily broken a fascinating post by Soccer Dad as he examines three major factors that led to 9/11..and are still very much a part of the situation. Well written and well researched, and by no means the usual stuff you see on this subject...
10. The Glittering Eye: America does diplomacy Dave examines a bit of history and writes about William A. Eddy, the first U. S. “minister plenipotentiary” to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
11.Your chance of dying in a terrorist attack : Socratic Rhythm Method Matt's take on 9/11 and on people's fear of terrorism vs. the actual odds.
12. The Education Wonks: The Terrorist Attacks Of 9-11: Views From The Classroom
EdWonk writes about the chsllenges of dealing with 9/11 in the classroom and the different ideas some educators have in communicating on this subject to their students from the politically correct ("From a world history and geography perspective, students need a better understanding of Islam in general, the regions of the world where it is practiced..") to avoidance (`According to her memo, she wanted the kids to have as close to a "normal" school day as was possible.') to accepting the challenge of teaching about 9/11 and confronting it as best one can.
I wonder if the previous generations of teachers had similar problems teaching about subjects like Pearl Harbor and the Nazis?
Oh, I agree, when it comes to the idea of forced conversions. But I don't think she necessarily meant `forced', so much a s demanding the same tolerance and right to practice freedom of religon in say, Saudi Arabia as Muslims have in New York or Dearborn Michigan.
ReplyDeleteHow many Saudis, Pakistanis and Iranians might just dump Islam if they could do it without a death sentence hanging over their heads?
As for the oil, it's important to remember that the entire Arab oil industry and the massive amounts of petro dollars they have used to promote jihad against the West was created using millions of dollars of `nationalized' (stolen) western property and facilities back in the 1970's.
They are barely capable of getting it out of the ground, let alone shipping it or refining it...Iran actually has a gasoline shortage, believe it or not.
I'd like to see the non-Muslim nations form cartels and trading groups for things like food, modern medicines and biotechnology and weaponry, with correspondingly high prices to offset the Arab's prices on crude...but that won't happen.
The key ting is the necessity of dewstroying the Jihadi Islamic mentality and eliminating the state havens and bases of jihadi war against the West. More on this later, I promise.
Au contraire, my dear friend.
ReplyDeleteAside from food and manufactured goods,which most of the Arab nations need to import, there are also the crucial spare parts for their infrastructure and weaponry..even their commercial airliners.
Reread my post on how Iran's economy (double digit inflaton, 30%+ unemployment)is faring without some of these things...and remember than one of the incentives offered Iran was a revamping of their oil industry (aging at runing at about 50% capacity, if that) and their domestic airliners.
No..they are economically stagnant and need us.
Hi Nazar,
ReplyDeleteI still see it differently, I'm afraid.
If the US stopped imported Arab oil, we could sustian a price rise until our domestic production kicked in much better and easier than the Arabs could sustain themselves without the items I've mentioned...Plus, people like the Saudis need us and our arms to protect them from be hijacked and taken over.
But hey, who knows? Maybe you're right, and in any case we're unlikely to turnthe screws on them just yet.