Only the young Nigerian didn’t appear the least bit moved by President Barack Obama’s commitment to close Gitmo in a year. He didn’t seem to care that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will get a civilian trial in New York. He didn’t appear to be fazed at all by Obama’s Cairo and U.N. speeches, or a year’s worth of international goodwill gestures. He just wanted to destroy an airliner.
It shouldn’t be hard to fathom why. Abdulmutallab was in the grip of a violent ideology with an existential hatred of the United States at its core, an ideology promoted by a global terrorist conspiracy under the loose rubric of al-Qaida. This is the essential fact that the left tends to minimize or deny.
Obama called Abdulmutallab an “isolated extremist” in his initial statement on the incident, and left the same impression about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the terrorist of Fort Hood. How coincidental that we are beset by isolated extremists believing the same things and inspired by the same people -- in the cases of Abdulmutallab and Hasan, the radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
A totalist rejection of the United States, this ideology will never lack for particular reasons to hate us. For years, we were told that the Iraq War was al-Qaida’s best recruiting tool. Now, new recruiting tools are at hand. Hasan reportedly was disappointed that Obama stayed in Afghanistan. In taking responsibility for Abdulmutallab’s attempted attack, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed it was in retaliation for a U.S.-sponsored strike against its leadership in Yemen.
If we pull our troops from Afghanistan, they’ll object to our missile strikes in Pakistan. If we stop the missile strikes, they’ll object to our training of foreign militaries. If we stop that, they’ll object that we have the temerity to maintain a blue-water navy. Nothing short of suicidal abdication will suffice.
The other great reputed recruiting tool was Gitmo. But what’s worse -- holding terrorists in a facility condemned by the world’s scolds, or releasing them to re-invigorate al-Qaida’s franchise operations? The Wall Street Journal says 11 Gitmo returnees have joined the ranks of Yemeni militant groups, making the detention facility AQAP’s farm team.
The administration is loath to admit that vacating Gitmo has itself proven a powerful tool for the terrorists. It can’t give up its operating theory of terrorism, no matter how tattered. Instead of designating Abdulmutallab an enemy combatant and interrogating him, we have granted him all the protections our justice system provides a civil defendant. Whatever comes of this foolish act of generosity, we can be sure that the next Abdulmutallab will be singularly unimpressed.
Indeed he did destroy that worldview, but the fact remains, it isn't simply a few of our foreign policies in the middle east that spur terrorism, it is nearly EVERY single policy our government holds and has held for the last 75 years.
It will take a massive change in our policies before we can expect for terrorism to subside, and an even larger amount of resources to rebuild from the messes we have created.
A good starting point would be pulling out of the middle east all together. Then we should drop all support for Israel in their own version of terrorism.
Oh, please, Mr Oxley, get your head out of the sand. And dig Mr.Obama's out while you are at it.
It DOES NOT and Will NOT EVER matter to these "extremists" what America does to appease them. Bowing and scraping just convinces them that America is weak and full of imbecils. -(I have been wondering about the imbecil part myself. After all, look who/what we elected as President! But, I digress.)-These 'extremists' have proven over and over and also stated that their goals ARE TO DESTROY the USA and all the infidels who reside here. Including you, Mr Oxley, even if you embrace their "peaceful" religion as your own, they still see you as an 'infidel'.
I truly hope you were just argueing solely because you can and not because you actually believe the drivel embraced by our pathetic leaders and most media outlets. If you do believe that Islam is a "peaceful" religion- notice I did not say that everyone who is Muslim is violent--then you obviously live in Lala Land and have drowned in the koolaid!
My information comes from the Qu'ran directly, my opinion of Islam was borne from reading their own scriptures etc.
I never claimed that it was a peaceful religion, but I do know that the current Jihad is not a religious one, it is a Jihad of oppression - Islam just happens to be a solidifying force that turns their angst about the crimes our country has committed in the Middle East into a geurilla force. The truth of the matter is, if the people of the Middle East were largely Christian or Hindu or Zoroastrian it could safely be assumed that they would react just as violently if not more - Islam is merely the glue that holds a force together.
Now, seeing as how I have actually studied the Qu'ran as well as the Bible in depth...would you like to venture a guess as to which book advocates the most violence?
The comparision of the Bible versus the Qu'ran does not make one iota of difference in the mindset of the Islamic extermeists. They teach children -from birth-that Americans are infidels and always an enemy, and must be killed to further and protect their version of "religion", "oppression" or just plain "dominance".
Again, I state, any person who believes that peaceful means will deter or lessen the attacks of these "Jihadists" on Americans --lives in Lala Land.
What I am saying is that extremist ambitions are motivated entirely by evils done to the Middle East. O. B. Laden states quite clearly in most of his statements that his requirements for peace are 1: leaving the middle east and 2: Halting all support for Israel (The Jewish Reich). I think those requirements are both reasonable and necessary and I wouldn't expect attempts to attack Americas to stop until this is done...
Here's a for instance for you, maybe you can wrap your head around it:
Lets say Russia invades America...and they use bombs to take out targets of interest within our borders....if those targets are killed along with hundreds of innocent civilians...lets say a teenage boy's mother is killed, what would you expect to be that boy's most intense conviction?
I think an obvious answer would be to seek revenge upon her killers. The US Predator bombings in Afghanistan and Pakistan are, despite popular opinion, the best recruitment tools Al-Queda has and are the number one motivation for young men to join the fight. If the tables were turned you'd see the same exact thing happening here, militia groups forming and plotting attacks with whatever resources they had available, probably united under the banner of Christendom.
I'm not saying that terrorism is right, or justified, or reasonable at all. I'm not defending the commission of heinous acts against innocent civilians, but I do recognize with a certain amount of temperance what the source of this mindset is. The truth is the Islam is merely a construct by which to form the militia around...no different than what has been done by Christendom in the past or what they would do now if put in the same situation.
Think about it....think about it real hard before you even begin to react.
Even if we left the Middle East tonight, even if we gave them billions of dollars and crawled on our hands and knees to beg, even if we abandoned Israel...IT would not even BEGIN to appease these "extremists".
Americans are, and always will be, the enemy. Always.
Now you think about that. You know it is true. Grandfathers pass the hatred down to generations upon generations, and it will ever be so. Watch the videos where they teach the babies to sing and talk about killing Americans. And I have no doubt that the tables could be turned if America were attacked. Then some of US would carry the hatred forever in our hearts and destroy them as much as possible.
The FACT is --people keep trying to EXCUSE the hatred that these extremists have toward Americans and thinking it can be changed --if only we grovel enough. Never going to happen, Mr Oxley. They are never going to be satisfied until they are the masters of all. That is the goal--Kill the infidels and take over America.
You are simply blowing hot air, obviously regurgitated from sources that are biased or uneducated.
Sure,I am blowing hot air, Mr. Oxley, as really cold air hurts my lungs.
Every person who reads or listens to any media outlet, can process that one simple fact. The goal of "Islamic extremists" is to simply kill Americans and destroy our way of life.
And I have followed your comments enough to know that anyone who espouses a view different from your own, is eventually attacked as being "biased or uneducated". Yet, as readers can see--YOU are never biased, predijucial or uneducated. Must be the rarified air you breathe. Have a great day. And make sure you get the last comment. Some people can't see the forest for the trees.
I simply ask for evidence - you provide none. Why this evidence thing seems so foreign to you, Mr. Rawlins, and Nane2mother is beyond me - I suspect it is because you are more used to having your opinions provided for you in much the same way as you provide them to others, with nary a fact involved.
When you can bother to do so perhaps your comments and opinions will merit value (like mine do). Until then reading what you have to say is a waste of time.
And yes, because we-or rather-I- have an opinion different from your own, let us assume that I am being spoon-fed drivel and un-truths and told what my opinion must be.
Hey! and I am glad that YOU think your opinions hold value because you know what they say about opinions... have a wonderful week! (and why not quit wasting your valuable time reading-and responding to- words with no merit!?)