Yes, Another Multiculturalism Article

This one from Macleans written by Mark Steyn.

Over in Sweden, they've been investigating the Grand Mosque of Stockholm. Apparently, it's the one-stop shop for all your jihad needs: you can buy audio cassettes at the mosque encouraging you to become a martyr and sally forth to kill "the brothers of pigs and apes" -- i.e. Jews. So somebody filed a racial-incitement complaint and the coppers started looking into it, and then Sweden's chancellor of justice, Goran Lambertz, stepped in. And Mr. Lambertz decided to close down the investigation on the grounds that, even though the porcine-sibling stuff is "highly degrading," this kind of chit-chat "should be judged differently -- and therefore be regarded as permissible -- because they were used by one side in an ongoing and far-reaching conflict where calls to arms and insults are part of the everyday climate in the rhetoric that surrounds this conflict."

In other words, if you threaten to kill people often enough, it will be seen as part of your vibrant cultural tradition -- and, by definition, we're all cool with that. Celebrate diversity, etc. Our tolerant multicultural society is so tolerant and multicultural we'll tolerate your intolerant uniculturalism. Your antipathy to diversity is just another form of diversity for us to celebrate

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/article.jsp?content=20060501_125827_125827

Another Reason Not To Forget the Arctic

Russian military planes flew undetected through the U.S. zone of the Arctic Ocean to Canada during recent military exercises, a senior Air Force commander said Saturday. The commander of the country's long-range strategic bombers, Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov, said the U.S. Air Force is now investigating why its military was unable to detect the Russian bombers

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russian_Bombers_Flew_Undetected_Across_Arctic.html

“Just War Theory” vs. American Self-Defense

An interesting piece well worth reading in it's entirty, though I do have a more optomistic view of efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq then the author.

What specific military actions would have been required post-9/11 to end state support of Islamic Totalitarianism is a question for specialists in military strategy, but even a cursory look at history can tell us one thing for sure: It would have required the willingness to take devastating military action against enemy regimes—to oust their leaders and prominent supporters, to make examples of certain regimes or cities in order to win the surrender of others, and to inflict suffering on complicit civilian populations, who enable terrorist-supporting regimes to remain in power.

Observe what it took for the United States and the Allies to defeat Germany and Japan and thus win World War II. Before the Germans and Japanese surrendered, the Allies had firebombed every major Japanese city and bombed most German cities—killing hundreds of thousands. Explaining the ration­ale for the German bombings, Churchill wrote, “. . . the severe, the ruthless bombing of Germany on an ever-increasing scale will not only cripple her war effort . . . but will create conditions intolerable to the mass of the German population.” And as we well know, what ended the war—and the Nazi and Japanese Imperialist threat to this day—was America’s dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan.

The Civil War provides another stark example of what can be required to win a war. In 1864, as the war was dragging on in endless, bloody battle, the Northern general William Tecumseh Sherman helped end it with a devastating campaign against Georgia’s civilian population. After burning the city of Atlanta, Sherman’s army ravaged much of the rest of Georgia by burning estates; taking food and livestock; and destroying warehouses, crops, and railway lines. These actions had the effect not only of disrupting the supply of provisions to Lee’s army in Virginia, but also (and more importantly) of making the war real to the civilian population that was supporting the war from the rear. This, in turn, broke the spirit of the men on the front lines, who were now worried and demoralized by what was happening to their homes and families.

In both World War II and the Civil War, once massive defeats were handed to the enemy, the causes that drove the military threats were thoroughly defeated as political forces. There are no threatening Nazis or Japanese Imperialists today, nor was there any significant political force agitating for the reemergence of the Slave South after the Civil War.

To have decisively defeated Islamic Totalitarianism post-9/11, America would have had to both correctly identify the enemy and show the same unmitigated willingness to defeat its identified enemies as it has in past wars. In the weeks after 9/11, the American people, for their part, seemed willing to do whatever was necessary to prevent another 9/11. And throughout the Arab and Muslim world, many feared that they would be made to pay for the aggression of their nations. An expert on the Middle East reports that although 9/11 was greeted by much celebration by civilians in the Muslim world, many feared “that an angry America might crush them. . . . Palestinian warlords referred to the events as Al Nakhba—‘the disaster’—and from Gaza to Baghdad the order spread that victory parties must be out of sight of cameras and that any inflammatory footage must be seized.”3 But the fear of our enemies in the Middle East quickly disappeared once it became clear that few, if any, of them would pay for the atrocities of 9/11

http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-spring/just-war-theory.asp

Understanding the Palestinian Movement

Francisco Gil-White has a piece over at Historical and Investigative Research about the racism inside the Palestinian factions and the Arab World in general. Not very PC but interesting reading.

http://www.hirhome.com/israel/pal_mov.htm

More from VDH

Victor Davis Hanson once again pens a sober analysis of the current American policy in the Middle East.

For all the scrambling to disown the present policies, the irony is that they are bearing fruit and always had the best chance to end the region's genesis of terror. How sad that those who supported the costly spread of freedom are written off as illiberal, and those who resigned themselves to the easy status quo were seen as wise and sober

http://victorhanson.com/articles/hanson042806.html

Japan Vs China

Japan and China have a long history of conflict stretching back centuries, the most recent being the Sino-Japanese War of the 1930's which bled into the Second World War. Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu believes that conflict between Japan and China could again break out in a generation or so, such a conflict would in all likelyhood draw the United States into it (most likely on the side of Japan).

It is increasingly clear, however, that tensions between the two are rising. Aso leveled a harsh accusation at China, calling the Beijing government a “military threat,” primarily for the level of spending that China has devoted to arming itself. This armament has included development of weapons systems – such as blue water navy, space, and long range air – that lend themselves more to aggressive than defensive purposes. Other analysts, such as CIA Director Porter Goss, agree that the Chinese military forces “threaten” U.S. and allied interests. Not all U.S. officials agree.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=22228

Totten in Israel

Yet another great article from Michael J. Totten. Currently he's in Israel and has some interesting info. to report.

Lisa told me the Bedouin in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula speak Hebrew.

“Why?” I said. “Did they learn it during the occupation?” Israel seized the Sinai from Egypt during the Six Day War in 1967 and gave it back when Anwar Sadat agreed to a peace treaty.

“No,” she said. “They wanted to learn Hebrew so they can talk to us when we go down and visit.”

“When you go down there and visit?” I did not know what she was talking about.

“Last year 200,000 Israelis visited the Bedouin during Passover," she said.

“Two hundred thousand,” I said. “On just one day?”

“You didn’t know about this?” she said.

“No,” I said. Before I went to the Middle East I had no idea Israeli Jews had any kind of genuinely friendly relations with Arabs in any country except right-wing Lebanese Maronites. And a significant number of Maronites say they aren't even Arabs at all.

“The Bedouin roll our joints for us,” she said. “They sell us hashish. Israeli women like to go topless.”

“You go topless in front of the Bedouin?” I said. “Isn’t that offensive?” Bedouin are arguably the most conservative people in the entire Middle East.

“It doesn’t bother them,” she said. “They understand that our cultures are different. They don’t impose their values on us. And I never once saw a Bedouin man with wandering eyes.”

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001131.html

Another Attack on Free Expression

Muslims in Germany have threatened to get violent over an add for a bordello, related to the coming FIFA World Cup. Yet another example of enemies Europe has allowed to operate, due to "Multiculturalism" , now trying to subvert threw threats of violence the society which welcomed them.

The brothel's owner, Armin Lobscheid, said a group of Muslims had threatened violence over the advertisement, declaring that the brothel had insulted Islam by representing the flags of Muslim countries. The protestors began with menacing telephone calls and on April 21 about 11 hooded men, armed with knives and sticks, turned up outside the Pascha, demanding that the Saudi flag be taken down. Lobscheid explains: "The situation was explosive. Some of the people compared our ad to the Danish cartoons of Muhammad."

So, Lobscheid did the predictable: he took down the flags of Saudi Arabia and Iran. (Oddly, the Tunisian flag – which bears the Muslim crescent on it – remains in place.) But that was not the end of it. The next day, some 20 masked and armed men turned up and insisted that the flags on the ad also be removed. They threatened to get violent and even to bomb the place. Lobscheid complied, covering them with black paint (see the picture to the right).

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/598

Nice. Can we all say double standard? If Christians had tried this bull**** then the world would be screaming bloody murder. What can we learn from this? That those of us who value Western Culture, Western Civilization, must look to ourselves to defeand it. Our Governments have proven criminal in there negligence of the Islamist threat. Beware, for our Civilization has entered it's most trying time...

Salute to Terrorists

FrontPageMagazine's cover story today. Read it.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=22209

More on Multiculturalism

A few days ago I wrote a review of Neil Bissondath's book "Selling Illusions" which dealt with Multiculturalism. Today Historian Victor Davis Hanson has written a thoughtful essay on Multiculturalism in France and the Southwestern United States.

http://victorhanson.com/articles/hanson042306P1.html">

4 Killed in Afghanistan

4 Canadian Soldiers where killed today when there vehical hit an IED set by the Taliban. I just want to say my prayers go out to there families.

http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=d8889704-3518-40f7-b5fd-52d32665a59d&k=19836

The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada

Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada
By Neil Bissoondath
1994

Since 1971 Canada has had an official policy of Multiculturalism. Today to question this policy is to be labled bigoted, but question it Bissoondath does, going so far as to say that culture should be left to the individual rather then the government. He makes a compelling argument. Bissoondath, an Indian from Trinidad who considers himself purly Canadian, spares no one in his condemnation of Canada's official Multiculturalism, not the immigrants or the Government, or opponents of official Multiculturalism on the Right including those who wish an American style melting pot. Bissoondath has written an excellent book, one any person interested in government policy should read to get a better understanding on the true effects of a policy flawed from it's inception.

World War

Must read piece

Gates of Vienna: The Fall of France and the Multicultural World War

The Islam Exception

From Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker

Muslims believe, as most other religious people do, that theirs is the one true faith. Fair enough. But in today’s world Muslims are the only group which demands via intimidation that their faith be treated as different and better than the others by non-believers.

This phenomenon is properly understood as the imposition of Shari’a law on dhimmis. Islam, where it rules, relegates non-believers to permanent inferior status in everything from the weight of testimony in court to taxation to housing. Bit by bit, this system is extended beyond Islamic-dominated countries into the dar al harb (“the lands of war”).

http://www.americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=4896

The Forgotten Front

Africa is the forgotten front in the Global War that we now wage, just as Southeast Asia was in the Second World War. The fallout from an Arab/Jihad victory in Africa would be devistating as it would provide a whole new pool of Jihadi recruits and even further control of the world oil markets. With American forces already engaged on several fronts it is vital that the rest of the Western World take up the challenge presented by Africa.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/011020.php#comments

Will El Baradei follow in U Thant's footsteps?

Over at History News Network Judith Apt Klinghoffer compares Ahmadinejad with Nasser, and the UN's reaction to both. UN appeasment of Nasser led to the 1967 Six Day War in the Middle East. Appeasment of Ahmadinejad paves the way for a war that will have far greater consiquences for Western Civilization.

Instead of turning around U Thant not only went, agreed immediately to withdraw all the UNEF forces from Egypt and issued an appeal for a cooling off period on terms which, the horrified Ralph Bunch complained, placed him "in position of effectively endorsing the blockade and fully implementing it without any further effort by Nasser." The Six Day War became known as U Thant's War.

Today, the Security Council responded to Ahmadinejad's challenge by passing a watered down resolution urging Iran to comply with the demands of the IAEA and asked for an IAEA to report back to the Security within a week. In preparation for that report the IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei is flying to Tehran. The announcement of the successful Uranium enrichment like the announcement of the closure of the Straits is intended to present him with a fait accompli.

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/23868.html

Nuclear Hostage Crisis

Michael Rubin has written a good piece on the current crisis with Iran. Especially telling is his summary of the diplomatic efforts of the past 20 years, and where its gotten us.

On April 1, 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini declared the Islamic Republic, mutual antipathy was not assured. On Nov. 1, 1979, U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and Iran's Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan met in Algiers to discuss resumption of relations. In order to scuttle rapprochement and embarrass moderates, hard-line students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Khomeini used the subsequent crisis to consolidate hard-liner control.

Seven years later, a misguided U.S. attempt to engage Iran sparked the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. In March 1986, U.S. National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane traveled secretly to Tehran to spearhead rapprochement as part of a scheme to divert proceeds from arms sales to the Nicaraguan resistance. Within days, pamphlets appeared on Tehran University bulletin boards condemning "the visit of an American official." On Nov. 3, 1986, Ash Shiraa, a pro-Syrian Lebanese magazine, detailed the secret contacts. While the scandal paralyzed Ronald Reagan's second term, the leaks originated not in Washington but in Tehran. The betrayal of Reagan's confidence had nothing to do with the U.S., but rather with an internal Iranian power struggle.

The Clinton administration took its own misstep toward reconciliation when, on Sept. 15, 2000, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arranged to meet alone with her Iranian counterpart on the sidelines of a U.N. Afghanistan conference. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi stood her up. Slights also matter. What Washington shrugged off as a minor embarrassment projected U.S. weakness to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's inner circle.

Nor has engagement only backfired with Washington. Berlin spearheaded engagement with Tehran in 1992, but suspended it five years later after a German court found top Iranian officials, including Messrs. Khamenei and Rafsanjani, complicit in ordering the murder of dissidents in Berlin. But Brussels renewed engagement with vigor two years later after Iranian President Muhammad Khatami called for a "Dialogue of Civilizations." Between 2000 and 2005, European Union trade with Iran almost tripled. The regime invested the hard currency not in civil society but in its weapons program. Speaking softly while wielding a big carrot backfires.

http://www.meforum.org/article/925

Iran Crosses the Nuclear Red Line

Iran has enriched Uranium. The time for diplomacy has passed. The time has come for action. All peoples of the West should support a strike against Iran, before they can develope nuclear weapons, and steel ourselves for the inevitable retaliation from Iran and her terrorist allies.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=22043

The Essential Nobility of US Foreign Policy

At the American Thinker James Lewis has an excellent sumary of the state of the world today and why America is still the best hope for victory in the global conflict that we have been forced to wage.

The “international community” today is a gang of jackals surrounded by wolves. If the Pax Americana were to crumble, as Dominique de Villepin so fervently hopes, we would have a world in which French-led Europe dominated one part of the globe; the Chinese and Russians competed over another; and the rest would be torn among three virulently Islamist Caliphates—- Iranian, Egyptian-Saudi, and probably Turkish. If you doubt it, consider the pathetic UN vote just a week ago, for a new “UN Human Rights Commission,” with members like Cuba, Libya and even the genocidal looney-tunes who run the Sudan. In the UN General Assembly the vote against the United States was 170 to four.

Pathetic. And dangerous.

Only the United States and the Anglosphere have the power and basic decency to stand for humane values. France would sell out at the first threat or drop of a bag of gold. England is being drawn ever deeper into the bureaucratic quagmire of the EU, a new, self-serving aristocracy which has never bothered with democratic elections. The EU is now busily finding ways around the popular vote against its bizarre Constitution in several countries, even France. For the EU, democracy is just too messy, and the decisions of the elite might be resisted by the people.

As for Russia, it is once again an authoritarian corruptocracy, and China has never stopped being that. Israel is a small island of democracy in an ocean of social and political pathology. Latin America is making goo-goo eyes again at the false promises of the Left. In sum, a gang of thieves and cutthroats, soon to be armed with world-killing weapons, is assembling itself in on the street corners of many of the world’s neighborhoods.

Read it all
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5406

Ordinary People and Death Work: Palestinian Suicide Bombers as Victimizers and Victims

A good analysis of Palestinian suicide bombers. Long but well worth the read.

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/psb_0406.htm