Lex: Appeasement
As usual, Lex says it all far better than I can today:
The point is that it seems we cannot any longer count on Europe. Europe is accommodating again, appeasing again. When the USSR was the threat, they needed us – now they fear being associated with us. Our interests are no longer aligned.
Perhaps the Spanish will wake up with buyer’s remorse. Perhaps the EU will take stern talk (always cheap in Brussels) and turn it into stout action. We will see.
The point is that these jihadis have a serious plan, and they’re deadly serious about executing it. We may think they are ridiculous, but they clearly do not see themselves that way. They’re willing to do whatever it takes in the name of their desired end state. They are professionals, these terrorists, and I do not mean that to convey even a grudging nod of respect. I mean it to say, “They are not part-timers - this is their job, this is what they do.” They have won a victory, whose scale and importance is not yet clear, but one that will nevertheless increase their morale.
The point is that we may have to fight alone, and shoulder the entire burden. Because if we are not ready to:
The point is that we (the West, collectively) could lose. And the sooner we realize that, the more serious we will become, and the more certain our chances for victory will be.
We are not Spain, may God shelter them from further harm, and heal their wounds.
Because when the terrorists hit America on 9/11, exactly 911 days before 3/11, we mourned our dead for a suitable time.
And then we went to war.
March 17th, 2004 at 7:51 am
–When the USSR was the threat, they needed us – now they fear being associated with us. Our interests are no longer aligned.–
Right. But now, the US is the threat, not the USSR. According to the rest of the world, and much of the US itself (at least those citizens who take the time to think about it), it’s the United States that is the biggest threat on the globe.
I fear being associated with the US. I fear traveling outside the country, because suddenly I am a target anywhere I go. As someone from the US, I am someone to be hated, even though I disagree with the idiotic policies that our idiotic government has gone ahead with over the last three years.
The interests of the US government are no longer aligned with the interests of the rest of the world. But looking at preliminary results of election polls, we learn that the interests of the US government are no longer aligned with the interests of the American people, either.
I’m just sayin’.
March 17th, 2004 at 10:04 am
Kerri - The US is the biggest threat to peace, if peace means allowing ourselves to be destroyed. We are the biggest threat to stability, if stability means coddling atagonistic tyrannical regimes, who through their oppression of their own people have created the conditions underlying global terrorism.
In the meantime, if you’re afraid of being recognized as an American, I recommend you pass yourself off as a Canadian, when abroad. The Canadian option has worked for others before, when they were afraid. And the Islam0-fascists will probably eat Canada last, anyway.
There’s a lot of time between now and November, when the election polls are finalized. We’ll see then what the American people really think.