Reply to Dr. Yo: One Last Nod

It goes beyond the idea of a ‘caliphate‘. There’s every indication that the leaders of Iran (and imams worldwide) devoutly believe in the 12th Imam who is to be birthed in blood - Jewish blood in particular. They don’t seek western concessions or political advantage. They seek the bomb which they know will put an end to their own earthly suffering and humiliation. This view expresses itself daily - not just in the reckless words and actions of the leadership, but - in the willingness (all the way down to the grass roots) to die for a higher cause while wrapped in explosives. These suicide bombers have essentially made their peace with God. They do not fear death.

They see themselves as already dead. This makes them invincible. Jihadis believe that they will ultimately be rewarded with eternal bliss after their earthly bodies are spent. It is remarkable how this mindset trumps even the most basic human interaction - that between mother and child. Islamic mothers seem to revel in the prospect of their children becoming cannon fodder. They see no future on earth.

The Israelis, in contrast, are more or less normal. You are right; they will seek to protect themselves. But at most, they’ll only make a show of it. I happen to believe it’s a myth that - as we are told - Israel is able and willing to go it alone. It’s designed to put our own minds at ease while we do nothing to help. (Later, we’ll say, oops!) Israel has always relied heavily on U.S. support. Well, the U.S. has now turned against them (along with all others). Who supports Israel these days? Can you name anyone?

Will Israel strike out against it’s aggressors, risking WWIII (that is likely to go nuclear)? I think not. The Israelis are divided as we are. There are hawks and doves on the fringes. First strike, and even retaliatory strikes, are effectively off the table. When push comes to shove, they will once again line up for the showers. They will see it as their contribution - one last nod to conscience and civility - in the face of spreading madness.

We Are Building a Religion

As we go back and forth and speculate about what might yet happen (in Egypt), we should go straight to the horse’s mouth. Let’s ask our president directly what it is that he wants to happen. And while we’re at it, let’s ask him straight out what he has in mind for the U.S. Let’s ask him to explain why he is doing what, and what he is hoping to accomplish by doing so. And let’s pretend to believe what he says.

By the way, there’s a great opinion column in the WSJ this morning (Feb. 1) by Bret Stephens entitled “Being Mubarak”. It takes an interesting slant, speculating that the old fox (Mubarak) may yet have some tricks up his sleeve.

It is what it is (and has been for some 30 odd years). There was a reason for why we supported Egypt and, I might add, Israel. With the election of Obama, those reasons have eroded. We turn our backs to both - and things happen. Read Caroline Glick’s column in the JPOST today. What we (in the West) define as ‘success’ is not defined as ‘success’ among Islamists (or communists). Our metrics are not valid there. Any attempt at such comparison may be regarded as ‘category error‘.

What if the revolution succeeds? What if the dominos fall, one by one; and an Islamic Caliphate emerges - one that is hostile to the West? And there is a genocide? Would it end with the destruction of Israel? Maybe so. Or would it gather steam and push into Europe? By the way, would Europe be capable of defending itself?

What if it were found that the American president actively participated in engineering the revolution in the Middle East by withdrawing key supports; manipulating food prices world-wide; deliberately crashing economies by way of monetary policy; supporting radical elements in the name of ‘social justice’? Would we be spared the indignity of shariah? Would he? Not likely. Traitors are universally despised, even under the minimal discipline of chaos.

The twelfth imam is likely to credit his own and pay scant attention to the welfare of foreign accomplices.

In any case, it’ll be the Atlantic that will shield us from the worst of it. Having allowed ourselves to come to this point, however, will haunt us into eternity. We will spend the rest of our lives apologizing, wearing sack cloth, wailing, and tearing our hair. No more arrogance; no more illusions of ‘American exceptionalism‘. We’ll have to rebuild slowly and painfully; our civilization will re-emerge, (this time) stripped of excess and bravado. We’ll have to harden ourselves to the hurled scorn of the betrayed, and forever suffer the weight of insurmountable guilt.

Only the Germans currently have a sense of it. They have been blessed with every attribute that would facilitate achieving unparalleled success; but, at the same time, they know they have forever forfeited their chance at enduring greatness.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Tunisia: From the Frying Pan Into the Fire

I don’t claim to know the particulars, but the pattern seems set: corrupt governance the world over, often supported by the West (particularly the United States) and kept in place for its own geopolitical game-board advantage; the locals - as always, getting the shaft - are unhappy. They seek alternatives. The alternative in that part of the world is invariably state(Iran)-sponsored Islam. (Note: the words “state” and “(any)religion” used in the same sentence always amounts to an oxymoron.)

Islam offers the illusion of escape from tyranny while imposing its own tyranny, but the people do not yet know it. They embrace the notion of a caliphate which promises liberation from outside influence. In a single stroke, they think all their ‘enemies’ will now be humbled - and, for now, that is enough to rally in support.

Home-grown tyranny is always preferable because its home-grown.

Why all this now? Because the U.S. under the leadership of Barack Hussein Obama has made it clear that America will no longer fight to preserve old ways; that, frankly, it no longer cares who is in charge or what happens. Algiers, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon are all on the chopping block, along with Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Turkey has already decided to place its bet with the strong horse. You bet “Israel is watching closely”. She will soon find herself surrounded by an ever-rising (green) tide. She watches in despair as her ship takes on water: Islamic fervor from without; liberalism from within, while Gibraltar America fades in the distance.

As I continue to say, America’s break with the past - brought to the fore in its last presidential election - will continue to reverberate around the globe. No one will be spared. No one can anticipate where the chips will end up when it’s over. No one is prepared. All are in deep denial. Only China is trying. You’ve got to give them credit.

The irony is that America will be blamed for whatever happens. Despite our considerable resources, we seem to have adopted a deliberate stance of not caring - primarily about ourselves.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Choke Circles

Go easy on the lad (Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the would-be Oregon Christmas tree lighting bomber), John. It used to be that young people like him came to America for the opportunity to make something of themselves, to provide for their kids a better life than they could by staying in their own countries. Now, they come here to destroy us. Why?

Because America is no longer the land of opportunity, the home of the free and the brave. We’ve been announcing throughout the world that we’re second rate and worse: the vortex of evil. In this we’ve been aided by our corrupt political class and by our academic intellectuals who miss no opportunity to trash us in every way possible.

Boys like Mohamed Osman Mohamud arrive here with a much greater vision than our own. They come here poised to feed off its carcass. Their vision of an Islamic Caliphate puts America’s vision of itself to shame. Theirs is a cause powerful enough to justify freezing off toes, like the soldiers at Jockey Hollow did; or to die, to sacrifice themselves. Self-sacrifice is the ultimate expression of hope. We do it every day - go to work and do battle till our teeth gap and our hands start shaking; until we can’t go on anymore - for our children. Mohameds the world over have been told they can become gods in a flash of explosives; that enough such flashes will fell an empire and the glory of Islam will arise from its despised ruins.

Why ‘despised’? Because America is no longer willing to defend itself. We’re running around the world whining about how perfectly evil we are. We grovel and apologize to those who had once looked up to us. We’ve become like Swiss cheese - full of holes. It’s allowed for the infiltration of hostile networks on all levels - the biggest (unoccupied) hole being the Oval Office, where Karla now sits.

Yes, all the Mohamuds out there have read their John LeCarre novels. They know how it’s done. We’ve blown our own networks and left ourselves open for anything and everything. What are the FBI and CIA doing these days other than talking with imposters, doling out money to anyone with their hands out, and lying to us? No way to run a Circus.

Besides the ideology - besides the promise of reward, veneration by billions of the like-minded, and purity - there’s the game; the pure joy of having brought it off. Even failure rattles the West. First it was box cutters; then it was shoes that didn’t explode - now we’ve got every Westerner emptying his pockets and taking off his shoes - then liquids… and now underwear. Just imagine! They dance to every tune we happen to be playing, even the false notes - those big and powerful, and arrogant, dying saps; running mechanically in ever tighter choke circles.

Only, Mohamed too has it wrong. Dresden was rebuilt. Hiroshima thrives. And the sand- eating hoards will eventually be sent back to the desert where they can do the least amount of damage. Let them enjoy their brief stay in the temperate climes - courtesy of the ever-generous Club USA.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Metrics Don't Matter

Cracking open today’s WSJ, you’ll find an article entitled “There’s No Escaping Hauser’s Law” by W. Kurt Hauser on its opinion pages. The pull quote reads, “Tax revenues as a share of GDP have averaged just under 19% whether tax rates are cut or raised. Better to get 19% of a larger pie.”

Seems plausible enough. At least, there appears to be enough data to back it up. So, why is our government doing everything it can to keep its heel firmly planted on the neck of business?

The Left’s battle cry remains, “Tax cuts? Who will pay for it?” It implies that there is presently not enough money to pay for government programs. We can agree on least that much. The solution would seem to be growing the pie and thus increasing the revenue stream to government coffers by first and foremost lowering taxes.

Since we refuse to do this, it becomes obvious that for the Left tax revenue is not the issue. Socialism is.

The disagreements we have on this blog are relatively minor. We all share the same basic assumptions. Not so the Left. The Left does not believe in economies; they do not believe in the individual’s right of free expression; they do not believe in success; they do not believe in failure as an option. The Left intends to enforce equality. For this to happen, success must be reduced to failure. Failure is so much easier to achieve. So, failure it is; standards removed; judgment banned.

It took Marx over 300 pages to write “Das Kapital”. It would take me at least that much to refute it. And even so, the Left cannot be converted. Equality is like a religion to them. And it’s taken on aspects of jihad. That’s why the Left refuses to engage (except on its own terms). The Left aims to win. Worldwide communism; worldwide Caliphate.

Anyone who still thinks Obama is in some way deficient is a fool. In the U.S. president’s mind he is succeeding. Brand Obama a socialist or a Muslim all you want. It does not scare the Left. They operate under entirely different assumptions. To them, capitalism’s success is a false success. It is evil. Equality is their one and only goal. Whether it is achieved by forced labor (“Arbeit Macht Frei”), gulag or shariah is all the same to them. Capitalism must be destroyed. It’s a war in which the only outcome can be the domination of one over the other. Metrics don’t matter.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Any Guesses?

One aspect of the human condition is its ability to recognize beauty – however fleeting – and wanting to possess it. Some feel inadequate in the presence of beauty and want to destroy it. America was beautiful – a rare and wildly successful experiment in governance. As such, she became a target.

Beauty must be capable of protecting herself. She must act to appear haughty. There will always be people plotting either to possess her or destroy her. Barack Hussein Obama, in his two years in office, has succeeded in turning America into a whore. [Ref.: "Melina" ('00) Italian]

Some say that a Caliphate is beautiful as well; that sharia must and will rule over all. I find it incredible that our president will not come clean about his origins. He could easily put the matter to rest simply by producing his birth certificate. (We all must do so on any number of occasions; now, along side with our genitalia.) He won’t do it because he can’t.

The people of the Middle East know the truth. They know who and what he is. If we had know when we elected him, would he have been elected? Doubtful. Most of us understand that Islam has declared war on us. Would it make sense to install the enemy to lead?

Now we have a situation. We have become the enemy in the eyes of our own leader. Any guesses as to how that will turn out?

Surrender or War

Today’s drive to establish an Islamic caliphate roughly approximates the drive by the Left to rule globally under a single red banner. So far, the ominous similarities have escaped notice because the two have been working largely in tandem toward more or less the same purpose. As such, they have sought to minimize the frictions between them (for now) in view of their overriding objective: to defeat western values and, especially, capitalism.

As nothing is ever new in any matter, the strategies employed here have also been seen before and are based on the domino theory. It involves flipping individual countries form one camp to the other. I first heard of it by name when our government claimed that if the spread of communism isn’t halted in Vietnam all of Asia would fall.

The latest countries to flip over to the dark side are Turkey and Greece. Increasingly, people are realizing that one can now also add the U.S. to the list. Turkey was a heartbreak. Not that it couldn’t have been foreseen. As in the U.S., there were plenty of warnings of what could be expected if Erdogan were elected. Although, I don’t understand the intricacies of Turkish politics, I must assume a similar pattern of deceit and false promises were employed there to bring radical Islamists to power.

Greece, of course, has been subject to leftist sabotage for decades. Leftist union and student pressure have managed to ruin their economy which has now put the entire EU at risk. Leftist instigators have as recently as yesterday pulled out of serious negotiations with the government and declared that the battle would henceforth be fought out in the streets.

Compromise in Greece and elsewhere is no longer on the table. Hence, the only option free market advocates have is appeasement. The latter always serves to contain the ugliest part of it, but at a cost. The remaining democracies that are still functioning now find themselves with their backs to the wall. In order to appease the Left they have to increasingly put their economic principles at risk. In time, there will be no margin left within which to pursue the fiction of negotiation with people who have no interest in solutions. At that point there will be only two options: surrender or war.

Why Are We There?

Let’s step back for a moment and ask the question, “What do we hope to accomplish in Afghanistan?” Is it nation building? No. Is it to prop up an illegitimate puppet government there? Not in so many words. Is it to protect the homeland? Hardly. Is it for oil? Officially speaking, no. Is it to protect Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal? It’s a concern, but no. So why are we there?

As time goes on, this question is becoming harder and harder to answer. If the way in which we’re fighting this war is any indication, it does not seem to be critical that we should win. So why are we there? To maintain a presence? To remain a factor - to reserve a seat at the table where the ultimate solution for the region will be decided? Perhaps.

It seems to me, that if we want to remain relevant in what happens in this tortured region, we must be certain of what we ourselves hope to accomplish. Such clarity, unfortunately, is not readily apparent. We appear to no longer believe in human rights. We no longer believe in democracy. We no longer believe in free market capitalism and the energy that sustains it. We no longer believe in American exceptionalism. We no longer believe in Israel. We no longer believe in ourselves. So, why are we there?

Is it perhaps to inflict another crushing blow on our military; to re-create Vietnam, April, 1975? Is it our stealth desire to install an Islamic Caliphate in the region? Is it to overwhelm global political systems to the point of ushering in a world-wide economic and political collapse; hence, revolution; to clear the tables of any and all evil Western influence?

When Bush spoke of the “axis of evil”, we had the last indication of a strategy that had the potential of advancing America’s largely benign influence. With one or two coherent, coordinated strokes we could envision a victory that would bring peace to the region by holding any corrosive elements at bay; assuring the uninterrupted flow of oil to western nations; and securing Israel’s right to exist.

All of that has been officially disavowed now. There is no longer any reason for us to be conducting any foreign campaigns; no reason to spill the blood of our bravest and finest. Why then are we there? All that makes sense at this point is that we are aiming to blunt the last arrow in our quiver that stands in the way of total chaos.

Apocalypse

What has become clear over the past year is that Barack Hussein Obama does not like America. That, more than anything, troubles Americans. Mistakes made due to inexperience, or even ineptitude, would have been easily excused by an inherently forgiving public. No one is under the illusion that POTUS is easy work. He would have been forgiven even a dalliance with interns had he shown even minimal respect for America and its hallowed institutions.

Instead he has consistently shown utter disregard for the documents of America’s founding and modeled himself after the commonest banana republic dictator as he continues to push for policies that go hard against the grain of American ideals and principles.

“Disappointment” is not the proper word for what America is feeling right now. “Scared” is far more appropriate. People are scared that he will actually succeed in bringing down the house. They have already begun to question his motives. His budget is just the latest example. It is clearly designed to destroy what’s left of the fiscal integrity of our nation.

Whereas Obama has been roundly applauded oversees, at home he has already overstayed his welcome. The people are desperate to elect a congress that will curb his appetites. …and no doubt they will. They hope it will not come too late. Even overseas they look at him with deepening suspicion. No one has the stomach to watch a nation commit suicide in public – especially if that nation has had the distinction of being the leader of the free world. Even our traditional adversaries are concerned as they are now suddenly and unexpectedly confronted by a reality that only their wildest rhetoric could have invented.

No, John! Disappointment can only be attributed to those few among us who have been advocating for America’s demise ever since the Berlin wall came down – those miserable, self-loathing, ivory–tower hypocrites who will never be happy until they see innocent blood flowing on America’s streets. For them America can never be forgiven for having had the audacity to reach for the sky. In this way, they approximate Iran’s mullahs, those there in power who would welcome a sanguine cleansing to usher in their global Caliphate. Our own 20 per centers want the same, except they call it ‘revolution’ (to usher in some implausible communist Utopia).

These are interesting times indeed: identical upheavals in different parts of the world – each one quite probable within most of our lifetimes. It’s a horse race now. Curiously, should one succeed, it is likely to forestall the other. Who will be the one to escape the apocalypse? Or will these actions coordinate for maximum effect? Stay tuned. The four horsemen are coming ‘round the last turn.

Best Intentions

>...(a) myriad jihadi movements, all having the same strategic objective of humiliating the US, destroying Israel and forming an Islamic Caliphate.<

BAHUKUTUMBI RAMAN builds a convincing case that our assumptions re Al-Qaeda may not necessarily be right. One of these, however, is dead-on and cannot be disputed: 'destroy Israel'. From there follows, ' humiliating the U.S.', because we are there, conspicuously protecting Israel. Whether the desire to cleanse the region of Israel constitutes the fulfillment of religious prophecy (to establish an Islamic Caliphate) or merely to allow regional players to determine their own political destiny – Tehran vs. Riyadh; Sunni vs. Shiite; etc. – without what is seen as undue outside interference, holds little relevance to the argument (except for the bloviating class).

My guess (as one who has been known to bloviate) it’s the latter rather than the former. Israel has been an irritant in the Middle East since its formation. Irritants, in the eye for example, demand immediate removal of the foreign object. Any delay in treatment invites infection which may spread and ultimately result in the loss of the eye. There can be little doubt that the fact that the U.S. has doggedly worked to protect and sustain the Jewish State in the midst of an overwhelmingly Islamic region has affected U.S.-Arab relations adversely.

No peoples of any region take kindly to interlopers. Peaceful, tolerant, neutral Switzerland recently voted to ban the building of additional mosques. (There are four so far.) We here in the U.S. have aptly demonstrated that we too do not take kindly to having alien influences shoved down our throats and that we are prepared to fight to keep it from happening.

I am not suggesting that we abandon Israel. The moment we (the U.S.) decided to advocate for Israel’s right to exist, we committed ourselves to getting it done. When our parents give us the money to enroll in a college or university program, it is understood that we will do our utmost to graduate. It’s the same with a nation publicly committing itself to anything: going to the moon; tackling terrorism; nation building; eliminating poverty, crime, ignorance; finding cures for diseases; etc. No less than that nation’s credibility is on the line. It must be done wholeheartedly, seriously, and with the expectation of succeeding.

We are failing in many of the goals we have set out for ourselves. No doubt, there have been set-backs. And it’s time to ask why. Perhaps we’re over-extended. Perhaps promises we’ve made in the past are no longer enforceable. Perhaps conditions have changed. Perhaps what had initially come under the header of ‘good intention’ has morphed into something else: extortion, perhaps, of which we now find ourselves to be the victim. Perhaps we need to reset and re-calculate where we stand. Perhaps we need to assess our weaknesses going forward. Perhaps there are battles that need to be put to rest – one way or another. Perhaps we should refrain from adding to our obligations for a while.

Have we become overwhelmed by our own ‘good intentions’? Have we bitten off more than we can chew? Or are we being sabotaged by a clever enemy who knows how to fight us in our own houses by turning our own weapons against us – an enemy who knows precisely how to overload our systems; overwhelm our capacities; create confusion and distrust and leave us at the mercy of silver-tongued tyrants?