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August 22, 2006
Are We Approaching The Point of No Return?
Thomas Sowell writes today at Real Clear Politics that It is hard to think of a time when a nation, and a whole civilization, has drifted more futilely toward a bigger catastrophe than that looming over the United States and western civilization today:
... Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran and North Korea mean that it is only a matter of time before there are nuclear weapons in the hands of international terrorist organizations. North Korea needs money and Iran has brazenly stated its aim as the destruction of Israel -- and both its actions and its rhetoric suggest aims that extend even beyond a second Holocaust.... This is not just another in the long history of military threats. ... suicide bombers (and fanatical Islamic regimes) cannot be deterred.
... Fanatics filled with hate cannot be either deterred or bought off, whether Hezbollah, Hamas or the government of Iran.
... The endlessly futile efforts to bring peace to the Middle East with concessions fundamentally misconceive what forces are at work.
... ... Do we understand that the world will never be the same after hate-filled fanatics gain the ability to wipe whole American cities off the face of the earth? Do we still imagine that they can be bought off, as Israel was urged to buy them off with "land for peace" ...
... Even ruthless conquerors of the past, from Genghis Khan to Adolf Hitler, wanted some tangible gains for themselves or their nations -- land, wealth, dominion. What Middle East fanatics want is the destruction and humiliation of the west.
... Their treatment of hostages, some of whom have been humanitarians serving the people of the Middle East, shows that what the terrorists want is to inflict the maximum pain and psychic anguish on their victims before killing them.
... Once these fanatics have nuclear weapons, those victims can include you, your children and your children's children.
... What kind of people provide a market for videotaped beheadings of innocent hostages? What kind of people would throw an old man in a wheelchair off a cruise liner into the sea, simply because he was Jewish? What kind of people would fly planes into buildings to vent their hate at the cost of their own lives?
... The terrorists need not start out by wiping our cities off the map. Chances are they would first want to force us to humiliate ourselves in whatever ways their sadistic imaginations could conceive, out of fear of their nuclear weapons.... After we, or our children and grandchildren, find ourselves living at the mercy of people with no mercy, what will future generations think of us, that we let this happen because we wanted to placate "world opinion" by not acting "unilaterally"? Read all of Thomas Sowell's "Point of No Return?".
In order that we fully understand how deep we're "in it" - you should read Amil Imani's "A Look at the Muslims' Mindsett." Keep in mind that not all Muslims think alike, and there are shades of the thought that Imani describes, with radical Islamists being unreachable by reason. As Imani suggests, the best, yet difficult resolution of the conflict is to do what hundreds of thousands of Muslims have already done. They have abandoned the slaveholder Islam: they broke loose from the yoke of the exploitive clergy, renounced Islamofacism, purged the discriminatory and bizarre teachings in the Quran and the Hadith, and left the suffocating tent of dogmatic Islam for the life-giving expanse of liberty. For truly moderate Muslims, the spirtual side of Islam is the sole reward, whereas dogmatic and militant Islam is a choke on reason, tolerance, and peace for all.
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Posted by Richard at August 22, 2006 9:37 PM
Comments
It is clear that Iran is buying CRITICAL time. The funny thing though, is that the world keeps on falling to the same pattern: we focus on Iran's nuclear program - "something" happens in the world that diverts attention - we slowly start refocusing on Iran - they come out with statements about their 'readiness to negotiate' - it takes a long time to digest and realize that these declarations are just 'time buyers' - we threaten them with sanctions - "something happens in the world that diverts attention - we slowly start refocusing on Iran - they come out with statements about their 'readiness to negotiate' - it takes a long time to digest and realize that these declarations are just 'time buyers' - we threaten them with sanctions - etc.
You get the picture...
My hope is that sooner or later the world will wake up!
But the longer it takes...the more lives will be lost.
Also, it would be interesting to predict when Iran will use their 'secret weapon'. Check it out at http://www.technonllc.com/blog
Posted by: Joe at August 22, 2006 10:59 PM
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