Terrorism Unveiled

Thanks to Kat at the Middle Ground for uncovering a great blog from a young American studying in Jordan. I instantly knew I'd like this site, as her picture shows her shooting a rifle. That and the fact that she has a good mind, skill with words, and pieces definitely worth reading. Especially check out her posts on the paradoxes around Jordan (ie: women in burqa's shopping at the mall for designer jeans) and articles on how tribalism affects their society. She points out that "there are three systems of laws here: sharia'ah, civil and tribal...", and goes on to say that while the civil law (the courts) are the law of the land, the police actually use tribal law in their ordinary dealings. Further, "when they have Parliamentary elections, most often the tribal leader and the tribe collectively picks a representative. It's very contraire here to act as an individual outside of a collective identity." - -Probably a prelude to what one can expect in a democratic Iraq.

But what clinched it for me to add her to my favorites was one line in her story about her arrival trip and the flight through Paris: Terrorism Unveiled: "One small thing though---I noticed as we landed in Paris...there were at least 3 nearby French jets very close to the plane, like fighter jets. France has an air force? What for?"

Enemy Encouraged (by Kerry) to Kill Americans and Iraqis?

The Vietnam war was slightly before my time. But I hear veterans say that Kerry's testimony was used by the enemy against the POW's, and may have been used to encourage the enemy. Apparently there is a portion of a museum deovted to him in N. Korea.

Fast forward to today, and Iraq:

Kerry states that he will remove our forces from Iraq in a year if he's elected. No matter how you feel about our war, our President, or Kerry, you must realize that the terrorists know that if Kerry wins the election, they win. They only have to wait for a year, and then they can destroy Iraq, claim victory, recruit more members, and expand their war of terrorism throughout the world.

So since the enemy knows that they win if Kerry wins, they also know that they must go all out to ensure that he wins. How? Kill as many Americans and Iraqis between now and the election as possible. Send all possible resources (human resources to them = people who blow themselves and others to smitherenes). For the enemy knows, or at least they think, that America can not keep up its resolve in the face of mounting losses (they have good reason to think this - - look at Vietnam, Bosnia, Mogadishu, etc.)

So - indirectly, and probably without meaning to, but without a doubt - Kerry has encouraged the enemy to kill American soldiers.

Are they crazy?

I think the American liberals have gone crazy. Beyond just the rhetoric of calling this administration Nazi's, there are those who truly seem to have it in their head that America 2004 is only a step away from Germany 1938. For example, these comments come from people who live in the same America you and I do - the greatest country in the world - at a forum at the "Democratic Underground:"

"Even under the best possible circumstances, i.e., Kerry wins, we get a Democratic controlled Congress and Supreme Court, etc., etc., unless I'm lucky enough to get into a hospice, I can only look foward to an extremely painful death, whether I'm beaten to death by fascists or just not given sufficient painkillers when I become terminally ill.

What I worry about is that I have a daughter who is pregnant. She was given up for adoption at birth, 41 years ago, and I don't really know her, but she tracked me down and contacted me a few months ago. She and her lesbian partner are very well-to-do. The partner is the daughter of Holocaust survivers, and they are both liberal feminists. If Kerry wins, I assume my grandchild has a chance at a very good life. If not, I think their money insulates them so well from reality that they won't leave. From Holocaust to Holocaust in 3 generations? Mind-boggling, but entirely possible."

Lest you think that is a lone voice:

"what is really getting to me is the same thing I've seen throughout this whole mess, including the primary campaign -- very little concern at all for those who will die first...... the very poor folk. Where is *any* mention of them at all?

There's a lot of concern about gay folk, and being rounded up. So, they are included in the "together". But, where is any concern about those who will almost certainly be offed first, because it is so easy to do. Anyone at all who will speak out for poor folk? I don't hear ANYTHING."

Or another person: (I had to leave in the last paragraph, with all the adjectives - - it was just too funny!)

"What defense do we have if Bush is elected? If the congress is so selfishly complacent seeking to preserve themself and their careers rather than the Constitution ,if the judiciary is also collabarative and is virtually unassailable by the people or held accountable by the people, and the military is under the control of Bush, what else it there to do but flee because for sure there will be tyranny, given the record of the past four years. We do not have missiles, planes or tanks or helicopters, guns or even a slingshot with which to revolt against this overwhelming , but evil, tyrannical power should Bush be elected.

I will not lend my name to continuous slaughter of innocent human beings for mere profit and power of the little prick of a priveledged ignorant and stupid incompetant twit, his Stepford, air head, also a twit, botoxed, chain smoking, manufactured wife, and vacant minded, law breaking, bordello dressing, spoiled, slutty and silly dumb daughters."

While I think they're crazy, while I think they're wrong, I don't think they're evil. Which, I think, is a major difference between conservatives and liberals. To a liberal, conservatives don't just have a different viewpoint, they're bad people, evil people. For example, this is what they think of half of the population of the U.S.:

"True, some cons just plain hate us. They understand our beliefs, they understand that we have the right to speak our minds, they understand that we actually care about others besides ourselves. But they hate us anyway because they're ugly, hateful, greedy, selfish people."

Here's another person:

"They DO not want to give up power, from the lowly easily manipulated storm-trooper brown-shirt on free-republic and the unthinking ditto-head Rush clone to the master PR mind control machine of Rove and the right-wing propaganda masters, to the imperialistic neo-conservatives, to the christian evangelical extremists."

And a different person:

"But then there is the other face of conservativism. And I think it's really sad in this day and age. It's people who are ignorant, scared, stubborn and sheltered. They don't understand what liberalism really is, and if told they are afraid of the truth. They are afraid of anyone different, they are afraid of having to make decisions without their pastors, Bibles, politicians, or friends telling them what they should think. If they have to think for themselves they have panic attacks. They believe anything they're told by the "right" people and reject anything they're told by the "wrong" people. Their cultural and social prejudices are so ingrained in them that it's impossible for them to see the truth. But mostly they're afraid. Afraid of change, afraid of progress, afraid of going to hell, afraid of being ridiculed, afraid of losing what is familiar, afraid of disappointing their loved ones, afraid to admit they might be wrong, afraid to admit the person who raised them might be wrong... the list goes on.

It makes me very sad to see people who cannot evolve and use their brains. Was worse is that these people might just bring down the whole human race with their ignorance."

You see, conservatives are actually a lower life form; one that hasn't evolved yet. And its conservatives who are afraid, not those who are planning to leave America because they fear that at any moment they'll hear the sound of boots in the street and a knock at the door to put them in a "Gay Internment Camp" or worse!

This is what happens when you disagree with an extreme lefty. Instead of rational debate, about 60% of the time you will be called names, branded as bad or evil, and even - as in this last post - dehuminized.

Are American Muslims Different?

Why not say it bluntly? Islam is an aggressive, violent political ideology:
See author Zev Chafets list of American Muslim leaders who face charges of being or supporting terrorism, which he summarizes as:

"It may be that Islam in its true form is as gentle as a lamb. But in the real world, it is an aggressive, violent political ideology. It may also be that a majority of U.S. Muslims object to the jihad being waged against infidel Christians, Jews, Hindus, atheists, agnostics and democrats of all denominations. But if so, they are keeping it to themselves. "

King Darius

Just in case you're interested, it was King Darius who sentenced Daniel to the den of lions.

I had to find that out because my four year old son asked. When my wife read him the story from his 'First Bible,' he noted that it only said, "The King." He wanted to know the king's name. OK.... Whatever!

So now you know, and so does he.

I only post this because I'm proud of him for questioning the details, and wanting to explore deeper than his 'First Bible' went.

Video Inside Seized School

Here's a link to the video taken by the terrorists inside the school in Russia. Note that many of the women and children you see are now dead.

Newsday.com - Inside Seized School

Others Continue to Lie and Excuse

It is so easy to blame the Jews, no matter what the situation is.... For example:

Columnist Ghassan Makhal wrote in the Qatari daily Al-Sharq: "Who stands behind the hostage-taking operation? The Russian government blamed the Chechens but to this day it has not divulged a single name of anyone involved in the operation - this despite the fact that it holds, by its own admission, the bodies of over thirty people. Chechen President and rebel Aslan Maskhadov also said that the Chechens have nothing to do with the operation…

"It is likely that the downing of the planes in Moscow [sic] and the operation against the school in Beslan were part of the struggle that the Putin government is waging against the [Russian] mafia, which has ties to Israel. Therefore it is possible that the Russian Foreign Minister is in Israel in order to negotiate and reach an agreement, or at least to obtain a promise from Sharon that he will mediate [between the government] and this mafia."

Muslims Speak Out

Finally Muslims begin to speak out. And not just to condemn a single act, but all terrorism. And without finding some way to justify the act, or excuse the act. For example:

MEMRI: Latest News: "Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, former editor of the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, [and I believe he is now the head of one of the Iraqi television stations - NAS], wrote in the daily under the title 'The Painful Truth is that All of the Terrorists are Muslims:'

' Obviously not all Muslims are terrorists but, regrettably, the majority of the terrorists in the world are Muslims.

The kidnappers of the students in Ossetia are Muslims. The kidnappers and killers of the Nepalese workers and cooks are also Muslims. Those who rape and murder in Darfour are Muslims, and their victims are Muslims as well. Those who blew up the residential complexes in Riyadh and Al-Khobar are Muslims. Those who kidnapped the two French journalists are Muslims. The two [women] who blew up the two planes [over Russia] a week ago are Muslims. Bin Laden is a Muslim and Al-Houthi [the head of a terrorist group in Yemen] is a Muslim. The majority of those who carried out suicide operations against buses, schools, houses, and buildings around the world in the last ten years are also Muslims.

'What a terrible record.
Does this not say something about us, about our society and our culture? If we put all of these pictures together in one day, we will see that these pictures are difficult, embarrassing, and humiliating for us. However, instead of avoiding them and justifying them it is incumbent upon us first of all to recognize their authenticity rather than to compose eloquent articles and speeches proclaiming our innocence'

'Islam has suffered an injustice at the hands of the new Muslims! We will only be able to clear our reputation once we have admitted the clear and shameful fact that most of the terrorist acts in the world today are carried out by Muslims. We have to realize that we cannot correct the condition of our youth who carry out these disgraceful operations until we have treated the minds of our sheikhs who have turned themselves into pulpit revolutionaries who send the children of others to fight while they send their own children to European schools."

You can find additional condemnation at the Memri link at the beginning of this post.

Why no Christian suicide bombers? and other thoughts on Islamic terror

Dennis Prager often states that his goal is clarity. That he doesn't mind disagreeement, as long as there is clear thinking on both sides. I believe he is one of the deepest thinkers we have today. Below are some of his thoughts on Islamic Terror.

Before I get to that, I was looking for some specific quotes which I thought were particularly well worded. I couldn't find them, so let me say them in my less eloquent way.

A religion must be judged by the actions of its adherents. America does have violence and murder occurring. But it usually has nothing to do with religion; instead haveing to do with gangs, robberies, jealousy, etc. When there is disagreement, as in the case of gays, rhetoric flies on both sides, but violence is rare - and organized programs of violence such as the systematic terrorism occuring from Islamic terrorists has not and likely will never occur in America. For the unusual cases that thugs do attack gays, rarely is it ever Christians per se - and never is it organized Christianity that promotes or condones such violence. Christian leaders and lay people overwhelmingly condemned and abhored the shooting of abortion doctors when that occurred in America years ago. If they had not, one could rightly judge Christianity itself as evil.

Islam may have been hi-jacked by a few who take verses from the Koran out of context and use them for evil deeds. Yet, there are no massive protests of Muslims marching in the streets to condemn this. In fact, there is little or no condemnation for terror overall from Muslim leaders anywhere in the world, other than occaisional condemnation for a specific act (such as condemnation for the taking of the French hostages).

So one must judge the entire religion based on what it does, and what its people do. It is pointless and meaningless to judge it from its source - the Koran - when mobs of Palestinians celebrate in the streets chanting in the name of God "Allu Akbar" upon learning that homicide bombers were successful in blasting more Israeli children into tiny pieces.

I would not want anyone's baby or child to be targeted for murder the way those Russian children were targeted.

Or the way that Israeli children are targeted.

Or the way Iraqi people are targeted by the mortars and bomb-filled cars that are placed and designed with the purpose of killing and hurting innocent people.

Or the way teenagers in Bali were targeted.

Or the way all age groups were targeted in 9/11.

Or the way all age groups were targeted in the train bombings in Spain.

Or the way Sudaneese are being targeted.

These actions are all being perpetrated by Islamic terrorists. And nowhere are Muslims protesting except a few clerics who have now stood up to say it is wrong to target Iraqi's, or the French. And generally, they only do so out of half of their mouth. Because in the next sentence they will talk about how oppressed or desparate the terrorists are.

Wanting to murder babies is wrong. Its not that difficult or complicated to understand that and condemn it!

One thing you should know before reading Prager's comments: he is Jewish. I say this only because he is also very pro-Christian, to the point that one might assume that he is a Christian. This makes what he has to say even more powerful.

From Dennis Prager: Why no Christian suicide bombers? and other thoughts on Islamic terror: "Just as the German nation, fairly or not, has had to grapple with the moral legacy of Nazism, and the name of Christianity still suffers (unfairly) because of medieval persecutions of non-Christians, so, too, Islam, Arabs and Palestinians will have to struggle for generations to shed their identification with murdering innocents.

While it is Americans, Israelis and other targets of terror who most suffer individually from Palestinian and other Muslim terror, those with the most to lose are Palestinians, Arabs and Islam.

About 25 percent of Palestinians are Christian, yet if there are any Palestinian Christian suicide bombers, I am unaware of them. Now why is that? Don't Muslim and leftist apologists incessantly tell us that the reason for Palestinian terror is "Israeli occupation and oppression"? Why, then, are there no Palestinian Christian terrorists? Are Christian Palestinians less occupied?

The answer is obvious. There is Palestinian terror for the same reasons there is Muslim terror elsewhere. A significant part of the Muslim world wishes to destroy those non-Muslims -- Americans, Israelis, Filipinos, Nigerians, Sudanese blacks -- who prevent Islam from violently attaining power."

From Majority of Muslims are Peaceful... So What?
Germany was a threat to civilization because Nazis and their ideology took over German society while the majority of Germans (the "good Germans") either supported Nazi ideals or did nothing. Russia was a threat to civilization because Communists took over the country, and the great majority of Russians either supported Papa Stalin or did nothing. Some Islamic societies are today becoming a threat to civilization because Islamic totalitarians and terrorists are taking over those societies while a majority of Muslims either support their ideals or do nothing.

That is why it is meaningless at best and dishonest at worst to deny the threat to civilization coming from various Muslim countries by noting that most Muslims are not violent. Only a handful of Saudis terrorized America on 9-11-01, but a large majority of Saudis support Osama bin Laden. Few Palestinians strap bombs onto their children's bodies, but the majority of them support such evil and none others publicly morally condemn it.

At this moment, the dominant strain of Islamic thought is totalitarian, meaning that wherever possible, a government should be Islamic and govern according to a strict interpretation of the Sharia (Muslim religious law). Furthermore, when necessary and when possible, the Islamists believe these religious laws should be imposed violently -- as in Sudan, Nigeria, Afghanistan and elsewhere. In addition, the dominant ideological trend in much of Islamic society is hate-filled. What is said daily about Jews in Middle Eastern mosques rivals what the Nazis said about Jews.

Thus, what is most frightening is not that there are Muslim terrorists, but by how little criticism of Islamic terror emanates from normative Islamic groups. While some Muslim groups have condemned individual acts of Islamic terror such as 9-11, not one significant Muslim group in the world, including here in free America, has condemned Islamic terror generally.

Let me slip in a piece from someone other than Prager here... This is from Mark Steyn: No Other Word for it but Slaughter:

The reality is that the IRA and ETA and the ANC and any number of secessionist and nationalist movements all the way back to the American revolutionaries could have seized schoolhouses and shot all the children.
But they didn't.

Because, if they had, there would have been widespread revulsion within the perpetrators' own communities

From When Silence Isn't Golden

Whatever our religion, we who are religious need to acknowledge that religion does not guarantee goodness. The sobering truth is that it is quite possible to believe in God, in Allah, in Christ and do great evil. A major 18th century rabbi, the Gaon of Vilna ("genius of Vilnius"), compared the Torah, the book he believed was dictated by God, to rain. Just as rain, he explained, produces both beautiful flowers and poisonous weeds, so, too, religion can produce both beautiful and poisonous human beings.

All of us who believe that God-based religion is indispensable to moral progress need to condemn religion-based evil as vigorously as possible. In fact, we need to condemn it even more strongly than we condemn secular-based evil such as communism and Nazism. From a religious perspective, religious evil is the worst form of evil. While secular and religious evil do equal damage to their victims, religious evil is more destructive because it does immense damage to the only things we believe can solve the problem of evil — God-based morality and moral religion.

The damage Muslim terrorists and their supporters are doing to the name of God and to religion is immense. Speaking personally, the fact that millions of people believe that God rewards those who massacre innocent men, women and children — with 72 virgins in heaven, no less — almost makes me want to hide my being religious (even though not Muslim) from the world.



UPDATE 9-7-04Well, Prager must have been thinking along the same lines that I was. Today he wrote an article entitled "They shoot children, don't they?" in which he says,

It is, of course, only a minority of Muslims that engages in such horrors, but it is only Muslims who are doing all these things. Christians aren't -- even among Palestinians, there are no Christian terrorists. Jews aren't -- and when one Jew did deliberately kill innocent Palestinians in 1994, the rest of the Jewish world was horrified and demonstrated its revulsion in word and deed. Buddhists aren't -- despite the destruction of Tibet by the Chinese Communists, no Buddhists have murdered innocent Chinese, let alone non-Chinese who deal with China.

Yes, some people do shoot children, and good people have a right to ask why.

I Served with John Kerry

A common argument against the Swift Boat Veterans is that none of them served with Kerry. (See note at the end of this post about that) These men have something to say about serving with Kerry, and the media does not like it.

Now another man who served with Kerry in a different role - Senator - is speaking up about Kerry's service, and again the media doesn't like it.

Democrat Senator Zell Miller stood up on the floor of the Republican convention and stated, "my family is more important than my party. There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush."

In a fiesty, fiery, deeply passionate speech reminiscent of the orations we learned in school of the likes of John Adams, Miller asked, "What has happened to the party I've spent my life working in?" As to his service alongside Kerry in the Senate, Miller said, "no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry."

You can see a full text of his speech here but you really have to see it to get the full, burning passion. You can see the full video at The Daily Record, which also includes the video of Miller's interview with Chris Mathews, who asks about the dumbest question I've ever heard: "Do you really believe John Kerry wants to defend this county with spitballs?" Miller fires back, "That was a metaphor -- do you know what a metaphor is?" During the interview Miller also tells Mathews, "get out of my face! Shut up and give me a chance to answer the questions you ask me instead of just talking over me." And, "I won't let you run over me like you did that young lady a while ago." "I wish I was [there in the studio with you] so I could get in your face!" Mathews finally began to give the Senator the respect one should show a Senator, responding with a meek, "Yes, sir" when Miller asked if Mathews would allow him time to finish his answer."

Perhaps my favorite sound bite from Miller's speech: "I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home, a God-fearing man with a good heart and a spine of tempered steel."

As for the Swift Boat Vets not serving with Kerry, one of the Vets served for 2 1/2 months under Kerry, which is more time on Kerry's boat than any other person, (certainly more than Rasmussan's 6 days). Some of the other 250 veterans were on boats that travelled together on missions, during which time they were usually only yards from each other, or served as his commanding officers, among other various roles.

Do You Believe in Angels?

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Angels are a creature of God. They are not dead people who get their wings when bells ring. And if you profess belief in these spirits, what then do you believe of evil spirits: demons? Ignore them? Pretend they don't exist?

Demons do exist.

And with appologies to my friend Najma, the more that I see like this,

"These were little school children. So innocent and once so full of life. Alot of them lay there on the floor crying out for help, some didn't. Some had mortal wounds and others were in such pain.

According to the reports afterward, the rebels had used some of them for target practice before we came. Other children said the rebels lined them up and took shots at them, seeing who could get the best shot."

the more I believe that the 'God' that many pray to in Islam is no more than a demon who misleads them into believing he is a god (little 'g').

A god who requires child sacrifice.

Whether that is Russian children, Balkan children, American children, Israeli children, Sudaneese children, or Iraqi children does not matter. As long as they are tortured and killed, these demons are satisfied.

I believe demons were in that Russian schoolyard. That demons had been invited into the heads of the terrorists. That demons were laughing as children were murdered.

The above quote is not from the Russian schoolyard. Its from a situation that happened years ago in the Balkans, reported by An American Soldier who stormed that schoolyard where 'militants' were hiding behind and murdering children.

But the situation in Russiawas much the same, and in many respects much worse.

"It was like a sauna in there. They laughed when children began fainting."

"When one of the women pulled her clothes off her legs above the knees, he yelled at her to cover herself, berated her and said that we all had to pray to Allah, because Islam is the truest faith. We all prayed, of course, but to our own Gods."

""Some of the wounded were taken out of the gym and finished off right in the corridor."

"“The terrorists placed numerous mines in the gym, which are stuffed with bolts and screws to make them more injurious. "

"The bandits shot at the kids as they ran from the school gym. They picked them off one by one."

"They shot at our backs as we were running out of the school. I heard the whine of the bullets. One of the girls who was running close to me was wounded.

Two of my friends picked her up and carried her. There were about 50 of us, boys and girls, all senior pupils.

Only the older kids could run away. As for the younger pupils, they just couldn't get out of that hell because the terrorists had blocked all the ways out for them. So they could only stay there and watch us running away."

Where is the condemnation from Muslims around the world?

Settling In

We're begining to settle in at our new house. I really don't have too much to report on this end - just normal moving stuff about half empty boxes and a garage full from top to bottom and front to back of who knows what. Oh, I guess I could mention that we have a familiy of racoons that comes to my sliding glass door every night hoping to see if the dogs left any food in their dishes (and also had a skunk do the same once) , or that we frequently see deer at dusk when we walk down to feed the horses, and that there's a LOT of work to be done putting up fences, cutting back trees for fire protection, stringing water lines, etc (thankfully no major issues with the house, other than we had one water heater replaced). Our 4 year old son and 9 year old nephew are loving it, my wife also is quite relaxed and happy, I believe, as is the rest of the family (we've also got my mother, brother, and brother in-law living on the 18 acres with us!).

We're still church hopping. More because we can than anything else, I think. I've never stepped foot into any other church since coming to the Lord in my early 30's, so this is a new experience and I actually want to look around a little before doing what I know we will, which is to be regular attenders at one and only one place soon. So far we're leaning to a smaller (maybe 50-60 member) Baptist. The Nazarene church is too far -- My wife might attend it now in good weather, but with any rain - let alone snow - I know she would not dare these winding roads. We also went to a Calvary, which is not as pentecostal as I've heard some of them can be. Good music, and the young lady teaching the 4 year old's group was so good with them I don't have words to describe! But its a little larger, and I'm not sure anyone even knew we were there. (The Baptist church immediately introduced us at the beginning of service, would not let us leave afterward without at least four people coming to talk to us, and today is the second time the Pastor has visited). Both messages from each were Christ centered, though I noticed that the Baptist hymnals sort of leave out sin, holiness, and sanctification. There's one other that's close that we'll go to this weekend, and then I guess we'll have to decide what to do from there.

Other than that we haven't gotten out from the property too much. Since we all work from home, and its a bit of a drive to the nearest village (really the most appropriate term considering its size, I think; though I doubt they refer to themselves that way) and much more to any real city, and because there's just so much to do with the move and a new home, we just haven't been out much.

In Case You Missed it: Birth of a Democracy

Amid all the news of the RNC and the terrorists attacks in Russia (valid news stories, but not the only news):

RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY: "1 September 2004 -- Iraq's new interim National Council met for the first time today amid a volley of mortar fire nearby, but members went ahead and took their oaths of office and elected a Kurdish politician, Fuad Masum, as their president.

Masum supervised August's national conference of delegates that chose the council, which is supposed to monitor Iraq's interim government until popular elections in January. "

Any information on who Masum is?