Monday, October 25, 2004Notes Cicero:CNN.com - 'Bodies of 51 Iraqi soldiers found' - Oct 24, 2004.How the insurgents follow the rules of war."Where's the outrage?"Where's the outrage indeed? Tragedies like this could be averted if only we'd give the insurgents F-16s and stop depriving them of the things the evil first world nations have. Then they wouldn't have to do this execution style... The bottom line is that the slaughter of police and military recruits alike does not actually reveal an uprising, nor an insurgency nor any sort of actual movement at all. The people doing this do not care what becomes of Iraq, do not care what becomes of the Iraqi people. Indeed, they do not even care about the will of Allah. All they care about is the crushing of the notion that an Islamic people can function as a civil society absent a caliph figure. At this point, there is only one appropriate response to the actions of these people, and that is to round them up whenever we can and ship the bodies to Damascus, Tehran and Riyadh as appropriate with a note that they are those respective capitals' responsibility. We have heard a lot about what the U.S. owes, what the first world owes, and on and on. A certain stripe of editorialist never fails to assert that until the U.S. funds free dental care and sex-change operations for all the world, the third world has now choice but to wallow in war and, when possible, export that war to us as vengeance for our prosperity. Well, the governments of Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia owe it to their peoples, the people of Iraq and the people of the world to allow an aborning civil society space in which to create and define itself. That means, among other things, that the backward Saudi prince who exported Wahhabi needs to publicly recant or go to the chopping block. That means that the mullahs in Tehran, the thugs in Syria and the hoodlums in the PLA need to recant or go to the chopping block. And that means, remembering the refrain "with us or against us" that the only appropriate imprisonment for the likes of those who murdered these 50 men and those who betrayed them is a cheap coffin. It's funny, though, how silent Hollywood and the Democratic party are on this side of things. They condemn terrorism if caught on camera. But they never spontaneously materialize to call on anyone - anyone - to give the Iraqi people a chance. They condemn massacres but go right on asserting that funding terrorists is better than fighting them - if it's a question of the U.S. versus any nation, however backward. Here, though, is a test: The next time a celeb - be it Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon or Sean Penn - speaks out, don't waste too much thought. Just ask yourself, instead, if they're really true to their convictions. Would Ms. Fonda stand for wearing a burqa? Would Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon line up for the punishments due a man and woman who have a child out of wedlock? Would Sean Penn take a chance on whether Allah's justice - the decision of the crowd in everyday sharia - determined whether it was he or the photog he took a pop at who lost a hand for public violence? The killers of those Iraqi troops, the Democratic party and the Hollywood elite have one thing in common as we come up on this election: they stand for absolutely nothing except the possibility that chaos and destruction in Iraq will open a window in which they can increase their influence. Inshallah, all three shall know disappointment in the coming weeks. A young woman, formerly on par with the farm animals for the esteem in which her society held her, cast the first ballot for President in Afghanistan. George W. Bush was able to celebrate this. The DNC has been less cheery and Hollywood has been all but silent. The "insurgents" in Iraq, of course, were appalled. Whether you're a woman or a man, that should tell you all you need to know about the upcoming election in the U.S. 
posted by gbarto at 1:15 AM |
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