Saturday, November 14, 2015

Here We Are Yet Again

First and foremost, no matter what else, my prayers for peace and healing for the families affected by the Paris attacks.  As with any mass killing, that's the highest of priorities.  

Bayou Renaissance Man puts up a thought-provoking post on the attacks in Paris, "Paris and the pain of being human".  I trust you've read it; if not, it's worth your time.  This started as a comment over there, but as always, when a comment gets too long, one of the privileges (the only privilege?) of having this space is the ability to post longer thoughts here.

The one type of attack that is impossible to stop is the surprise attack: you have no idea what it is or where it's coming from.  After all, that's why nations invest billions in intelligence agencies: to discover those attacks before they happen.  Compound that with surprise attacks in which the attacker doesn't care if they survive, or actually wishes to die, and the number of options for an attack increases while the ability to ward them off approaches zero. 

I'd say from Isis' standpoint, Paris was immensely successful.  As of reporting I saw this morning, a mere 7 of their men - who wanted to die in the first place - achieved their goal while killing over 120 directly and emotionally damaging hundreds more.  On a purely demographic basis, they will wipe out western civilization before they run out of jihadis.  As long as they sacrifice less than 10 and take out 10 to 100x that number, they can effectively destroy Europe.  Or it can be over in fewer attacks if they use more lethal weapons.  Nuclear or Biological agents have the desired lethality that could end this within a handful of years.

As others have said, what are we to do?  We have a moral responsibility to protect our families, our societies and ourselves.  It's immoral to allow your family to die in some sort of attempt to have a moral high ground over those who attack you.  On the other hand, they want the West to attack them with overwhelming force so they can play the victim card in their civilizational jihad; "Look! The great Satan really is trying to kill all Muslims!!"  They believe the West nuking them would be a great recruiting tool.   

If we refuse to play their game and don't respond with righteous outrage to attacks on our families, what are we left with?  That we only punch back?  We wait for the next surprise attack, which is surely coming ... and then what?  Chances are the attackers will either commit suicide in the operation or be killed by police or defense forces so there will be nobody to retaliate against.  In other words, do we, as "enlightened Westerners" accept being shot first before we shoot back?  In the event of a surprise attack like these in Paris, when you don't know who's attacking or where they're coming from, is there any alternative to taking the first shot?  How many family members are you willing to lose?  Note: in my view, any number higher than zero is unacceptable.

One of the most important abilities humans have is pattern recognition.  I don't think we'd have survived a few hundred years without it.  We see the pattern behind these attacks, and that leads to the dehumanization Peter writes about.  Not recognizing the incompatibility of the societies, and trying to integrate Islam into the West is suicidal.  The "enlightened left" will bristle at this, but Western societies' morality is derived from Judaeo-Christian ethics; Islam's moral code is not.  They're inherently incompatible and if we insist on attempting to integrate Islam into Western societies we're going to have to accept a continuing number of attacks that kill hundreds of innocent people every time.  

As a people, we really need to answer the question of "so what are we to do?".  As has been said many times, the Jihadis have declared war on us.  When someone declares war on you and swears they're going to kill you, it's wise to take them at their word. 



10 comments:

  1. http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2003/09/three-conjectures-pew-poll-finds-40-of.html

    I think we are past the due date and obliterating Islam entirely is the only way for our civilization to survive. Personally, I am not ready to convert and accept sharia.

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  2. Quite an interesting summary there. Don't believe I've ever read it, and it has been up a long time.


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  3. The issue in the current conflict is simple....most religions and
    belief structures will co exist with other religions and beliefs.
    Maybe not perfectly or easily but at least their is an effort, a
    fundamental creed that we should all 'just get along'. NOT SO WITH
    ISLAM. Islam and it's adherents are commanded to kill, enslave or convert EVERYONE....EVERYWHERE. No exceptions. Any muslim not willing to go along with this command is an apostate...to be killed.

    There simply can be NO compromise, no peace with Islam...by it's own
    admission peace with Islam is not possible. That leaves only two
    alternatives. We kill EVERY MUSLIM on the planet or THEY kill all of us. End of story. That's it.

    And there are only TWO TYPES of muslims.
    The fanatical ones who seek to kill us and
    the moderate ones who want the fanatical ones
    to kill us.

    Any other type of 'muslim' is an apostate....to be
    killed even before us kefirs'.

    This is war.... the kind of war that is portrayed in
    Heinlein's "Starship Troopers"....a war where neither
    side has anything of importance in common, a war where
    one side MUST cease to exist in order for peace to prevail.

    It's about time the real world realized this.

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  4. ...they want the West to attack them with overwhelming force so they can play the victim card in their civilizational jihad; "Look! The great Satan really is trying to kill all Muslims!!" They believe the West nuking them would be a great recruiting tool.

    Y'know, I think I can accept that; it's only a recruiting tool if there is anyone left to recruit.

    You hit on the issue: Western Civilization - founded on Judeo-Christian ideology and principles - is totally incompatible with Islam, and vice-versa, and not "slightly incompatible" but completely so. Islamists see the solution as eliminating anyone who is not Islamic, and Judeo-Christians see the solution as accepting and attempting to convert. As the kids' cartoon books ask, "which of these is not like the other?"

    At some point, and I think that point got a lot closer Friday night, Western Civilization will have to come to grips with the fact that co-existence is not possible: in the end it will be either them or us, but not both, because it's not "differences" but complete, total, irreconcilable incompatibility.

    It's been said that you cannot kill an idea, which is true, but you can kill any and all who support that idea, and keep killing them until the idea becomes a centuries-old vague memory, known only to the old story tellers. It's not going to happen this year, probably not this decade, but it will happen.

    It remains to be seen to which side that victory will belong.

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  5. Wish you guys were intelligent enough to understand that, in order to deal appropriately with the Muslims, one is FIRST going to have to deal appropriately with their "Law Enforcement" enablers.

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  6. Mark,

    I wish your fixation upon, and hatred for, law enforcement allowed you to understand (notice I didn't question your intelligence or sanity) that first - before we attack the source _or_ its enablers - we all have to recognize the real problem and admit to ourselves there is only one solution.

    Only then, if necessary (and I admit you may well be correct) would dealing with their enablers be a proper course of action. Informing our countrymen and getting them to accept there is only one option must happen first.

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  7. I would only note, Reg T, that "Law Enforcement" will arrest or kill anyone who seriously tries to educate the population about the Muslims. Have you checked on Ms. Barnhardt and her travails? And no, she is not yet in jail, and is still alive. But this country's "finest" have made her life hell. And she has NOT addressed the murders, rapes, and robberies routinely committed by the Only Ones. Jack Yantis, Jeremy Mardis, and Corey Jones are merely among the latest who have been murdered in cold blood by the Blue Wall, without ANY repercussions at all for the murdering swill.

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  8. when we are few you will take us in, for that is your way
    when we are many we will enslave you, for that is our way


    that is the mohamedan code of conduct.

    Utter destruction of mecca, and the dome on the rock will go a long way to clarify matters.

    itor

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  9. Mark,

    Then I guess I'm lucky no one reads my blog, because - even though I don't write frequently (too small an audience), I write almost entirely to educate about islam. I don't even bother to break it up with other subjects as she does.

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  10. We have made a decision long ago to sacrifice one or more of our major cities to the muslims. It could be New York, DC, Paris, London or maybe Tel Aviv. It will happen it is not a question if if but when. The terrorists can buy a bomb and contrary to common belief a simple nuke bomb is not hard at all to build the difficult part(s) are getting th nuclear material and for really advanced and powerful bombs shaping the nuclear material and the explosive charge that sets it off. I have thought for the past 10 years or so that it would probably be a European city. Tel Aviv is a prime target but the Jews are very careful. NY City is a prime target but distance and distinct borders complicates this (however it may well make San Diego and LA more accessible). It will happen, soon I think. It won't be ten times the size of Hiroshima it will be 100 times. It could kill a couple million or more. We made this decision by choosing peace at any price rather than accepting that Islam cannot coexist with us. We will stand by our decision until Islam destroys one (or more) of our major cities and millions of lives.

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