Look at Turkey, converting a major historical church into a mosque—it is easier for the Turkish government to protect a mosque than a church. The first defense of freedom is outside the boundary.
Thus, both inside and outside, the system seems to be defined on both sides–Harb and Salaam–as: “War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.” –George Orwell, 1984
The less you know about Islam, the better. Ignorance is strength.
War is peace, i.e., the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, now at least 80 (or 100) years old.
Freedom is slavery in Shari’a law, even though radical Islamism entails less freedom in certain ways. The fact that you are a slave, in certain ways, may mean you are free. Freedom may be defined as the absolute opposite of freedom in the West. This can be social or political.
Let me provide a political example.
When visiting Washington, Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, met with the President Obama. To his amazement, Karzai was told that Obama said the Taliban was not an enemy of the United States and Washington did not want to fight them.
Do you realize the significance of this?
1. The Taliban was collaborator in the September 11 attacks! It could have warned about them and probably stopped them! In other words Obama wants to be friends with the September 11 terrorists! Tell me, did the Taliban apologize? The Taliban have also killed thousands of U.S. and other Western soldiers in the last decade. Did they apologize? Did the Taliban turn over terrorists voluntarily? 2. But think of Karzai, too! He’s a Western client regime. That means the Taliban want to put his head on a pole in the fighting that will follow the U.S. withdrawal! They will torture him, if they can ever catch him. But, he asked, if the Americans wanted to be friends with the Taliban, then why did they fight them so much?
Do you know how the U.S. responded to Karzai? That they would pressure him until Afghanistan made unilateral concessions to the Taliban! You know who said that? The absolutely ridiculous Secretary of “Defense” Chuck Hagel. (Guess what? He was known to be soft on Iran and nasty against Israel, which is probably why he was appointed.)
This explains why Hagel just visited Kabul and Karzai rejected his plan.
Note this is the same policy for Iran, Turkey, and Lebanon (the pro-American oppositions), and almost for Egypt (Obama-Kerry wanted to support Muslim Brotherhood government, but they backed down after the Brotherhood government was overthrown by a military coup).
These people use real bullets.
So one must understand:
1. Islamists feel non-Islamists have no rights. 2. All Western states are open ground for subversion and terrorism, including against moderate Muslims. 3. Islamist-ruled states will not measure up to any deal with Western states, especially one with compromises. 4.The weaker the Western states act, the weaker the Islamists think Westerners to be.
But we should be grateful! After all, Kerry must work hard for his undeserved fame and wealth! Surely you must remember articles about Dean Rusk, Henry Kissinger, and Zbigniew Brzezinki and how hard they worked!
Here’s who we should really be grateful to:
Shane Patton, Danny Dietz, Michael P. Murphy–three SEALs who were killed–and Marcus Luttrell–who survived–after a June 28, 2005, operation in Afghanistan to capture Ahmad Shahd of the Taliban, with whom Obama wants to be friends.
As a “reward,” and to assist with his rehabilitation, the surviving SEAL Luttrell received a yellow Labrador puppy. He named the dog ‘DASY,’ representing his name and those of the three fallen SEALs–Danny Dietz, Matthew “Axe” Axelson, Southern boy (Marcus), and Michael “Yankee” Murphy.