| A strange loop.
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| A strange loop.
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"We continued in the search for the infidels, and we slit the throats of those we found among them."I have not yet reached Francis Porretto's conclusion, that there are no moderate Muslims. However, I'll be the first to say that Jim Miller's MEMRI find - an interview with the leader of a recent brutal attack on non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia - shows beyond a doubt that there are some Muslims who we need to kill, because if nothing else, September 11 taught us that when our enemies say they want to kill us to glorify their god, they mean it.
And let me be clear: I certainly support killing, in cold blood and in advance of their doing anything to actively carry out attacks, any person who maintains this attitude, including the preachers of jihad and the sycophants who chant "martyrs'" names in the street after a particularly brutal act of wanton destruction. This is a war, not a law enforcement action, and the end goal is victory - which sometimes just means survival - rather than justice.
Yes, this means I'm willing to accept that innocents will be killed. Here's a news flash: innocents are being killed, but right now they're mostly on our side. My only complaint about President Bush's conduct of the war is "faster, please."
UPDATE (6/17): Francis Porretto responds, and Michael Williams responds to that.
Posted by Jeff at June 15, 2004 10:10 PM | Link CosmosI wouldn't say, speaking strictly in terms of private attitudes and non-religious convictions, that there are absolutely no "moderate Muslims." I would say that, however many there might be, they are completely ineffective at curbing their insane co-religionists -- basically, non-players in the direction of the Islamic creed.
We've been over the underlying dynamics of this. It's in the nature of Islam, an explicitly political belief system, that anyone who claims to be a Muslim cannot espouse "live and let live" safely, or with adequate backing from Islam's scriptures to defend his case to a militant.
As a coda: What can we expect to result from the legitimization of explicitly shari'a based courts in Canada? Will Islamic fanatics find means to compel Islamic "moderates" to use these courts against their will?
Tight border control seems more important on some days than others.
The jihadi preaching Mosque recruiters are arguably legitimate targets under the laws of war if they have affiliations with al Qaida or the Taliban. If someone issues a Fatwa to set in motion a terrorist operation then they are part of the command and control structure of a terror organization.
Zapping crowds of civilians with hellfire missiles however won't fly under the laws of war unless they are also *armed* civilian zealots.
Posted by: mark safranski on June 16, 2004 04:43 PMThanks for the link!
Posted by: Michael Williams on June 19, 2004 11:59 PM