A Landmark: the Moment of Infamy (Update)

I'm not one for cross-blogging and living off other bloggers' scoops, but this is an entirely different matter.

I request my colleague-bloggers to put this story on their front pages, to disseminate it wherever they can on Facebook, Twitter, or through whatever other means at their disposal to expose this affront. Spread it far and spread it wide!

Enough is enough. We have been finding ourselves on this slippery slope on the way to hell for some time now. The media no longer find it useful to be objective, or even to pretend they are. Last week we saw them flinging kerosene on the Gaza fire as if there's no responsibility for honest reporting.

CNN went so far as putting up and taking down an obvious fake in the time-honored tradition of Pallywood Productions, only to reinstate it moments later.

A line will have to be drawn at some point. The mob will take it all the way to Gaza and Bamyan, no mistake about it. The question is, where does the culture of freedom and civilization draw the line?

I understand the police wanted to deescalate the situation, but there's also some point that the mob needs to be told in no uncertain terms where it gets off (preferably with democracy, prosperity and responsible citizenship still somewhat in tact). I suggest this is IT.

Perhaps the best place to drop this is at the front porch of the German Embassy in your country of residence. It's a good job that Germany has a special responsibility in the case.

WHERE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD IS EVERYONE, WHERE ARE THE LEADERS, THE GOVERNMENTS, IS EVERYONE WEARING BLINKERS!!!!!

Relativist thinkers deny the existence of good and evil. As a result they never stop believing there is the possibility of a compromise. But you cannot negotiate with evil. About what? About how much evil is okay? How many Jews it would be okay to Endloess? This is also the barrier which President-Elect Obama will hit once he starts negotiating with Iran and Syria.

Update:

If calls of "Hamas, Hamas, put the Jews on Gas" as is the case in the Netherlands aren't bad enough, what makes present case stand out so badly is that it involves police officers, servants of the state whose task it is to uphold and protect the law and basic civil rights.

These officers however first morally nodded to the mob by granting their wishes to remove the offensive Israeli flags, they also crushed privacy and property laws by breaking and entering the premises. As such, this case crosses the Rubicon, but possibly it has occurred before in a number of places.

Jihad Watch: "German police aids Jew-hating Muslim mob, removes Israeli flag from window"



Jihad Watch reader Oao just sent me this:

:16 AM Received from Muqata Blog Reader in Germany, Sebastian M.

Today, 10.000 people demonstrated against Israel here in my hometown Duisburg (Germany) and to express their solidarity with Hamas. So, my girlfriend and me put two Israel flags out of the windows of our flat in the 3rd floor. During the demonstration which went through our street the police broke into our flat and removed the flag of Israel. The statement of the police was to de-escalate the situation, because many youth demonstrators were on the brink of breaking into our apartment house. Before this they threw snowballs, knifes and stones against our windows and the complete building. We both were standing on the other side of the street and were shocked by seeing a police officer standing in our bedroom and opening the window to get the flag. The picture illustrate this situation. The police acquiesced in the demands of the mob.

And as you can see from the video, the mob applauded, cheered, and shouted "Allahu akbar" when the flag disappeared.

Video above from Jewish Odysseus (thanks to Phil).

Our credits go to Brian of London.

You can Digg It here.

The Postmodern Thuggism of the New Storm Troopers

Last week saw the latest gathering of the blogging Counter-Jihad movement, this year in Vienna (data collection point on the Mission Europa Netwerk). There's some cause for pause. Some speakers and attendees pronounced the wish to move on after the rift that developed about a year ago between the publisher of Little Green Footballs, and everybody else in the Counter Hirabah. Scouring the paperwork doesn't allow for much optimism in that department. We'll go over some texts produced in the meeting in the coming days.

Essayist Fjordman cannot help himself either in that respect and has a part retrospect running up on The Brussels Journal. After initially harking back what follows is a shocking expose about the state of affairs in Scandinavia. He describes the almost institutionalized thuggism in Sweden by what might accurately be termed the new Storm Troopers.

Our own investigations on the philosophies contained in Postmoderism meanwhile have hit rock-bottom. Scraping the base of that particular pond reveals that the dichotomy of political Left and Rightism is in essence artificial and non-existent. We've all been had by the wrong markers.

Just as an American once queried me on the subject, arguing that the Left cannot be identified with the Right 'as they do not do antisemitism,' just as wrong-footed is the notion that the Left is Socialist, whereas the Right isn't. Then, what is the Right? Is it a movement entrusted with the interests of royalty, the elite, or capitalism? Evidently not!

Much as it must never be trivialized or belittled, the antisemitism of Nazism is not a typical marker of the Socialist Right. Mussolini's Socialist Republic of Italy didn't have race laws until Hitler pushed their implementation much later, when very reluctantly and halfheartedly some antisemitic measures were put in place.

In the insightful book "Explaining Postmodernism" (p. 106) Objectivist philosopher Stephen Hicks writes: "By the early twentieth century (...) the dominant issues for most continental political thinkers were not whether liberal capitalism was a viable option - but rather exactly when it would collapse - and whether Left or Right collectivism had the best claim to being the Socialism of the future. The defeat of the collectivist Right in World War II then meant that the Left was on its own to carry the Socialist mantle forward. Accordingly, when the Left ran into its major disasters as the twentieth century progressed, understanding its fundamental commonality with the collectivist Right helps to explain why in its desperation the Left has often adopted 'Fascistic' tactics."

Coming as both do, from the anti-modern German Idealism based on the musings of Swiss-French agitator Rousseau, the Left versus Right dichotomy is highly artificial and arbitrary, and post World War II a means used by the Left to differentiate from their opponents.

For example the Left (or Young) and Right Hegelians differed and fell out over in the acceptance of the role played by religion within the state. What sets Communism apart from Fascism and National Socialism is argued to be public versus private property, but the prestigious Von Mises Institute has successfully argued that - since private property was up for confiscation by the all powerful state at any time - private property existed only nominally in Nazi Germany and the Socialist Republic of Italy.

The far Left keep emphasizing the Fascist nature of their opponents in an effort to put some distance between themselves and their own resort to thuggism. In so far as it's attributable to psychology, it's a clear case of projection. The fact is, on the philosophical level Left and Rightism belong to one and the same group of ideologies that developed from anti-modernism. The new Leftist brown shirts are no mystery.

The false dichotomy has fathered the erroneous reasoning that since the Marxist Left catered for the proletariat, the Socialist Right must be a party of and for the elite. This cannot be the case. But it is true that throughout, both have been violently attacking the middle class and bourgeois values. And barely noticed, they still do. And that's your main marker to watch out for!

For more read the compilation in "The Dystopia of Paradise." Here's the Fjordman story:

The Brussels Journal: "To the Readers of Little Green Footballs"

(...) Also in Sweden, Antifascistisk Aktion (AFA), a group that supposedly fights against "racists," openly brag about numerous physical attacks against persons with their full name and address published on their website. How come AFA gets away with their violent, extra-legal activities for years without being stopped by the authorities? Is it possible that the political elites find them to be a useful tool against dissidents who criticize mass immigration?

The thugs of AFA in the spring of 2008 destroyed the car of a 90-year-old woman and wrote "nasse" (Nazi) on top of it. As it turned out, they picked the wrong car, but who cares? It's all for a "good cause."Leading national newspaper Aftonbladet has close ideological ties to the Social Democrats, the country's dominant party for most of the past (...) >>>


- Filed on Articles in "The Assault of the New Storm Troopers" -

A Tragedy Waiting to Happen

For some time now I've been pondering how to inject a word of caution into the Counter-Jihad blegosphere over the manner and intensity with which concerns and calls to resistance are being voiced. Some posts, or even entire blogs, give rise to serious anxiety over the author's well-being.

Having been out of the loop for some weeks due to a technical glitch, the news of the suicide of Ronbo only reached these pages yesterday while making the rounds. This may be just as well for what I am about to say. It is clear that Ronbo was plagued by more than just the current set of geopolitical intricacies, serious as they may be. In fact, Right Wing News has information today that throws another light on events altogether. Still, it will serve for the purpose.

A message of caution seldom reaches the ones that need it most. Nevertheless I'd like to share this personal story. A few years back I thought myself justified in my suspicions that great harm had been done by someone to somebody close to me, who I'd loved and since had passed away. In fact, I was livid to the point of murder! Until one silent night a glass plateau carrying crystal knickknacks came crashing down to earth. Taking the irrational approach I took the occurrence as a message from beyond, warning me of the error of my ways. This was in all probability my own subconscious at work.

We are warned by Christianity, borne out by more recent insights into psychology, that cultivating hatred and seeking revenge in a sin, for good reason. It is a boomerang, which is not directed against the party it is intended for, but that will turn against the person from whom it emanates. In the end - with the equal potency with which it is energised - it has the capability to destroy us.

While we are in an existential struggle with the forces of darkness with at stake, nothing less than two and a half millennia worth of civilization, we cannot allow our emotions to turn against us. Yes, we are dealing with bloodthirsty pocket tyrants who are themselves the victims of their own feelings in a similar manner. This will guarantee their undoing.

Western civilization has the advantage of Judeo-Christian tradition which has helped us in the past to muster the courage and wisdom we need to survive the onslaughts of totalitarian tyrants. It is our ligament, and our common strength. We should be realistic and deal with the problems as best and vigilant as we can. But we need to put some distance between our enemies and the emotions that drive us: they energize us, but we cannot allow them to take over and rule our lives and decisions.

Let's strengthen our resolve to stand up to the tyrants and - foremost - to their pomo surrender facilitators, the traitors in our midst - so that we may pass on our highest values to the next generation, enabling them in turn to pursue happiness in liberty and in peace.

For Ronbo, a Freedom Fighter: “Live for nothing or die for something. Your call.”

More information at Gates of Vienna, My Flanders Fields and latest: Right Wing News.

- Filed on Articles in cat. Psychology (sidebar) -

Jihad Watch: Personality of the Year

You can now cast your ballots for the Personality of the Year, in the following categories:

- Vote for Anti-Dhimmi Internationale 2007!

Vote for the international figure who doth bestride the narrow world like a colossus, standing up in the most splendidly courageous manner to Islamic supremacist bullying and intimidation, peaceful or violent.

- Vote for American Anti-Dhimmi of the Year 2007!

Vote for the American or U.S. resident who stood up in the most splendidly courageous manner to Islamic supremacist bullying and intimidation, peaceful or violent

- Vote for American Dhimmi of the Year 2007!

Vote for the world citizen who behaved in the most pusillanimous, abject, and/or suicidally stupid way in the face of Islamic supremacist bullying and intimidation, peaceful or violent.

- Vote for Dhimmi Internationale 2007!

Vote for the American who behaved in the most pusillanimous, abject, and/or suicidally stupid way in the face of Islamic supremacist bullying and intimidation, peaceful or violent.

The year 2007 being a particularly fruitful year on both counts, have fun! There are some great choices there ...

Fable of the Water Buffalo and the Sparrow

Dr Sam C. Holliday, director of the Armiger Cromwell Center, following prior posts in these pages, "Effectively Communicating Jihad: a spade is a spade", and the "Fable of the Knife", in a third article is sharing with us today "The Fable of the Water Buffalo and the Sparrow", which dates back to the days of the wars in the Southeast Asia during the sixties, and is co-authored by John J. McCuen.

While the 'Fable of the Knife' contains a useful lesson, so does its companion the "Fable of the Water Buffalo and the Sparrow". The latter originated in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. We used both with our students at the US Army War College from 1967 to 1972. Now over 35 year later, we hope they will help others neutralize the global Islamic revisionist movement, known as the Third Jihad.

THE FABLE OF THE WATER BUFFALO AND THE SPARROW

The sparrow lived among the people of the village, and it ate the same food they did, but sparingly as sparrows do. And the sparrow flew over the village and observed all that was going on.

The water buffalo helped the people plow the fields and haul heavy items from one place to another. When the female water buffalo had a calf, it gave extra milk for the villagers. Like the sparrow, the water buffalo was always there; but unlike the sparrow, the water buffalo labored with the people and walked the same earth they did.

When the three terrorists came with their knife the sparrow noticed immediately. When one terrorist took a knife to one of the villagers the sparrow informed the water buffalo. After the water buffalo gored the first terrorist to death, the sparrow watched closely and saw the other two terrorists coming to retrieve their knife. Then the water buffalo gored them to death too.

LESSON TO BE LEARNT: People don't care much for politics, but they worry about the terrorist with the knife, and they love the water buffalo and the sparrow.

Sam C. Holliday is a graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, a former director of Stability Studies at the Army War College, and a retired Army Colonel. He earned a Master's in Public Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a doctorate in International Relations from the University of South Carolina. Currently he is Director of The Armiger Cromwell Center, a small nonprofit Internet clearinghouse for thinking "outside of the box of conventional wisdom." By means of its online essays, the ACC seeks more effective foreign policies to achieve stability through equilibrium.

Copyright © 2007 Armiger Cromwell Center, 3750 Peachtree Road, NE, Suite 374, Atlanta, GA 30319-1322 armigercc@comcast.net Permission is granted to forward this essay to friends or colleagues, on a fair use basis. For reprint permission contact Armiger Cromwell Center.

"The Fable of the Knife"

Dr Sam C. Holliday, director of the Armiger Cromwell Center, following his first essay in these pages, "Effectively Communicating Jihad: a spade is a spade", in a second article is sharing with us today "The Fable of the Knife", which dates back to the days of the Greek Civil War. He does the introduction himself:

We welcome the good news that killings are down in Iraq. However, we must not forget the ‘Fable of the Knife’. Future hirabahists (Islamic extremists who kill the innocent) will surely remember it. There is no need for each generation to relearn its lesson. The origin of this fable is unknown. From 1947 to 1949 it was told in Greece, and since then many variations have been told.

THE FABLE - Do three insurgents with one hunting knife, or a battalion, control the town?

The battalion is well equipped with the latest in vehicles, communication, and weapons. Its soldiers are well-trained professionals. Most of the time they are in their fortified compound. All guns and ammunition in the town have been collected and destroyed, and no enemy units have been reported in the vicinity. Several times a day vehicles from the compound patrol the town with the soldiers smiling and waving to the people; from time to time they stop and talk - as best they can. Officers from the battalion meet regularly with town leaders to discuss how to improve public utilities, facilitate economic development, and improve governance. They also talk - through an interpreter - about the glories of freedom, and the advantages of democracy. Every day the battalion commander reports to his superior that the town is secure and under his control.

The three insurgents have no vehicle, only face-to-face communication, and one hunting knife. Anyone who has spoken out against the insurgents has been found the next morning in front of his home with his throat cut.

Who controls the town, the three insurgents with one hunting knife or the battalion?

LESSON TO BE LEARNED - Local security must be of, by and for the people.

The big dog theory holds that the biggest, badest dog can dominate all other dogs, and also the cats. In accordance with this theory, war-fighting forces should be able to dispatch insurgents to the ash can of history. But the hirabahists are not dogs or cats; they are snakes, insects, bacteria and viruses. So the battalion is unable to neutralize them. The ruthlessness, cruelty and determination of the insurgents give them the upper hand in a battle of wills.

Sam C. Holliday is a graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, a former director of Stability Studies at the Army War College, and a retired Army Colonel. He earned a Master's in Public Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a doctorate in International Relations from the University of South Carolina. Currently he is Director of The Armiger Cromwell Center, a small nonprofit Internet clearinghouse for thinking "outside of the box of conventional wisdom." By means of its online essays, the ACC seeks more effective foreign policies to achieve stability through equilibrium.

- Related: The Fable of the Water Buffalo and the Sparrow

Copyright © 2007 Armiger Cromwell Center, 3750 Peachtree Road, NE, Suite 374, Atlanta, GA 30319-1322 armigercc@comcast.net Permission is granted to forward this essay to friends or colleagues, on a fair use basis. For reprint permission contact Armiger Cromwell Center.

Effectively Communicating Jihad: a spade is a spade

Politeia is honoured indeed to have gained permission by the author to publish this highly important essay on how strategic communications on the War on Terror against militant Islamism can be improved. These pages have adopted, effective immediately, his recommendations with regard to idiom related to terrorism and Jihad. We heartily encourage the readership to follow suit.

Sam C. Holliday is a graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, a former director of Stability Studies at the Army War College, and a retired Army Colonel. He earned a Master's in Public Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a doctorate in International Relations from the University of South Carolina. Currently he is Director of The Armiger Cromwell Center, a small nonprofit Internet clearinghouse for thinking "outside of the box of conventional wisdom." By means of its online essays, the ACC seeks more effective foreign policies to achieve stability through equilibrium.


EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AGAINST THE THIRD JIHAD

The apparent renunciation of terrorism by the person who provided the rationale for the global Muslim revivalist movement presents an opportunity for the United States to improve its performance in strategic communication.

In Foundations of Preparation for Jihad, Sayid Imam al-Sharif prescribed a Third Jihad for the Islamization of the world. Al-Sharif founded the Egyptian Islamic Jihad; his supporters assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and he was with Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan fighting against the Soviet Union. He is a medical doctor and was an associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, another Egyptian doctor, who is now Osama Bin Laden's deputy. Al-Sharif was captured after 9/11 and has been in an Egyptian jail since 2004.

There have been several reports that Al-Sharif will soon publish a book in which he states that the use of terror, and the killing of innocent nonbelievers, in the name of Jihad, violate the Qur’an. On July 27, 2007, the Guardian (London) reported him as citing the injunction: “Fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but do not transgress the limits; for God loveth not transgressors. Qur'an 2:190” In other words, he now condemns the violence that has been an integral part of all three Jihads. This would mean a modification in how to achieve the Great Caliphate.

A caliphate, which combines religious and political authority, is the only form of governance approved by traditional Islamic theology. There have been caliphates in the Middle East since the seventh century. The Great Caliphate is a goal; it would replace all secular governments from Morocco to Indonesia with a single caliphate that would then be able to convert the rest of the world to Islam. This was Al-Sharif's original vision that has had a major influence on the global Muslim revivalist movement—an effort to achieve Islamic conquest through violence known to its partisans as the Third Jihad.

It has been reported that Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden's deputy in Al Qaeda, is very unhappy with Al-Sharif's recantation since it might cause many others to question their basic ideas about the Third Jihad. Also it has been reported that hundreds of other former Islamic militants now imprisoned are prepared to join Al-Sharif in renouncing the use of violence to spread their beliefs and are ready to accept the free flow of religious ideas.

~ The entire essay is published on the Articles Database here ~

... Our enemies have called their cause Jihad (holy war), and their assassins "mujahiddin" (holy warriors), or Servants of Allah, or “martyrs.” All of these have positive emotional and religious connotations ...This usage is both inaccurate and dangerous. The leaders of the Third Jihad have exploited this weakness. ... By accurately stating that we are fighting against evildoers—not holy warriors, we can remove some of the communication advantage that the leaders of the Third Jihad have enjoyed. We must reach out and hold our people, our enemies, and people around the world ...

Copyright © 2007 Armiger Cromwell Center


Update: "Al Qaeda Associate Renounces Third Jihad", 17th December 2007

In his posting here on 21st October Dr Sam Holliday, director of the Armiger Cromwell Center in "Effectively Communicating Jihad: a spade is a spade" reported that Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, one of the least public yet most important figures in the Third global Jihad, would shortly be making a public renunciation. This has now been the case. This morning Dr Holliday drew our attention to the article on the Middle East Media Research Institute MEMRI's Special Dispatch No. 1785 >>>