re: "Ogabe Administration Makes it Official: Terror and Islam are Non-Related"

Emperor Misha at The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler ("HQ of the Rottweiler Empire. An Affiliate of the VRWC.") has no tolerance for those who would use political correctness as a weapon to disarm us.

Money quote(s):

"(I)t’s henceforth not permissible to use the words “muslim” and “islam” in anti-terror training (h/t Protein Wisdom)"

This sort of thing is going to lead to a seriously messed-up "The-Emperor-Has-No-Clothes" moment. Pres. Bush's "religion of peace" pronouncement has been renewed and expanded under his successor administration to the point where it's impermissible to even consider that perhaps, in just this one little thing, Pres. Bush may have been wrong.

(Pres. Bush may have even known he was wrong, but in CAA's opinion #43 was attempting to head off the Huntington-esque "clash of civilizations" that UBL so desperately wanted to spark.)*

"What “muslim groups” are offended that a “religion” closely tied to 99.99999999999% of terrorism attacks might be mentioned in materials used to train law enforcement to combat terrorism attacks? "

Can you guess?

"The move comes after complaints from advocacy organizations including the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and others identified as Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the 2004 Holy Land Foundation terror fundraising trial."

CAIR. What a surprise. Which reminds me. I need to make sure the Holy Land Foundation documents are linked in my sidebar.

10/21

* It occurs to CAA that #43's understandable reluctance to make this an us-versus-them fight in the near-term with the entirety of the Islamic world, but at the risk of handicapping our efforts in the longer-term, somewhat parallels #41's decision, after 100 hours of combat in Gulf War I, to accept Saddam's ceasefire rather than take Baghdad and inherit the mess that was/is Iraq.

In other words, an understandable and justifiable decision in the short- and near-term timeframes which ends up costing the nation even more dearly over the long run.

re: "Infuriating idiocy about Islamists"

Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive ("the paratrooper of love") presented an award.

Money quote(s):

"This wins the prize for complete inability to admit the blisteringly freaking obvious point that al Qaeda is an Islamist terror group, they are at war with us and we are at war with them. This member of the Defense Department wastes bushels of oxygen evading the simple fact that our enemies are religious fanatics of an easily-identifiable flavor, identifiable because they shout their "god's" name as they hack the heads off living men and women. It is sad reminder that our "leaders" would rather bury their heads in sand, that our enemies tread wearing the iron sandals of violent Islamist extremist ideology, than be shunned by the "right"-thinking left as politically incorrect."

He does have a point. Patterns and indicators, as any intelligence analyst will tell you, assist one in identifying opposing forces.

12/15

re: "Obama’s Muslim Brotherhood Favoritism Will Lead to War in the Middle East"

Keith Davies at Big Peace attributes to malice what can adequately be explained by naïveté.

Money quote(s):

"Over the last year we have seen our government sell out Hosni Mubarak, the key leader who has brought relative peace and stability in the region. Instead, we have jumped on board with the “Arab Spring” which has led to Islamists taking power. My colleagues and I are not privy to CIA intelligence, but if we were able to predict such things based on common sense and our expertise in Middle East affairs, why could not our government see? Or maybe they can. It seems our government is infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and, along with political correctness from politicians who choose reelection over common sense, has allowed the Middle East to become a powder keg ready to explode."

Still and all: once is happenstance or accident; twice is coincidence (even if some folks don't believe in "coincidence"); but three times is enemy action.

12/3

re: "PJ’s Poor Judgment"

Greg Gutfeld at Big Hollywood is experiencing an increasingly common symptom of distust.

Money quote(s):

"(W)hen I hear of an act of terror, an internal clock starts clicking.

I wonder, how long before we find out the suspect is a radical Islamist.

And then, how long before that affiliation is rejected as vital to the crime.

Witness the murderous acts against our military in Frankfurt: it was only a matter of hours before the killer’s links to radical Islam were exposed.

And it was only a few hours later, that we saw an Administration official dismiss that notion."

A/S Crowley (Colonel, U.S. Air Force Retired) has an unenviable job. I wouldn't take it at gunpoint. Well, not that anyone's likely to ever offer me any job anywhere near the assistant secretary level, but he has to walk a very fine line between needing to put lipstick (our lipstick) on a pig (our pig) and uttering any actual untruths.

Diplomacy can be like that.

Remember that we don't want the GWOT to devolve into an actual civilization-level all-out total war between the West and Islam. That's what UBL and Al-Qaeda would like.

(After all, an ideology designed to thrive in the 7th century might be just the thing to dominate the rubble remaining after such a conflict.)

Pres. Bush (43) got that (and several other big things) right.

"(A) killer can shout Allahu Akbar – just like at Ft. Hood – and the Administration still won’t “commit.” They only see a man with no affiliation–because decades of ingrained political correctness have taught them to be fearful of pointing out that affiliation. It’s bigotry, after all.

Look, making no mention of terror won’t make terror go away."

This is one of our American cultural blindspots, and it's something we can't afford to persist as a mental default position. At this point, short of firing squads the most effective remedy for this sort of knee-jerk political correctness is to ridicule it. Hold it up to the light and laugh at it; once enough comedians are poking fun at it and enough Americans realize what a laugh-line it is, it's bound to change.

re: "Citizenship: Drawing a Line"

Chirol at Coming Anarchy ("Speak Victorian,Think Pagan") raises some timely questions about the nature of citizenship.

Money quote(s):

"France, unlike other European countries, seems to be willing to draw clear lines regarding what citizenship and French values mean, and to deny it without concern over leftist or politically correct criticism."

"No foreigner has a right to citizenship or even residence and twisted ideas of about fairness, political correctness and tolerance have led countries to act against their own interest by allowing in those who do not share even the most fundamental values of the land."

&

"As immigration from the developing countries to industrialized countries continues to grow, and communication and transportation technology increases the movement of people across national borders, the question of the value and meaning of citizenship is something that must be raised again. If citizenship boils down to birth location or having the correct paperwork, then it is meaningless"

re: "Military must trash jihad coverup policy"

Crush at Blackfive is much vexed by pointless political correctness in the military.

Money quote(s):

"One of the things helping jihadists attack this country the most could be the policy Obama signed last year forbidding our military from mentioning jihad, Islam, or any such terms that could anger our enemies. Granted, this nonsense started under the Bush administration. But when it comes to our national security, which is government’s primary responsibility, it doesn’t matter who is to blame. What matters is that we fix it."

"When a non-Muslim commits a violent act, such as the man who killed the abortion doctor “Tiller the killer,” journalists pass along everything there is to know about the man. However when the perpetrator happens to be Muslim, and especially when the crime is an act of jihad, we don’t see a name or any religious connection until the last few paragraphs – if they are reported at all.

Why is this right? What kind of Mickey Mouse leadership stands by while Maj. Hasan spouts his jihadist rhetoric for years before murdering 14 innocent Americans, then says they have no freaking clue as to the alleged assailant’s motivations? And then has the audacity to warn of anti-Muslim backlash rather than have soldiers be on the lookout for other jihadists in the ranks. And then has the audacity to say that the loss of the Army’s “diversity” would be a greater “tragedy” than the 14 Americans that Hasan murdered.

Let’s not “jump to conclusions” my ass, Army! How about let’s not jump FROM conclusions."

&

"Regardless what our Commander-in-Chief thinks, the U.S. military is not there to soothe the feelings of our enemies, or to become a proving ground of diversity. The military is there to deter our enemies from attacking us. When all else fails, the military KILLS our enemies. And while the forces on the ground have been working miracles, our leadership has been undermining their work at home with asinine policies that prevent us from looking into religion or ideology."