An excellent article by Bruce Bawer, author of “While Europe Slept”, over at PJM:
In the current presidential campaign, only a small portion of the electorate seems to think that the war with jihadist Islam is a major issue. The one candidate who understood best what we’re up against, and who took it most seriously, Rudy Giuliani, was ridiculed across the political spectrum for being obsessed with 9/11 — as if the events of that day had been some kind of fluke or accident that has virtually no meaning for us today.
In depressing numbers, in short, Americans seem not to grasp the lessons of 9/11 — which should hardly be a surprise, considering how many journalists and politicians keep repeating that the terrorists are betraying a great and peaceful religion, that jihad means doing good works, and so on.
Well worth reading in its entirety, as are these earlier pieces by Bawer: An Anatomy of Surrender, and Why We Need More Leaders Like Vaclav Havel
Another fine article from Bill, over at NRO. This point in particular resonated with what I’ve been thinking about the whole mess:
So how do we inflict some badly-needed pain on people who need to feel it, without hurting the rest of the good and honest folks who pay their bills responsibility?
Much easier said than done, unfortunately.
There’s a comment thread for the article over at Bill’s place.
Having finally gotten around to setting up a Picassa account to go with this blog, I’ve posted my pictures from this visit to the World Trade Center site on November 23, 2007. They’re a bit dated now, but hopefully still of interest.
A few selections below. Click here for the album.
Bill Whittle is back with another characteristically brilliant article at NRO: “The Undefended City” draws on some themes articulated in Bill’s earlier Silent America essays, but is well worth the read even for longtime admirers of his work.
There’s a post about the article and an open comment thread over at Bill’s site, Eject! Eject! Eject!. Everybody in the pool!
More from Phyllis Chesler: on Ahmadinejad’s upcoming U.N. address, and Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam’s “The Stoning of Soraya M.”:
What is the point of this heartrending story? Namely, that as Muslim women are being tortured and stoned to death, the Islamist-terrorists, the silent moderate Muslims, and the multi-culturally correct American and European leftists and progressives, including feminists, are de-constructing and justifying the face veil and the head scarf—and strongly opposing American “colonialist” intervention in the Muslim world.
Their view, and they may not be entirely wrong: Rather than shedding American and Western blood in vain and thereby incurring the hatred of the world, let’s give up on the Islamic world and leave them to devour each other as they have always done. Let them stone their women to death. No matter what barbarism they engage in, invading or “interfering” would be worse. The western elites hold that this view is savvy, cool, politically correct, multi-culturally sensitive, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, even feminist, and so on.
Read the whole thing.
