Molon Labe

In Washington, both the administration and the new congressional leaders failed to seriously respond to the al Qaeda message. [...] The silent treatment works in favor of the Salafi combatants: It only leads them to believe that they are right and that their strategy is working

I am afraid, in Washington, the politicians might have been ROFL since very probably it was not Al Qaeda the terrorist group that carried out 3/11, and four high rank police officers have been recently indicted on charges related to the cover-up of the role of ETA in that attack.

However, it does seem as if the 3/11 bombings were intended to influence the Spanish elections, which is Phares' point I think.

In the specific context of the Madrid bombing as a pre-election ploy, no such act is necessary now.

We gave ourselvest he gift of Madrid when we put a party full of folks desiring nothing more than a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in a position to potentially make that happen.

The point is moot now.

An "American Madrid"? Perhaps...but with a twist. It occurs to me the enemy has learned the "sleeping giant" lesson of Pearl and 9/11: America is not Madrid. Hit her and she hits back---hard. But, given our political climate, "indirect" attacks can achieve victory without invoking an American military response.

Bombs in Baghdad are proving them right. Americans---who would have roared at another 9/11---look at Baghdad and say, "At least it's not here. Can't we rest now?". Now the jihadistss will move on to other Muslim countries, spreading the mayhem, while Americans throw their hands further in the air. With weakened American resolve, Arab leaders will have no option but to accommodate the fanatics.
Then they'll start on other allies. Sydney, London, Jakarta, Seoul and others hit with ruthless attacks, ever more likely to involve chemical or nuclear weapons. Latin America will be radicalized. The "coalition of the willing" will slowly abandon us (and Israel). Every action we take in the war on terror will be seen as stirring up the hornet nest, both abroad and here at home.

It may take years, perhaps decades. But this is a patient enemy. Eventually---when we are fully isolated---they will attack us at home. By then, where will we retaliate if the whole world is against us?

It is foolish and dangerous to allow American's to think all's fine as long as the explosions happen "over there". Bragging that we haven't been hit is shortsighted and may actually play right into the enemy's hands.

However, it does seem as if the 3/11 bombings were intended to influence the Spanish elections, which is Phares' point I think.

But this influence came from inside. It was an inside job carried out by people that knew every detail of Spanish politics, and supported by propaganda created by the main opposition party then, the Socialist Party, and Police officers related to them; and then inoculated by the mass media under their control or the control of their oligarc allies, which is most of it.

What is seeking Al Qaeda? A Coup d'Etat in Washington? Oh please!

We gave ourselvest he gift of Madrid when we put a party full of folks desiring nothing more than a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in a position to potentially make that happen.

Don't compare with Madrid because they are different things: a Coup d'Etat performed by traitors inside the Spanish Security Forces, collaborating with ETA and maybe someone else, plus the main opposition party, suffocated in financial debts, accepting it; and mid-term elections in the U.S, when Democrats finally will have to face the reality of the post-11-S world.

That Al Qaeda message was simply propaganda, trying to link very different facts. It is as saying that Katrina was sent by Allah and that her "spirit" must be promoted in the U.S. I think it deserves no response, as the politicians in Washington have done.

When the Japanese in WWII preferred suicide to surrender, American were completely dumbstruck by what we viewed as completely irrational behavior.

We're in the same boat now, but I think it's worse. Our media and western intelligentsia have grown into such an intellectual stupor that they cannot conceive that Islamists are REALLY that determined to destroy us.

Their worldview is so skewed that they view religion, any religion, as something Those People do, a quaint relic of the past sure to be wiped away when thier vision of a humanist utopia is reached. They simply cannot fathom that people actually believe in anything anymore, such is their nihilism.

When this all blows up, and it will, it'll make WWII look like an afternoon tea with the Garden Club (Sorry for The Manchrurian Candidate reference...). This coming war will shape the world for the next century. i fear The West will not have enough will power to see it through, and will surrender to the hordes. As others have put it so much more eloquently than I, the West no longer believes in anything, including itself, and no longer believes in the future, as evidenced by the below-replacement birthrates in Europe.

I hope we can avoid this war. I doubt that we can, because our enemies will force the issue. The West will choose appeasement over war, and in the end we'll have both. It will require the kind of will that enabled us to carry out the Dresden and Tokyo bombings, and will probably go nuclear before it's through.

But hey! Britney and K-Fed are getting divorced, so who has time for this nonsense?

Britney and K-Fred getting divorced!

How come there wasn't a post about this important topic?

I think it's because Federline has been on WWE getting walloped by John Cena. Tough to look at a guy like K-Fed in his ratty wife-beater tshirt tryin to look unshaven and tough next to somebody that is legitimately tough.

I worry more about the threat faced by Americans from the christianists and christofascists.

They've been bombing and murdering right here in this country for decades.

Yes. Of course they have. Those evil christofascists. They've been here for over five hundred years, and look at all the trouble they've caused so far.

Is this a sock puppet? 'Cause we just spent a long time elaborating various threats, why they exist, the nature of them, the root causes, etc, and all you got is two sentences? Do you feel outgunned in the battle of wits? Because that's the way it looks from here.

Here's a challenge: make a case that the traditional religious texture of American life is more directly threatening to you than Islamists. Use facts, history, and trends to make a logical case. Slogans do not count. Specifically explain how the concept of free will and deism combining to form religious tolerence is inferior and more threatening than the system found in Islamist states.

Christofascists kidnapped, raped, and tortured Native American children.

1. Churches (methodist, baptist, and catholic, e.g.) were subcontracted by the US Government to resocialize/brainwash my people...to make us less communistic and more capitalistic.

2. Christo-fascists have been bombing women's clinics for decades, now.

3. Christo-fascists have been lynching black men since the civil war.

4. Christo-fascists bombed the Federal building in OKC.

5. Christo-fascists have been propping up their commandments on public property like schools and city halls all over our country...forcing their religion on others.

is that enough for you, little man?