Democratically elected President Bush emerged from his recent ranch meeting with Arab dictator Prince Abdullah hastening to force Israel to free Arafat, free the Nativity Church terrorists, rebuild and reform PLO armed forces, and hurry up and create yet another Arab terrorist haven, with the name ?Palestine? already picked out. No-one wants to frustrate Arabs these days. Safer to just smile and back away slowly? and keep the ?coalition? myth alive for the war on Iraq. Wouldn?t want to start WWIII, now would we?
But truth is, we are already in a worldwide war, though not a ?conservative war? such as WWII was.
?Conservative war? was when one country?s fighting mechanisms assembled against another country?s fighting mechanisms. Civilians were forewarned to seek shelter. Then tanks fought tanks. Planes fought planes. Boats fought boats. Snipers fought snipers. Men on horses fought other men on horses. Men with spears fought other men with spears. Men with swords fought other men with swords. Unarmed civilians held little white flags or hands above heads and surrendered. Then unarmed, defeated populations were easily told what to do by the organized people with the spears, swords and guns.
?Conservative war? still exists, as evidenced by the US and Israel?s recent military incursions. However, leftist human rights and peace activists ardently protest this type of war. One reason may be its high barriers to entry. It is expensive and only country leaders can call the shots, necessitating fortuitous birth or a lifetime of climbing through political systems. That pretty much leaves ?activists? out of the loop.
Which may help explain why they?re first in line for today?s new-age worldwide war. One Berkeley ?Palestinian Poetry? professor, extolling the beauty of his kind of war, made it clear, ?conservatives? are not even welcome in his classroom, never mind his war. His war allows leftists instant power, making war against even powerful nations the prerogative of ?everyman.? It?s called Jihad when its instigators speak among themselves. It?s called ?war for indigenous homelands?, ?against colonialism,? when they speak to gullible or malevolent leftists around the world. To most of us they aver that there?s no war at all, just the type of ?spontaneous? renegade activity that a leader cannot be responsible for controlling completely.
Surprise is the key. Only the perpetrators, the human equivalent of stealth bombers, must know the war is on. Their opponents must have no idea they?re in a war until they are lying on the ground facing death. They must believe they?re starting their skyscraper workday, jetting off on vacation, bussing home from school, ordering pizza, lining up for a dance club, celebrating a Bat Mitzvah, observing a Passover seder, touring an island synagogue, meeting friends for billiards? and so on. Babies to octogenarians enjoying their day must suddenly have their legs blown off, bodies riddled with hundreds of nails, nuts, bolts and screws, or be forced to jump from burning skyscrapers or crash in airplanes. The unwitting must be murdered and maimed ?whenever, wherever?. The point is the collective population must not feel safe anytime, anywhere - unless their society complies fully with terrorists? demands.
Surprisingly, leftist human rights and peace activists are not sickened by these activities. In fact, they staunchly defend those who commit them. Somehow they support such ?collective punishment? and ?collateral damage? when connected with their new-age war. Seems no matter what heinous human rights abuses terrorists commit ? smuggle arms, shoot babies, kidnap monks, desecrate churches, blow up crowds of civilians - leftists stand firmly with them. Arm in arm with Palestinian terrorists they march, flags waving, signs erect, jaws set. Using their own bodies to shield Arafat and his cohorts in Ramallah, they admonish Israel to set these mass-murderers free. Side by side with armed mass-murderers holding monks hostage in a Church, activists were the very last to leave. According to disgusted priests, foreign peace activists were so excited by the war that they lingered, desecrating the holy site, drinking and smoking long after the hostage-taking was over and the wanted terrorists were flown to Cyprus. The priests had to call the Israeli police to come and forcibly remove them.
Why do leftist activists support Yasser Arafat and his Palestinians? Could it be because Arafat, inventor of skyjackings and suicide bombings, showed them how even an individual born sans title, people or country can nonetheless create these things virtually out of thin air and make war on any country? Mixing anarchy, fascism, terrorism and high technology gets world-stopping results. Arafat is a self-invented leader of a self-invented people, blasting away at anything within range to get a self-invented country. Leftist human rights activists are no longer relegated to impotently longing to grab some power and reform civilization, but can join right in, thanks to Arafat, who has devoted his life to developing this new-age war. He showed them the way.
Arafat is rightly possessive of his place in history ? it is he who fused traditional, anarchistic Arab terrorism with modern technology, and he intends to get credit. Arafat was apoplectic when last September he was nearly ousted from that glorious distinction by cohort Bin Laden?s spectacular flash in the pan. Arafat watched Bin Laden shoot to glory throughout autumn on the strength of his one painstakingly wrought effort, however the sheer profusion of Arafat?s mass murders allowed him to quickly regain centre stage. By December the only question on the world?s finest minds was whether or not Arafat should be allowed to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem. Few were musing about Bin Laden?s Christmas plans. By Spring, Arafat had conclusively demonstrated his superior consistency and professionalism by not one spectacular flash in the pan skyscraper hit, but daily slogging away at thousands of suicide bombings, snipings and massacres against Israeli civilians innocently going about their days, at the end of which there were five hundred dead and over 3,500 painfully maimed and crippled Jews. No wonder he was accompanied by the adoring cheers of leftist peaceniks and human rights activists the world over. Arafat?s their man.
Of course, to show that they are peace loving people against war, leftists demanded the world punish Israel by cutting off trade, cutting off relations, cutting off funding, cutting off arms parts shipments, cutting off university ties, cutting off whatever else they could think of? all because Israel, after nearly two years of incredible restraint, executed a ?conservative style? maneuver in which Jenin civilians were warned five days in advance to get out of town or stock up on food and stay in their houses (one third of them used the warning to booby-trap the buildings). Leftist human rights groups couldn?t slap the ludicrous ?massacre? label on fast enough when 50 forewarned, armed and dangerous terrorists fell in battle with Israeli Defense Forces.
That incident highlights another surprising aspect of this new-age world war. When the victim finally realizes he?s at war, he must be made to feel bad for fighting back. He?s not cheered for vanquishing the violent elements, but blamed for everything from ?massacres? to ?escalating the violence?. You see, according to leftists, only the ?underdog? has the right to fight and all terrorists are underdogs, so all others must comply with terrorists? demands - and quickly. Of course, all this is explained as the need to feel the ?pain and desperation? of the terrorist, to ?legitimize his narrative?, to ?understand the Other?, to take responsibility for his ?hopelessness?. Yet all it comes down to is giving him what he wants, and now, or else.
All this suggests that leftists who defend new-war terrorists, excuse them, and rename them ?freedom fighters?, are not exactly ?human rights? activists, but more accurately ?perpetrator?s rights? activists. We heard they were upset at the chains on the legs of Al-Qaida terrorists. We heard they were upset about the ?conditions? in the Church of the Nativity and fretted that terrorists did not have enough food to eat or toilets and showers to reduce the oft? noted stench. We heard they were upset that Arafat was confined, unable to jet about for photo-ops with Presidents, Princes, Ministers and Popes, that he had little light. We heard leftists clucking like devoted mother hens about how terrorists are interrogated, or that they may be extradited from the host countries, or that conservative countries may limit their movements on the ?pretext? that they are dangerous men, or that their arms were written on. It seems leftists are ever vigilant to ensure terrorists? rights, to instruct society in the proper way to treat them.
In fact, the only ?human? rights that preoccupy them are those of the terrorists, not those of their victims, because we hear not a peep of real outrage for the victims of the perpetrators? actions. Apparently leftists understand why a Jewish toddler looking for her good Sabbath shoes under the bed should be shot at point blank range until she?s dead, even while they march and yell to prevent the ?collateral damage? of conservative war. If asked about the victims of this new-war, leftists merely use them as handy prefaces to a big caveat excusing the perpetrators from their actions. As in ?We don?t condone suicide bombings, but until the Jews leave the territories and the Palestinians have their own country there is no reason why Israelis should feel safe.? Huh? That?s akin to saying ?We don?t condone bank robbery, but until everyone is rich there is no reason why people in bank queues shouldn?t be randomly shot dead.?
By the foregoing logic, there is no reason the civilian population of a democracy should feel safe as long as any group has an outstanding demand. This is the new world war - fully supported by leftist human rights and peace activists.
----------------------------------
Charlotte West is an Arizona-based columnist. She can be reached at snoozalarm@hotmail.com.
But truth is, we are already in a worldwide war, though not a ?conservative war? such as WWII was.
?Conservative war? was when one country?s fighting mechanisms assembled against another country?s fighting mechanisms. Civilians were forewarned to seek shelter. Then tanks fought tanks. Planes fought planes. Boats fought boats. Snipers fought snipers. Men on horses fought other men on horses. Men with spears fought other men with spears. Men with swords fought other men with swords. Unarmed civilians held little white flags or hands above heads and surrendered. Then unarmed, defeated populations were easily told what to do by the organized people with the spears, swords and guns.
?Conservative war? still exists, as evidenced by the US and Israel?s recent military incursions. However, leftist human rights and peace activists ardently protest this type of war. One reason may be its high barriers to entry. It is expensive and only country leaders can call the shots, necessitating fortuitous birth or a lifetime of climbing through political systems. That pretty much leaves ?activists? out of the loop.
Which may help explain why they?re first in line for today?s new-age worldwide war. One Berkeley ?Palestinian Poetry? professor, extolling the beauty of his kind of war, made it clear, ?conservatives? are not even welcome in his classroom, never mind his war. His war allows leftists instant power, making war against even powerful nations the prerogative of ?everyman.? It?s called Jihad when its instigators speak among themselves. It?s called ?war for indigenous homelands?, ?against colonialism,? when they speak to gullible or malevolent leftists around the world. To most of us they aver that there?s no war at all, just the type of ?spontaneous? renegade activity that a leader cannot be responsible for controlling completely.
Surprise is the key. Only the perpetrators, the human equivalent of stealth bombers, must know the war is on. Their opponents must have no idea they?re in a war until they are lying on the ground facing death. They must believe they?re starting their skyscraper workday, jetting off on vacation, bussing home from school, ordering pizza, lining up for a dance club, celebrating a Bat Mitzvah, observing a Passover seder, touring an island synagogue, meeting friends for billiards? and so on. Babies to octogenarians enjoying their day must suddenly have their legs blown off, bodies riddled with hundreds of nails, nuts, bolts and screws, or be forced to jump from burning skyscrapers or crash in airplanes. The unwitting must be murdered and maimed ?whenever, wherever?. The point is the collective population must not feel safe anytime, anywhere - unless their society complies fully with terrorists? demands.
Surprisingly, leftist human rights and peace activists are not sickened by these activities. In fact, they staunchly defend those who commit them. Somehow they support such ?collective punishment? and ?collateral damage? when connected with their new-age war. Seems no matter what heinous human rights abuses terrorists commit ? smuggle arms, shoot babies, kidnap monks, desecrate churches, blow up crowds of civilians - leftists stand firmly with them. Arm in arm with Palestinian terrorists they march, flags waving, signs erect, jaws set. Using their own bodies to shield Arafat and his cohorts in Ramallah, they admonish Israel to set these mass-murderers free. Side by side with armed mass-murderers holding monks hostage in a Church, activists were the very last to leave. According to disgusted priests, foreign peace activists were so excited by the war that they lingered, desecrating the holy site, drinking and smoking long after the hostage-taking was over and the wanted terrorists were flown to Cyprus. The priests had to call the Israeli police to come and forcibly remove them.
Why do leftist activists support Yasser Arafat and his Palestinians? Could it be because Arafat, inventor of skyjackings and suicide bombings, showed them how even an individual born sans title, people or country can nonetheless create these things virtually out of thin air and make war on any country? Mixing anarchy, fascism, terrorism and high technology gets world-stopping results. Arafat is a self-invented leader of a self-invented people, blasting away at anything within range to get a self-invented country. Leftist human rights activists are no longer relegated to impotently longing to grab some power and reform civilization, but can join right in, thanks to Arafat, who has devoted his life to developing this new-age war. He showed them the way.
Arafat is rightly possessive of his place in history ? it is he who fused traditional, anarchistic Arab terrorism with modern technology, and he intends to get credit. Arafat was apoplectic when last September he was nearly ousted from that glorious distinction by cohort Bin Laden?s spectacular flash in the pan. Arafat watched Bin Laden shoot to glory throughout autumn on the strength of his one painstakingly wrought effort, however the sheer profusion of Arafat?s mass murders allowed him to quickly regain centre stage. By December the only question on the world?s finest minds was whether or not Arafat should be allowed to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem. Few were musing about Bin Laden?s Christmas plans. By Spring, Arafat had conclusively demonstrated his superior consistency and professionalism by not one spectacular flash in the pan skyscraper hit, but daily slogging away at thousands of suicide bombings, snipings and massacres against Israeli civilians innocently going about their days, at the end of which there were five hundred dead and over 3,500 painfully maimed and crippled Jews. No wonder he was accompanied by the adoring cheers of leftist peaceniks and human rights activists the world over. Arafat?s their man.
Of course, to show that they are peace loving people against war, leftists demanded the world punish Israel by cutting off trade, cutting off relations, cutting off funding, cutting off arms parts shipments, cutting off university ties, cutting off whatever else they could think of? all because Israel, after nearly two years of incredible restraint, executed a ?conservative style? maneuver in which Jenin civilians were warned five days in advance to get out of town or stock up on food and stay in their houses (one third of them used the warning to booby-trap the buildings). Leftist human rights groups couldn?t slap the ludicrous ?massacre? label on fast enough when 50 forewarned, armed and dangerous terrorists fell in battle with Israeli Defense Forces.
That incident highlights another surprising aspect of this new-age world war. When the victim finally realizes he?s at war, he must be made to feel bad for fighting back. He?s not cheered for vanquishing the violent elements, but blamed for everything from ?massacres? to ?escalating the violence?. You see, according to leftists, only the ?underdog? has the right to fight and all terrorists are underdogs, so all others must comply with terrorists? demands - and quickly. Of course, all this is explained as the need to feel the ?pain and desperation? of the terrorist, to ?legitimize his narrative?, to ?understand the Other?, to take responsibility for his ?hopelessness?. Yet all it comes down to is giving him what he wants, and now, or else.
All this suggests that leftists who defend new-war terrorists, excuse them, and rename them ?freedom fighters?, are not exactly ?human rights? activists, but more accurately ?perpetrator?s rights? activists. We heard they were upset at the chains on the legs of Al-Qaida terrorists. We heard they were upset about the ?conditions? in the Church of the Nativity and fretted that terrorists did not have enough food to eat or toilets and showers to reduce the oft? noted stench. We heard they were upset that Arafat was confined, unable to jet about for photo-ops with Presidents, Princes, Ministers and Popes, that he had little light. We heard leftists clucking like devoted mother hens about how terrorists are interrogated, or that they may be extradited from the host countries, or that conservative countries may limit their movements on the ?pretext? that they are dangerous men, or that their arms were written on. It seems leftists are ever vigilant to ensure terrorists? rights, to instruct society in the proper way to treat them.
In fact, the only ?human? rights that preoccupy them are those of the terrorists, not those of their victims, because we hear not a peep of real outrage for the victims of the perpetrators? actions. Apparently leftists understand why a Jewish toddler looking for her good Sabbath shoes under the bed should be shot at point blank range until she?s dead, even while they march and yell to prevent the ?collateral damage? of conservative war. If asked about the victims of this new-war, leftists merely use them as handy prefaces to a big caveat excusing the perpetrators from their actions. As in ?We don?t condone suicide bombings, but until the Jews leave the territories and the Palestinians have their own country there is no reason why Israelis should feel safe.? Huh? That?s akin to saying ?We don?t condone bank robbery, but until everyone is rich there is no reason why people in bank queues shouldn?t be randomly shot dead.?
By the foregoing logic, there is no reason the civilian population of a democracy should feel safe as long as any group has an outstanding demand. This is the new world war - fully supported by leftist human rights and peace activists.
----------------------------------
Charlotte West is an Arizona-based columnist. She can be reached at snoozalarm@hotmail.com.