FEAR AND PANDERING IN SEATTLE

Yesterday there was a murder in Seattle...a religiously inspired murder...an Islamic-religiously inspired murder. Like the guy at LAX who several years ago shot up the El Al ticket counter...and the Iranian who tried to kill a bunch of students at UNC in Chapel Hill several months ago, this murderer is being "understood," and considered an abberation...it's not really evidence that the world war has come home. Until Hisbollah or Al Quaeda officially "take credit" for a murder, it's only an abberation.

But, not everyone is buying it...and here's a blogger from Seattle who speaks clearly and makes sense, too.

Fear and Pandering In Seattle:

It's just a few hours after the shootings here in beautiful, safe, tolerant Seattle. But already my liberal friends are deeply in denial about the source, the motives, and the probable upcoming replays of this tragedy. The tv and radio versions all failed to mention the one and only truly relevent detail: before opening fire, the shooter said "I'm an Islamic American. I'm angry at Israel."

The unwritten rule here since 9-11 is that we never say, suggest or imply that Islam or Arabs, or citizens of any particular (Arabic) country, or Jihad, or bigotry or hatred are involved in any violent and destructive events. Politically correct terms here in the Emerald City are: Insurgents. Guerrillas. Refugees. Misunderstanding. Tolerance. Rebel. Freedom Fighter. Displaced person. Radical. Homeland. Religious differences. Cultural Forces. Historical oppression.
So Seattle is already tying itself into a pretzel thinking of excuses for this latest, hometown Jihadist evil. Listen to the crud building up around the story: This man had a criminal record. (So it's the fault now of the police who arrested him before?) He was from Pakistan but "an American Citizen." (So his hatreds and violence became our responsibility when he deceived us into naturalizing him?) He "may have had a personal grievance." (If he'd murdered someone at home, there is supposedly never an excuse for domestic violence. But since he did it somewhere else, hey, no problem, we’ll understand, it's just a personal grievance.)

Two days ago I was in New York City and so thankful to be headed home to the pine trees, clean air and marine sensibilities of Seattle. Today I'm ashamed of the place where I was born. When are the arrogantly self-styled elite who speak for this city going to accept reality? No amount of intellectual conjuring will convince rational people that this was an isolated act.
For years the Jihadists have told us in plain language that we must submit or die. They relentlessly spew forth their hatred of Jews and Christians. They proved in New York, Paris, Madrid, London, Bali, Bombay and hundreds of other places, that they mean to kill us all as soon and as painfully as they can.

No, whether this man had explicit help from other Jihadists or not, today we smelt the first Islamist cordite wafting through downtown Seattle, felt the first piece of Jihadi shrapnel in our flesh. Jews have been first in the line of fire elsewhere; today they were the first fallen on Seattle’s battlefield. They will not be the last; the baby killers and torturers of children have promised us that.

Seattle media types must believe it is a hanging offense to speak simple truth. They are afraid to state for the record that it is just bad, wrong and evil to use civilians for shields, murder innocents and seek world domination at any price.

Seattle's glitterati can't find it in their organic, union-label hearts to criticize those who manipulate children into becoming suicide bombers. Our news readers and talking heads find fighting for survival and genocide to be morally indistinguishable. They are so full of leftover sixties peace and love that even a stone cold theological killer in their own town cannot convince them that there is a religious war on.
They are fools, and not even lovable or charming fools. Their dance of denial and deception is moving beyond tediousness and towards foolhardiness and even treason. Today's events will be but the first wedge between the apparatchiks of Seattle and the mostly liberal Jewish establishment that has supported them. Jews know when they are at risk just for being alive and Jewish. The neighbors, friends and family of the wounded and dead know they are targeted and suffering at the hands of organized fanatics, not lone lunatics. How long will it be until the rest of Seattle learns this bitter, bloody truth?

A friend called earlier tonight to say he was headed off to Synagogue. He’s not Jewish, he’s a decent human being and a patriot. He knows who the enemy is and wants to stand with his fellow Americans against that enemy. My heart and spirit are there with him, and with my Jewish fellow Seattleites.
Unless they are outside nattering about the new security measures and pointing out that local mosques are fearful too, I bet the local blather-merchants are nowhere to be seen. Intellectual cowards, and maybe physical ones too.

Shalom, and keep your powder dry.

Isn't that special...they're guarding the Mosques, too, bless their hearts. I bet there are thousands of seething, bloodthirsty Jews there, just waiting to attack the Muslims at their prayers...probably to steal their children for ritual sacrifice. In the days of Moral Equivalence you never know, do you? By all means, prevent that.

We spent five great years in Seattle; our son, Chris was born there, and we remember that city with fondness and thanks. I don't know what they're putting in the drinking water nowadays, but it sounds like they're passing out the Koolaid.

It'll take another "real" attack for us to stop all this loathsome self negotiation, and begin treating this as a war we must not lose. Until then, like the lady says, keep your powder dry.


Transterrestrial Musings adds this perspective. (Click here to read the whole thing.)

...Stop and think about the absurdity of that for a moment. A man walks into a building full of Jews, says that he's angry about Israeli actions, and starts shooting at innocent civilians. But we should be relieved, I guess, because it's not terrorism.

...As was the case with the first three world wars, we are at war not with terror or any other particular tactic, but with an idea, or rather, a large set of ideas, most or all of which are inimical to our culture, and to the civilization that is an outgrowth of the Enlightenment. There is no win-win outcome to this war. There are, in the words of divorce courts, irreconcilable differences between the West and the Jihadis. There is, ultimately, not room enough on this planet for both ideologies, because theirs demands submission of all to it.

...Israelis, even the Israeli left, now finally understand that "land for peace" was a chimera, a hopeless endeavor, because their enemy doesn't want land, or peace. They are like the alien in Independence Day who, when asked what it wanted of us, hissed, "I want you to die." Our culture is an offense to them, our material success is an offense (and rebuke) to them (because infidels have no right to be successful), our very existence, and particularly the existence of Jews in what they consider their own holy land, is an intolerable ongoing offense to them, made more offensive by the fact that this lowest form of life has made the desert bloom in a way that they never could.

It is all one war, and it's not a war against "terror." It is a world war largely of the Anglosphere (and some of its new allies, such as Poland and eastern Europe, and Israel--an honorary member) against fundamentalist Islamism. It is a war in which much of Europe has been cowed into sitting on the sidelines, by the enemy within. Russia and China are torn, partly for purely mercenary reasons, because our enemy is hungry for their arms and has abundant resources with which to purchase them, and partly due to their desire to see the Anglosphere and particularly its lead nation, the "hyperpower," brought low. But Chechnya and the Uigers in western China demonstrate that they will only be able to feed others to the alligator for so long, before they become the next meal.

We are at war with an idea, and it's an idea shared by the man up in Seattle. Part of that idea is that Israel shouldn't exist, and that it's intolerable when it does anything to defend itself and ensure its future existence. That part at least of the idea was clearly shared by the shooter in Seattle, by his own words. He may not (or he may) be a member of Al Qaeda, but we are not at war exclusively with Al Qaeda, which is just one front, one manifestation of the much larger enemy. We battle over a divide of ideologies, and there are many on the other side of that divide, some of whom, sadly, live among us. And they can unfortunately constitute a fifth column. He walked among us, in normal garb, but when he felt his time come, he picked up arms and made war against the nation that had welcomed him, and not against our military, but against helpless women.

The authorities don't want to call him a terrorist. Fine.

Let us, then, call him what he is. He is the enemy. He is a foreign operative on our soil, a spy, a combatant out of uniform, and there is no need for a civil trial. The laws of war allow him to be summarily shot. And if that were to happen, it would, finally, be a welcome recognition of the true nature of this war.