The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #83206 Message #1528075
Posted By: GUEST
25-Jul-05 - 04:33 PM
Thread Name: BS: Unite Against Terror
Subject: RE: BS: Unite Against Terror
Points from the UAT site that deal with item 2 (see above)
- Those Muslims who have suffered the rape and butchery of dictatorial regimes have no problem seeing the difference between a genocidal monster and a flawed proponent of democracy. It is only the Western "left" that cannot accurately distinguish between the two. There is one way for us to lose and that is if Western apologists continue to do Jihadists' PR.
Abraham Greenwald
- There can be no compromise with a "philosophy" that offers little beyond the breaking of bodies, and one is shocked that there would be cheerleading from leftists and isolationists who, disturbingly, seem to want to adopt these fanatics as their own.
Matthew Omolesky John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations
- The response of part of the Left which I consider myself a part of exhibits, by reflexively blaming the West, a worrying insensitivity towards violent islamic fundamentalism - which is aimed, first and foremost, against the very Enlightenment values that gave birth to the modern Left, rather than being some understandable if misdirected strike against Imperialism.
Merlijn de Smit
- I signed to add my voice to what I hope will be a rising chorus. Those inclined to dissent are not accustomed to raising their voices against anything other than their own governments. I sincerely hope this list can change that.
Dan Lee
- The traditional human rights community (like Amnesty International) and the international left have completely destroyed their own credibility
Adam Katz
- The American left, by and large, has either ignored the threat, or sought to understand and explain it, in the hope that it could be countered by rational dialogue and understanding of reasons and motivations.of the this new form of islamo-fascism. Such attempts are noble, and important, but understanding is not the same as action, and in many cases, the left in the United States has, when given the chance, almost always chosen to vilify the US and its allies in the war against terror by focusing on the historical and contemporary transgressions of the latter, or blaming the US and the UK for the very acts of terrorists themselves.
Thomas Cushman (Professor of Sociology, Wellesley College, USA, Editor, Journal of Human Rights)
- Reflexive anti-Americanism in today's world is very dangerous. It's both distressing and disgusting that some people who call themselves Left support the jihad and Saddam fascism as anti-imperialist. This is not Left, it is pseudo-Left. Blind faith in an old idea is always useless.
Bill Kerr
- I signed because the 'grievances' argument sickens me; that people on the left are willing to pretend acts of fundamentalist terrorism are carried out for reasons very similar to their own amateur anti-imperialism is mind-bending. That people can't/refuse to see fascism for what it is because they don't like George W. Bush and Tony Blair (and in some cases would sooner call them fascists than Osama Bin Laden) is a very serious problem.
Colm Loughlin
- And, again, many intellectuals and opinion-formers have chosen to appease totalitarianism. We must respond firmly to this ideological attack, and its murderous nihilism; and we must also challenge the Chomskified cretino-left which has made common cause with this totalitarian ideology.
Jeffrey Ketland (Philosophy, University of Edinburgh)
- This is a betrayal on an epic scale which casts doubt on whether it is now possible to have a decent left.
Nick Cohen (The Observer)
- Of course, I started out saying we deserved it. I rattled the shibboleths and evoked the totem of roosting chickens. I suddenly reversed my support of the Kurds and the Afghans and the Sudanese, all to blame George Bush. But I knew it was a lie.
See, like any progressive, I knew that true people's movements don't, as the terrorists do, boast of their love for death, or target the innocent, or espouse Jewish conspiracy theories, or reject democracy on principle, or enslave women ... especially all at once. I'd seen this foe before, and it's name wasn't America. It was fascism, trading in jackboots for keffiyahs and merging Mein Kampf with Qur'an. In this fight as any other, I knew I had to stand where I'd always stood... with the heretics, the hebes, the homos and the harridans.
Be they the slaughtered mothers of the Sudan, the roasted innocents of Manhattan or the pulverized cosmopolitans of London or Bali or Tel Aviv, I therefore announce my solidarity with the victims against this rising fascist tide. We have met an enemy that is not us, who hates us for our good ideas, not our bad policies. Fighting it requires no apology.
Robert F. Mason
- I was appalled by the response of much of the left, seeking the noblest motivations possible for terrorism, in contrast to its clearly stated objectives.
David Sloan
- In response, those who get this must assert the values of the enlightenment - liberty, equality, secularism, humanism - with renewed confidence.
Such values must also be intellectually pummelled into the complacent minds of those more concerned with moronic anti-Americanism, school-playground pacifism and outright fascist sympathising.
Harry Rose
- Progressives of good faith can disagree about the US/UK response to 9/11, and the best way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But no-one of good faith should be equivocating over what to think about terrorists, theocrats, and anti-Semites.
I may have disagreements with some of the other names on this petition, including the organisers. But I stand closer to them than with anyone who thinks terrorists and other bullies deserve to win the slightest compromise.
Richard Bartholomew
- The world has become far too tolerant of terrorism. Mass murderers are glamorized as heroic freedom fighters. University professors "stand in solidarity" with monsters who slaughter children lining up for candy. Religious leaders transform crimes against humanity into God's work. Grossly overpaid entertainers rationalize unspeakable brutality as "desperation," telling the bereaved that they themselves are to blame for the deaths of their loved ones. Authors greedy for fame and fortune announce to the world that terrorism is winning, and the rule of law will not prevail. Politicians refuse to act because they worry about jeopardizing their personal power. Journalists sanitize appalling savagery to keep from being ostracized by their peers. Students march in the name of evil, chanting that right is wrong, lies are truth. Many have lost their way. This petition, however, is a clarion call for the rest of us. It states unequivocally that terrorism is never acceptable, and the victims of terrorism have no race, nationality, or religion. Although only a document, this petition may be the seed of a new mind set that refuses to sanction murder, regardless of the killers grievances.
Thomas Wictor
- I won t keep quiet whilst others use shoddy logic to legitimise an ideology of hatred that kills and aims to enslave us all. Those that would rationalise the act of blasting civilians out of existence would kidnap the truth. For nothing less than the sake of humanity, those of us who see these murderers for what they are must keep the truth safe and speak of it at every turn.
Helen Gray
- And we have a responsibility for the political and moral hygiene of the British "left". There are those who, by their equivocation, effectively regard such victims as "legitimate targets" in their idiot's war against "imperialism". They and their allies have no place in our movement.
Simon Pottinger
- Following the London bombing, all the old excuses are out in force. I signed
this petition to say: 'But' nothing.
David Adler, writer
- The Guardianista fellow-travellers of terror, who stress its supposed causes, are the useful idiots of the Islamofascists.
At a time when Islamofascism seeks to destroy liberal, democratic civilisation and to replace it with theocracy, it is imperative that those of us who believe in democracy and liberty stand up and fight. Not just against the obvious enemy, but also against the enemy within - those who claim to be on the Left, but whose views have nothing in common with the decency for which the Left ought proudly to stand.
Stephen Pollard (Writer)
Look in the mirror, does the cap still fit?
Shakey
Proud (again) to be left wing