Tag Archives: daesh

‘We Have Met The Enemy’ Redux

Posted on by under Global Issues, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I was disgusted this week as the media strove to turn 23-year-old Mark Conditt, who was responsible for killing two and injuring several others in Austin, Texas over the span of three weeks, into something softer, gentler, and kinder than the evil persona he was.  He was a murderer, a terrorist, and yet if you read the various accounts of him, you might catch yourself thinking of him as a Linus Van Pelt twin.  “Quiet,” “shy,” and “kind” are not words typically associated with a terrorist, and I am offended by the attempts to portray this man as “disturbed”, “conflicted” … almost as if he were the victim.  Oddly, this morning I was reminded by Facebook of a post I wrote exactly a year ago that addresses this as well as I could do so today.  And so, while I rarely repeat my posts, I thought this one as apropos today as it was a year ago.

We Have Met The Enemy And …

Much has been said in the last fifteen years, since 11 September 2001, about terrorism and terrorists.  President George W. Bush used it as justification for the Iraq War, the invasion of Afghanistan, and torture abuses. Trump has instilled faux fears of terrorism into U.S. voters as a part of his campaign effort.  Now he continues to use those fears to justify his ban on Muslim people entering the U.S. in search of a safe haven.  But who, really are these ‘terrorists’ everybody is so afraid of?

They are not the refugees that come here trying to find a better life, a place where they and their children will be safe from the daily bombings that are a part of life in their home countries. They are not the women you see in the market wearing their hijabs.  They are not the people gathering in the local mosque.  So who, then, are these ‘terrorists’?  I think you will be surprised by my answer:

pogo

That’s right … the terrorists in the U.S. are, for the most part, walking among us unnoticed, while we are busy fearing the woman in the hijab or the man with the long beard and olive complexion.  Let us look at a few of these real terrorists, shall we:

  • 51-year-old Adam W. Purinton who shot and killed Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an immigrant from India, for no reason other than he didn’t want immigrants in “his” country.
  • American-born Omar Mateen who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in June 2016 at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in an apparent hate crime against LGBT people.
  • 21-year-old Dylann Roof who killed nine people, all African Americans, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. His reason?  “We already are the second-class citizens. That’s the problem. Y’all raping our women, and y’all are taking over the world.”
  • Jeffrey Allen Burgess, age 54, attacked an Indian man seated next to him at a bar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last November for the crime of … again … simply being of Indian descent.
  • Richard Leslie Lloyd, age 64, set fire to a convenience store owned by a U.S. citizen of Indian descent. His reason?  When he was in the store a few days earlier, he couldn’t find orange-pineapple juice, and it was then he noticed the skin colour of the owner, and assumed (incorrectly) that he was a Muslim.
  • Edgar Maddison Welch shot up a pizza parlor last December in Washington D.C., because he believed a fake news story that a kidnapping ring was operating from within the restaurant.

Not a single one of the above were immigrants, none were Muslim. The list goes on … and on … and on.  And there are rallies to promote this brand  of terrorism, venues where they are starting out young:  Earlier this month at a Trump rally in Maricopa County, Arizona, the following comments were said against protestors:

  • “If she’s Jewish, she should go back to her country,” a 13-year-old said of a protester.
  • “This is America; we don’t want Sharia law. Christian country.”
  • “I just want to let them know that I can’t wait for the liberal genocide to begin.”

The people committing these acts and calling for violence are terrorists just as surely as were Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, three of the 9/11 highjackers.  Donald Trump claims it is important to refer to terrorists as “radical Islamic terrorists”, but the reality is that in this country, terrorists are far more likely to be “radical white Christian terrorists”.

These, folks, are the faces of terrorism in the United States.  Take a close look — see any similarities? These people, and others like them, will NOT be kept out of the country by Trump’s travel ban. The people who will be kept out by the travel ban are innocent people seeking refuge, while the real terrorists are already here.

The reality is that most terrorism by Middle-Easterners is committed against those in the Middle East, not the west.  The U.S. has not, with the exception of 9/11, seen large-scale terrorist attacks and we are not a primary target of Daesh, no matter what Mr. Trump tells us.  But his rhetoric played well with the masses who, apparently, wanted to believe in an identifiable threat that was not themselves.  But when we are looking for that threat, when we seek to identify the real terrorists in this nation, we need to look inward rather than outward, for in the words of Pogo, we have met the enemy and he is us.

Strength, Not Fear; Love, Not Hate

Posted on by under Political commentary, Social commentary

On Tuesday, a man in a rented Home Depot truck plowed into bicyclists and pedestrians just blocks away from the World Trade Center, killing eight people and injuring more than a dozen.  The man was Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, 29, a Uzbekistan native who came to the US legally in 2010. It is said today that he had been planning this attack for weeks, and that he said he carried it out under the name of Daesh (aka ISIS).  Donald Trump, predictably, wasted no time politicizing the tragedy to further his own agenda with the following tweets:

“Senator Chuck Schumer helping to import Europes problems” said Col.Tony Shaffer. We will stop this craziness!  @foxandfriends

We are fighting hard for Merit Based immigration, no more Democrat Lottery Systems. We must get MUCH tougher (and smarter).  @foxandfriends

The terrorist came into our country through what is called the “Diversity Visa Lottery Program,” a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based.

I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!

We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!

There is much that could be said here, such as that Trump has no understanding of the root causes of terrorism, causes to which the United States has contributed.  But my point today is that this is not a time to politicize such an event, further adding to the divisiveness of this nation at a time when unity should be called for.

We should not be surprised by his inappropriate behaviour, however.  Remember back in June, immediately following a terrorist attack in London, when Trump then attacked London Mayor Sadiq Khan, tweeting …

At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is “no reason to be alarmed!”

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio both say they have not been contacted directly by Trump, and both are quite content to leave it that way.  Cuomo said, of Trump’s tweets …

“The president’s tweets, I think, were not helpful. I don’t think they were factual. They tended to point fingers and politicize the situation. His tweet wasn’t even accurate, as far as I’m concerned. That was a bipartisan law that was passed that had basically no relevance to the facts of this situation. … As I said before, you play into the terrorists to the extent you disrupt and divide and frighten people in this society. The tone now should be the exact opposite.”

I couldn’t have said it better.  What do terrorists want?  They want attention and they want to create an atmosphere of fear.  Trump certainly gives them both.

It is wrong to politicize this situation.  Trump’s job, if only he would do it, is to bring unity, to express compassion and concern, but not to jump to conclusions without having information, not to further divide the nation by turning it into a partisan issue, attacking a well-respected senator.  Is “attack” the only mode this ‘man’ knows?

I keep thinking of how President Obama, were he still in office, would be responding.  I think he would have personally called both Cuomo and De Blasio, and I think his speech would be much more moderated, more calming rather than trying to stir fear.  After the aforementioned London attack, here is how President Obama reacted:

“My heart goes out to the victims and their families in London. No act of terror can shake the strength and resilience of our British ally.”

That, my friends, is how a president should respond. I miss Barack Obama, especially at times like this.  That said, my heart goes out to the good people of New York City and the family & friends of the victims of this tragedy.  But we must not allow the event nor the rhetoric to instill fear in us.  No nationality, no religion, no single group of people can be blamed nor held to account for the actions of one individual.  This man did what he did for reasons we may never understand, but his actions are not representative of the religion Islam, nor are they representative of people from the Middle East.  Our only reaction must be empathy, humanity and kindness.  Anything else lowers us to the standard of those who prefer hate to love.  Give someone a special hug today. Practice strength, not fear; love, not hate.

On The Tragedy In Las Vegas …

Posted on by under Political commentary, Social commentary

Last night in Las Vegas, at least 58 people were killed and at least another 515 injured when a lone gunman, using automatic weapons, began shooting from the window of his hotel room at concert-goers in an open arena across the street from the hotel.  Not many facts are available yet, thus I will mention this only briefly, for I prefer to base my writing on verifiable facts.  The one fact that is known is that the gunman, Stephen Paddock, was a 64-year old local man who shot and killed himself in his hotel room.  Weapons and ammunition were found in both his hotel room and his home.

The one thing I will mention is that Daesh (aka ISIS) almost immediately claimed responsibility for this act, but there is no evidence whatsoever that they are involved in any way.  There is no trail of online searches or communications, and according to the FBI, the initial evidence indicates that this man, a white U.S. citizen, acted on his own.

I urge all to be extremely cautious about listening to the many conspiracy theories that are sure to abound on such venues as Fox News, Breitbart, and from certain persons within our government.  Until more facts are known, I urge all to assume nothing and to shut down those who begin, as I expect, spouting hate against people of Middle Eastern descent, or using this tragedy as propaganda in support of the NRA agenda.  Listening to theories that have no basis in fact is part of the reason this nation is already so divided, and this event must not become the catalyst for further division.  It is an easy trap to fall into, especially when it is spoon-fed to us, but please, wait for the facts and make no assumptions.

Meanwhile, this is a tragedy and my heart breaks for the victims and their families.  Let us focus on that, and only that, until the facts are in.

We Have Met The Enemy And …

Posted on by under Global Issues, Social commentary

Much has been said in the last fifteen years, since 11 September 2001, about terrorism and terrorists.  President George W. Bush used it as justification for the Iraq War, the invasion of Afghanistan, and torture abuses. Trump has instilled faux fears of terrorism into U.S. voters as a part of his campaign effort.  Now he continues to use those fears to justify his ban on Muslim people entering the U.S. in search of a safe haven.  But who, really are these ‘terrorists’ everybody is so afraid of?

They are not the refugees that come here trying to find a better life, a place where they and their children will be safe from the daily bombings that are a part of life in their home countries. They are not the women you see in the market wearing their hijabs.  They are not the people gathering in the local mosque.  So who, then, are these ‘terrorists’?  I think you will be surprised by my answer:

pogo

That’s right … the terrorists in the U.S. are, for the most part, walking among us unnoticed, while we are busy fearing the woman in the hijab or the man with the long beard and olive complexion.  Let us look at a few of these real terrorists, shall we:

  • 51-year-old Adam W. Purinton who shot and killed Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an immigrant from India, for no reason other than he didn’t want immigrants in “his” country.
  • American-born Omar Mateen who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in June 2016 at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in an apparent hate crime against LGBT people.
  • 21-year-old Dylann Roof who killed nine people, all African Americans, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. His reason?  “We already are the second-class citizens. That’s the problem. Y’all raping our women, and y’all are taking over the world.”
  • Jeffrey Allen Burgess, age 54, attacked an Indian man seated next to him at a bar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last November for the crime of … again … simply being of Indian descent.
  • Richard Leslie Lloyd, age 64, set fire to a convenience store owned by a U.S. citizen of Indian descent. His reason?  When he was in the store a few days earlier, he couldn’t find orange-pineapple juice, and it was then he noticed the skin colour of the owner, and assumed (incorrectly) that he was a Muslim.
  • Edgar Maddison Welch shot up a pizza parlor last December in Washington D.C., because he believed a fake news story that a kidnapping ring was operating from within the restaurant.

Not a single one of the above were immigrants, none were Muslim. The list goes on … and on … and on.  And there are rallies to promote this brand  of terrorism, venues where they are starting out young:  Earlier this month at a Trump rally in Maricopa County, Arizona, the following comments were said against protestors:

  • “If she’s Jewish, she should go back to her country,” a 13-year-old said of a protester.
  • “This is America; we don’t want Sharia law. Christian country.”
  • “I just want to let them know that I can’t wait for the liberal genocide to begin.”

The people committing these acts and calling for violence are terrorists just as surely as were Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, three of the 9/11 highjackers.  Donald Trump claims it is important to refer to terrorists as “radical Islamic terrorists”, but the reality is that in this country, terrorists are far more likely to be “radical white Christian terrorists”.

These, folks, are the faces of terrorism in the United States.  Take a close look — see any similarities? These people, and others like them, will NOT be kept out of the country by Trump’s travel ban. The people who will be kept out by the travel ban are innocent people seeking refuge, while the real terrorists are already here.

The reality is that most terrorism by Middle-Easterners is committed against those in the Middle East, not the west.  The U.S. has not, with the exception of 9/11, seen large-scale terrorist attacks and we are not a primary target of Daesh, no matter what Mr. Trump tells us.  But his rhetoric played well with the masses who, apparently, wanted to believe in an identifiable threat that was not themselves.  But when we are looking for that threat, when we seek to identify the real terrorists in this nation, we need to look inward rather than outward, for in the words of Pogo, we have met the enemy and he is us.

Trump’s Travel Ban … Still A Bad Idea

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Yesterday, Trump signed yet another of his now-infamous ‘executive orders’ calling for a travel ban from, this time only six of the original seven Middle-Eastern nations.  The ban has been cleaned up in hopes of passing the legal smell-test, but is otherwise not much different.  The main difference is that it will not take effect until March 16th, giving time for training of CBP agents and clarification where needed.  But is there any value in such a ban?  I would argue a few factual reasons to say there is not.

Through the years, there have been numerous attempts to define “terrorism”.  One terrorism class I took 2 years ago spent nearly an entire week on the definition alone! I won’t bore you with the history, but eventually the global community settled on a definition by Alex P. Schmid, a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Counter Terrorism (ICCT) in the Hague, and Director of the Terrorism Research Initiative (TRI).  Mr. Schmid’s definition is lengthy, but can be found here if you are interested.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” Although not quite as comprehensive as Dr. Schmid’s definition, for the purposes of this post, it will do.

Note that in the FBI definition, it does not mention that in order to qualify as terrorism, the act must be perpetrated by a Muslim, nor by a member of Daesh, nor by a person of Middle-Eastern descent.  It is a fairly broad definition, and covers nearly any violent crime … or could be said to.

Donald Trump continues to claim that in order to “keep America safe”, in order to combat terrorism within the borders of the U.S., we must ban most, if not all, immigrants from Middle-Eastern, predominantly Muslim nations.  But if that is true, why are most violent crimes that would fit well into the FBI definition not labeled terrorism?  And … is terrorism from the Middle-East really a threat to the U.S.?  Let us look at a few factual examples.

While I have quoted these figures from 2015 before, they bear repeating at this juncture. The number of Americans killed in acts of terrorism – both on U.S. soil and abroad — between 2001 and 2014 is 3,412 (including the victims of the 9/11 attacks). During the same period, 440,095 people died by firearms on U.S. soil (homicides, accidents, and suicides). In 2014, for every one American killed by an act of terrorism in the United States or abroad, 1,049 Americans died in the United States because of guns.

The daily average for drunk-driving fatalities is 30 per day, and on average 3 women per day are murdered by their spouse or boyfriend.

Not a single terrorist fatality has been carried out by any refugee or immigrant from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen, the six nations included in Trump’s most recent version of his travel ban, since 11 September 2001. However, as of 2015, at least 22 fatal terror attacks had been carried out in the United States since 2001 by white male United States citizens motivated by white supremacist or other extremist beliefs. 

There have been 65 episodes of white supremacists attempting to recruit on college campuses just since Trump took the oath of office.  These include a visit by white supremacist Richard Spencer at Texas A&M University.  Also, you will recall the scheduled visit to UC Berkeley by Milo Yiannopoulos that was cancelled amid student protests.  At the cancellation, Trump railed, “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?”

There have also been some four mosque burnings already in 2017.

Are not all these incidents, by the FBI definition, terrorism?  And not by Middle-Easterners, not by Muslims, or Hispanics.  By mostly white U.S. citizens.  So would somebody please explain to me how banning the very people who are NOT committing acts of terrorism in this country, and who are, in fact, often the victims of violence, is going to make us safer?

Trump’s latest National Security Advisor, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, told the staff of the National Security Council last month, in his first “all hands” staff meeting, that the label “radical Islamic terrorism” was not helpful because terrorists are “un-Islamic,” according to people who were in the meeting. And he is right.  I have a number of Muslim friends, and I have read some parts of the Quran, and Islam is indeed a religion of peace and tolerance. In his language, General McMaster is closer to the positions of former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. Both took pains to separate acts of terrorism from Islamic teaching, in part because they argued that the United States needed the help of Muslim allies to hunt down terrorists.

While I do not deny that Daesh and other terrorist groups made up mainly of people of Middle-Eastern origin exist, the reality is the U.S. is not their primary target.  However, the travel ban is likely to make the U.S. more prone to terrorism from without.  More than 800 career diplomats signed a dissent cable addressed to Rex Tillerson, secretary of state. The cable said Mr. Trump’s order will have “little practical effect in improving public safety” because a “vanishingly small number” of immigrants to the U.S. have committed acts of terrorism. “The net result… will not be a drop in terror attacks in the United States,” it said, “rather it will be a drop in international good will toward Americans.”  There are a number of ways in which the ban may make us less safe:

  • It supports terrorists’ claims that the U.S. is at war with Islam
  • It harms critically important U.S. relations with our partners in the Middle East.
  • It will increase anti-American sentiment
  • It directly undermines our key allies in the Middle East.
  • It discourages all Muslims — at home and abroad — from assisting U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.
  • It puts U.S. troops in grave danger.
  • It could lead to retaliation from other countries.

To those who cheer and applaud this ban, let me just say that you are safer among a crowd of Middle-Eastern immigrants than you are among the same size crowd of white Americans.  The Middle-Easterners are almost certainly not carrying loaded guns under their belts.  Think about it.

muslim-meme

There IS News Outside the U.S. Elections!!!

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary

Most of us have been so caught up in the conflagration that is the battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that we may be only vaguely aware of the battle that began last  week in Mosul, Iraq.  Oddly, there is actually a connection between the U.S. election and Mosul, but I will come back to that in a moment.

mosul-mapA brief bit of background.  On June 10, 2014, Daesh (aka Islamic State, ISIL, or ISIS) took control of Mosul.  Since then, several phone lines have been cut by Daesh and many cell phone towers and Internet access points were destroyed, rendering the area virtually cut off from the world outside of Mosul.  Once home to at least 70,000 Assyrian Christians, there are few left today in Mosul, and any that do remain are forced to pay a tax for remaining Christian, while living under the constant threat of violence. Christian churches and monasteries have been vandalized and burned down, their ancient Assyrian heritage sites dating back to the Iron Age destroyed, their homes and possessions stolen by Daesh and ultimatums to either convert to Islam, leave their ancient homelands, or be murdered. The residents of the city have been essentially prisoners, forbidden to leave the city unless they post with Daesh a significant collateral of family members, personal wealth and property. They may then leave the city upon paying a significant “departure tax” on a three-day pass (for a higher fee they can surrender their home, pay the fee and leave for good) and if those with a three-day pass fail to return in that time their assets will be seized and family will be killed. Many females from Mosul are imprisoned and occasionally many are slaughtered because of their resistance to being sold as sex slaves. Daesh occupiers have murdered or driven out most minority groups and converted some Christians to Islam. Women are required to cover their bodies from head to foot in a strict variant of Sharia rule and men are required to fully grow their beards and hair as do the members of Daesh. Life in Mosul is one of violent oppression where people suspected of activism against the occupiers, resistance activities, homosexuality, promiscuity or adultery are brutally and summarily tortured and murdered.

mosul-2Mosul is currently the last major city in Iraq under the control of Daesh.  On October 16th, Iraqi and Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes launched coordinated military operations in a joint effort to reclaim the city of Mosul from Daesh.  While the operation is considered key in the military intervention against Daesh, the fear is that Daesh will use civilians as human shields, and indeed this has been happening.  It is estimated that as many as 1.5 million people are still living in the city.

The latest news as of today is that resistance from Daesh is getting stronger and hundreds of suicide bombers have been sent from Syria to assist in the defense of the city.  It is reported that Daesh has been carrying out “retribution killings” of civilians as revenge for others welcoming Iraqi and Peshmerga troops in liberated villages. Forces evacuated more than 1,000 civilians from the front lines surrounding Mosul. Humanitarian agencies are concerned about civilians trying to flee Mosul with winter approaching, and Daesh has threatened to execute those caught attempting to escape.

The battle for Mosul is not likely to end quickly and is likely to take a toll on human lives.  The history and political rivalries of the region involving Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds are far too complex for a blog post, but if you are interested, this article from Brookings Institute may give you some insight.  So why, you ask, have I told you all this?  A couple of reasons, actually.

  1. I needed a break from writing about the U.S. presidential election
  2. I think it is important for all of us to remember that, despite our differences, despite the political arguments, we are so much more fortunate than much of the rest of the world. I also think it is important for us to realize that there is a ‘rest of the world’.  We have largely insulated ourselves and wrapped ourselves in the slightly worn blanket of our own political agenda, but on occasion we need to come out of our insulation and realize that there is actually a whole world out there, some of which is struggling to survive.
  3. The U.S. military is involved in the fight to re-take Mosul, and it does, therefore, concern us.
  4. There has been some highly mis-informed rhetoric by the Republican candidate in the presidential race that is potentially dangerous to those who may not have even a basic understanding of the situation in Mosul.

I would like to comment briefly on #4.  Donald Trump, who likely never heard of Mosul until ten days ago, made the following statement during the 3rd and final debate last week:

“The problem with Mosul and what they wanted to do is they wanted to get the leaders of ISIS who they felt were in Mosul. About three months ago, I started reading they want to get the leaders and they’re going to attack Mosul. Whatever happened to the element of surprise, okay? We announce we’re going after Mosul. I’ve been reading about going after Mosul now for about how long is it, Hillary, three months? These people have all left. They’ve all left. The element of surprise. Douglas MacArthur, George Patton spinning in their graves at the stupidity of our country.

So we’re now fighting for Mosul. That we had. All she had to do was stay there, now we’re going in to get it. But you know who the big winner in Mosul is going to be after we eventually get it — and the only reason they did it is because she’s running for office of president and they want to look tough. They want to look good. He violated the red line in the sand, and he made so many mistakes. He made all mistakes. That’s why we have the great Migration, but she wanted to look good for the election. So they’re going in.”

Then on Sunday Trump tweeted that the ongoing offensive against the ISIS stronghold of Mosul is turning out to be a “total disaster.” Former dean of the Army War College, Jeff McCausland, said Trump’s comments show he doesn’t have a firm grasp of military strategy. Other military historians and senior officers claimed that Trump’s ‘armchair generalship’ revealed a fundamental lack of understanding of Iraqi politics, military warfare — and even some of the most famous campaigns commanded by MacArthur and Patton. Trump, in a later interview with George Stephanopoulos, said, “You can tell your military expert that I’ll sit down and I’ll teach him a couple of things.” When I heard that, my mouth dropped open and I nearly choked!  Who the heck … what the heck … ???  And on that note, I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

STOP THE PRESSES … !!!

Posted on by under Global Issues, Political commentary

It is time to stop rolling those presses, stop whatever you are doing and think about this:  Michele Bachmann, America’s #1 Bimbo is now advising none other than Donald Trump on … wait for it … {drumroll} … FOREIGN POLICY!  The circus that is the 2016 election, the campaign of America’s #1 BOZO, is now complete!  We are no longer a nation-state, respected leader of the free world, we are the Globe’s #1 CIRCUS!  In case you have forgotten how M. Bachmann moved from #2 Bimbo into the #1 slot, here is a link to my March post that will explain the whole thing.

 

“He [Trump] also recognizes there is a threat around the world, not just here in Minnesota, of radical Islam, I wish our President Obama also understood the threat of radical Islam and took it seriously.”

bach-trumpSHE thinks SHE understands terrorism and the Middle East better than President Obama?????  Where is this woman’s … oh, never mind … I forgot she put her brain away in a place where no light could get to it, then forgot where she put it.  There is a reason she is in the upper echelons of Bimbo-dom!  Bachmann was already a part of Trump’s “evangelical advisory” team, but I didn’t see much harm in that, as it isn’t about anything more than teaching him to “talk nice” to the Christian radical right.  But foreign policy???  That is a bit disconcerting!  No, wait … it is a LOT disconcerting!  Let us think of some of the potential conversations where she would be “advising” da trumpeter:

Trump: Okay, Michele, so now how … how do we get rid … how can we get rid of ISIS?  Because, y’know … I am … I promised the voters … I promised to get rid of ISIS and … I will get rid of ISIS!  Because I am smart and I am rich … so how do we get rid of ISIS?

Bachmann: Well, we need to put shoes on the ground everywhere ISIS exists.  We need to rid the world of terrorism and so we need shoes on the ground everywhere … Europe, uh … Syria … uh … France … everywhere.

Trump: Yeah … we can do that.  We can do that.  Uh … I think you mean ‘boots’ on the ground … see I am smart … I am … I know about boots on the ground and we can … we can do that.  We will just increase … spend more on military.

Bachmann: Great idea, Don.  We just have to stop giving all our money to those lazy people on food stamps and welfare!  Those women on welfare … they need to find husbands to support them.  And get rid of Obamacare so we can spend more and defeat ISIS!

Trump: Yeah, and don’t forget … remember how smart I am … we are gonna bomb the sh%# out of them, too!  Maybe … maybe even use nukes … I mean, why have … why have … what’s the point in having nukes if … if we can’t use them?  I’m eager to try out the nukes!  We’ll try … we’ll try … I’ll try them out on Syria first!

Bachmann: I like the way you think, Don … you

Trump: Uh, Michele … it’s Donald … never call me Don.  I am The Donald … never Don.

Bachmann:  Oh.  Sorry, Don.  Now, as I was saying …

Trump:  Donald.

Bachmann:  OH … silly me!  Sorry, Don … as I was saying, the other thing about ISIS is that you remember I said God has caused most of the terrorist attacks to teach Obama a lesson, so I think it will be easier to get rid of ISIS when YOU are president, because you will have God on your side.

Trump:  Of course … of course I will!  I have a whole team to advise me about God … you … aren’t you on that … yeah, you are on my God advisory board, right … you told me … I remember you told me to mention “2 Corinthians” … right?  I did good with that one, huh?  Or was it … or was it …

bimboWell, I think I have imagined enough of that conversation.  I could carry this one on for hours, but seriously, it is no laughing matter.  When a bimbo is advising a clown, and when the clown already poses a threat to every man, woman and child around the globe, somebody needs to wake up and get the team of “BOZO and Bimbo” out of the political arena and FAST!

There were any number of foreign policy experts, people who spent a lifetime in the State Department, who Trump could have asked for advice, but instead he takes his advice from an airhead who understands next to nothing about international relations, about climate change, the situation in the Middle East, global economies, resource allocation, global terrorism, Russian expansionism, or any of the hundreds of foreign policy issues facing the country every year.  If you were not afraid before, you really better be now!

The reality is that it was Ms. Bachmann who claims to be offering her ‘advice’ to Trump, and as far as I can tell he has not yet verified this, so it may well be another of those figments of her rather wild imagination.  I certainly hope so, for the sake of the planet and its inhabitants!

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On Demonizing the Victims

Posted on by under Global Issues

Baghdad, Iraq – 02 July 2016 – At least 175 deaths confirmed, many still missing – A suicide bomber affiliated with Daesh struck Baghdad’s bustling commercial area of Karada late on Saturday, when many residents were spending the night out before the start of their dawn Ramadan fast.  Daesh said it had deliberately targeted Shia Muslims by striking the suburb of Karada, implying it drew no distinction between civilians and security forces.  Baghdad has been struck upwards of 1,000 times!

Istanbul, Turkey – 29 June 2016 – At least 41 deaths confirmed; 239 injured – At least three people with guns and suicide vests targeted the arrivals and departures areas at Atatürk international airport, where they sprayed travelers with bullets and then detonated their explosives in a rampage that lasted just a few minutes but killed dozens and injured more than 230 others.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – 02 July 2016 – At least 28 deaths confirmed – Heavily armed attackers held dozens of foreigners and Bangladeshis prisoner in a cafe while hurling bombs and engaging in a gun battle with security forces.  The victims included 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, and two Bangladeshi police officers.  The gunmen, initially firing blanks, ordered restaurant workers to switch off the lights, and they draped black cloths over closed-circuit cameras.  Daesh claimed responsibility.

Medina, Saudi Arabia – 04 July 2016 – 4 confirmed deaths – Suicide bombers killed four Saudi security forces on Monday in an attack outside the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, one of the two holiest sites in Islam, in an escalation not seen for decades.  Earlier that day, Saudi officers foiled an attempted bombing near the US consulate in Jeddah, while a suicide bomber struck a mosque in the Shia-majority province of Qatif shortly before sunset.

Approximately 250 left dead from terrorist attacks, mainly on Muslims in predominantly Muslim countries inside of a week, and there are still many missing in Baghdad as of this writing.  Such terrible tragedy, and yet … and yet, western nations decry that in order to protect themselves from terrorism, all Muslims must be banned.  Who are the victims?  Who are the inhumane?  This is not the first time that the West seems to have shrugged off massacres in predominantly Muslim countries. But the relative indifference after so many deaths caused by the very groups that have plagued the West is more than a matter of hurt feelings. One of the primary goals of Daesh is to drive a wedge between Muslims and the wider world, to use that wedge as a recruiting tool. And when that world appears to show less empathy for the victims of attacks in Muslim nations, who have borne the brunt of Daesh’s massacres and predatory rule, it seems to prove their point. It would appear to play right into their hands. To say that Daesh is primarily targeting the western nations is rather like feeling sorry for yourself because your neighbor’s house caught fire and burned to the ground.  This is not about the west.  This is about Daesh trying to gain, or re-gain, territory in the Muslim world. This is about retaliation for ground lost. And instead of compassion, instead of providing safe haven, the western nations are playing numerous games to pretend that they are the victims and to further endanger the Muslim world.

A Canadian citizen, Hira Saeed of Ottawa, asks why social media had not been similarly filled with the flags of Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq, as it did for Brussels, Paris and Orlando?  I do not have any answer.  Why, indeed?

In the U.S., there is none other than Donald Trump and his minions calling for a ban on all Muslims and deportation of Muslims currently residing in the U.S.  In the UK, a large part of the reason those who voted to leave the EU did so was because they no longer want to accept Muslim refugees into their country.  In Austria, far-right Freedom Party presidential candidate Norbert Hofer engages in Trump-like anti-Muslim rhetoric to rile the masses into a frenzy of hate against an entire religion.  And throughout Europe and the U.S., anti-Muslim sentiment, Islamophobia, is on the rise.  Certainly there have been terrorist attacks in both the U.S. and Europe, and it is not my intent to minimize these. Many of these, as was the case with the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida last month, were perpetrated by homegrown or lone-wolf terrorists not connected, or only loosely connected with Daesh.  And yet, the western nations continue to bemoan their bad luck because their neighbor’s house burned to the ground.

Daesh has lost at least half the territory it had gained in recent years, and it is believed that the recent attacks are in retaliation for those losses.  While the west may be targeted from time to time, they are by no means the main target.  Yet instead of compassion, we look upon the victims of these brutalities with hatred.  Instead of a helping hand, our response is a slamming door.  Think about it.

Run, Forrest, Run ….

Posted on by under Political commentary, Social commentary

The GOP belittles those of us who renew our plea for stricter gun regulation after every mass murder, but we have actually been making that plea for a very long time, and not just after a mass murder, but on a daily basis, every day, because every day an average 27 people die of senseless gun violence.  The GOP, however, never cease to amaze with their vast array of wildly rabid responses to disasters and tragic situations of every type.  Here were a few of the GOP responses to the massacre in Orlando last week:

  • Presidential candidate Donald Trump: We have to start looking at profiling

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“I think profiling is something we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country. Other countries do it. You look at Israel and you look at others, and they do it and they do it successfully.  We have to use, you know, we have to use our heads. … We really have to look at profiling. We have to look at it seriously.  I think, right now, we have some pretty big problems, and they’re problems coming out of radical Islamic groups. You know, radical Islamic groups. You have a very, very strong group of people that is radical Islamic and that seems to be a problem.”

(It would be such a relief if this man learned to speak proper English and in complete sentences!)

  • House Homeland Security Chairman, Representative Michael McCaul: FBI should monitor Facebook for possible terrorists

McCaulOmar Mateen, the killer of 49 people in Orlando last weekend, allegedly used multiple Facebook accounts to write posts and make searches about Daesh.  In his posts,  Mateen called on the United States and Russia to stop the bombing campaign against Daesh.  He also frequently used Facebook to search for information on law enforcement agencies and terrorist groups.  This, Chairman McCaul believes, justifies monitoring social media.  He said it’s possible the FBI could develop an algorithm to find suspicious Facebook posts and that users “have no expectation of privacy” on the site.

  • Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions: Of course the threat is radical Islam

SessionsSessions said the threat of radical Islam is “out there, it’s growing and … it looks like it will continue to grow.”  He said President Obama doesn’t understand the threat the country faces from Daesh and defended Trump’s earlier comments criticizing the president and even intimating that he believed President Obama had ties to Daesh.

 

See the problem with any of these broadly ambiguous ‘solutions’?

Let’s start with the first one, Trump’s claim that we need to use profiling.  He doesn’t specify whether he means racial profiling or religious profiling, but there is a problem with both.  Religious profiling is unconstitutional, thus illegal and would require an unlikely act of Congress to change the law, basically altering the 1st Amendment, to allow it.  Racial profiling, checking out and monitoring people of Middle-Eastern heritage, would be unwieldy, impractical, and would do very little to prevent a terrorist attack, since many people of Middle-Eastern descent are American citizens, 99.9% have no ties to terrorism,  and not all terrorists, as we have seen in recent years, are of Middle-Eastern descent.  This process would be extremely costly and net few, if any, results, plus would have the added disadvantage of leaving behind disgruntled, innocent citizens who were unjustly profiled.  Scratch that one.

McCaul’s call for monitoring Facebook is equally impractical, though I see somewhat more merit in the idea.  First problem here is that Facebook is not the only social media venue that would need to be monitored.  There are Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, to name only a few, with more likely to pop up in the coming years.  Again, we come back to the cost-benefit question.  Also, there is not only a possibility, but a near certainty that mistakes will be made and 12-year-old kids will find the FBI knocking at their door because of something they posted about some game they were playing.  McCaul said that Facebook users have no expectation of privacy.  Well, that is arguable, as many of my friends, though I have told them time and time again that there is no privacy in electronic communications, whether e-mail, cell phone, text messaging or Facebook, still believe they have a guaranteed ‘right to privacy’ for their photos and communications.  So, while they would have no legal ground upon which to stand, watch how many of them scream, rant and rail once they figure out that Uncle is monitoring their posts.  I suspect that the end result would be a series of lawsuits, costing We The People much for little or no benefit.

I have previously addressed the whole issue of referring to terrorism acts as ‘radical Islamic’.  Islam is a religion, and not everyone who ascribes to the religion are terrorists any more than anyone who ascribes to Christianity are members of the Westboro Church.  Need I repeat that?  So, what happens when we call everyone who commits or is suspected of committing an act of terrorism  a ‘radical Islamist’?  And what happens when, as Sessions, Trump, and so many others call for the word ‘terrorism’ to be replaced with the phrase ‘radical Islamic terrorism’?  We have just condemned every Muslim in the world, 1.6 billion people, 23% of the entire world’s population, to hatred and harassment by people who do not understand the distinction.  What in the Sam Heck is to be gained by that?  I will tell you what … we will make enemies across the globe!

So if all three of these non-solutions are not only impractical, unworkable, costly and likely doomed before they hit paper, how and why did these men even mention them? Now, at least 2 of these 3 ‘gentlemen’ are not stupid men.  They are college-educated,  and have worked their way through the ranks of government.

McCaul earned his Juris Doctor from St. Mary’s University in 1987. He also attended Harvard University, taking courses in the Kennedy School of Government. He has worked as an attorney and federal prosecutor, worked within the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, and served as Deputy Attorney General in Texas.  He was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2004.  He was involved in a conflict in 2011 when he and two fellow congressmen tried to force Christian funerals on all military personnel killed in action, regardless of the deceased’s religion or the consent of the families, but that appears to be the only major ‘black mark’ on his record.

Jeff Sessions earned his Juris Doctor in 1973 from the Alabama School of Law. He has practiced private law, served as the Assistant District Attorney and  was nominated by President Reagan to the U.S. District Court but failed the nomination hearing.  He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996.

Why am I boring you with all this detail?  To support my point that these are not stupid men.  One does not get where they are today without being educated and intelligent.  Yet they are spouting rhetoric that is not only stupid, but dangerous.  The biggest danger, since none of the proposed ‘solutions’ have any relevance, is that these words will only spread the flames of hatred, bigotry and fear that the other man, Donald Trump, put a match to a year ago.  It is the responsibility of our lawmakers to reduce the fear, to speak directly to the people and tell them that there is no reason for hatred and it will not be tolerated.  Instead, these two otherwise intelligent men are pouring gasoline on the fire and we will all pay the price. Have they been given to believe they have more power than they actually have?  Are they, like Trump, truly narcissists? Although McCaul is up for re-election this November, Sessions term will not expire for another four years thereafter.  Sadly we are stuck with him, but his constituents need to let him know that they will not tolerate this tone of rhetoric.  Oh wait, did I fail to mention that both McCaul and Sessions are from southern states?  My, isn’t that a co-incidence?

Daesh, the New Black Death: Radicals, Ruin and Racism

Posted on by under Global Issues, Re-blogs

Amid so much talk these days about terrorism and terrorist organizations, the fear that the politicians and the media, in their self-serving interests, play upon and even promote, most of us do not really have an understanding of the organization most in the news today. Mention of Daesh, aka ISIL, aka ISIS, aka IS brings vivid pictures of beheaded journalists, of suicide bombers, of attacks round the globe, and our fear of them is bigger, I think, than the reality. Which, of course, is the goal of terrorism to begin with … to instill fear. Sadly, again thanks to politicos and the media, that fear has broadened to include all Middle-Easterners, all Muslims, even though the reality is that terrorists are a miniscule percentage of those groups. I think the key is understanding … what is Daesh, how did they come to be, what are their strengths and weaknesses. Fellow blogger internationalrelationsukblog has written by far the best explanation I have ever read, bar none, and I am sharing it here. He clarifies and explains the organization Daesh and helps put their power into perspective. Please take the time to read and ponder this piece.

Backbenchers

It would be impossible to have anything in the style of the site without commenting on this “organisation”. “Daesh””Islamic State/ISIL” “ISIS”; the group appears to have countless names and each of them is on the lips of every government minister and media outlet in the world. Political powerhouses like Donald Trump have been making claims that they will “crush” the group as part of his election campaign so it couldn’t be too much clearer that common people and those in power alike are bent on their destruction. But how does one do such a thing, and perhaps more prominently, who are they?

Bit of basic background information:

isis

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or Islamic State, is a Sunni jihadist militant group. It is also commonly referred to as Daesh most notably by the West; this is a literal…

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