Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Peters afire
I have been otherwise engaged -- in a meeting or traveling -- the entire day, so I am probably the last righty in America to link to Ralph Peters' most recent column. However, since I am in a few cases the only righty blog some people read, it is my bounden duty to pass this one along. Teaser:
There was a good reason the assassins of 9/11 attacked the targets they did, rather than steering those planes into Columbia University or Harvard Yard: They knew that the potency of the intellectual is illusory, that it dissolves at the first shot.
As I pointed out on July 4, even our glorious Declaration of Independence and our Constitution would be no more than bizarre artifacts had they not been defended by patriots willing to fight.
Does anyone really believe that there's anything we can write or say that will persuade al Qaeda to make nice? It's on the strategic defensive today but only because our soldiers and Marines thumped the hell out of its cadres in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The point isn't that military solutions are always the best solutions - any problem that can be resolved without bloodshed should be handled peaceably. But we've got to stop playing pretend: In this hate-plagued, often merciless world, events sometimes demand action, not just talk.
Our diplomats and "distinguished commentators" see the world from the 17th floor of a luxury hotel or the office of an English-speaking Cabinet member. The insular safety of their lives has convinced them that every problem has a peaceful solution if only we can all have a good chat.
But those who rule by the sword (or the fist, or engineered famines or outright genocide) don't want to hash things out. They want to win. No elegant phrase has ever stopped a bullet in midflight.
There is, unfortunately, another reason why al Qaeda did not attack Columbia University or Harvard Yard, but I am loathe to say what it is lest somebody accuses me of questioning another person's patriotism. That, I am told, is very uncool.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Jul 10, 12:21:00 AM:
But, the bastards WILL attack again if a democrat (don't discount Hilary) is elected in November. A dem winner GUARANTEES another attack!! The islamists will attack to give the traitors the rationale to move to the negotiating table. AN OBAMA WIN GUARANTEES ANOTHER ATTACK ON THE US!!!
By , at
Thu Jul 10, 02:27:00 AM:
It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means.
You have to have men who are moral, and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling. Without passion. Without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us.
By 
Eric, at
Thu Jul 10, 09:55:00 AM:
"There is, unfortunately, another reason why al Qaeda did not attack Columbia University or Harvard Yard, but I am loathe to say what it is lest somebody accuses me of questioning another person's patriotism. That, I am told, is very uncool."
As a Columbia grad, I'll say this: Princeton wasn't hit, either . . . neither was West Point, Annapolis or Colorado Springs.
By Noumenon, at
Fri Jul 11, 12:54:00 PM:
So I guess terrorists blew up the Golden Mosque instead of Iraqi Parliament because only theology, and never governments, can change the world?
It's not like the people at the World Trade Center "restrained one fist or stopped one club in midair" either. The column's just mindless intellectual-bashing (looks like bashing things is his solution to everything). If you were the only right-wing blog I read, it wouldn't be for stuff like this.
