Friday, November 06, 2009
Selective conclusion jumpery
Andy McCarthy examines our president's sudden reluctance to jump to conclusions.
President Obama today in the Rose Garden, speaking about the Muslim mass-murderer who killed many more Americans yesterday than were killed by the Muslim mass-murderers who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993: "We don't know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts."...
President Obama has had no problems jumping to conclusions about everything from the stimulus (it was going to keep unemployment below 8 percent) to Honduras (the administration pronounced it a lawless coup when, as the answers came in, it was shown to be the opposite of that). In fact, based on what it acknowledged was no "specific information," his Homeland Security Department concluded that the country was about to experience a surge of violence from "rightwing extremists." I don't know what further answers the President is going to need here, but it seems some pretty obvious conclusions are in order.
Commentary
President Obama has, just like President Bush before him, refused to name the jihadist enemy in terms that many on the right believe would helpfully clarify the nature and purpose of the current war for American voters and foreign allies. In Bush's case, most of us were confident that the president's purpose in obscuring or even omitting the "Islamic" modifier of "terrorism" was founded in the sincere belief that naming the enemy in religious terms would cost more than the benefit of a clearer geopolitical message. The Bush administration believed with some justification that emphasizing the Islamist roots of transnational terrorism could unify Muslims that we would benefit from keeping divided.
President Obama may well, of course, have the same purpose as Bush, but he labors under the sneaking suspicion that deep down Obama does not want to think that violent Muslim rage might be rooted in Islam's own theology rather than more "understandable" resentment of the West. That is, after all, the standard cant on university campuses and in the editorial offices of most media organizations.
15 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Nov 06, 05:32:00 PM:
This is muddled thinking from a weak president. It's heartbreaking to think that so many people have projected so many hopes onto this blank screen of a man.
By 
JPMcT, at
Fri Nov 06, 05:59:00 PM:
Remember the snickering amongst the leftist anointed when Reagan used the word "Evil" Empire and Bush used the word "Evil"doers?
It's almost as if the acceptance of the existence of evil makes one a lowbrow...a neanderthal who believes in a white-bearded god on a throne.
Reality, the Illuminati say, is much more complicated.
Really?
I find the concept that we are being attacked by 7th Century fascists who specialize in the public murder of unarmed people to be a compellingly simple idea to get my mind around.
Of course, my brain is not addled by the same inherent constraints as Obama's. Thank heaven!
By , at
Fri Nov 06, 06:03:00 PM:
Because of oil money, the islamic world has more riches than most people in the west can dream of. Yet their "resentment" is "understandable".
It's not resentment, it's hatred.
They are not killing us to get us to change, they are killing us to destroy us.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri Nov 06, 06:15:00 PM:
Every so often, I like to trot out quotations and the like from Middle Eastern history, to help keep things real. Time for another of my favorites.
This was the response of Abd al Rahman, ruler of Tripoli, when Thomas Jefferson & co. attempted to open negotiations about a treaty to stop their raids on US shipping and prevent "a universal and horrible war."
'It was written in the Quran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged the Muslims' authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Muslim who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.'
They then demanded a $1,000,000 tribute.
By , at
Fri Nov 06, 06:25:00 PM:
Timothy McVeigh got a much higher body count, showed a lot more pre-planning, and involved others in his operation. I suspect the American Legion was behind it. Why we've let that stand is beyond me.
By Elijah, at
Fri Nov 06, 06:35:00 PM:
Nothing at all to do with the action
The doctor and the female are mortified an association was even made.
Meanwhile...
"A US army psychiatrist about to be deployed to Afghanistan allegedly shouted "Allahu Akbar", or "God is greatest", as he opened fire at a military base in Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 28."
No association whatsoever.
By , at
Fri Nov 06, 06:39:00 PM:
I don't have all the facts yet but I think Major Hasan acted stupidly.
By , at
Fri Nov 06, 06:51:00 PM:
Anonymous, at Fri Nov 06, 06:25:00 PM:
Timothy McVeigh got a much higher body count, showed a lot more pre-planning, and involved others in his operation. I suspect the American Legion was behind it. Why we've let that stand is beyond me.
Given the incoherent nonsense you have written, it is understandable why you prefer anonymity.
By , at
Fri Nov 06, 07:16:00 PM:
It's a simple point. I'll spell it out for you.
We shouldn't extrapolate too much from the actions of one deranged indvidual. Oswald was a nut who probably acted alone. McVeigh was a nut who hung around a few other nuts.
Gavrilo Princip and Mohammed Atta didn't act alone, which makes them especially scary.
By all accounts, Nidal Hasan acted entirely alone. We've had people shoot up post offices and McDonalds. This is in the same category. It's tragic for the victims, but has no broader import.
Hasan wound up an Army Major. I have to give my brother-in-law a ration of shit as he never made it past Captain.
By Escort81, at
Fri Nov 06, 07:26:00 PM:
There are Americans who are Muslims who have served the U.S. with distinction in the GWOT (to use an outdated acronym), both in the armed forces and in the intelligence community. Read "First In" or "Jawbreaker" for the accounts of a few such people in the earliest days after 9/11.
It is not inconsistent to acknowledge that service, and at the same time understand that there are aspects of the Islamist belief system (based upon a narrow literal interpretaion of many sections of the Koran) that lead directly to the kind of violence visited upon Fort Hood yesterday.
Even the most ardent Christian Evangelicals or Fundamentalists in the U.S. (who believe in the literal interpretation of the Old and New Testaments), or Orthodox Jews, do not stone women to death for the crime of adultery, even though Leviticus is clear on this point. Islamists take their holy text and use it in a way that serves there own nihilistic purposes.
By , at
Fri Nov 06, 07:45:00 PM:
Judge Kevin Duffy sentenced each of the 1993 World Trade bombers to 900 years. He read from the Koran as he did so. The benefits of a liberal education.
From Full Metal Jacket:
[Referring to Lee Harvey Oswald and mass murderer Charles Whitman]
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Do any of you people know where these individuals learned how to shoot?... Private Joker.
Private Joker: Sir. In the Marines, Sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: In the Marines. Outstanding. Those individuals showed what one motivated Marine and his rifle can do. And before you ladies leave my Island, you will all be able to do the same thing.
By , at
Fri Nov 06, 07:50:00 PM:
President Obama wouldn't want to jump to any conclusions and say that anyone acted "stupidly", now would he?
By , at
Sat Nov 07, 10:12:00 AM:
Let's remember this: Barack Obama was born to an arab islamic father. He was raised and educated in islamic madrassas in Indonesia. His core beliefs are more aligned with islam than "black liberation theology" which is primarily a racist cult, not christianity.
What conclusion is Obama not trying to reach here? Simple. That islam is a big bad problem for the entire free world. That's why he can't decide on more Afghanistan troops
By Dawnfire82, at
Sat Nov 07, 10:26:00 AM:
"We shouldn't extrapolate too much from the actions of one deranged indvidual."
Oh come on. Where have you been for the last twenty years?
Muslim man shoots up El Al desk of LAX airport, screaming God is Great. Muslim man runs down college students in North Carolina screaming God is Great. Muslim man shoots up military post, screaming God is Great. Muslim man shoots people at the Empire State Building, wearing a suicide note rambling about evil Jews. Muslim man opens fire on a van full of Hasidic Jewish children. Muslim man walks into a theater playing X-Men and starts shooting random people. Muslim man walks into a mall in Salt Lake City and starts shooting random people. Muslim man approaches the CIA parking area with a rifle and starts killing employees in their cars.
Here's a partial list of the above. (which is itself a partial list) http://conservapedia.com/Sudden_Jihad_Syndrome
In not a single one of these instances was a 'normal' motive for murder present; jilted lovers, terminated office workers, financial ruin, or drug deals. Not a single one of these was part of a terrorist conspiracy. They all simply decided that God wanted them to kill people. Some of them wrote about it, some of them talked about.
Nothing should be extrapolated from this... it's merely the latest in a long line of barbarities that spring from a common source. The extrapolation is already made, and this is just more evidence.
By , at
Sat Nov 07, 10:33:00 AM:
I think Obama should invite Hasan to the White House for a beer and talk this out, muslim to muslim, to to if they can resolve the things that are bothering Hasan. That is the Obama way!
After all, Obama will need ALL the medical professionals he can get to run the death panels and supervise the former ACORN folks who will be making the day to day decisions on those death panels.
