Lt. Muath Kaseasbeh
While our feckless president releases terrorists from Gitmo to return to the battlefield, Jordan has set an example tonight as it has swiftly executed two condemned terrorists they had held in retaliation for the horrific murder of their pilot, Lt. Muath Kaseasbeh. Unlike Barack Obama, King Abdullah of Jordan has shown strong resolve against ISIS. The US and our NATO allies must stand firmly behind Jordan.
We must also stand firmly behind Egypt and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi. The military government of Egypt has overturned the terror-supporting Muslim Brotherhood and El-Sisi spoke last month to his people telling them courageously that Islam needed to reform itself in order to live peacefully with the rest of the world. He challenged Egyptian imams to lead the way. Instead of supporting El-Sisi, the Obama administration has shown the back of its hand to the Egyptian government. Egypt now stands as the best hope for a stable Middle East. They need American and European support.
At the risk of sounding like I am beating a broken drum, I include Israel in that list. The Obama administration, however, acts like it has no interest in Israel surviving in the face of the Iranian and Islamist threat. One can only hope that in two years we will have an administration that will support the Jewish state in no uncertain terms.
The Middle East is reaching a tipping point. Either radical Islam will be beaten back or we are going to have to build a very big wall to prevent it from overrunning the West.
There is one true democracy in the Middle East and that is Israel. I don't see any others arising. I think we need to accept that fact and return to some good old-fashioned realpolitik. If it takes strong dictators to keep the jihadists suppressed, then we should consider that as a service to the rest of the world. We should abandon the idea of nation building until such time as these countries show that they can truly build free, democratic and civilized societies. In the meantime, we should pin our hopes on King Abdullah, President El Sisi, and Benjamin Netanyahu.
The burning (alive) of the Jordanian pilot goes well beyond the barbaric. The term "inhuman" sounds about right to me.
ReplyDeleteWhile we have very few Muslims around these parts, and thankfully no extremist ones as far as I know or as far as news coverage tells us (don't forget "sleeper cells", however), I do know that this single act alone will significantly affect how I deal with supposed "moderate" Muslims when/if I happen to encounter any of them again in the future.
I am sure they will be heartbroken, but it will be necessary for them to categorically, without exception, condemn the terrorist activities of ISIS, et al, with none of the usual "Well, this was terrible but Israel----", yadda, yadda, yadda, or "Yes, that was bad but the United States/West---", etc., etc., etc. Otherwise I shall have no truck with them at all.
Malcolm Little, aka Malcolm X--albeit an angry, essentially white-hating, racist, separatist/black supremacist, black man and Black Muslim--may have accurately prophesied when he wrote the following little gems:
"I knew how Elijah Muhammed's followers thought; I had taught so many of them to think. I knew that no one would kill you quicker than a Muslim if he felt that's what Allah wanted him to do".
"There is no group in the United States more able to carry out this threat (his own killing) than the Black Muslims. I know, because I taught them myself".
Do we have any ISIS prisoners we could have executed? I haven't heard of any.
ReplyDeleteWe are not exactly in a position to take prisoners, Siarlys. That has to be done on the ground.
ReplyDeletePrecisely Gary. So Jordan is on the ground, and did what it could. We are not on the ground, and we do what we can. I understand there are Kurdish forces who were quite appreciative that we came in and blew up a bunch of American tanks that were given to the Iraqi army that ran away because the professional officers we had trained were removed and replaced by political hacks under the administration chosen in "free elections" sponsored by our sunny advocate of democracy, George W. Bush. (The tanks, when we bombed the, were in the possession of ISIS).
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