The Mouse and the Snake

Wretchard at Belmont Club talks about the recent terror in Russia. He offers this interesting insight into a nation's response to terrorism:

In many ways, the Russian policy is exactly the reverse of the American. They are less squeamish about retaliating but lack the Bush doctrine of creating functioning democracies to replace the chaotic sinkholes of Islamism. To a certain extent, the Russian and French policies are identical. They draw a curtain over the putrefaction fermenting in certain societies, dismissing them as a natural state or in terms of cultural relativism, as situations in which civilization - I use the word consciously - would be ill advised to interfere. But it has become apparent that terrorism is an externality of rotting societies, an effluent, which if unchecked will poison the whole world. No cologne, not even French perfume, will long prevail against it. Civilization cannot hang back but must step forward, if not for love then for survival.

We can either exterminate the Muslims or we can strive to bring them into the civilized world. Leaving them alone is suicide. George Bush, almost alone in the world, believes that we must try to bring them into the civilized world. The rest of the globe, especially the West, wants to essentially spray them with perfume.

When I was in college I kept a black rat snake in a glass aquarium. From time to time I would place a mouse in the enclosure. The mouse went about its business acting as if everything was normal. The snake lay coiled in the corner ignoring the mouse. The mouse, however, was living in denial. It was just a matter of time until the snake grew hungry. Sooner or later I would awake in the morning to find the mouse gone and a lump in the distended abdomen of the snake.

Europe is a mouse which finds a seething, pullulating mass of Arab Muslims living, like the snake, in their proximity. Every now and then the Europeans cast a nervous glance in the direction of the snake, but they live as if they believe that they and the snake can coexist. One day the world will wake up to find Europe gone and the belly of the Muslim world swollen with its corpse.

Europe can either wait like the mouse for this to happen or they can join the United States in trying to bring the democratic values of free elections, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech and ideas to the Muslim world. The alternatives to this course are too awful to contemplate.

Allahu Akbar, or Something

Viewpoint believes that if Satan were human there's a good chance he'd be an Islamic fundamentalist. The news carries the story of the horror in Russia where Islamists are holding hostage several hundred people, half of them terrified children. They've already killed some and threaten to kill more. We may think that adherents of a peaceful, compassionate religion like Islam could never follow through on threats to kill frightened children, but then as infidels doomed to hell we probably can't fathom Allah's inscrutable mercy.

Islamic morality has recently been on display elsewhere as well. In Najaf where Moqtada al-Sadr's holy warriors have recently made temporary peace with the Iraqi National Guard, ING soldiers moved into the buildings that al Sadr's pious disciples had vacated. They found:

"approximately 200 mutilated bodies taken by the Moqtada militia for speaking out against Moqtada al Sadr," said the intelligence report sent to the Pentagon and stamped 'secret.' Some of the prisoners had eyes and ears drilled out and others had their limbs and heads cut off. Some males had genitals cut off and shoved in their mouths. There was evidence of rape to men, women and children," according to the report.

The report continues:

The U.S. intelligence report obtained by The Times states that most of Sheik al-Sadr's recruits were criminals that Saddam released from prison weeks before the March 2003 invasion. The report states, "They slaughtered the innocent people. Most of the al-Mahdi were criminals jailed during the former regime and released by Saddam before his capture."

One wonders why the Iraqis wish to make peace with such savages. Ceasefires and truces only delay the inevitable and allow time for murderers to sacrifice more innocents to the glory of Allah. Najaf and Fallujah will have eventually to be cleansed of the human vermin which terrorize these cities, and Moqtada al Sadr will have to be "martyred", one way or another. To talk of allowing such a man to participate in the government is to spit on the memories of every Coalition soldier who served and died so that Iraqis can enjoy civilized life.

The Iraqi government is only fooling itself if it thinks that by pulling the insurgents' fat out of the fire these thugs will be grateful and loyal. So far from coveting the loyalty of people who commit such crimes, especially against children, government officials have a duty to punish them, and to punish them severely, and if the Iraqis and the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani need a push in the right direction the Marines should give it to them.

The entire report can be read here.