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ALL OF AMERICA'S "FRIENDS" ARE MORE DANGEROUS TO US THAN OUR ENEMIES..."Let's not focus on this [overt acts of aggression], but on making friends,..."Reader comment on item: A Critical Moment For Turkey Submitted by mariana (United States), May 30, 2007 at 17:05 Hi Ianus: There's a great deal in your posting, and I'm not sure just where to begin. Your underlying assumption [that if Americans KNEW, responses would be different], is hard to square with the woeful condition of information dissemination. What passes for memory and "thought process" here has been so degraded, it's hard to address - absent engaging cliches like "secular progressivism," "cutting off one's nose to spite one's face," "criminalizing political differences," "equivalency," "perversity," "the end justifies the means." ">Americans should know the explicit names of countries that want to destroy America . They should know that Turkey belongs also to this group." It's pretty safe to assume, alas, that almost everyone belongs to that group; it's chic. Ignoring the insulting actions and statements coming from most of the world [most recently: Amb. John Bolton UN, Wolfowitz WB], especially the UN, EURABIA, OPEC, OAS, IMF, WB et al, as they "run in packs," fabricate evidence, suborn perjuries, and "gang up" on America, only perpetuates the farce and exposes us to more dire consequences . I no longer believe a majority of Americans have the capacity to make such an analysis, even given the "names" because they have no context into which to place the countries, their leaders, interests or historical behaviours. Compounding the problem, the media are engaged in a pervasive disinformation campaign to obscure or avoid any linkage [it's more important to prove Bush wrong than to lose our Liberty]. Most do not, I fear, even understand American Interests, and anyone who diligently tries, is trashed, castigated and/or marginalized by the Left [for whom the Media speak] with the usual litany [insensitive fear-mongers, racist, nativist, war-mongers]. Our politicians have lost touch with the struggles and realities of American life; are more interested in re-election so they can continue to steal us blind and guarantee that "Life after Congress" will enable them to continue their lavish life style, than they are preservation of the Republic. ">I can't imagine any such "bestseller" in Canada or Australia." Australia NO; Canada, I'm not so sure. Canadians [even dear friends] for years have demonstrated extreme hatred and anger toward us. They'll come here for our health care [unavailable to them in their Natn'l Healthcare System], but castigate us for the very Free Market Healthcare system they gleefully cross our border to obtain. They consider us warlike, while enjoying the "security umbrella" we provide, perpetuating their refusal to pay for their own defense, while complaining that we should spend less on defense and more on Nanny-State stuff and handouts. They deliberately tolerate radical Islamists in their midst [allowing them to migrate gratuitously, and giving them Canadian Passports as freely as Islamists pass out sweets to celebrate Suicidal-Murderous "Shahids"]. The causality is probably as trite as envy that "ours is bigger than theirs." Bottom line, it's offensive, very dangerous and debilitating to see the statements and behaviours emanating from Canada, probably enhanced by their close ties with "Old Europe." Dr. Thomas Sowell [Hoover Institute at Stanford U], one of our most brilliant and consistently correct scholars, in a radio interview this week, posited the notion that ...it may already be too late for America to save itself...! Living in California, where somewhere @ 37% of the population is "Hispanic," a now majority illegal, low skilled, or non-English speaking [the schools are "required to provide instruction" in something like 700 languages]. These remarkable sentiments from him [along with his writings on radical Islamists and the Left] I find quite alarming, and extremely troublesome. Sowell has extensively tracked and chronicled our broken Education System, willful Media disinformation, feckless politicians and the catastrophic results for @50 years. Sowell's comment was, I believe, part of a discussion about our elected official's flagrant disregard for the wishes of 70-90% of the American People by pushing this Immigration [Amnesty] Bill, and the unavoidably destructive changes to the character of Life in America somewhere between 12 million and 20 million low or non-skilled, non-English speaking illegal aliens given instant, retroactive legal status with this "Z-visa." Having witnessed this identical process in 1965', the 1986, 1992 Americans do not believe illegal migration will be inhibited or deterred in any way. The prospect of 40 million to 60 million more illiterate, non-English speaking "relatives" {notwithstanding the alleged end of "chain immigration" this bill brags on} elicits visions of a 3rd World country [50+% HS drop-out rate of Hispanic children already]. The Property Taxes paid for schools are confiscatory and abusive already, with old people on fixed incomes paying taxes higher than their mortgages were; hospitals are over-stressed and shutting down from overuse by non-paying indigent non-citizens WHO MUST BE TREATED at the expense of the hospital first then, maybe, taxpayers. In excess of 40% of the prison population [and possibly 60% of violent crime] in California are committed by non-citizens. Conversions in prisons to radical Islamist teachings, are staggering; violent street gangs connected with drug trade and people-smuggling, run rampant in the state; drug-resistant strains of diseases we eliminated 50 years ago have re-emerged, and it has been documented that the California Democrat Party has aided, abetted, and encouraged VOTING by illegals [thus nullifying and degrading the value of citizens' votes]. The Failed schools in America, particularly in the densely populated urban areas, have been totally controlled by lib/dems and the Teacher's Unions which support them, since the 60's, certainly. The Baby Boomer Generation continues their assault on all things "American," de-legitimizing The American Dream and replacing it with screwball Balkanization of America known as "multiculturalism" [which, by design explicitly works against acculturation and integration into American society]. Curriculum changes de-emphasizing Literacy, American and World History, Geography, Civics, Foreign Languages, Mathematics, hard Sciences which had prior thereto been the base of the "Ed Biz," were replaced with psychology, sociology, ethnic studies, "humanities," women's studies, etc [aka: Sandbox]. "Schools of Education," Teacher's Colleges, and Journalism schools are among the worst. Instead of teaching substantive course material and critical thinking, they teach pedagogical "methods" and post-Modernist liberal opposition to any and all things considered "American." While this all may seem far afield and perhaps arcane, it is probably the "root of [most] evils." Our citizenry apparently lack the skills needed to discriminate between right and wrong, good and evil, demagogues and statesmen. They know so little about Turkey, the Near & Middle East and the World in general that they have no comparatives or useful yardstick; and their minds simply do not pro-actively observe, compare, analyse what's going on in the world and how it would affect us; they've been trained to be self-obsessed, negligent, careless and ignorant, and thus far have largely gotten away with it. ">I would like to see the Turkish secret archives stolen and published on how and how much Turkish money has been spent and who , when and for what service has received money from the Turkish "friends" ?" >Then this material can be used either openly or in secret . The Turks want to blackmail America ? Why not blackmail Turkey instead ? You don't behave properly in the future, then we make a show trial of the 11 Turkish terrorists who name publically at whose instigation in the Turkish General Staff they acted ! The Turks understand such logic. So would I. It will be interesting to see when and how Turk and Syrian $$ get injected into Pelosi & Dem campaign funds! They'll get away with it [for a long while], but Bashar will not resist returning her "favors" and funding them. [I loved the pictures of this almost 70-year old woman's "serious" meeting with him; her skirt mid-thigh above her knees. Very Diplomatic!] You're quite correct: Of course "the Eleven" reflect Turkish National Policy; however, I'm less optimistic than you are about the results of "exposure;" e.g.: the secret files of the KGB and "Old Soviet Union" were opened in the 90s, and many were made available. Result: Very little media coverage; no dissemination or analysis [even of the "fellow-travelers," and subversive 5th Column, or moles in the American government, media and education system, protest movements, etc]. Now that Putin-Tsar is "revivifying" his control over "All of The Russias" and his "Near Abroad" [domination and intimidation of craven Old Europe] with his KGB state confiscation of Oil and Industry, state control of media, and deconstructing elections with murder and subversion in Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine, etc; dispatching murder and mayhem to Europe and Britain; assisting, supplying and shielding Iran's Nuclear program from even pusillanimous UN, EU, and US sanctions, our complicit, somnambulant government still elevates this backward "Power" to membership in the E-8, NATO interface, insisting that they're also "good friends" and allies. Just as America ignored USSR's actions in Germany and Eastern Europe after WW II until it was fait accompli, they again refuse to address blatantly overt acts of aggression. Columnists like Ignatious & Zacharia track this stuff, understand the context and even meaning; then, reflexively come to the wrong [soft and already proved ineffective] "accommodationist" conclusions, because the extension of their own logic leads to understandings and actions they're not willing to confront or even entertain: unthinkable; not "politically correct." We're back to the difference in orientation between the US Departments of Defense and State. Defense is responsible for National Security and our very lives; State is interested in "process" and being loved by the world [going along to get along, regardless of the negative impact to American Interests], dressing up and attending splendid parties. Unfortunately, I believe a blunder of "over-reach" will be our only salvation; that or another 9/11-type event. Sadly, while Bush's instincts have been right from the beginning, his spectacularly successful defenses at home against these loonies, have perversely helped his domestic enemies to undermine him, enabling them to convince many that there is no real threat.; that GW is "exaggerating for political purposes." Can you imagine betting the survival of America and Western Civilization, on an "over-reach" by radical Islamists [directed and funded by the allies we consider "friendly Muslim States"]. If and when this happens, perhaps Americans will finally and necessarily eschew the veneer of civilized behaviour and get down to the business of WAR by reordering our methods, strategies, and most important: Orders of Battle. The Iraqis, Afghans, Palestinian Arabs, "Lebanese" who have sheltered and enabled Terrorists in their homes and neighborhoods to hide and attack from among them, must FINALLY be considered guilty coconspirators, whereupon we should be less delicate about "kill rates" and definitions of just what is a "Civilian." That we have left so many enemies in place for so long at such great cost in American [and the pathetically few coalition] lives and $$, is criminal and disgraceful. [TCM has been airing "The Battle of Algiers" recently. It is an instructive primer, and I recommend it highly]. mariana Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (265) on this item
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