The War on Terror (and a little bit on Iraq)

First, everyone should read While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawer (http://www.amazon.com/While-Europe-Slept-Radical-Destroying/dp/0767920058/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200317299&sr=1-1)

This is a very good book about the problems developing in Europe regarding their extremist Muslim population (Mainly Europe ignoring there is a problem, calling anyone who says there is a problem a facist (and sometimes fining people for speaking up about problems - no lie), and essentially apologizing to extremists and taking the blame for the fact that extemists are beating up homosexuals, beating up jews, beating up everyday citizens, beating their own wives). The book makes you really think about the tenants of American society that amazingly aren't truly part of Europe (though we usually think are), like freedom of speech, an independant press full of varying ideas from all ends of the spectrum, the importance of personal liberty, etc. Right now Europe is the embodiment of that famous authorless quote of "All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to remain silent" warns against (this quote is actually not by edward burke though it is often attributed to him).

Anyways, down to the point of this blog. I do not care if a presidential hopeful opposed the Iraq war. It is a little late for that, don't you think? What I want is a president that has a plan to fix it. I don't want a pull out date - that is just stupid. We can't leave and let Iraq fall apart, that will only lead to more terrorists attacking us.

Next point of the blog. How do we address terrorism? We may have not been attacked recently here in the US, but it is still a threat. So what do they suggest we do? I don't want an apologistic approach. Quite honestly, it is not the US's fault we were attacked. It is not our fault there is poverty in the middle east (the rulers over there seem to have tons of money - All they need to do is share a little wealth and problems solved). We cannot blame ourselves because terrorists find our way of life offensive. As a female, I find their way of life offensive. The supression of women is wrong. Female genital mutilation is wrong. Beating one's wife is wrong. Raping one's wife is wrong. As an American, I find their supression of freedom of speech and freedom of thought offensive. However, I am not killing them, now am I? So I don't want someone who apologizes or tries to make America accept some of the blame. End of story. I do believe some things are worth dieing for and the defense of my liberty is one of them. I also believe that sometimes diplomacy just doesn't work. When the opposing party is irrational, rational thought will achieve nothing. Diplomacy, then, becomes a vehicle of appeasement, where the rational party gives something up to get the irrational party to do what they should have done in the first place. I don't believe in appeasement. It's, after all, what led to the wholesale slaughter of jews throughout Europe in WWII. It is what is currently allowing extremist muslims to gain a foothold in Europe and perpetuate an abusive culture while within the borders of supposedly freedom loving, rights protecting Europe.

Did you know 4 out of 5 women in abuse shelters in Europe are muslim women? Did you know that forced marriages where the woman are highly likely to be raped and abused (some stats say as high as 90% of women in forced marriages are raped by their husbands) frequently occur in Europe amongst its muslim community (I like to think it is only the fundamentalist segment, but this does not seem to be the case)? Do you know that anti-semitism is on the rise in Europe? Did you know that more and more gay men and women are being attacked in European streets? Do you know that in Europe, individuals are being fined for speaking out against the fundamentalist muslims? Do you that after the 7/7 attacks in Britain, one if its newspapers went into its archives and retroactively changed any references to "terrorists" to references of bombers?

I do want someone who says the values of America are important. These similar values are weakening in Europe and we need to protect against any weakening of these values. The presidential hopefuls need to come up with a strategy to ensure the maintenance of the tenants of a truly free government and ensure that Europe doesn't lose these tenants either. (We either rescue Europe now before it is too late or late with a lot of blood shed - they haven't seemed to learn any lessons from WWII and still think appeasement is a good idea).

I do not want a president that looks up to Europe. I want a president that tells Europe to shape up. And I want a president that protects us from taking the same path.