There are those individuals who wave placards around and chant death to (fill in the blank), who have predicted that one day their flag will fly over 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, and the White House. They are quite adamant in their conviction and will not cease in the pursuit of their goals.
It would be useful if we in the West paid any attention to Islamic history - any number of battles, whether the first battles between the Believers and the pagans, or the later attempts at invading Europe at Vienna or Poitiers. It would behoove the West to pay the slightest of attention to the purpose and conviction the armies of Islam held, and the purpose and conviction of those who stopped the armies of Islam from dominating all of Europe.
The answer is in the question - conviction. Charles Martel (Poitiers) believed in the West, in the values and religion of the West (at this time - Catholicism). When the armies of Islam arrived at Vienna, the people were faced with the option of surrendering or not - and they chose to not surrender and to fight and expel the armies of Islam, in part because their values, culture, and religion were at stake.
Whether in France or in Austria - each European believed their culture and history was profoundly better than the culture and religion that pounded on their gates, and the people resisted. They stood and fought, defeating the invaders, and by the 15th century, expelled them from Western Europe and the continent, altogether.
More than four centuries earlier, a city came under attack by the armies of Saladin. Rather than surrender, the inhabitants fought off the Islamic armies, despite the inevitability of Jerusalem falling to Islam. It was 1187, and the Crusader forces had been destroyed, the city of Jerusalem lay unarmed, and the Patriarch Heraclius and Queen Sibylla convinced Balian of Ibelin, to take charge of the defense of the city.
Balian swore to destroy the city before he would turn it over to Saladin. For nearly two weeks Balian held off Saladin's armies until the forces protecting Jerusalem numbered only a few dozen. Balian negotiated with Saladin and was able to save thousands of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Balian paid for the ransom for many of the poor people within Jerusalem, using his money, and in the end, marched from the city with safe passage to lands held by the Crusaders.
In each case - whether Vienna, Poitiers, or Jerusalem, the resistance stood on belief and principle against an ideology they regarded as evil. They stood against something, believing their values and their culture, and their religion was true.
In 1942, the United States invaded Northern Europe, with the forces of Canada, Britain, and remnants of other militaries, all joined under the command of Dwight Eisenhower and the American military. We invaded Europe, not to to make money, take lands, or grow our power, for we were by 1941, in competition for first place with Germany. We didn't need to grow much, for all the other countries had fallen to the Nazi death machine, and those who had not (Britain - with less than a months’ worth of supplies remaining; Russia - barely hanging on, and even when they turned it around, did so with US assistance) were so weakened as to be peculiarly unable to accomplish much without the American involvement.
We went to Europe to save Europe, to free the millions who had been enslaved by the Nazi death machine, and restore free trade for the millions emancipated by the American forces. We went to stop a force we believed evil, contrary to our values and beliefs - a force no better than the Islamic armies from nearly a century before. Our values were clear and either our beliefs or principles would prevail or Nazism would enslave the world (coupled with its Japanese component).
In each case, the West believed its values were superior to the values of the enemy, whether they be Nazis or Islam. Our values, our culture, our traditions, our religion were worth fighting, and dying for. Each time we stood up and each time we defeated the forces arrayed against us.
Winston Churchill is quoted as saying he was grateful that rough men did what they did in the night to make it possible that he be able to sleep safely. Churchill knew, as do many people - evil exists today, just as it did in 1939, and evil does not go quitely into the night - it takes rough men who sort it out, allowing us to sleep soundly in our beds. Evil exists today in the hearts and minds of men. Men who will do whatever they can to achieve an end, and death is not a threat for these men, for they desire death as much as we desire air. They do not wish to talk or negotiate, although they will, like Hitler did, allowing him the time necessary to prepare his armies for the invasion of Europe. He talked, for time, with never an intention of peace.
We are told that Saladin was kind, and that the Muslims in Europe were only seeking peace. I suppose there would be peace after Saladin held all remaining men, women, and children in Jerusalem as slaves, to be sold off, and taken throughout the Middle East. Peace. Saladin's Peace.
I would have thought we had learned from history, but we haven't.
Barack H. Obama has set us on a course from which we will never recover, and he knows it.
However, his understanding of where we will end up is not the same as mine. He believes we must weaken our military to be stronger. He believes we must decrease our military to provide care for all Americans. He believes evil does not exist, rather bad men who need to have their actions explained to them, and given the right incentive, men will see the error of their ways and will do the right thing. If they don't, you join with others, and together you make their lives so miserable with sanctions and such, that they concede.
Barack H. Obama believes there is no difference between cultures and people. No one is better or greater, we are all the same. No culture or value system is superior - they are all the same. No political or religious system is better or superior to any other - we have what we have due to luck, where we were born, and when, and the United States is so wealthy because we have oppressed the rest of the world. The West is wealthy because we have taken advantage of the 3rd world. The US has abused the hand that was extended to us, we slapped the face of the 3rd World and told them they were worth less than Americans. We treated the world with disrespect and used fear to achieve our national aims - fear of our military, our tanks and planes, our soldiers, and our bombs. Barack H. Obama has decided to level the playing field, repay the 3rd world, and prevent the United States from ever again being in a position to unilaterally invade Iraq or any country. In 1991, the United States amassed over 690,000 troops on the border of Iraq, coupled with another 300,000 from allied forces. Barack H. Obama will ensure that we will never amass that many troops again, for any reason.
At the core of his belief is American force is bad, always or almost always. When the US has done anything good, it was in conjunction with other nations. When our power is checked, we act for the benefit of others. When our power is unchecked, we oppress the masses, followed by escalation by nations in opposition to the US. It is, according to Barack H. Obama, the US that instigates most issues, either directly or indirectly. We impose our values and culture on everyone, when no one wants our cultuire imposed upon them and everyone is quite content with their values and their culture and it is only the wealth and power of the US that allows for the imposition of American values whenever and wherever we choose.
Barack H. Obama does not regard American culture as unique, special, or better - it is simply the same, no different, like all others, and perhaps worse given what we have done to many people around the globe for hundreds of years. Barack H. Obama has decided he will even the score, level the playing field, and ensure the United States never again rises above the global community to wage war.
How will he accomplish this formidable task? He already has, if everything plays out as he hopes. He has disarmed the US nuclear program, ended our space exploration program, and implemented a blackhole called health care. These efforts will weaken the US and bring to fruition all that I have ascribed to him, and his deepest desires. He does this, not with hate for America, but with love for the world, and a desire to see American become the great country he believes it could be, but for a few small issues.
Our nuclear program ends. Not quite yet, we still have thousands of weapons. That isn't it, nor should you fall for that claim - it is that the US will not retaliate against a state that uses nuclear weapons, or against any group within a state, that uses weapons of mass destruction against the US. He carves out Iran and North Korea as exceptions, but if you read what he said carefully, his wording doesn't even make that certain (the exceptions). Al Qaida gets access to Pakistans nuclear weapons, the government of Pakistan falls, and Al Qaida control their nuclear weapons. They launch one against Europe,India, and Japan. The US does nothing. Al Qaida, at the same time that Pakistan falls, sneaks a nuclear device into the US (in a lead lined fridge) and detonate it in a major city. The US does nothing. Iran will then use a nuclear weapon against Israel. This will precipitate a response from Israel - Iran will be bombed. The Muslim world explodes, the US does nothing except condemn the events. It could go differently - the US mainland is attacked and the US does nothing. Several minor groups register the lack of response and begin a series of attacks against US property around the Middle East. In South America, Venezuela sends troops into Colombia - the US protests. China invades Taiwan, and before the US has time to send an aircraft carrier, Taiwan is part of the PRC.
Even without a hit on the US, we are weakened. The blackhole called healthcare will result in trillions in costs, and taxes will not lower the deficit. It will become necessary to cut 10-15% of the 'waste' from our military budget to fill the healthcare gaps. Within ten years, we would need another 20% from the military budget, of course only the waste. We will close bases in Germany and throughout the Middle East, we will retire older ships, stop producing new ones, slim down the number of battalions and shrink the size of our forces to a more manageable size of 250,000 on active duty and an equal number on reserve, nearly 2/3 cut from the size it was in 2000. And Barack will make every action seem reasonable and disconnected from any larger plan. It will be necessary in order to provide every American with great healthcare. Within a decade, our military budget will be half of what it is today, and the US will never again have the ability to line up 600,000 men on a border, or to invade a country as we did in 2003. Those days will be behind us, and Barack will have achieved his goal - weaken the US, strengthen the world through redistribution of our wealth via trade caps and global warming taxes.
Within 20 years, we will be a mirror image of what we are today, and the Left will be thrilled. Barack H. Obama will be happy, and so will all the enemies of peace and freedom, for their time will have come, and the greatest bloodbath in mankind's history will have begun. And there will be no one to stop it.
For the Left, we will work together to stop travesties of justice. We will join with our allies, and stand firm against misbehaving neighbors. This is an allusion, or delusion depending upon your value system.
George H. Bush managed to pull together Arab states against Iraq with greater difficulty than one might have threading the eye of a sewing needle, in total darkness, using wool. Barack H. Obama has destroyed relations - England will pull out of Afghanistan, in part as a response to the US treatment over the past year. Canada will pull out, as will France. They are not walking away from an idea, but from the man - Obama, who has treated them with the greatest of contempt. We will not get India to stand with us, unless they have been themselves attacked. We will not get Poland or the Ukraine to stand with us again as they did in 2003. We will not stand united with anyone, and we will not have the force necessary alone - and consequently, the US will not try to oppose evil - we will negotiate, much like Chamberlain, and the world will lose, and the bloodbath will engulf us all.
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