You might also want to read http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4637/isis-is-to-america-as-hamas-is-to-israel ...by an anti-terrorist intellectual of great stature, relevant to this post.
President Barack Obama has rightfully condemned the ISIS beheading of American James Foley in the strongest terms. This is what he said:
"There has to be a common effort to extract this cancer so it does not spread. There has to be a clear rejection of the kind of a nihilistic ideologies. One thing we can all agree on is group like (ISIS) has no place in the 21st century. Friends and allies around the world, we share a common security a set of values opposite of what we saw yesterday. We will continue to confront this hateful terrorism and replace it with a sense of hope and stability."
At the same time that President Obama has called for an all-out war against the "cancer" of ISIS, he has regarded Hamas as having an easily curable disease, urging Israel to accept that terrorist group, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, as part of a Palestinian unity government. I cannot imagine him urging Iraq, or any other Arab country, to accept ISIS as part of a unity government.
Former President Jimmy Carter and Bishop Desmond Tutu have gone even further, urging the international community to recognize the legitimacy of Hamas as a political party and to grant it diplomatic recognition. It is hard to imagine them demanding that the same legitimate status be accorded ISIS.
Why then the double standard regarding ISIS and Hamas? Is it because ISIS is less brutal and violent than Hamas? It's hard to make that case. Hamas has probably killed more civilians — through its suicide bombs, its murder of Palestinian Authority members, its rocket attacks and its terror tunnels — than ISIS has done. If not for Israel's Iron Dome and the Israeli Defense Forces, Hamas would have killed even more innocent civilians. Indeed its charter calls for the killing of all Jews anywhere in the world, regardless of where they live or which "rock" they are hiding behind. If Hamas had its way, it would kill as least as many people as ISIS would.
Is it the manner by which ISIS kills? Beheading is of course a visibly grotesque means of killing, but dead is dead and murder is murder. And it matters little to the victim's family whether the death was caused by beheading, by hanging or by a bullet in the back of a head. Indeed most of ISIS's victims have been shot rather than beheaded, while Hamas terrorists have slaughtered innocent babies in their beds, teenagers on the way home from school, women shopping, Jews praying and students eating pizza.
Is it because ISIS murdered an American? Hamas has murdered numerous Americans and citizens of other countries. They too are indiscriminate in who they kill.
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I admit it... there are many philosophical, governmental, business, and ethical issues on which the POTUS and me would strongly disagree. I would be being less than honest if I claimed I didn't wish the POTUS were a different individual. One whose governing practices and philosophy of government more closely resembled that of Founding Fathers and responsible independent modern conservatives. The reality is however just this. The people of the United States elected this man to the highest office in the land for four years. He has served as POTUS for just over one year and we are seeing Impeach Obama signs on a major highway in Wisconsin. Obviously somebody in Wisconsin certainly does not like this POTUS very much. The unnamed company, presumably a small one, has paid to have the billboard displayed for six months at one thousand dollars a month. I am sure those collecting the six thousand dollars and the sign company are all to happy to collect...
by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Birthplace of Independent Conservatism Libe rty -vs- Tyra nny
Rep. Ron Paul - Republican Presidential Candidate
I read with great interest Ron Paul's recent statements in Iowa with respect to the 911 attacks on America by Islamic extremists and their primary motivation. Nowhere in candidate Paul's statement did I see where he justified the attacks that resulted in the death of 3,000 plus Americans. What I did read was a rational analysis of what motivated the attackers and why they were so motivated. Call it thinking outside the confines of a restricted and often myopic view of reality. In other words Paul is saying first seek to understand the motivations of a dangerous extremist group and then seek to effect ways to change their reality. IE: Perception. Because perception is reality to all people who perceive. Those who perpetrated the 911 attacks on America were monsters, and they deserved to face a full and justified...
When fascism came to America it came clutching a bible and waving the flag. On January 20, 2025. Israel in the present time is a state engaging in state terrorism against the Palestinian population of Gaza. The Zionist genocide of Palestinians is ungodly, un-Christian, and in every way horrific evil. For Evangelical Christians, Christian Nationalists and MAGA who apparently know nothing of Jesus of Nazareth's position on wealth : Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. "A ll worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death. Knowing this, one should, from the very first, renounce acquisitions and storing-up, and building, and meeting; and, faithful to the commands of an eminent Guru, set about realizing the Truth. That alone is the best of relig...
When fascism came to America it came clutching a bible and waving the flag. On January 20, 2025. Israel in the present time is a state engaging in state terrorism against the Palestinian population of Gaza. The Zionist genocide of Palestinians is ungodly, un-Christian, and in every way horrific evil. For Evangelical Christians, Christian Nationalists and MAGA who apparently know nothing of Jesus of Nazareth's position on wealth : Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. "A ll worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death. Knowing this, one should, from the very first, renounce acquisitions and storing-up, and building, and meeting; and, faithful to the commands of an eminent Guru, set about realizing the Truth. That alone is the best of religious o...
by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Birthplace o Independent Conservatism Liberty -vs- Tyranny As the chickens come home to roast... Unbelievable we have been this stupid. ( Reuters ) - Global leaders on Saturday arranged a round of emergency calls to discuss the twin debt crises in Europe and the United States that are causing turmoil in financial markets . After a week that saw $2.5 trillion wiped off global stock markets, they are under pressure to show political leadership and reassure markets that Western governments have both the will and ability to reduce their huge and growing public debt loads. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who chairs the G7/G20 group of leading economies, conferred with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of a call planned for this weekend by G7 finance ministers and central bankers. "They discussed the euro area and the U.S. debt downgrade. Both agreed the importance of working together, monitoring the situation closely ...
When fascism came to America it came clutching a bible and waving the flag. On January 20, 2025. Israel in the present time is a state engaging in state terrorism against the Palestinian population of Gaza. The Zionist genocide of Palestinians is ungodly, un-Christian, and in every way horrific evil. For Evangelical Christians, Christian Nationalists and MAGA who apparently know nothing of Jesus of Nazareth's position on wealth : Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. "A ll worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death. Knowing this, one should, from the very first, renounce acquisitions and storing-up, and building, and meeting; and, faithful to the commands of an eminent Guru, set about realizing the Truth. That alone is the best of relig...
by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation U S A Purveyor of Truth As the liberal/progressive media and bloggers attempt to trash Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey over the George Washington Bridge lane closings, ostensibly because he is a formidable threat to their darling would be 2016 democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton, there remains NO EVIDENCE he had any involvement or was aware of the actions by his underlings. If Governor Christie indeed had no involvement in the closings, and at this point is is prudent to assume he didn't, the valid question is... should he have known? If we believe an executive sets the tone and culture for his administration then indeed the actions of his loyal staff at least become somewhat understandable. Wrong, but understandable. From NorthJersey.com Nothing in the approximately 2,000 documents released on Friday by the Assembly committee investigating the matter suggest that Christie knew of the lane-closure scheme beforeh...
From: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Purveyor of Truth Time to shed the right -vs- left, socialism -vs- capitalism hyperbole and purchase Thomas Piketty's new book " Capital in the Twenty-First Century. " PARIS — Thomas Piketty turned 18 in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, so he was spared the tortured, decades-long French intellectual debate about the virtues and vices of communism. Even more telling, he remembers, was a trip he took with a close friend to Romania in early 1990, after the collapse of the Soviet empire. “This sort of vaccinated me for life against lazy, anticapitalist rhetoric, because when you see these empty shops, you see these people queuing for nothing in the street,” he said, “it became clear to me that we need private property and market institutions, not just for economic efficiency but for personal freedom.” (emphasis mine) But his disenchantment with communism doesn’t mean that Mr. Piketty has turned his back on the intellectual ...
by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny In my opinion the President, in his attack on the United States Supreme court belies both his basic ignorance of our republic as well as his arrogance. His last uttering in and of itself is enough to deny the man, and I use the term loosely in this case, another term as President. Forgive me my rational liberal friends but his recent statement is more telling of his statist leanings than anything he has heretofore said. With this last he has proven beyond any doubt he is indeed clueless. The Washington Post - There was something rather unsettling in President Obama’s preemptive strike on the Supreme Court at Monday’s news conference. “I’d just remind conservative commentators that for years what we’ve heard is the biggest problem on the bench is judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint — that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law,” Obama said. “Well, here’s a ...
by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Lib e rty -vs- Tyr a nny American's are an interesting bunch. Stubborn and fickle at the same time. Especially Republicans. But then again I question just why in the hell anyone is concerning themselves with the 2016 presidential race two years out? I guess it's because we're... Americans? Public Policy Polling - PPP's newest look at the Republican field for 2016 finds some big changes from our previous polling. Marco Rubio, who had led all of our polling since December, has dropped all the way to 6th place. Rand Paul now has the lead nationally, to go along with the leads he posted in our most recent Iowa and New Hampshire polls. And Ted Cruz has already hit double digits. The numbers are: Paul 16, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Paul Ryan each at 13, Cruz at 12, Rubio at 10, Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal at 4, and Susana Martinez at 2. Cruz has proven to be such a darling to the far right that he actually already lead...
You might also want to read
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4637/isis-is-to-america-as-hamas-is-to-israel
...by an anti-terrorist intellectual of great stature, relevant to this post.
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Short excerpt from your linked article dmarks:
ReplyDeletePresident Barack Obama has rightfully condemned the ISIS beheading of American James Foley in the strongest terms. This is what he said:
"There has to be a common effort to extract this cancer so it does not spread. There has to be a clear rejection of the kind of a nihilistic ideologies. One thing we can all agree on is group like (ISIS) has no place in the 21st century. Friends and allies around the world, we share a common security a set of values opposite of what we saw yesterday. We will continue to confront this hateful terrorism and replace it with a sense of hope and stability."
At the same time that President Obama has called for an all-out war against the "cancer" of ISIS, he has regarded Hamas as having an easily curable disease, urging Israel to accept that terrorist group, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, as part of a Palestinian unity government. I cannot imagine him urging Iraq, or any other Arab country, to accept ISIS as part of a unity government.
Former President Jimmy Carter and Bishop Desmond Tutu have gone even further, urging the international community to recognize the legitimacy of Hamas as a political party and to grant it diplomatic recognition. It is hard to imagine them demanding that the same legitimate status be accorded ISIS.
Why then the double standard regarding ISIS and Hamas? Is it because ISIS is less brutal and violent than Hamas? It's hard to make that case. Hamas has probably killed more civilians — through its suicide bombs, its murder of Palestinian Authority members, its rocket attacks and its terror tunnels — than ISIS has done. If not for Israel's Iron Dome and the Israeli Defense Forces, Hamas would have killed even more innocent civilians. Indeed its charter calls for the killing of all Jews anywhere in the world, regardless of where they live or which "rock" they are hiding behind. If Hamas had its way, it would kill as least as many people as ISIS would.
Is it the manner by which ISIS kills? Beheading is of course a visibly grotesque means of killing, but dead is dead and murder is murder. And it matters little to the victim's family whether the death was caused by beheading, by hanging or by a bullet in the back of a head. Indeed most of ISIS's victims have been shot rather than beheaded, while Hamas terrorists have slaughtered innocent babies in their beds, teenagers on the way home from school, women shopping, Jews praying and students eating pizza.
Is it because ISIS murdered an American? Hamas has murdered numerous Americans and citizens of other countries. They too are indiscriminate in who they kill.
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