Retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, author of the great new book Never Quit The Fight, has just returned from the Israel-Lebanon border and what he told us last night is not good news for the Israelis. Ralph described the IDF being plagued by poor leadership, corruption and indecision. Ralph said flatly that this is a huge victory for the Hezbollah.
Peters and the Frontpage crew recently had a bit of a fracas.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=24313
Peters: Brilliant -- you twist what I said and claim I twisted what others said. Well, I stand by every word I wrote.
I regularly visit a range of Muslim countries--they are incredibly various. In the Middle East, the situation is nearly hopeless; elsewhere, it's hopeful or at least muddling through. I don't think much of Muslim civilization in general--but I'd rather try to understand it than simple-mindedly write it off. There's plenty of nuance out there for those willing to recognize it.
I am revolted by the coded hate-speech emerging among some conservative demagogues--who are going to discredit conservatism in general (or at least play into the hands of the movement's domestic enemies). The things I read and hear from the "all Muslims are in on the Jihad deal" crowd echo yesteryear's bigots who damned the Irish and the Jews, the Italians and the Slavs, the Latinos, etc. I am appalled by the irresponsible, toxic situation in much of the Muslim world--but let's not fall into the anti-Islamic version of the "International Jewish Banking Conspiracy."
Blanket hatred is blanket hatred, no matter how piously it's couched in terms of patriotism or "defending our civilization." I cited the Book of Joshua because of the grotesque thirst for blood of our own Old Testament deity--far uglier than anything in the Koran (which is simply stream-of-consciousness nonsense--Mohammed should sue James Joyce for plagiarism). We could compile endless volumes of Christian hate speech that's stacked up over the past thousand years (it really hit its stride in the tenth century). Unfair to cite only the Muslim hate-mongers without noting that we've had plenty of our own.
You can't get off the hook by saying that no one is suggesting killing all Muslims. That's the ultimate logic of much of this discussion: "Muslims as Untermenschen." What's next, Wansee II at Lake Tahoe? Much said and written in the name of Islam is, indeed, vile and intolerable. Too many mullahs preach hatred (thank the Bush family's Saudi friends). Too many promise divine favor for killing the infidel. In short, many Muslims today sound a lot like Christians less than five-hundred years ago.
As for Falwell and Robertson, well, at least Osama bin Laden has the courage of his convictions. Those clowns are about as Christian as Montezuma.
How about a bit more Adam Smith and David Hume conservatism--and a bit less Ku Klux Klan atmosphere? I'm all for killing terrorists--but not for murdering our own values. Conservatives should be upright and just, defenders of the weak and apostles of justice for all. Bigotry is intolerable--and I can't believe that any impartial reader--if one could be found these days--would read this discussion and not find plenty of blanket hatred between the lines.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=24340 Ralph Peters Unhinged By Andrew G. Bostom FrontPageMagazine.com | September 13, 2006
Writing what can only be characterized as an unhinged column in the September 7, 2006 New York Post, military analyst Ralph Peters lashed out at those he labeled "Islam haters". In a breathless series of vicious calumnies (summarized concisely by blogger Lawrence Auster), Peters claimed that those he lacked the courage to name, were: "an enemy within", represent "the most repugnant trend" in the current debate on Islam, are more "destructive" than the anti-American left, are members of an ugly "domestic insurgency" among "right-wing extremists bent on discrediting honorable conservatism", believe that "all Muslims are evil and subhuman", believe "that Muslims are Untermenschen", are promoting "the Protocols of the Elders of Mecca", are "just the Ku Klux Klan with higher-thread-count sheets", are "heirs of the creeps who once told us Jews can never be real Americans and JFK will serve the Vatican", are "inveterate haters ... whose personal disappointments have left them with a need to blame others (sounds like al Qaeda to me...)", and are "bigots [who] might like to try to kill a billion Muslims". http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=24330
>...In any case, Peters goes on to assert that "a rotten core of American extremists is out to make it harder" for these moderates. A "really ugly" group of "right-wing extremists" is "bent on discrediting honorable conservatism" by "insisting that Islam can never reform, that the violent conquest and subjugation of unbelievers is the faith's primary agenda - and, when you read between the lines, that all Muslims are evil and subhuman."