LoL, J.D., VIA
I am still wa-a-a-ay over here in Afghanistan. I’m a little less furtive about my movements since I have developed the ability to post from wherever I am, and often just being busy prevents me from posting for longish periods. So my posting really implies nothing about my location or movements. It’s a good thing.
A great friend of mine was shot and killed over here some weeks ago, and it has been really tough. But the response from EVERYBODY has been heartwarming. Some of the Afghan folks who knew him routinely refer to him as a martyr, which for a moment I found a little unsettling, but these are people I know, so I was able to appreciate the genuine sentiment behind it—like when a Christian prays for an agnostic, the appropriate response is to say “Thank you”. These folks I know are devout Muslims and brave patriots who are working at great risk to improve their own country, and who love America and Americans. I do believe that folks like this constitue the vast majority here, but you have to be at the right place and time to get it plainly stated. You need to have a better relationship with people than the reporters ever get (with rare exception) in order for them to trust you enough to really open up.
Reporters think that they have this interview thing down to a science—it’s more like smash-and-grab looting for sound bites.
I’m telling you that we still have an amazing opportunity here to do truly great things.
I won’t go into any details of the recent incident, as despite how straightforward it all seems to me, the matter is still under investigation, which is a good thing.
But I have been thinking about something these last weeks at LGF, which is this: I think that part of the problem that people on the right have separating the right wing from the right wing wackos is that if they allow such a distinction to be made, then they might have to allow for such a distinction in Islam. Just as Conservatives and Conservatism are not the problem—crazy people are the problem; Islam and Muslims are not the problem—crazy people are the problem. Now obviously, many of these folks are coldly calculating, high-functioning individuals using whatever means necessary to accomplish their goals. But there is no way you’ll convince me that somebody who cuts off a man’s head or crashes (or causes to be crashed) an airliner into a building is in any way sane. (Consequently, I do not have any patience with “pleading insanity”—you’re obviously insane you murdering pig, we just need to decide what to do about you.)
The DHS report may be heavy-handed and mis-managed, but I appreciate the gate guards who make me open bags when I’m back at my home station, and I appreciate people who will help separate the right wing from the right-wing-nutjobs. DHS wants to keep Americans safe from threats originating in surprising circles? Great, me too.
A lot of folks have been giving Charles a hard time with “well, prove he was a right-winger”, or “exactly what sort of veteran (or Reservist or Guardsman) was he?”
Yet I challenge anybody to deny that right-wing crazies exist, and that we should actively defeat that threat, like any other credible threat.
Whining about lumping in and broad brushes is simply unbecoming at best, and obfuscation, enabling of the evil people who would hide behind us on the worse end. If we are ever to return from the political wilderness, we will have to have demonstrated some maturity while the chips were down.
One thing I used to take great pride in was the right’s ability to clean house while the left’s adage that “there are no enemies to the left” backfired on them spectacularly. We cannot afford the same attitude, especially not now.
Being anti-terror is great. Being anti-Muslim is pathetic. Being anti-Jihad is pretty hard to define, and can usually be made clearer by forcing a choice of definitions from the first two, and acknowledging that we have some housecleaning on the right (like the left), if we are to truly be anti-terror.