James R. Rummel

I am a self defense instructor who lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Making a List

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Many media outlets here in the West are careful about labelling terrorist organizations by their actual name. Instead they’re called “insurgents” or “resistance groups”. This can be very frustrating for those of us interested in seeing international terrorist groups eradicated. Not only do these groups play on the prejudices of their supporters, claiming divine inspiration, but it can also appear that news organizations are actually aiding and abetting.

This isn’t necessarily true. Terrorists can be pretty scary guys, particularly to reporters that not only are unarmed but also willfully seek out terrorists in order to get a compelling story. The danger is increased by an order of magnitude when dealing with religious fanatics who are convinced that God told them to slaughter everyone who isn’t a member of their religion. Simply put, newshounds have no defense except to seem to be sympathetic and hope that these scumbags don’t just kill them out of hand.

Still, in their efforts to keep from enraging the terrorists, news organizations have presented a very distorted view of the situation over the past 4 decades. This is particularly true when one considers the way they’ve pussyfooted around the fact that the majority of murderous terrorist organizations are Islamic. The arguement seems to be that it would be insensitive, bigoted and unfair to point out the religious motivation behind the majority of terrorists. Besides, there are hundreds of millions of Muslims who don’t run around trying to kill innocent people. It’s important to keep from painting with too wide a brush.

This is true, but it’s also important to know your enemy. If there’s just a small percentage of Muslims who engage in terrorists acts then it’s important to find out what makes them different from the mainstream. And if it turns out that some Islamic cultures produce the majority of terrorists then it’s important to know that as well. This isn’t going to happen unless people take a cold, hard, realistic look at terrorism, as well as the conditions that produce them.

A new post at Strategypage.com takes the first step. (No permalinks, so please scroll down to the post dated October 26, 2004.) Please note that this list is of major acts performed by Islamic terrorists. Thos actions which were taken by non-Islamic movements, such as Communist insurgents, aren’t listed. Still, I think that the number of violent acts and the number of victims are very telling. SP makes the point that the number of victims claimed by every other non-Muslim terrorist act combined doesn’t equal the dead people that the Islamic terrorists have piled up. These guys are the champs at killing innocents

SP also says that Islamic news organizations have just started (in the past 2 months) to examine the fact that the majority of terrorists in the world are Islamic. If this erodes the wide base of support that these murderers enjoy in the Muslim world then it will actually do some good. But, for some reason, I’m not holding my breath.

Moral Outrage

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I was alive, though young, during the so-called Vietnam Era. The ranks of the Left were swelled by the aging Baby Boomers at this time as that enormous mass of population reached voting age. Like most young people, they looked for a way to find their adult identity by taking views opposite from their parents. Since their parents had come of age during WWII (when Nazism was defeated through overseas intervention) and the opening years of the Cold War (when the spread of communism was halted through armed conflict in Korea), the BB’s were almost compelled to embrace many lefty causes and parties. And the more radical and outrageous the better since it would provide a greater cry of outrage from shocked parents. (Sort of like the role that piercings and tattoos fill today.)

The stance that many of these kids took was simple enough to be easily understood, yet nuanced enough to lend the lie that they were deep thinkers. Foreign intervention was bad, particularly in the 3rd World countries being used by the superpowers as proxy battlegrounds. Communism was good, and any reports of massacres and mass graves were dismissed as right-wing propaganda while the tales of the excesses of anti-communist dictators were repeated ad nauseum in coffee houses and campus dorm rooms.

This would pretty much have resulted in nothing more than a few elections where the Democrat candidates had an advantage, if it wasn’t for the Vietnam War. Here was a case of a bungled proxy war on foreign soil, mishandled and mismanaged from the first, providing ample grist for the Left’s media machine. Many of these young BB’s had their first taste of adult responsibility when they marched in mass protests and risked arrest. These were heady times for young people.

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Anti-Semitism is a Cottage Industry in France

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Last week I wrote a post about how a new report from Israel predicts a bleak future. The report said that the European Union might very well levy sanctions against Israel due to the ongoing Palestinian problem. (And, of course, nothing will be done about the Arab terrorist groups infesting Palestinian society.)

Yesterday a report that French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin had ordered was published. The report concerns the growing tide of anti-Seminism that’s becoming ever more prevalent in France. A short summary would be that France is becoming a racist pit.

I’ve long said that the recent attacks against innocent Jewish people in France were carried out by Islamic immigrants that have arrived looking to sign up for some famous Gallic social programs. Not so, says the report. It would appear that even non-Islamic people are looking to beat up some Jews.

The report outlines a strategy for dealing with this alarming social trend.

“What we must convince the French people of is that anti-Semitism is the common enemy of Jews and the Republic” of France.

Uh huh. Freakin’ brilliant, that.

The news article linked to above goes on to say that a great deal of French hopes are riding on the back of that idiotic law they recently passed banning the display of conspicuous religious symbols or dress. You know, the one that was aimed at getting Islamic schoolgirls to take off their headscarves. Now the government appears to claim that it hasn’t worked since Sikhs won’t take off their turbans. The logic behind this is that it’s okay to pass a law discriminating against religion, just as long as it’s applied to every religion equally.

I can see that they’re not going to have progress for a long, long time. And should sanctions be imposed on Israel, I see France leading the charge.

PS: The Socialists seem to think that this is all just a tempest in a teapot since no Jews have been killed.

Bashing Kerry

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One of the things that has always frustrated me is the way that some individuals will place the blame for a traumatic event on someone who really has no responsibility for said event.

Case in point is this post from today’s Strategypage.com. (Post from October 18, 2004.) It would seem that Haiti’s current civil war is heating up, with more violence breaking out between the government and supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. But the real news is who the UN thinks is to blame.

The commander of the UN peacekeepers blames U.S. senator John Kerry for much of violence, because earlier this year Kerry said that if he were president he would have sent American troops to protect Aristide. This, the UN commander believes, encouraged Aristide’s followers to start fighting.

I really don’t agree with this at all. I doubt many people involved with the street fighting in Haiti have a great deal of interest in what a candidate for the US Presidency has to say in a speech in Iowa. The UN commander is probably just trying to lay the groundwork when someone inevitably blames him for not doing something. (Not that any UN commander in recent history has been able to do any real peacekeeping without the Anglosphere doing the heavy lifting.)

In related news, CNN reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged US voters to mark their ballots for President Bush this election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says terrorist attacks in Iraq are aimed at preventing the re-election of U.S. President George W. Bush and that a Bush defeat “could lead to the spread of terrorism to other parts of the world.”

While I don’t agree with the comments from the UN, I have to admit that the Russian President makes a great deal of sense.

(Now I’m agreeing with the Russians! How the world has changed in a few short years.)

We’ve All Seen This Coming

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A news item on the Reuters wire service reports on a 10 year projection prepared by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. It seems that they think there’s a very real possibility that the European Union will impose sanctions on Israel because of the ongoing Palestinian problem. Proponents of sanctions have been quick to compare the proposed sanctions to similar actions that were imposed on South Africa due to Apartheid.

To be frank, I’ve always been mildly surprised that the EU hasn’t gotten around to some sort of sanctions already. Most of the support that the Palestinians rely on to keep their terrorist war going comes from Europe, and hate crimes against Jews seem to be on the rise in some European countries. Added to this is the constant criticism of Israel’s actions against suspected terrorists while there’s a ringing silence when it comes to any Palestinian violence.

I’d have to say that, unless Palestinian society destroys itself after the security barrier is completed through civil war, things are unlikely to change. European opinion is always going to be weighted against Israel, and sanctions appear to be inevitable when the EU finally gets it’s act together and produces a unified foreign policy.