Target Centermass

Category: Europe

  • When the Killers Come for the Kids

    Ralph Peters has published a column condemning the yesterday’s Russian school massacre and calling out Muslims to stand up and salvage the so-called “religion of peace.” (Hat-tip to lgf)

    THE mass murder of children revolts the human psyche. Herod sending his henchmen to massacre the infants of Bethlehem haunts the Gospels. Nothing in our time was crueler than what the Germans did to children during the Holocaust. Slaughtering the innocents violates a universal human taboo.

    Or a nearly universal one. Those Muslims who preach Jihad against the West decided years ago that killing Jewish or Christian children is not only acceptable, but pleasing to their god when done by “martyrs.”

    It isn’t politically correct to say this, of course. We’re supposed to pretend that Islam is a “religion of peace.” All right, then: It’s time for Muslims to stand up for the once-noble, nearly lost traditions of their faith and condemn what Arab and Chechen terrorists and blasphemers did in the Russian town of Beslan.

    If Muslim religious leaders around the world will not publicly condemn the taking of children as hostages and their subsequent slaughter — if those “men of faith” will not issue a condemnation without reservations or caveats — then no one need pretend any longer that all religions are equally sound and moral.

    Islam has been a great and humane faith in the past. Now far too many of its adherents condone, actively or passively, the mass murder of school kids. Instead of condemnations of the Muslim “Jihadis” responsible for butchering more than 200 women and children in cold blood, we will hear spiteful counter-accusations about imaginary atrocities supposedly committed by Western militaries.

    Well, the cold fact is that Western soldiers, whether Americans, Brits, Russians or Israelis, do not take hundreds of children hostage, then shoot them in cold blood while detonating bombs in their midst. The Muslim world can lie to itself, but we need lie no longer.

    Peters then goes on to tie this tragedy of innocence lost to the West’s efforts against Islamic terror.

    As they inevitably do, the terrorists reminded the world of their heartless barbarism. Even if France manages to beg the release of its kidnapped journalists in Iraq, it has begun to sense its vulnerability. And all Europeans with a vestige of sense will recognize that the school seizure in Russia could easily repeat itself in Languedoc or Umbria, Bavaria or Kent.

    An attack on children is an attack on all of humanity.

    No matter what differences Western states discover to divide them, the terrorists will bring us together in the end. Their atrocities expose all wishful thinking for what it is.

    A final thought: Did any of those protesters who came to Manhattan to denounce our liberation of 50 million Muslims stay an extra day to protest the massacre in Russia? Of course not.

    The protesters no more care for dead Russian children than they care for dead Kurds or for the hundreds of thousands of Arabs that Saddam Hussein executed. Or for the ongoing Arab-Muslim slaughter of blacks in Sudan. Nothing’s a crime to those protesters unless the deed was committed by America.

    The butchery in Russia was a crime against humanity. In every respect. Was any war ever more necessary or just than the War on Terror?

    I first came across Ralph Peters in ’93 when I read his novel The War in 2020. The book, written in 1991, has become somewhat dated by actual events since, but it is an excellent and thrilling read based on the U.S., struggling to escape a stagnation of its military, sending an expedition to assist the struggling Russians against militant Islamic invaders.

  • Republicans Showing No Amour for France

    I was torn between using the headline of this article or substituting my own, which would’ve been “French Press Begs for GOP Reach-Around.”

    More than a year after falling out with the United States over the Iraq war, France is still a prime target for the rage of Republicans, who are not showing much amour for the longtime US ally.

    Democrat John Kerry may be enemy number one but France is a close number two at the chest-thumping Republican national convention, where the word Paris is code for weakness, indecision and international cooperation.

    “Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations,” Senator Zell Miller said in a thundering address to the party faithful on Wednesday.

    “Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending. I want Bush to decide,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

    As usual, the Frenchies don’t get it. The Republicans know who the enemies are — radical Islamic terrorists. Kerry is a political opponent and France is an obstacle, a target of deserved ridicule doing all it can to hamstring our efforts while doing nothing to ensure its own long-term security. Unless you count headscarves on kids.

    France helped lead opposition to the Iraq war on the UN Security Council, which set off an orgy of French-bashing nationwide last year.

    Bottles of champagne were emptied into sewers, French cheeses went unsold on store shelves and angry US politicians called to rename America’s favourite snack “Freedom Fries.”

    After it emerged during the presidential campaign that Kerry spoke the language, he reportedly stopped giving interviews with foreign media in French, for fear of giving the Bush camp more ammunition.

    The connection between anti-French anger and Kerry’s policy statements — which sometimes don’t sound much different than what comes out of the French government — has been an easy one for critics to make.

    This all makes me chuckle.

    The article then wraps up with this:

    …Italy is now one of the staunchest US allies on the war on terror, robbing Republicans of at least one European nation to target with scorn and abuse.

    But they shouldn’t worry: they’ll always have Paris.

    That’s just it — anybody can have Paris. Took about a month using WWII-era technology.

  • 65 Years Ago Today

    Wow, a coworker just mentioned the date and it suddenly dawned on me that today is the 65th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland and the start of World War II. I finally found a news story about it.

    Poland’s prime minister marked the 65th anniversary of the start of the Second World War on Wednesday, unveiling a new memorial on the spot where a German warship fired the opening shots at a Polish munitions depot, sparking nearly six years of bloody conflict.

    The ceremony began to the wailing of sirens on the Westerplatte peninsula in the Baltic port of Gdansk at 4:45 a.m., the exact time that the German ship Schleswig-Holstein shelled the depot and its 182-strong garrison on Sept. 1, 1939, starting the war that left an estimated 50 million dead, including six million European Jews at the hands of the Nazis.

  • Italy Mourns Hostage Killed in Iraq

    The news of the killing of kidnapped journalist has hit our allies in Italy.

    Italians woke up to news of the killing of Enzo Baldoni, a 56-year old freelance journalist who had been held hostage in Iraq. His kidnappers, a militant group calling itself “The Islamic Army in Iraq,” had given Italy 48-hours to withdraw its troops from Iraq or Mr. Baldoni would be killed. The deadline expired Thursday afternoon.

    Following news of the killing, Italian head of state Carlo Azeglio Ciampi wrote a message to the family saying all Italians are in mourning over the journalist’s death.

    Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi condemned what he called the “barbaric” killing, saying there are no words to describe an act lacking any humanity.

    The prime minister expressed solidarity with the family, particularly the two children who had launched an appeal “with love and dignity”, but which, the prime minister added, “unfortunately turned out to be useless because it was directed at people who evidently had no heart to listen.”

    Mr. Berlusconi made clear Italy’s policies will not change and he says Italian forces will stay in Iraq to help restore peace and democracy in the country.

    Berlusconi’s firm stance in continuing the war stands in stark contrast to the limp-wristedness shown by Spain and the Philipines. Unfortunately, not all Italians share this strength.

    The Italian government has 3,000 troops in Iraq but anti-war sentiment runs high in Italy with many opposed to keeping Italian troops in the country. Mr. Baldoni was the second Italian hostage to be killed.

    One member of the opposition, Green’s leader Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, summed up the feelings of many people in the street after hearing of the killing.

    “We are wondering”, the Greens leader said, “how many more deaths are necessary before we recognize this war was a tragic mistake.”

    And I am wondering how many more murders, bombings and atrocities are necessary before the Greens and others like them recognize the nature of our enemy and the need for this war. Ah, well, they were also on the wrong side of history in the Cold War. Otto von Bismarck once said, “Any fool can profit from his own mistakes. The wise man profits from those of others.” Otto never met the Euro Greens or he would’ve amended “any fool” to “any but the really exceptional fools.”

  • International Team to Monitor Presidential Election

    Okay, I’ve been away all day so I’m probably late on any news I post. Will that stop me? Not gonna happen.

    It seems that the U.S. has asked for international observers for November’s presidential elections.

    The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was invited to monitor the election by the State Department. The observers will come from the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

    It will be the first time such a team has been present for a U.S. presidential election.

    I heard about this on the radio and immediately knew I was going to post my opposition to this move. Ahh, but there’s one little tidbit that did not make the radio broadcast.

    “The U.S. is obliged to invite us, as all OSCE countries should,” spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said. “It’s not legally binding, but it’s a political commitment. They signed a document 10 years ago to ask OSCE to observe elections.”

    ….

    OSCE, the world’s largest regional security organization, will send a preliminary mission to Washington in September to assess the size, scope, logistics and cost of the mission, Gunnarsdottir said.

    The organization, which counts among its missions conflict prevention and postconflict rehabilitation, will then determine how many observers are required and where in the United States they will be sent.

    “OSCE-participating [nations] agreed in 1990 to observe elections in one another’s countries. The OSCE routinely monitors elections within its 55-state membership, including Europe, Eurasia, Canada and the United States,” a State Department spokesman said.

    The spokesman said the United States does not have any details on the size and composition of the observers or what countries will provide them.

    OSCE, based in Vienna, Austria, has sent more than 10,000 personnel to monitor more than 150 elections and referenda in more than 30 countries during the past decade, Gunnarsdottir said.

    In November 2002, OSCE sent 10 observers on a weeklong mission to monitor the U.S. midterm elections. OSCE also sent observers to monitor the California gubernatorial recall election last year.

    So, it seems that their presence is not exactly unprecedented and, to some degree, demanded by our international agreements. I still disagree, but now I also disagree with our membership in an organization I admittedly had not heard of until today.

    The sad thing is that, for most of the members of this organization, I would wager that anything they know about free elections they learned from us. Also, for many of them, the main reasons they have free elections now is the valor of Americans in WWI and WWII and the courage and strength of Ronald Reagan.

  • Take Me Out to the Ballpark

    I’m heading out to catch tonight’s Frisco Rough Riders game and stuff myself with stadium food.

    Since any blogging I do today will be late, I felt I’d point you to the latest by Victor Davis Hanson (tip of the CVC to lgf).

    In a word, we have devolved into an infantile society in which our technological successes have wrongly suggested that we can alter the nature of man to our whims and pleasures — just like a child who expects instant gratification from his parents. In a culture where affluence and leisure are seen as birthrights, war, sacrifice, or even the mental fatigue about worrying over such things wear on us. So we construct, in a deductive and anti-empirical way, a play universe that better suits us.

    In that regard, for the moment George Bush is a godsend. His drawl, Christianity, tough talk, ramrod straight strut — all that and more become the locus of our fears: French and Germans on the warpath? They must have been Bushwhacked, not angry that their subsidized utopia — from a short work week, looming pension catastrophe, and no national defense — is eroding.

    Oh, and I’ve decided that minor league baseball is a far superior product when compared to the major league version. Maybe not better play, but much more bang for the buck. Hustle and effort sans the egos. Not to mention how nice Frisco’s ballpark is, and how good the hot dogs are.

  • EU to Question Palestinian Prisoners About Terror Funding

    The European Union has asked Israel for permission to interview jailed Palestinian terrorists as part of investigation into a possible redirection of EU funds to terror groups.

    The European Union wants to carry out interviews with Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel. The investigations are part of an inquiry launched last year by the EU anti-fraud unit at the request of the European parliament.

    A parliamentary inquiry in April found no conclusive evidence that the Palestinian Authority misused EU funds. But some European lawmakers questioned the report and asked for more inquiries by the anti-fraud office.

    The European Union is the biggest foreign donor to the Palestinian Authority and provides more than $96 million a month to fund Palestinian public salaries.

    EU investigators visited Israel earlier this year and reviewed Palestinian Authority documents seized by Israel and also heard testimony by members of Israel’s secret police.

    $96 frickin’ million a month. If some of that’s not going to terrorism, it’s at least freeing up other money to go to the bad guys. The EU just wants to look at the books and not see the big picture.

  • Terrorists Threatening Coalition Countries Left and Right

    Islamic terrorists have released threats against Australia and Italy, as well as Poland and Bulgaria. These follow earlier threats against Japan.

    A top security official at NATO says the decision by the Philippines to withdraw its small contingent to gain the release last week of a Philippine truck driver kidnapped by militants probably sparked the most recent threats.

    Terrorists, give ’em and inch and they’ll carbomb a mile. Oh, and I just wanted to send another thanks to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Philippine president and Manila folder.

  • French Consulate Demands Respect

    Apparently, manners are now a must when visiting French consulates.

    In a sign that relations between Washington and Paris remain a bit testy, a notice on the front door of the French Consulate in New York warns Americans applying for a visa to check their attitude before entering.
    “Visas for France are not a right. Persons applying for visas are requested to show due respect for Consular personnel. Failure to do so will result in the denial of the application and denied entry into any of the EU countries,” says the sign posted in English at the French Consulate at 10 East 74th St., referring to the European Union.

    Someone must’ve gotten a tad snippy. Nevertheless, I somehow doubt the entire EU has surrendered control of their borders to French veto. Oh, but I forget, Bush is the one with the arrogance problem.

  • Israel to Sideline EU after UN Vote on Security Fence

    Fed up with the partisan U.N. vote against its security barrier, Israel has said the European Union is possibly kaput as a player in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

    Israel made clear to senior European officials at United Nations headquarters yesterday that “it will be very difficult in the future to include the EU as a party in efforts to advance the peace process,” after the European Union joined the sweeping majority that passed an extreme resolution on the separation fence.

    In a round of talks with EU representatives, Israeli diplomats stated that “the atmosphere created at the UN following passage of a one-sided resolution makes it doubtful that the EU, UN, and Quartet will be able to play the role of honest broker.”

    Israel said that by backing the resolution, “EU countries ignored even Israel’s right to defend itself. How can Israel place its future in your hands?”

    Right now, why would anyone place their security in the hands of Europe. Even the likes of Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic refused to side with Israel or, at the very least, abstain (kudos to Australia for their nay vote, and a mild golf clap Canada for their abstention).

    Playing their usual role, the Europeans immediately took their traditional two steps backwards.

    Several European ambassadors tried to assuage Israel’s anger. “We succeeded in balancing the wording of the resolution,” a senior European diplomat told an Israeli colleague.

    Senior EU officials also pledged that “we won’t support additional measures that [Nasser] al-Kidwa is planning,” referring to the PLO observer to the UN.

    I’ve studied a lot of history, but I have yet to come across the moment in time when so many Europeans became invertebrates.