The War of Civilizations

Is it on?

David Warren, writing about the Islamist creation of grievances over the Danish cartoons, warns that it is:

Even after the experience of the Great War, and the Depression, people on the eve of the Hitler war could not appreciate what was coming. It is only in retrospect that we understand what happened as the 1930s progressed — when a spineless political class, eager at any price to preserve a peace that was no longer available, performed endless demeaning acts of appeasement to the Nazis; while the Nazis created additional grievances to extract more.This is precisely what is happening now, as we are confronted by the Islamist fanatics, whose views and demands are already being parroted by fearful “mainstream” Muslim politicians. We will do anything to preserve a peace that ceased to exist on 9/11. Not one of our prominent politicians dares even to name the enemy.

He claims things are moving too quickly. Quickly or slowly, they are moving somewhat insensibly, as in the famous “boiled frog” syndrome. If you throw a frog into boiling water, he jumps out. But if you put a frog into warm water and then turn it up to a boil, he will stay there and die. This seems a better analogy to me. Twenty years ago, no one in the West countenanced the Islamist “grievances” against Salman Rushdie. Today, there are plenty in the West who prefer to appease the Islamists on the cartoon question.

Comments

  1. John the Marine wrote:

    there is nothing to add… The above is the whole truth. (please send a copy of the above to DNC headquarters)

  2. Pixy Misa wrote:

    Actually, if you throw a frog into boiling water, it dies very quickly.

    What?

  3. John the Marine wrote:

    Forget the frogs (amphibian types)… The part about the spineless Europeans making the same mistake with Islam, that they made with the Nazis is the point I like. But hey, perhaps some good can out of this. Maybe the Frogs (the French kind) can live under an Islamic occupation (it will make the Nazi German occupation look like a day in the park). Then the U.S.A. and UK can come and pull their chestnuts out of the fire. It could be just like old times.

  4. Jack wrote:

    Well, then, bring it on, we still have the nukes to bomb literally back into the stone age any and all nations who disagree with us.

    Oh, too bad about all those imports we get from Asia. And that fallout, well, I guess we can live with the mutations.

    Sorry, Stephen, I expected a wee bit more critical thinking and analysis from you.

    Is it a clash of civilizations, or merely lazy thinking that is not willing to go outside of the comfort-box and examine ALL of the factors, including those that may not exactly put our own actions in a favorable light?

    All actions have their origins somewhere. What are the origins of the current actions in each place in the world?

    Think about it, the true, root origins, not the easily assigned “they hate us” thinking.

    Do you want to win the “war of civilizations”?

    The first step is to identify the true enemy, and I can tell you it is NOT Islamist extremism.

    Look to the East… and the huge reservoirs of population in both India and China, and then do the math of bell curves when it comes to talent and ability.

    Now you know why I have problems going to sleep at night, and it has nothing to do with al-Qaida and a nuclear bomb…

  5. Pixy Misa wrote:

    Look to the East… and the huge reservoirs of population in both India and China, and then do the math of bell curves when it comes to talent and ability.
    I keep doing this, and the answer keeps coming up “happy happy joy joy”. Where’s the fire?

  6. commissar wrote:

    Pixy,

    Is the old saw about the frog in the water wrong? Or did I mis-state it?

  7. commissar wrote:

    Jack,

    I’m not sure I advocated ‘bringing it on.’

    David Warren asks, “Is it already here?” And that’s a good question.

    I dont want to bomb anybody back to the Stone Age.

    But it’s 1938 right now.

  8. Alon Levy wrote:

    Is the old saw about the frog in the water wrong? Or did I mis-state it?

    According to Snopes, it’s wrong: a frog thrown into slowly heated water will jump out eventually.