Opinions on what happened September 11, 2012 and the aftermath

Victor Davis Hanson  writing at PJMedia
....Mr. President, do not obsess  over the pretext of the day. Terry Jones is only as crude as Andres Serrano and his Piss Christ, which I don’t recall warranted a personal call from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to the artist to cool it, much less a federal effort to detain a Coptic filmmaker. Sometimes Muslims will rage at a Rushdie novel, sometimes at a papal reference to a Byzantine letter, and at other times at a supposedly flushed or torched Koran. Or maybe a grainy amateurish video will be set them off to kill a nun, blow up a priest, burn down an embassy, or assassinate a Western ambassador.  There are three-hundred-million-plus free-thinking Americans, and thus at least that many possible “slights” — if you choose to go down that road of blaming free expression rather than the primeval mind that objects to it.

The opportunities for Muslims in the Middle East to be outraged at the West in general and the U.S. in particular are legion. You, Mr. Obama, the most powerful of all Americans, must remember that these totems are mere tools of an al-Qaeda, a Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic Jihad — or whatever the particular aggrieved party calls itself this week. They are no more than crude pretexts to direct fury among their ignorant and impoverished masses at opportune times against the United States, and thereby gain power.

In that regard, each time we castigate a Rushdie, a Danish cartoonist, a U.S. soldier, or a nut like Terry Jones, we simply play into the hands of the Islamists. The latter are thrilled when American grandees look weak, desperate, and only too eager to fall over themselves in undermining their own singular Constitution and distancing themselves from their own values. Far better it would be to say, one time — and only one time: “We cherish and protect freedom of expression and abhor censorship and violence; if that bothers you, it bothers you.” End of story...........

Lars Hedegaard writing at RightSideNews:
Those who planned and executed 9/11 were eminently aware that the attack was yet another strike in the war between Islam and the rest of the world that has been going on for 1400 years, and we – the intended victims of Islam’s war of aggression – had better wise up to this fact.

Our leaders refuse to do so but we and our friends around the world shouldn’t follow leaders that are trying to lead us into the abyss.

We have no right to follow such leaders. We owe it to our fellow men and to our children to go on the counteroffensive against the forces of darkness with all our might.

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of dining with that eminent authority on Islamic history, professor Bernard Lewis, in Princeton. I asked him who he thought would win the 1400-year war between Islam and non-Islam.

He answered: ”It is hard to win a war if you refuse to acknowledge that you are under attack.”
That is precisely what our Western governments, our mainstream press, our so-called academic experts and, sadly, many of our church leaders have steadfastly refused to acknowledge for the past decades since Islam’s modern incursion into the West took off about thirty years ago.

Not only are these blind people trying to lead the blind. They are using every instrument at their disposal to silence those who have faced reality and tried to speak out about it..........

Daniel Greenfield at his blog:
....The past week has shown us  what a Post-American world looks like and it isn't a batch of treaties that lead to men and women from around the world meeting to decide how to feed the hungry, clothed the naked and take everyone's guns away to banish violence from the world. It's mobs of violent savages ransacking embassies while their suited brethren use it to explain to our decadent leaders that the only way we will have peace is if we let them decide what sections of the Bill of Rights we get to keep.

Forget the UN, the Post-American order isn't a blue flag, it's a black flag with Mohammed on it. There are far more people in the world who believe in a world order based on the violent ravings of a 7th Century madman than the number of people who believe in a world order based on 19th Century European wishful thinking. And it helps that the supporters of 7th Century violence over 19th Century internationalism are far more willing to use murderous violence to get their way.

The burning embassies and authorities scurrying to intimidate the Mohammed filmmaker into making some kind of apology or going to jail, as their British predecessors bullied Salman Rushdie into doing, reveal the naked order of the new world. It isn't a place of treaties or laws, but of naked force and we will not be the ones doing the forcing...........


Glenn Reynolds writing at his blog:
.....When taking office, the President   does not swear to create jobs. He does not swear to “grow the economy.” He does not swear to institute “fairness.” The only oath the President takes is this one:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

By sending — literally — brownshirted enforcers to engage in — literally — a midnight knock at the door of a man for the non-crime of embarrassing the President of the United States and his administration, President Obama violated that oath. You can try to pretty this up (It’s just about possible probation violations! Sure.), or make excuses or draw distinctions, but that’s what’s happened. It is a betrayal of his duties as President, and a disgrace.

He won’t resign, of course. First, the President has the appreciation of free speech that one would expect from a Chicago Machine politician, which is to say, none. Second, he’s not getting any pressure. Indeed, the very press that went crazy over Ari Fleischer’s misrepresented remarks seems far less interested in the actions of an administration that I repeat, literally sent brown-shirted enforcers to launch a midnight knock on a filmmaker’s door.

But Obama’s behavior — and that of his enablers in the press — has laid down a marker for those who are paying attention. By these actions he is, I repeat, unfit to hold office. I hope and expect that the voters will agree in November.........