Comments on: Video: “We’re fighting a radical religion in Islam,” says Huck’s Iowa campaign manager

By: Mark Jaquith

Mark Jaquith — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:54:24 +0000

The war on terror is obviously a theological war

Holy sh**, dude. Huck needs to explain that, and fast.

Is this anti-Paul thing reflexive? Who the heck said anything about Ron Paul?

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you. We’re in the ridicule stage. Paul represents a consistent and self-contained constitutional philosophy of freedom. It’s hard to attack on substance, because there aren’t many loose threads to tug on. They have to resort to saying that our founding fathers had a “9/10 mindset” or hype the threat of terrorism as something which could completely destroy our country, and thus justifies abandoning traditional constitutional principles for survival’s sake. Or they lie about Paul’s positions and say he’s an “isolationist,” or that he doesn’t want to tackle terrorism. Hopefully one day they’ll wake up and realize that knot of discontent in their stomach is there because they’ve completely lost sight of the important things in life.

Maybe 8 years of Hillary will jog their memory.

By: gabriel sutherland

gabriel sutherland — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:49:51 +0000

If Huckabee doesn’t refute the statements of Vander Plaats and he gets the nomination, the GOP has no chance of winning the general.

The Huckabee camp is a one trick pony. Religion, Pastor, Christian: tell me something I don’t know Huckabee.

By: NRA4Freedom

NRA4Freedom — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:18:47 +0000

God has a plan to take care of what we cannot…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zuYCM0g2kc

By: RightWinged

RightWinged — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:05:54 +0000

He was asked to clarify and then made it clear. Mike Huckabee’s Iowa campaign manager believes that we are in a theological war, and Huckabee being a pastor helps him. The implications are staggering.

sweeper on December 19, 2007 at 8:33 PM

Haha, it wasn’t sincerity, and it was meant to be funny (in part), but it went to the actual point… that sometimes people just aren’t the greatest speakers and say something they didn’t intend to. It’s a genuine slip, not the usual “I misspoke (read: I’m apologizing to save my political ass)”

By: Hening

Hening — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:58:33 +0000

Isn’t saying radical Islam like saying wet water?

By: Connie

Connie — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:44:57 +0000

Interesting. So which is it? “a radical religion in Islam?” or “radical Islamic group?”

It will be interesting to see if CAIR is writing polite letters to Huckabee tonight. Also to see if Huckabee learns anything about domestic jihad after those letters are delivered, or if he will issue an apology to CAIR.

But thanks, Huck, for proving me right. I said here that if Pastor Huck is elected, it will appear to be proof positive to bin Laden and Zawahiri that they were right when they said there is a Christian war on Islam. You think we have problems now?

My own views are known and not part of this story.

By: flipflop

flipflop — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:54:50 +0000

What is the distinction exactly in case I missed it? The suffix “-ism” suggests a 20th century political ideology yet the adherents of “Islamism” (Bin Laden for one) tend to quote pre-modern sources (”of which I dare not speculate”, quoth Hitchens). Did this political-military movement originate in 1964 when Yasser Arafat’s Black September group started to hijack aeroplanes and murder US diplomats?

aengus on December 19, 2007 at 8:19 PM

Here’s why I say there needs to be a distintion, if for no other reason than for public consumption:

“The war on terror is obviously a theological war”? Wow, and I already cast my vote for the quote of the year. If this tool is emblematic of the Huckabee surge in Iowa, then we have deeper problems than even I imagined.

sweeper on December 19, 2007 at 8:28 PM

By: jeanie

jeanie — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:32:31 +0000

I’m beginning to think that some of these Iowans have a very tenuous connection to the real world!

By: gator70

gator70 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:13:57 +0000

P. James Moriarty

Gotcha, agreed.

By: RedWinged Blackbird

RedWinged Blackbird — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:12:49 +0000

Just a word about ‘moderate’ Muslims before I call it a night. There are plenty of ‘moderate’ Muslims, but they are not who most Westerners think they are. They are non-militant Islamists. They embrace the Islamic ideal of a global caliphate. They neither endorse nor reject violence as a means of achieving their goal. Those Muslims who categorically reject violence and want to live at peace with the infidel world are liberal Muslims. They are the true small minority of extremists.

By: P. James Moriarty

P. James Moriarty — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:09:47 +0000

gator70 on December 19, 2007 at 10:01 PM

No argument. My only point is that we should fight this war as what it is, a war against a supremisist ideology. And BTW, it isn’t just the “radicals” who profess, fight, or spread the ideology. My worry is that the way things are shaping up, we will never, with todays political correctness, be willing to fight the war with the ferocity required to win it. It’s like we’re saying to Islam “just don’t attack us and do it to us slowly and we’re yours”. Makes me sick.

By: MB4

MB4 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:01:19 +0000

Good post MB4, says it better than I could have.

gator70 on December 19, 2007 at 9:54 PM

Your words were just fine.

Besides I “cheated” as I borrowed rather heavily from “A_Plague_on_Both_Houses”.

By: gator70

gator70 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:01:06 +0000

P. James Moriarty on December 19, 2007 at 9:53 PM

We fought WWII with absolutely no thought to collateral damage. The war was fought with the big picture in mind. We are trying to defeat Extremists with one had tied behind our moral backs. They will kill themselves to further a cause, and we worry and fret about waterboarding. In the old testament times the Jews would slaughter every man, woman, child and animal for ones reason. If nothing is left, it can’t grow back. In our “war on terrorism” we pull weeds and they grow back. I’m not advocating the wholesale slaughter of anyone, but therein lies our problem. We think we can fight wars with some sort of total moral compass. It is not possible.

By: aengus

aengus — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:57:00 +0000

The war on terror

No it is not like the Crusades in any way, shape or form.

By: gator70

gator70 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:54:16 +0000

Good post MB4, says it better than I could have.

By: P. James Moriarty

P. James Moriarty — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:53:12 +0000

As much as I believe Islam is the problem this is not a theological war for us. We should have no interest, whatsoever, of painting white crosses on tank turrets and missle warheads. Serial numbers and maybe a white star is spirit enough for me.

Limerick on December 19, 2007 at 9:39 PM

No reason we should. If we could only see past the fact that there is a “religious” component to Islam (and it is only one part of the Islamic whole) it becomes quite simple. We make war against an ideology that insists on making war on us until they cry “uncle”. We made war against the Germans generaly, but the goal was to crush the NAZI ideology. We didn’t wipe it out totaly (Ron Paul is still taking money from them) but now they are no longer capable of waging war against us. I personaly don’t see where the difference is other than the PC theological relitivism that abounds today. It, more than anything else, will get us all killed or subjugated under Muslim overlords.

By: MB4

MB4 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:51:01 +0000

Being a pastor, the new qualification for office. Does being a rabbi count, too?

Attila (Pillage Idiot) on December 19, 2007 at 9:03 PM

We can’t have any Rabbis.

They are even worse than those damn Mormons.

At least Mormons believe in Christ even though they think that he and the Devil are brothers.

By: sweeper

sweeper — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:50:50 +0000

Buzzy on December 19, 2007 at 9:43 PM

How do you equate not believing we are in a theological war with being “weak and spineless”? Apparently I don’t need the same motivation to identify the enemy as you do.
If indeed you believe this is a “theological war” what is your personal endgame?

By: MB4

MB4 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:46:02 +0000

Everybody talks about these mysterious Muslims who are all about peace. Where are they? Where? I never see them, they never say anything.

gator70 on December 19, 2007 at 9:02 PM

In medieval times, people created fairy tales and magical creatures to make sense of their world. One of the most endearing is the unicorn, a horse with a single horn that symbolized purity and wholesomeness. In our modern times, people in Europe and the United States consider themselves more sophisticated and rational than people from the Middle Ages, but we still create myths, albeit more subtle ones.

Daily we hear reports of violent acts committed by Islamic terrorists on every inhabited continent. We try to wish it away with the myth of the ‘Moderate Muslim’, telling ourselves the Islamic agenda has been’ hijacked’ by a ‘tiny minority of extremists’ and that soon the huge, silent, “moderate” majority of Muslims will take charge and change things. However, post 9/11 very few Muslims have condemned terrorist actions. We are still waiting for “moderates” to stand and deliver, identifying and removing extremist thugs from their mosques and their communities. Waiting for this self-correction is our modern version of unicorn searching.

Any “moderate” Muslims will not be able to wrest control of the agenda for several reasons. First of all, Mohammed, the Messenger of Allah’s eternal word, was not moderate. No “moderate” can legitimately tell another Muslim to stop doing the extremist things Mohammed himself did. Also, the Qur’an condones violence and coercion to further the Islamicagenda.
People whom we call “moderates” are labeled hypocrites by Allah Himself in the Qur’an. “Moderates” will always lose the argument because, as ex-Muslim author Ibn Warraq says, “There may be ‘moderates’ in Islam but Islam itself is not moderate.”

Islamic expert Daniel Pipes and others estimate ten percent of the Islamic world to be militant. In 1933 when the Nazi party took control of Germany it had 2 million members, comprising only three percent of Germany’s sixty-six million citizens. A tiny minority of extremists can control a vast number of “moderates”, making them irrelevant.

Placing hope in ‘The Moderate Muslim’ is like searching for
unicorns in the forest.
- A_Plague_on_Both_Houses

By: Buzzy

Buzzy — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:43:23 +0000

And somehow we think of the Democrats with their heads in the sand all through the 1990′s as radical Islam attacked us again and again and again. Take a look at some above and see that the GOP’s problem is that they’re as weak and spineless today as Clinton was then. No, a crusade isn’t required just someone who might still stand up and use the term Islamofascist after CAIR tells him to shut up would be refreshing.

By: Limerick

Limerick — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:39:43 +0000

By: gator70

gator70 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:39:42 +0000

I think I got off track on that last one, sorry, I need a vacation. I’m going to rent a movie about puppies and rainbows or something.

By: sweeper

sweeper — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:37:26 +0000

Is what a crusade? Criticism of Islam? The war in Iraq? The survival of Western Europe? The desire to remain Christian?

aengus on December 19, 2007 at 9:34 PM

The war on terror

By: gator70

gator70 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:34:53 +0000

War does not need to be declared to be at war. My point is, is that regardless of how many peaceful muslims there appears to be, there are enough extremists to cause us serious harm right here in our own comfy cozy country. If you really want to know what I think, I don’t think it is a religeous war. I think it’s human nature. The rest of the world is Jelous of us and are aligning against us. As we get socially weaker in this country those who are against us plot and plan and one day will bring it crashing down around us. I hope I am not around, because I don’t have a lot of faith in us as a whole. We are too soft. Current generations don’t know what it’s like to actually want or go to bed hungry. Think about it. Everyone always likes to see the big guy go down eventurally because we are all jelous of what they have and we don’t.That’s why we love stories about celebs and big company CEO’s that go down hard. It is no different for the rest of the world. Europe, Asia, South America, they are tired of watching us prosper as they just get by.

By: aengus

aengus — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:34:27 +0000

You neglected to answer the question.

sweeper on December 19, 2007 at 8:46 PM

How does one answer such a question?

“so is it a crusade?”

Is what a crusade? Criticism of Islam? The war in Iraq? The survival of Western Europe? The desire to remain Christian?