Is there no one that has the brass ones to just go in and entirely flatten the freakin’ Middle East!
theRealMcCoy on September 23, 2008 at 10:12 AM

I can empathise with your frustration but Islam spreads far beyond the M.E. There are Muslims and Islam inspired problems on every continent. Flattening the M.E. might make some people feel better but wouldn’t really solve the problem.

We pay Islam to cause us trouble. We have enriched Muslims by paying them to allow us to extract and use the oil beneath their feet. Europe gives home to millions of disenfranchised Muslims from Asia and Africa, enriching them through its welfare handouts.

Those who plot against us do so using technology, infrastructure, legal instruments, and hence power, that they could never attain by themselves. They live amongst us, drawing from our strengths in pursuit of their diabolical ambitions.

Islam is a parasite ideology; If the non-Islamic support system is removed, Islam will wither.

Islam is the product of a barbarous mindset. …

OldEnglish on September 22, 2008 at 6:59 PM

I agree with the above comment entirely and very much respect your desire to find the origin of the barbarity and not be satisfied with trite accusations.

However, my reading of the Koran suggests to me that Mohammed was trying to limit the barbarity and the tribalism of those around him. Thus Islam is a product of the mindset of Mohammed and his early barbaric followers but the barbarity that Islam then inspires and propagates is not identical to that existing prior to Islam.

Consequently I think it is now fair to say that the violent Muslims are inspired by Islam.

There are of course barbarians who are not Muslims. Every society has those, but they seem to simply follow their lusts into common idleness, thuggery, thievery and molestation. Islam adds the divine mandate for such things and its inspiration gives barbarity an added zeal and specific goals.

I think I see the distinction you are making but in terms of the battle that needs to be won, I can’t see how it is helpful to minimise the role of Islam.

okay I feel better after that rant

I agree another vehicle could have hauled that thing out of there but the personnel dont appear trained to have been expecting this.

I would like to know these friendly Muslims you speak of though. Those on a western payroll don’t count though.

I’d like to hear from soldiers who have had dealings with the Mohammedans first hand. Last pulse I remember was that none did have faith or trust in Muslims when it came to the bottom line.

When your president says what he does about Islam and your authorities have banned the word Jihadist from usage, when the men who guard your fate would be lost without their Muslim aides then it is already to late for the needed debate on Islam. Your will fight religion hijackers, disaffected youths, restive insurgents or whatever non Islamic connected group you care to imagine, forever.

Well not forever, just till your financially and spiritually exhausted and just find it easier to appease what you do not understand rather than discover what ails you. You see that beginning already when a fantasized showdown with the Commie Russkies seemed a welcome relief to the war on WTF.

I am very pessimistic about the short term. Of course Obama would be worse but McCain will have BadgerHawks view and the blindness will continue. The long term is a toss up.

Having been driven out of Iraq despite Barack Obama’s heroic efforts on their behalf, al Qaeda’s western wing (as opposed to the eastern wing in Pakistan) has found a new home – which they, er, christened with a bang: Yemen,……

YiZhangZhe on September 22, 2008 at 4:18 PM

I do realize that it is easy to equate Islam with barbarism, but it would be incorrect. Islam is the product of a barbarous mindset. Does anyone truly believe that, before 622 AD, there was no barbaric behaviour in that region – and all other regions where Islam has taken fervent hold?

Communism was founded in England, yet failed to take hold among the working class there. They are not stupid. (Although stupid enough to agitate foe Socialism).

I have always believed that, in analyzing a situation, one should always go back to the beginning and ask – why is it so? 622 AD was not the beginning.

The vehicle could have been bulldozed a block away, as it smoldered, and hotel spared serious damage, and any loss of life, had there been properly serious precautions involved.

Too many Muslims in Pakistan are living in a Koranically-fatalistic state (”Inshallah” indifference to life) and cannot be trusted to do anything but abet further terrorism through inaction, delusion and collusion.

The unwillingness to recognise Islam as the prime cause is precisely why Islam is being allowed to grow unchecked in Europe.

I think there’s a lot of public unease and simmering below the surface, you can see it in the comments sections of right-leaning European newspapers. The idea of civil strife in overcrowded countries with huge Muslim populations (Britain, the Netherlands) is truly horrible to contemplate. Hence the sullen muttering among the majority population. The far right parties are growing all over as a response, however.

I don’t think that it is. It is merely a tool, currently being used by a mindset that would still be savage, even if Islam did not exist.

OldEnglish on September 22, 2008 at 12:22 PM

I’d like to disagree. I think it is extremely important that we recognise that there is an ideology that inspires these acts of barbarity, and its name is Islam. These people do not act in an ideological vacuum; they may not understand or follow every last detail of the Koran but they get their attitudes and values from Islam. Other barbarians do not have an ideology that they want to spread but Islam is designed to propogate barbarity; that is its purpose, its raison d’etre: It is barbaric and it is designed (either by man or demon as you please) to spread itself.

Islam is a parasite ideology; it does not bring an alternative form of civilisation, but merely weakens and incapacitates whatever civilisation is stupid enough to let it feed.

The unwillingness to recognise Islam as the prime cause is precisely why Islam is being allowed to grow unchecked in Europe.

With the presidential debate on foreign policy and national security coming up this week, readers will want to be keenly aware of the developments inside Pakistan, especially the bombing of……

… their temperament is edgier and the language they use to express themselves a bit more, um, brutally frank than we are accustomed to.

ManlyRash on September 22, 2008 at 11:37 AM

I would propose that, if we are to survive, brutal frankness will have to become the norm.

Nuanced engagement of your enemy often leads to uncertain or less-than-desired results. Anything less than brutal frankness plays into the hands of those who presently desire to kill us. Brutal frankness needs to be followed by hitting fast, hitting hard and hitting often, until the message has been delivered and understood with brutal clarity.

Might be a tool, buts one thats been used since by Muslims since the conception of Islam.

That’s right. Didn’t Mohammed approve of the assassination of people who opposed or ridiculed him? I would also like a definition of Muslims who are on our side, by the way.

I believe that terrorist is too general a term to describe the true nature of these individuals.
Agent of the Cross on September 22, 2008 at 11:33 AM

I agree that ‘terrorist’ is an imprecise and unhelpful term that describes neither the behaviour, the motivation, nor the effect. In particular it doesn’t indicate that we are talking about people who are inspired by Islam and thus fails to identify the enemy or the cause of the problem.

Why not just call them ‘violent muslims’ or ‘muslim bombers’? That way you have a label that describes both the immediate deed without ignoring the vile ideology that motivated it. These terms are moderately precise, succinct, accurate and non-insulting.

Being PC hasnt helped in this war since 9-11, the UK is now a semi sharia state and its even creeping here in the US.

Elric66 on September 22, 2008 at 11:23 AM

Yep, that’s right. US is a semi-sharia state.
What the hell are you smoking? Idiots like you are the reason that conservatives get such a bad stereotype.

Been there, done that, got through security. – Right_of_Attila on September 22, 2008 at 1:52 PM

Haven’t been there. Haven’t done that. And security beat the sh!t out of me. :-)

The weapons designers at Sandia-Livermore would be amused.

Right_of_Attila on September 22, 2008 at 11:19 AM

I am. Tritium is used to boost the yield by contributing neutrons (a LOT of them) to increase the number of reactions in a given period of time. More reactions = bigger (and faster) bang.

BobMbx on September 22, 2008 at 11:41 AM

Been there, done that, got through security.

Allahpundit on September 22, 2008 at 12:06 PM

AP,

I should have recognized that Ed does not use sloppy analogies in his reasoning. Reading taglines is difficult on my blackberry.

Your quote also was incorrect on the nature of a Thermobaric device. Thermobaric weapons use atmospheric oxygen to increase the effect of their blast, not metal particles.

It’s derogatory. The comments here reflect on Ed, AP and The Boss. Making a generalized slur against all Muslims isn’t helpful in that respect. If, by using the term Koranimal, Agent means terrorist, then just say terrorist.

BadgerHawk on September 22, 2008 at 11:20 AM

Friend,

I challenge you to find parts of the Koran that demand patience and understanding for enemies, or unbelievers. I’ll save you some time, they don’t exist.

If we were to call true Islam a “religion of peace”, we would be insulting its followers. Truth be known, true Islam has been a religion of war, brutality, intolerance, violence, and hatred since Muhammad developed and organized the religion (this was, of course, after he was renowned as a pedophile and violently waged war on Arabia, killing or converting every Arab that he came in contact with forcibly.

Any person that does not recognize Islam as the violent, hate mongering religion that it is, suffers from their own delusional state of mind. That being the case, if they live in the U.K., they should commit suicide as not to be a drain on the National Healthcare System.

This attack represents a turning point in terrorist’s capability to bomb buildings from the checkpoint area.

Previously, they had to drive the truck up next to the building, or crash through the checkpoint to get to the front of the building.

Now, they can drive to the checkpoint and blast away.

This is very alarming.

Agreed, Europe is well on the way – though not through terrorism, but migration.

OldEnglish on September 22, 2008 at 12:49 PM

Same ideology, different approach. They all want the same thing, just use different methods.

Europe hasnt and its a generation or 2 from being an Islamic state.

Elric66 on September 22, 2008 at 12:31 PM

Agreed, Europe is well on the way – though not through terrorism, but migration.

Terrorists showed that one of the most secure buildings in Islamabad was still vulnerable to attack

My father has stayed in that hotel and was involved in embassy security measures. When I talked to him about the bombing he said that while there are a lot of security measures around the place, it just wasn’t very secure and really couldn’t be made all that secure (I’m guessing by nature of it’s location and the surroundings – he didn’t elaborate). In his words: “I don’t understand why Marriott Hotels didn’t get rid of that pig a long time ago”.

Anyway, too bad they weren’t able to get that fire put out but as others have said, it would be worth checking into if another means (backup or remote) of detonation was used.