Koranic Cowardice

Does Pastor Jones have a right to burn a privately-owned Koran on private property? Yes.

Do I agree with Pastor Jones' decision to sear a Koran on the 'barbie? Yes.

I have read Dove World Outreach Center's detailed rationale for burning a Koran, and I find the explanation intelligent and reasonable. It is a political and a religious statement, and one of far greater clarity than anything issuing from the mouths of most politicians or jabbering heads on tv. One may accuse Jones and his congregation of many faults, but mindless, kneejerk hate is not one of them.

Since Dove World's ISP pulled their website -- ever a fine tactic when shaping public opinion toward the notion that opposing Islam is mere bigotry or kookery -- we must forgive a strange messageboard where the Church's statement of intention now is posted. I'll never look at Garfield the same way again.

I am disgusted by the rank cowardice on display from liberals and "conservatives," who see keeping the savages appeased as one of their chief societal aims. I loathe this Neville Chamberlain-esque capitulation, wherein we are told to keep petting the starving tiger, hoping for a purr, even as the rumblings in his belly move him to rend and tear and devour us.

General David Petraeus -- a man who no doubt would find himself more comfortable at a sewing circle -- clamped his teeth together and kept them from chattering long enough to inform us that Jones will "inflame public opinion and incite violence."

I'm sorry, is this some form of sick joke? Is Petraeus serious? Hey, General: given the close association of your head and your nethers, this probably hasn't occured to you: your words are an admission of defeat. You have just encapsulated in one hysterical soundbite why having troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is as productive as Stephen Hawking at a logging camp. If we accept the view that the pastor of a small church in Florida is endangering the lives of U.S. troops in the Middle East by burning his personal Koran in an act of symbolic political and religious speech, then the "winning of Muslim hearts and minds" is a lost cause. It's a mission that had zero chance of success from the start. What this reveals is that Muslims are an untameable tribe of barbarians -- united by religion -- bent on destroying civilizations and forcing everyone not of their clique into conforming with their ideals. Islam means "submission," and Muslims mean you. All of the sweat, blood, and tears poured out in Iraq and Afghanistan were wasted. All of the lives lost and the bodies broken were spent in a quixotic endeavor. From this point onward, we should dub all efforts in the Middle East "Operation: Windmill." This is not the position of a warrior. It is not the stand of a leader. Petraeus' complaint is the hand-wringing of a captive willingly baring his neck to the blade's edge. His comportment is disgraceful. It is the act of a dhimmi.

Petraeus should have kept his mouth shut, instead of stoking the flame while complaining about the heat. In media silence, he should have increased the military's watchfulness -- doubled the guard, so to speak -- and embarked upon a policy of meeting elevated jihadi violence with overwhelming, crushing force. "Staying the course" means not acquiescing to threats and intimidation from moral monsters; it does not mean smearing the reputations of those engaged in lawful acts, while giving those who would see us dead or enslaved a pass.

I do not agree with the Iraq or Afghanistan campaigns. I have explicated my reasons in past blog posts. I believe we should bring our good men and women home and leave those devils to their hell. Pray for their eternal souls, of course. Witness to them, if given a chance. But under no circumstances should we remain under the penumbra of illusion that Muslims value liberty as we understand it, or have esteem for our ideals. They are an ideologically foreign people with a worldview wholly incompatible with ours.

In their eyes, we are the aliens.