... to understand both "diversity" and "defeat."
How many of the people insisting on diversity and respect for women can verbally derive the Islamic position on sex roles from Koranic first principles? My bet would be that it's substantially less than 1%. My experience with the LGBT crowd's ability to derive the Catholic view of marriage, derived from our theological first principles, suggests that less than 0.01% can do so.
To the Ivy League diversity and justice folks, diversity is skin color and nummy-nums at their favorite ethnic restaurant. They have no appreciation for the substantive differences in cultures.
They also don't appreciate power relationships. Here in the US, they can silence you on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. You can be kicked out of school or shouted down. Your speakers can be disinvited. They don't have to hear you if they don't want because they have all the power.
We were just defeated in detail in Afghanistan. We don't have any power there any more. We are an artillery barrage and a wrecked C-17 from having all of our ground troops annihilated. They live because the Taliban wants them to live. If the Taliban change their minds, those guys are dead.
I used to wonder what it felt like to be a Japanese citizen and see IJN ships limp or be towed into harbor with terrible battle damage.
 |
| A Japanese watercolor showing rice farmers overlooking the wreckage of the IJN Ise. "Torn and seared she seemed a part of the rugged upheaved terrain -- and the handy rice workers would gaze out over her -- perhaps toward distant Hiroshima. Then they would turn again to their task, night soil had to be spread, the crops reaped." |
That's where we are right now, but our social justice warriors still think they wield some kind of power in Afghanistan. Yesterday, I heard a quote from Nancy Pelosi about how the Taliban needed to respect the rights of women and girls. Nancy doesn't understand either diversity or defeat. Listening to her is like listening to a recording of a Nazi propaganda broadcast from 1945 where they're still making demands as if everything is going swimmingly.
Nancy and the others aren't simply in denial now, they've been in denial all along. Now they deny defeat, but before they denied that unbridgeable cultural differences existed. Our academies are populated by people who have become deliberately ignorant about such things. They're turning out a professional class that cannot grasp them. To them, any deviation from the orthodoxy is hate, not a logical position which comes from a different set of basic assumptions about the world.
But that leads me finally to the delusional pundits, both red and blue, who demand, DEMAND that we rescue every single American in the country. Get over it, people. You aren't going to rescue any of them who can't make their way to Kabul airport on their own and do that before we pick up and leave. There will be thousands left behind.
Our only operational forces in the country are trapped in the equivalent of very small, regional airport. The only way they will leave that airport is when the C-17s fly them away or when they get killed and thrown into mass graves by the Taliban.
That's what it means to be utterly defeated.
13 comments:
The thing that made my father[1] despair when the soldiers were sent first into Afghanistan and then into Iraq, is that he saw that this was how it was going to end. "They're sending a lot of good men over to die for nothing. Again!" It is probably just as well that he didn't live to see this, it probably would have crushed him.
[1] He was an infantryman in Korea, and nearly lost his foot in a battle where most of his unit was killed. He never liked to talk about it much, just bits and pieces here and there, so I didn't find out which battle that was until I looked up his casualty record at the National Archives. It turns out he was in the Second Battle of Pork Chop Hill, which I gather has become something of a case study of a "pointless battle for land of no tactical or strategic value". I can understand why he felt that the army was in the habit of getting men killed for nothing.
I'm pretty forgiving of the whole nation building effort. We were naive and tried to do something good. That it failed is an indication of the irreconcilable differences in our cultures. Reading the Comanche book recently showed that we've faced this in the past with similar results.
I've been reading plenty of finger-pointing about the fruits of the last 20 years lately, but it feels like reds and blues yelling at each other. To me, the biggest fruit is that we're just about out of authorities was can still trust. I've howled about STEM losing it's mind and now the military has proven to be charlatans as well. I think that will have larger, long-range effects than terrorism.
Where do you go for actionable information when your professional class think the Earth is flat?
Big respect for your dad. My dad was out of Korea by then or he would have probably flown close air support for him. He did so at the Battle of the Imjin River two years earlier.
Here's one more point: How can you learn the lessons from history when all history must be interpreted through the Marxist victim-oppressor lens? The Taliban aren't all that different from the American Indians. You couldn't live with Comanche, Iroquois, Chickasaw or most of the others on your borders. Their young men rose in the tribe through killing and theft.
Similarly, can you live with a Muslim society on your border? They are enjoined to spread Islam to all the world. Parts of the Koran tell you to be nice, parts tell you to grab a gun and start shooting.
As far as I can tell, we're not allowed to say either of these statements at our universities.
The thing I keep thinking is kind of the flip side of that: what on earth makes us think that the citizens of other countries, no matter how ill-governed, will actually welcome having US troops come in, kick their government to pieces, and then install our own toadies?
I am pretty sure that, if our positions were reversed and the US were the country that had been invaded, only a minority would just roll over and accept it. And anyone fighting against the invaders would be regarded as heroes and freedom-fighters regardless of their ideology.
Basically, I think we should make more of an effort to apply the golden rule to international affairs. Why should we expect other countries to accept treatment from us, that we would never accept ourselves?
Agreed. The whole thing is predicated on our cultural superiority. "Why, who wouldn't want cell phones and women in positions of power?"
We say that because we don't grasp how they see the world.
K T Cat
Similarly, can you live with a Muslim society on your border? They are enjoined to spread Islam to all the world. Parts of the Koran tell you to be nice, parts tell you to grab a gun and start shooting.
As far as I can tell, we're not allowed to say either of these statements at our universities.
Lots of people say similar stuff at universities, but are often rebutted by the presence of actual Muslims(many second- or third-generation) who are trying to live the American dream. It's never as simple as "they're Christian" or "they're Muslim", Indian Muslims tend to make better neighbors than Russian Christians, from what I can tell.
OB
Obviously when we speak of large groups and cultures we are sweeping many details under the rug such as by a statement like “a muslim society on your border”. Yet I wonder if Indian Hindus would agree that having Pakistani Muslims on their border isn’t pleasant. Further I would wager a 5-spot that more of the problems are due to “a muslim society on your border” than any other religion.
Ohioan@Heart,
Have you ever seen Bollywood? One of the biggest names is Aamir Khan (Khan being an Islamic name in India, and Aamir himself is a Muslim). Indians don't seem to have an issue with Muslims being among their celebrities, so I doubt it is Pakistan's Islamic identity that is the issue. Bangladesh, the eastern Islamic neighbor that was formerly part of India as a whole, has generally very good relations with India.
So, perhaps the problems between India and Pakistan have other causes than being Islamic per se?
Perhaps you see a Muslim issue in the China-Tibet disputes? Russia-Ukraine? Nicaragua-Colombia?
Of course, there are a lot of Islamic countries, so I have no doubt there are many Islamic countries with border disputes. I doubt the the number is severely out of proportion.
Actually, if you look at the wars around the world, almost all of them involve a Muslim nation on at least one side.
So, yeah, like the Comanche / Apache, you can't live with them on your border.
This took 30 seconds to find:
August 1947: Following the end of British rule, British India was partitioned into India and Pakistan. The provincial division was based on Hindu and Muslim majorities, which caused mass migration for those that did not live in the majorities. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in communal violence resulting in an atmosphere of hostility that has remained for decades. The Jammu and Kashmir regions have been disputed since partition, with Pakistan and India both claiming ownership.
Looking at the top five:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts
1) Mostly 'christian nation invades a Muslim nation on the other side of the world (not on their border)
2) Christians on both sides
3) Muslims on both sides
4) The Tigray War is between two sides that are religiously diverse
5) A Bhuddist majority cracking down on an Muslim minority
So, I don't see where Muslims are disproportionately represented here. Muslims are about a third of the world, and involved in about a third of the conflicts.
Mostly Nothing said...
This took 30 seconds to find:
Exactly.
I am making $200 to $300per hour doing online work from home. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life.if you interested...Go to this link, fill out a basic online form and hit submit at,Home Profit System And Follow The instructions as Home Profit System And Set Up your AcCount.......GOOD LUCK READ★★ MORE
Post a Comment