Christopher Htichens Reviews Mark Steyn's America Alone

When worlds collide.

He likes it, overall, but with pointed criticisms, of course. It's really a review of the current War Against the West more than a review of one man's book about it. Worth reading in full, especially Hitchens' suggested eight-point plan for defeating Islamist lunacies.

But...

2. A strong, open alliance with India on all fronts, from the military to the political and economic, backed by an extensive cultural exchange program, to demonstrate solidarity with the other great multiethnic democracy under attack from Muslim fascism. A hugely enlarged quota for qualified Indian immigrants and a reduction in quotas from Pakistan and other nations where fundamentalism dominates.

3. A similarly forward approach to Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, and the other countries of Western Africa that are under attack by jihadists and are also the location of vast potential oil reserves, whose proper development could help emancipate the local populations from poverty and ourselves from dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

It sounds good-- reward the sane while punishing those cultures that celebrate a viral mutate of homicidal psychosis. But reward those countries by offering to let more of their most talented and ambitious immigrate to the West? A reward for those who immigrate, but surely a punishment for the immigrants' home countries, no? India can surely afford to lose some of its population, but what about a country like Niger, where the net subraction of non-psychopaths might actually throw the remaining population into the hands of the killers?

I like this a lot:

8. We should, of course, be scrupulous on principle about stirring up interethnic tensions. But we should remind those states that are less scrupulous—Iran, Pakistan, and Syria swiftly come to mind—that we know that they, too, have restless minorities and that they should not make trouble in Afghanistan, Lebanon, or Iraq without bearing this in mind. Some years ago, the Pakistani government announced that it would break the international embargo on the unrecognized and illegal Turkish separatist state in Cyprus and would appoint an ambassador to it, out of “Islamic solidarity.” Cyprus is a small democracy with no armed forces to speak of, but its then–foreign minister told me the following story. He sought a meeting with the Pakistani authorities and told them privately that if they recognized the breakaway Turkish colony, his government would immediately supply funds and arms to one of the secessionist movements—such as the Baluchis—within Pakistan itself. Pakistan never appointed an ambassador to Turkish Cyprus.

We've got to get over the very childish idea that has taken hold that "War is the enemy" and that we musn't stir up wars, even in the nations which are our sworn enemies. We saw this in the Balkans, where NATO and the whole west (including America) refused to provide arms to populations being slaughtered because -- well, war is bad, right?

Yes, war is bad. But there are worse things, and it's time for us, and Bush, to grow up about that.

And it's about time we started funding Iranian rebels, whether or not the left will knee-jerkedly whine we're supporting "terrorists." They may in fact resort to terrorism; perhaps they'll even become exclusively terrorist. But the left likes to pretend that terrorism is no different than guerilla rebel groups. They are different -- the former primarily targets civilians, while the latter primarily targets military forces and police (which, in most developing/totalitarian/wartorn societies, are essentially the same thing anyway).

Good quote here from Martin Amis, a very liberal British writer. This is quoted by Hitch, not Steyn.

There’s a definite urge—don’t you have it?—to say, “The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order.” What sort of suffering? Not letting them travel. Deportation—further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they’re from the Middle East or from Pakistan. . . . Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children. . . . They hate us for letting our children have sex and take drugs—well, they’ve got to stop their children killing people.

If even liberals (albeit a tiny minority) are talking like this and mocking Muslims' claims of "Islamophobia" -- guys, maybe it's time to start rethinking this whole "Holy Murder" deal, huh?

Thanks to Brown Line.

posted by Ace at 10:56 AM

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