Anti-War Protesters -- some hard questions

A.N.S.W.E.R. held an anti-war protest in DC this weekend. The usual faces and names were in attendance. Cindy Sheehan, of course. Joan Baez, of course. Jesse Jackson, uh, yeah.

I have theory I want to advance in this article which will lead us inexorably to some hard questions. My theory is this, these anti-war people are not protesting the war. No, what their protesting is change.

After 9-11 our shared world changed. We were no longer at a remove from the bad stuff going on in the world. Though we'd had many previous reminders, 9-11 was the one that got our attention. Some people, mostly conservatives, understood that we stood in a new place and we would have to rethink a lot of our presumptions about things such as -- Immigration, religion, privacy, law enforcement and intelligence.

On the other side of the political sphere were the liberals. The liberal position boiled down to 'NO CHANGE!!'

2,749 dead, fine, do nothing different. Lots of people across the globe wish us a horrible, painful death? we'll we'd better be nicer to them and maybe they'll leave us alone.

Amongst the protesters are some distinct groups that I think we should take a moment to break out by category --

The first group are the sheep. These are folks who think it's cool to protest. They learned the lessons of Vietnam, America is bad, stop America at all costs.

The second group are those who know how bad the protest leadership is but do nothing in an effort to preserve thier precious cause. America bashing!

The third group is truthfully beyond my ken. A foul cabal of Communists, Anti-American dictator lovers and the deluded. These folks not only want our surrender in the face of a hostile enemy, they also want America gone, replaced by a workers paradise that has held such promise around the globe. I mean, when you think Communism don't you get a warm snuggly feeling? I know I do.

In our discussions we will not be talking about the third group. They know exactly what they're doing and I have no use for them.

As to the first and second though, it seems to me that what these folks want is a return to the idyllic days pre 9-11. Which would be fine if it were possible, but it isn't. These people are protesting change, the necessary realistic changes any open society must make in the face of a determined enemy.

The incident that really got me thinking about this is the revelation of the Los Angeles Jihadists. In the past terrorists were primarily defined by their locale. These were swarthy men for the most part who had to travel great distances to get to America's shores. Our relationship with terror was the same as between a homeowner and burglar.

The frightening difference between that situation and Los Angeles is the difference between a policeman and a doctor. Because we now have a cancer eating away at our national body politic and that cancer is a homegrown brand of jihadist. Now, no longer is border enforcement enough. Now we have to police our own, and as the Jamaican gentleman in London shows, innocents will be hurt or killed. As my very smart wife commented, when you fight cancer you kill healthy cells right along with the cancerous ones. And this cancer is spreading.

Levar H. Washington; Gregory V. Patterson; Hammad R. Samana. Which of these things is not like the other? Two of those names are American as apple pie, the other, who knows?

Prosecutors contend the men were working at the behest of Kevin James, a California State Prison, Sacramento, inmate who founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS. Washington converted to Islam while imprisoned there for a previous robbery conviction.

Violent, extremist Islam is being taught in our prisons, to our most vulnerable population and in our multicultural madness we allow this. Why? Is it so important to pay lip service to tolerance? Must we all die to prove how understanding we are?

This is just the opening salvo of a whole slew of hard questions we need to be asking ourselves. Here are some more--

Is it time to finally stop referring to Islam as the 'Religion Of Peace'? This is offensive to me and to the memory of every woman who's ever been stoned to death for the sin of being raped.

How do we deal with homegrown terrorists? Is this handleable by traditional law enforcement techniques, or, is something new required?

As Al Qaeda is operating in roughly sixty countries can we talk about putting a moratorium on immigration from those countries. (hint, one of those countries is Britain, another is France.) Or at least a severe restriction?

What would it take for us to ban Islam in the United States? Is this something we can even talk about? If not, why not?

What would it take for us to deal seriously with homegrown organizations with ties to terror?

Why are we allowing Anti-American Madrassas to operate on American soil?

Why are we allowing Anti-American Mosques to operate on American soil?

This is the new reality, like it or not these questions are not going away. We find ourselves in the usual situation. We can deal with it now or after several thousand more Americans die. Unfortunately, our history leads me to believe that this debate will only be held over the smoking crater of an American city.

Even then there will be those crying for the 'rights' of the Islamic bastards who committed the outrage. So to me, the toughest question of all is this--

How do we deal with those fellow Americans who wish for our eventual loss in this war?

Some are motivated by greed and that's bad enough. But some are motivated by a sincere desire to serve as Dhimmi's in the modern Caliphate. To those I say-

May the better man win!

Kender MacGowan has some similar thoughts -- http://kendersmusings.blogspot.com/