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Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Reality And Sun Tzu

The Anchoress has a very thought-provoking post up about the Cole anniversary and the University of Oklahoma bombing:
On Oct. 1st, Joel Henry Hinrichs, 21, an engineering student at the University of Oklahoma, died when an explosive device he was wearing detonated while he was sitting on a park bench 100 yards away from the stadium where 84,000 fans were watching Oklahoma’s football team play Kansas State.
She includes a lot of information, including this:
“The explosion that killed Hinrichs also burned a large area around the bench,” reported Mick Hinton of the Tulsa World…”A tree near the detonation site exhibits numerous small round holes that look like those that would be made by a ball bearing or a nailhead, both of which are routinely used by Middle Eastern terrorist bombers,” said Tapscott…

The FBI found more explosives in the apartment Hinrichs shared with a Pakistani student, Fazil Cheema. The apartment is a couple of blocks from the mosque “20th hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui worshipped when he was attending flight school in Norman.
So pair that post with this one from Sigmund, Carl and Alfred, and then Mark Steyn's hilarious column about the British press' willingness to have hysterics about Bush's purported statements that God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan:
The source for this story was essentially a BBC press release for a forthcoming documentary. Nabil Shaath, the so-called Palestinian "foreign minister", told them (the BBC) that Bush told him (Shaath) that God told him (Bush) to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House said this was "absurd" and the only other Palestinian present at that meeting, Mahmoud Abbas, has denied Shaath's account of the conversation.
...
If Britain is under threat from anybody's "Manichean convictions", it's surely not evangelical Christians'. To recap from seven days ago: last year I made a joke about banning Porky Pig on the grounds that a porcine cartoon was grossly insensitive toward Muslims, only to discover the other week that Dudley council has banned Piglet as part of its pre-Ramadan crackdown on cultural insensitivity.

So last Tuesday, in the course of a column about Piglet, I made a joke that British Muslims ought to complain about having to put up with a grossly offensive head of state who is an uncovered woman. And lo and behold, in that very morning's Daily Telegraph, I find an item that the English flag - the cross of St George - has been banned from prisons because it might be "misinterpreted" as a racist symbol.
...
Thus, Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, already feels Ms Owers's ban is insufficient. The cross of St George, he explains, is offensive to Muslims because it was carried by English crusaders in the 11th century.
No kidding. Well, should the Austrians and Spaniards be allowed to be offended by the Red Crescent because of Muslim invasions? Once you fall into this sort of recursive political correctness, there is no way out!

All I can say is that Nabil Sha'ath knows his audience well, but his British audience does not appear to know him. He's a very modern and liberal man, all right. For instance, this last May he had the link to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion taken off his department's website. Wholly dedicated to truth. Try going to MEMRI and searching for Nabil Sha'ath (include the apostrophe). Look for the translations of his statements to Arabic audiences, and then google for his statements to western audiences around the same time periods. Try this from 2000:
"QUESTION: Is the Palestinian leadership saying 'we support negotiations, settlement, peace,' or is it turning things upside down in the direction demanded by the [Palestinian] opposition?

SHA'ATH: Historically many people fought and negotiated at the same time...There are many examples of this...Vietnam, Algeria... special conditions were created [in recent years] that forced negotiations on us as an alternative to fighting. But that too has a limit... The Palestinian people should not limit either its popular activity or its political activity...

QUESTION: Can we say then that the Intifada is another weapon in the negotiations?

SHA'ATH: ...Negotiations with Syria were conducted parallel to the fighting in Lebanon... The question is not a question of a specific choice saying that this is the time for negotiations and this is the time for fighting... But the political way of action has its limits too, when sixty martyrs fall... it is the right of the Palestinian people to burst out. It is the right of the people and its leadership to take all measures for the liberation of the homeland.
and then this, said about France in 2004 in a western interview:
Nabil Shaath: I think that the rise of these extremist rightist religious groups has really created the dilemma among governments such as the French one. In a way they wish to eliminate all non-catholics in France and to throw them out to the sea. So I don’t think the question was studied carefully in terms of cultural identity. It is more a political act that was generated by the extreme right in these countries, than anything else.
The French press did not buy that one, but the British press sure was willing to believe anything at all about George Bush.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 1:
Warfare is the Way of deception. ?

Therefore, if able, appear unable, if active, appear not active, if near, appear far, if far, appear near. ?
If they have advantage, entice them; if they are confused, take them, if they are substantial, prepare for them, if they are strong, avoid them, if they are angry, disturb them, if they are humble, make them haughty, if they are relaxed, toil them, if they are united, separate them.
Und so weiter. Read a little Sun Tzu.


Comments:
Brilliant and cogent collection of links.

Nabil Sha'ath, au natural. Nice work
 
Charming, ain't he?
 
You do know that Joel Hinrichs comitted suicide and wasn't even a muslim, right?

I am just saying this because you included his roommates name and his roommate was no more involed than just being his roommate. I would hate for people to spread his name and suspect him of being a terrorist.
 
You're a Muslim if you make the profession of faith. Neither you or I know whether he did. That's an article being quoted, btw.

On the other hand, plenty of people apparently go nuts and commit mass murder for no ideological reason at all. Who knows what happens in the minds of these people? And I don't think Muslims are doing the mass bombing campaigns. It's a type of cult that is, and calling it "Islam" doesn't make it Islam.

He was observed trying to enter the stadium, presumably in order to be in a crowd, so I would not call this "suicide".

As for his roommate, since more explosives and stuff were found in the apartment, the man may have had the roommate from hell. I think most homemade explosives are unstable.

But no one knows what happened. This is very troubling.
 
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