Sometimes it is instructive to take a tour of the blogosphere and see what kinds of disparate concerns are on various minds; it becomes even more interesting to see if there is any underlying thematic connection ...
All such tours are idiosyncratic productions of the conductor's mind. I have scanned upwards of 50 sites and distilled a few for your delectation. Some are obvious, some less so; come along for the ride if you are young and healthy, have no heart disease, and do not scare easily ...
There have been many arresting discussions of the causes of the Paris riots. I have suggested a form of tribalism is significant, sigmundcarlandalfred suggest that conflicting faith is at work (though not what you might expect), and commenter Badfrog believes the French have actually done very well assimilating newcomers and I imagine believes that French-ness will ultimately prevail. In point of fact, I do not think that it matters what the root causes are, what percent we can assign to the tendency of Muslims to avoid assimilation, what percent to French racism, what percent to the stagnant economy; in medicine there is a concept of "the final common pathway" which describes the tendency of various afflictions of an organ to ultimately lead to similar states of organ failure (as an example, there are many types of chronic liver disease, but ultimately, if unchecked, all lead to cirrhosis at the end). In the case of France and its Intifada, the final common pathway leads to Islamic fascism. Tony Blankley at the Washington Times, Kirk H. Sowell at Window on the Arab World, and More!, Colt at Winds of Change, and many others seem to agree that there are more grounds for pessimism than optimism.
In the rest of Europe, things are only better by comparison to France. Spain expects their own version of the Intifada, Germany warns of dirty bombs and other WMD, and the Global Islamic Media Front, an Al-Qaeda PR agency, warns that there are native European converts to Islam roaming the continent, preparing to strike.
The Jordanian attacks are quite fresh, and there is too much to distill, but a comment on Egyptian blogger Ritzy Mabrouk's blog should cause some concern:
Frequent commenter Programmer Craig left this message to my Amman-Explosion post:
57 dead now, according to the latest news reports. 2 car bombs and 1 suicide bomb, orchestrated to go off at the same time. So, there's some kind of organization behind it. Supposedly, there is a "manhunt" underway for suspected conspirators right now. But with 64% of Jordanians polled supporting terrorist bombings, I fear they could find suspects by picking people out of any crowd at random :
I might add that whether the number is actually 64% of Jordanians, or closer to the 15% of Muslims in Britain who supported the 7/7 bombings, doesn't make all that much difference to me. Even a very small number of terrorist can thrive in a population that does not actively oppose them and when they have a significant percentage of the population on their side, tacitly or actively, the dynamic is such that we find ourselves back on "the final common pathway."
In Iraq, there were more suicide attacks; everyone expects this to worsen prior to the December elections; once the elections take place, al Qaeda is Iraq is finished and the only question will be the time frame and the number of innocent victims between now and then. Debka (grain of salt time) suggests Zarqawi has relocated to Baghdad to direct the carnage personally.
Recent participants in the global war against Islamic fascism include the Philippines, Thailand, Australia (which dodged a bullet), India (which didn't), and of course, Israel. The fascist bombers have an illustrious pedigree; Hezbollah was just identified as the source of the bomb that blew up the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994:
Late Wednesday, prosecutors confirmed that the suicide bomber had been identified as Ibrahim Hussein Berro, a Lebanese citizen, whom they suspect of driving the explosives-packed van that destroyed the Jewish center, killiing 85 people and wounding more than 200. Investigators made the identification after talking to relatives of Hussein Berro in Detroit, Michigan.
....
Prosecutor Alberto Nisman said Hussein Berro "belonged to Hezbollah" and drove the van rigged with explosives that leveled the seven-story Argentine Israel Mutual Aid Association on July 18, 1994. The building was a symbol of Argentina's more than 200,000-strong Jewish community.
And, of course, Hezbollah leads directly to Iran! It will certainly comfort everyone to know that the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, apparently believes his own psychotic ranting:
The president's economic agenda is already in trouble. The anticipated capital flight, feared as a consequence of his election, has come to pass and investment has plummeted. With financial markets alarmed by his call for interest rate cuts by decree in the face of rising inflation, the Tehran stock exchange has plunged 25% in the past four months. Mr Ahmadinejad, noted for his fierce temper and rudeness towards aides, reportedly told a recent cabinet meeting that the problems could be solved "if they allowed us to execute two or three individuals".
The rest of the article is even more frightening than the excerpt.
As everyone knows, all of this is Bush's fault, so why is neo-neocon so disgruntled? Apparently she thinks all those spreading the "Bush lied" meme are mistaken, or are they lying??? She has some good advice for those of us who are tired of this.
Dr. Sanity is tired of the media either knowingly or unknowingly (useful idiots abound) working for the other side; she rightly calls this world war what it is:
It is barbarians versus civilization.
She adds, with some poignancy:
Like a chess game, we now see the pieces being moved around the global board. In previous administrations, our King was castled and our Queen was prevented from using her capabilies to engage the enemy-- we played primarily a defensive game. But now we have sent various pawns into the enemies territory, and several have now become Queens and taken up the offense with us. We have seen our own media and the media around the world become the Knights for our enemy and flank some of our forces. And we have eliminated a few Bishops and soon hope to take a Queen.
As long as we continually counter those sometimes confusing moves by the enemy's Knights that create a fog on the battlefield, it is clear that we are slowly winning and wiping major enemy pieces off the board. The advantage is ours, but not if we listen to the enemy MSM Knights.
If we want to win this war, we cannot retreat back to position that is felt to be "safe". That is what France did. That is what Spain did. Their submissive behavior did not stop the onslaught, or appease for long.
We must fully commit to the game and deploy all our assets to win, or we will lose by default.
Finally, while we may be outnumbered, with more enemies than we can count, within and without, we have some precedent for good triumphing over evil, and the little guy triumphing over the bully. (I am taking some poetic license here; few realize that our military, for all their incredible prowess, courage, grit and determination, are the underdogs in this global war on terror. They have to fight with one, sometimes two hands tied behind their backs, in the face of the opprobrium of the world's smarmy, liberal elites. They are doing a thankless job and when they do their job right, they often get booed and smeared. They are the best there is, folks, and don't forget it!)
I hope you have enjoyed your idiosyncratic journey round the blogosphere today. Please come again soon.
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