Is that victory I smell?

The last two days have seen a triple whammy for the Islamofascists
and their Western quislings. The Iraqi elections were a thumping
success; congressional Democrats voted in a resolution supporting
prosecution of the Iraq war; and the Patriot Act failed to be renewed.

The huge turnout in the Iraqi elections was great news, but the
underreported story is that Baathist dead-enders actually protected
Iraqi polling places from al-Qaeda jihadis. This presages the entry
of Sunni Arabs into normal politics, and marks what is likely to be a
fatal fracture in the Baath/jihadi alliance. Couple this with the
fact that attacks against Coalition troops have fallen to a
seven-month low, and we begin to see a prospect of an end to the
fighting in the near-term future. It seems unlikely to me that the
insurgency can last another year; on current trends, it could well
collapse in six months.

On the domestic front, the Republicans forced Congressional
Democrats to a stand-up vote on a second resolution supporting U.S.
war aims; the result will make it politically very difficult for
any of them to call for immediate troop withdrawals. A longer-term
effect will be to drive a wedge between Congressional Democrats and
the pro-jihadis in the American hard left. I don’t think we’re going
to see the DLC making kissy-faces at Michael Moore any more.

And the Patriot Act wasn’t renewed. I think this is good news. It
had become more effective as an anti-American propaganda weapon than
it ever was as a tool for routing out terrorism. This particular
legislative defeat will neatly spill the wind from the sails of the
Bush=Hitler crowd; what kind of Hitler lets the enabling legislation
for his putative Gestapo be scuppered by a mere vote?

I think I smell victory coming. And not just over the Baathists
and jihadis, but over their Western allies as well. The anti-American
coalition is fracturing; even the most repellent elements of Old
Europe’s elite are having second thoughts in face of the clear and
present danger presented by an Iran that is building nuclear weapons
and headed by a frothing nutcase.

But we’ll know the victory is final only when the West purges
itself of the memetic poisons left over from the Cold War. The most
unfortunate thing about the way our geopolitical confrontation with
the Soviets ended is that the nihilists and pro-Communist apologists
in the West’s intelligentsia were never exposed and hounded out of
public life. It took them all of about six months to become
Islamofascism’s quislings after 9/11; this time, I hope, they’ll be
named, shamed, and ruined.

UPDATE: On reflection, I think I was far too generous with that
“six months”. It was more like six minutes.

24 comments

  1. There was one man who was famous for exposing and hounding out Communists. His name was Joseph McCarthy. Are you calling for his return?

  2. Well, no, for the excellent reason that Joe McCarthy died the year I was born :-)

    Um…you do know, don’t you, that the release of the Venona transcripts and material from the KGB archives has substantiated essentially all of McCarthy’s wildest accusations? Which just goes to show that even obnoxious conservatoid demagogues can be on the money occasionally. The only remaining question is whether McCarthy had evidence for his accusations of anywhere near the quality we do now. I’m inclined to think he didn’t and was just gassing, but even if he was right by accident he was still right.

  3. “I don’t think we’re going to see the DLC making kissy-faces at Michael Moore any more.”

    Ha.

  4. Eric,
    I don’t agree with any of your political views, but I thank you because you help me defend against the point that Open Source = left wing politics.

    I am however particularly intrigued by someone calling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a “frothing nutcase” (which he is), and failing to recognize the innumerable shortcomings of President Bush. Unfortunately for the poor grunts out there, your sense of smell is no less deviated from the one of Lt.Col. Bill Kilgore: Napalm != Victory.

    Nor then, not now.

  5. Eric

    First of all, I’d like to Thank you for all your work for the Open Source movement.

    I don’t believe in labels, believing in everything one person says just because you agree with him on principle is just stupid, or at least it is lazy thinking. Looking into all the issues in itself, searching for the truth without having a pre-defined idea of what you want the answer to be is the right way of thinking, a lor of people who visit this blog don’t seem to get that.

    I follow your blog regulary, I agree with some but not all of your views. I respect other people’s point of view. I have strong opinions on some issues because I work in the R&D field, in other words I’d like to call my self a hacker, even though I am really a Newbie, but, I was a grunt in the Iraqi War, and was in the Marines, and I am all about defending this nation. However, I don’t believe we as a nation should become the same sort of “people” we are fighting. Know what I mean?

    Anyway, thought I’d let you know you are not the only one that is an example of
    Open Source != left wing nutcase

    Take it easy and may the Source be with you.

    J.V

  6. I agree with ewb: the DLC will not let minor details like consistency get in the way of using Moore’s proven ability to whip up the moonbats they need so desperately. They’ll go on making nice with him as though nothing ever happened.

  7. Bush doesn’t care about the Patriot Act. He’s publicly admitted he’ll do whatever he wants through Presidential fiat, which I believe he called “a vital tool” in his war against the terrorists. Also, you might want to exercise a little caution before crowing “Mission Accomplished” in our Iraq debacle. The original wrong prediction proved to be reckless and tragic. Yours would seem merely derivative and stale.

  8. “The huge turnout in the Iraqi elections was great news…” There’s no such thing as a “good” election. Someone always ends up playing sheep to the other wolves. Who are you and what have you done with the real ESR?

  9. Eric, I think you are over-optimistic: if the terrorists are beaten in Iraq, they only thing they learn is open warfare is not suitable for them, and they’ll just go back to the old habit of blowing up airplanes ‘n’ shit. I think the decent decrease in classical terrorism is that every fanatic raghead can currently go to Iraq and fight a real war, and of course they choose it, as it is more interesting that than lurking in the shadows with TNT. But they’ll just swith back to the old means the day they are beaten in the war.

    Generally, human beings have strong habits. (Try to imagine to live three weeks without Internet access :-) ) I don’t think the terrorist habit is cured my military defeat, only it goes back to the older, less open form.

    The important victory would be to somehow achieve that terrorists don’t get new recruits. But I don’t have any ideas how to do that.

  10. esr,
    I hope you’re right, but I think that your analysis blows by some truly severe fractures on the Iraqi scene; the hope that the three distinct ethnic groups can repair the infrastructure over there and firmly establish a federal government that doesn’t butcher the minority players is less than certain.
    As for the Iranian goober, what’s his beef? Is he trying to goad Israel into an attack on his facilities as a rallying point? And what ever happened to the suspicion that he was involved in the embassy takeover–no evidence, or lack of diplomatic moment to use evidence?
    Concur with Pinkuff; thanks for being the libertarian counterweight to the politically confused elements in F/OSS.
    R,
    C

  11. “It was more like six minutes”, meaning the insurgency is over? Well, that’s good news, if it’s true.

    And I think that the Patriot Act’s passing on has less to do with Bush’s restraint, and more to do with the Constitution’s checks and balances holding up, despite tremendous strain.

    Unfortunately, there are still maniacs in the Middle East, and there are still right-wingers in the U.S. who think the way to stop them is to take away the rights of our own citizens, and there are still left-wingers who are trying to convince people that the right-wingers are worse than the maniacs in the Middle East. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like any of them are succeeding.

  12. what kind of Hitler lets the enabling legislation for his putative Gestapo be scuppered by a mere vote?

    What kind of Hitler bothers with enabling legislation in the first place, or pays attention to its provisions? To those who think Bush = Hitler, the non-renewal of the lapsing provisions won’t change anything.

  13. >“It was more like six minutes”, meaning the insurgency is over? Well, that’s good news, if it’s true.

    No, I mean it only took about six minutes for the nihilist/Communist fifth column in the West’s intelligentsia to enlist themselves onto al-Qaeda’s side.

  14. ah, wrong antecedent: “It seems unlikely to me that the insurgency can last another year; on current trends, it could well collapse in six months.” -> “UPDATE: On reflection, I think I was far too generous with that “six months”. It was more like six minutes.” Forgot about the quislings bit which also said six months. Too much wishful thinking.

    That may be why so many people wanted to believe Muslim apologists after 9/11 — it’s much more soothing to believe that the Qoran doesn’t really say all that about jihad, and that murdering one person is like murdering all of humanity. Especially when the other side offered nothing but alarmist and unsubstantiated rumors. So all I heard was “Moderate Islam will surely rise up against these people, this is totally uncharacteristic of them” on one side, and “There’s a sleeper cell in every apartment complex in YOUR TOWN and they might be brewing some ricin so buy duct tape” on the other.

    I’ll leave it to other readers to compare the six minutes it took the left to lose their backbone, to the seven minutes it took the President to find his. I mention it solely because of the coincidence, as, even though I despise Bush, I don’t really buy any of the arguments about how he could have personally prevented 9/11, or blame anyone for how they reacted in the first hour.

  15. What kind of Hitler bothers with enabling legislation in the first place, or pays attention to its provisions? To those who think Bush = Hitler, the non-renewal of the lapsing provisions won’t change anything.

    That’s Bush for you – failed in business, failed at being Hitler. Seen his popularity ratings lately? Americans are so fickle. But what of the Bush = Mother Teresa crowd? Who will step forward to help *them* in their hour of need?

  16. ” think I smell victory coming. And not just over the Baathists and jihadis, but over their Western allies as well.”

    Just because someone doesn’t like the western states involved in the War on Terror (or any state for that matter) doesn’t make that person an ally of the Baathists or jihadis. You know, my enemy’s enemy and all that… Maybe it just makes that person a real libertarian, rather than a statist cheerleader.

  17. “Don’t believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.”

    That doesn’t mean it’s not correct, it’s just you can’t rely on it.

    ESR, I’m surprised that somebody of your (supposed) intelligence has such significantly naiive political views.

    If you visit the Middle East – or any other part of the world that the US has fücked with – you *may* get some idea what I am on about.

  18. This particular legislative defeat will neatly spill the wind from the sails of the Bush=Hitler crowd; what kind of Hitler lets the enabling legislation for his putative Gestapo be scuppered by a mere vote? Is it too cynical to think that Bush *wanted* some provisions of the Patriot Act to be scuppered? He has now set the Democrats up to take the blame if a new terrorist attack occurs. And he’s able to say he could have pushed the provisions through, if he were really Hitler. I don’t think he really thinks the possibly defunct provisions were necessary, but he’s determined to get as much political credit as possible for allowing them to lapse. All the signs are he is setting the board up masterfully for checkmate in 2006.

    Also, rob, having visited the Middle East, I have no idea what you’re on about.

  19. ># Daniel Says:
    >December 17th, 2005 at 9:20 am
    >
    >There was one man who was famous for exposing and hounding out >Communists. His name was Joseph McCarthy. Are you calling for his return?

    Daniel’s logic is surely very sophisticated…so I will try to spell it out for us stupid people who have to do our logic one or two steps at a time.

    *Anyone* who exposes and interferes with communists and communist sympathizers is exactly like Joseph McCarthy.

    It is a high moral imperative to not be like Joseph McCarthy.

    Therefore, it is a high moral imperative that we should never expose or interfere with communists and communist sympathizers.

    Criticizing communists and communist sympathizers interferes with them.

    Therefore they are people who we should never criticize.

    People who must never be criticized are practically perfect.

    By contrast, human beings are for practical purposes imperfect.

    Therefore, communists and communist sympathizers are not human beings.

    It is widely recognized by many religions, such as Christianity, that only God is perfect.

    According to those religions, communists and communist sympathizers are God.

    I wonder if Daniel is himself a communist or communist sympathizer. If so, does he think he’s God?

    Myself, I’m a communist sympathizer who *doesn’t* think that communists and communist sympathizers are by rights beyond exposure and criticism. So you can see I have some pretty radical differences of opinion with Daniel…

    I leave as an exercise for the reader the subtle lemma in which Daniel proves that because communists and communist sympathizers don’t really exist (because McCarthy was not only wrong, he was *as wrong as possible* about *absolutely everything*!) God does not actually exist. :-) Although a careful reading of the Bible shows that not only is God a communist, but he is in exact accordance with whatever Daniel’s favored communist sympathizer faction, which does not exist, is saying this week. :-)

  20. speaking of victory, how does “Hamas wins palestinian elections” fit in the picture?
    Just.. wondering, you know.

  21. Writing in a blog about current events is always risky, because you will often be wrong.

    vivelame: lol. Obviously those weren’t ‘legitimate’ elections, amirite. The idea that anyone would want to elect someone who did not support American interests is absurd, and it must have been rigged.

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