2011 has been the year of revolution, particularly in the Muslim nations of the Middle East and North Africa that once formed the core of the Islamic Caliphate. The world watched as dictatorships once thought completely secure were toppled virtually overnight, first in Tunisia and then in Egypt. Things got a little more complicated when other heads of state refused to bow to the pressure of the mob. In particular, Libyan dictator Moammar Ghaddafi proved a little stubborn in the face of "rage and change." Now, thanks to military intervention by NATO, Ghaddafi has been kicked out of Tripoli and the rebels have seized control of the majority of the country. Yay us! Victory for the people over tyranny, and all that. What could possibly go wrong?
Since the beginning of NATO operations in Libya, one question has taken center stage (and refused to leave): why? Oddly enough, that seems to be the question that kept popping up during the NATO campaigns in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia in the Clinton administration. Say what you want about Afghanistan and Iraq, but at least the leadership of both nations actually considered themselves to be our enemies. Libya presented no true threat to any external power, certainly not to any member state of NATO. The only real reason presented was the "responsibility to protect" doctrine adopted by the United Nations in 2005. Libya has been the first practical application of this doctrine, which states that it is the responsibility of the international community to intervene on behalf of oppressed people in a civil war/genocide situation. Of course, you don't see any movement to protect the citizens of Iran or Syria, so I guess the international community is allowed to be picky about who they want to save. It is very possible that this same doctrine could be used against Israel, to "protect" the Palestinians, or even the United States if a politically favored group puts forth the claim that they are being oppressed. Is this idea a bit paranoid? Maybe, but we have plenty of enemies in the UN that would love to use such techniques against us at the first opportunity.
Another problem with the so-called "kinetic military action" in Libya (like the Obama administration had to point out that the military action was, in fact, moving) is that it exposes just how thinly stretched NATO forces are. Military equipment broke down with alarming regularity, and the European members of the coalition actually started running out of precision munitions within the first month of military operations. More recently, the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle actually broke down and had to be withdrawn from the area of operation for repairs, putting a major dent in the French ability to project power to Libya. While the United States has not suffered problems anywhere near this magnitude (because, you know, we actually know what it takes to fight a war) the resources and manpower needed to stretch us out into a third theater of conflict are placing further strain on our military at perhaps the worst possible time.
Finally, there is little we can do but wait and see who will take over the oil-rich country. It has been widely known that the Libyan rebels were at least sympathetic to al-Qaeda, but just how sympathetic remains to be seen. It would be more than a little ironic for al-Qaeda, weak and on its last legs, to find a safe haven to rebuild in Libya thanks to the "brave" efforts of NATO. As the jails have been opened by the victorious rebels, hundreds of dangerous jihadists that were mingled in with the political prisoners have been released onto the streets of Tripoli. Of course, the Europeans don't care as long as they get access to exclusive trade deals with the new regime and access to Libya's oil. I guess as long as it's not an American conservative that wants to attack an oil-rich nation, it's completely fine with the international media.
It doesn't take a genius to realize there are forces at work with the situation in Libya that are unfriendly to the interests of the United States and her allies. That doesn't mean that the new rulers are necessarily worse for us than Ghaddafi. But we must be very careful regarding our next move, something the Obama administration has shown no signs of doing. Just one more domino in the Arab world, but one that could have profound consequences.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Anarchy in the UK
I realize this article is a little late to be immediately topical, but the underlying theme is too important to ignore and goes along with a theory I have been developing for quite a while. For all three of you who don't know what happened, violent riots broke out across the United Kingdom beginning a little over a week ago. The rioters were supposedly protesting a shooting by police officers on August 4th. The "protests" quickly spun out of control (or, from another perspective, did exactly what they were intended to do), leading to massive rioting, looting, arson attacks, muggings, and general lawlessness that left at least 5 people dead and over 200 injured. Of course, the leftist spin machine was out before the fires had really started to claim that the rioters were just "poor, underprivileged, oppressed, victims of (insert favorite -ism here)." In reality, many of the rioters were from the middle or even upper classes and were inspired to violence because, essentially, "everybody's doin' it" (just as a side note, if anyone, ever tries to convince you with that argument, you should simply run in the other direction as fast as you can).
A major problems, according to the British authorities, was the massive spike in gang activity during the riots. This is important because gangs have several characteristics that will feature heavily in the coming months and years. Most are based on racial lines (Caribbean gangs, Pakistani gangs, etc.) and as multi-cultural Europe breaks down I believe we will see more such divisions in even the non-criminal communities. In the United States we witnessed racially-motivated violence by mobs at the Wisconsin State Fair mere days before the British riots started. Gangs are also organized and can effectively control small patches of cities to the point where even the police are reluctant to enter without heavy firepower. Gangs also have the numbers to do a lot of damage with minimal equipment. Guns are extremely hard to find on the streets of London, but the gangs don't care. They can attack victims from all sides with knives, pipes, baseball (or cricket) bats, or their bare fists. What politicians on both sides of the Pond don't seem to understand is that people who are committed to pursuing violence will find a way around whatever petty rules are put in their way.
Something else is important to note: the backlash among the non-rioters. The police were seen as ineffective and useless. In a statement that would be laughable if not for the creepy Big-Brother (not the reality show, the 1984 one) vibe, British Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested shutting down any social networking sites at any time if the government feels that the site is being used to plan criminal activity. But worse than the overbearing but ultimately futile attempts by the government, I fear that we may see a wave of vigilante violence against gang members and other violent criminals very soon. Depending on how effective these counter-attacks are, we may even see some gangs taking the role of "defender of the neighborhood" to both maintain control of their territory and also to gain respect and support from normal civilians.
Among the loudest voices screaming for vigilante justice were from Britain's Muslim community. One of the worst cases of violence during the riots was a particularly nasty attack in Birmingham during which black gang members plowed a car into a crowd of people at full speed just to cause injury and death. Three brave young Muslim men, Haroon Jahan, Shazzad Ali, and Abdul Musavir, who were seeking to do nothing but protect their family's place of business from looters, were run down and died as a result. One man from the neighborhood who witnessed the scene threatened the gang members responsible with the following statement: "We'll hunt down these black men, cut off their heads and feed them to our dogs." While Tariq Jahan, Haroon's father, spoke out against retaliation, we will have to see which path is more popular in a Muslim community that believes that they are the only ones who can protect themselves (which, to be fair, is actually probably true).
So where does this leave the rest of us? Unfortunately, I believe that the recent acts of mob violence are a sure sign that Western civilization is unravelling. Now, before you call me an alarmist (or any mean name), I am not saying that civilization is collapsing. But there are loose threads in the fabric of our society, and every faction that seeks to destroy Western civilization and supplant it with their own misguided ideology has been pulling like crazy over the course of several decades. What we are seeing in the UK (and elsewhere) is simply the inevitable result. What's more, these events are also a warning to the rest of us. It is not too late for us. Why are the Islamists, Socialists, Communists, Fascists, and every other variety of -ist you can think of (okay, maybe not capitalists. Not most capitalists, anyway) teaming up to batter Western civilization from all sides? It is because they are afraid of us! There are still enough good, intellectually honest men and women from all over the world who are guided by the desire for true freedom (and the willingness to accept the responsibilities associated with those freedoms) to turn back the tide of evil that threatens to spill across the globe. But that can only happen if we have the wisdom to wake up and the courage to stand up for the cause of freedom.
A major problems, according to the British authorities, was the massive spike in gang activity during the riots. This is important because gangs have several characteristics that will feature heavily in the coming months and years. Most are based on racial lines (Caribbean gangs, Pakistani gangs, etc.) and as multi-cultural Europe breaks down I believe we will see more such divisions in even the non-criminal communities. In the United States we witnessed racially-motivated violence by mobs at the Wisconsin State Fair mere days before the British riots started. Gangs are also organized and can effectively control small patches of cities to the point where even the police are reluctant to enter without heavy firepower. Gangs also have the numbers to do a lot of damage with minimal equipment. Guns are extremely hard to find on the streets of London, but the gangs don't care. They can attack victims from all sides with knives, pipes, baseball (or cricket) bats, or their bare fists. What politicians on both sides of the Pond don't seem to understand is that people who are committed to pursuing violence will find a way around whatever petty rules are put in their way.
Something else is important to note: the backlash among the non-rioters. The police were seen as ineffective and useless. In a statement that would be laughable if not for the creepy Big-Brother (not the reality show, the 1984 one) vibe, British Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested shutting down any social networking sites at any time if the government feels that the site is being used to plan criminal activity. But worse than the overbearing but ultimately futile attempts by the government, I fear that we may see a wave of vigilante violence against gang members and other violent criminals very soon. Depending on how effective these counter-attacks are, we may even see some gangs taking the role of "defender of the neighborhood" to both maintain control of their territory and also to gain respect and support from normal civilians.
Among the loudest voices screaming for vigilante justice were from Britain's Muslim community. One of the worst cases of violence during the riots was a particularly nasty attack in Birmingham during which black gang members plowed a car into a crowd of people at full speed just to cause injury and death. Three brave young Muslim men, Haroon Jahan, Shazzad Ali, and Abdul Musavir, who were seeking to do nothing but protect their family's place of business from looters, were run down and died as a result. One man from the neighborhood who witnessed the scene threatened the gang members responsible with the following statement: "We'll hunt down these black men, cut off their heads and feed them to our dogs." While Tariq Jahan, Haroon's father, spoke out against retaliation, we will have to see which path is more popular in a Muslim community that believes that they are the only ones who can protect themselves (which, to be fair, is actually probably true).
So where does this leave the rest of us? Unfortunately, I believe that the recent acts of mob violence are a sure sign that Western civilization is unravelling. Now, before you call me an alarmist (or any mean name), I am not saying that civilization is collapsing. But there are loose threads in the fabric of our society, and every faction that seeks to destroy Western civilization and supplant it with their own misguided ideology has been pulling like crazy over the course of several decades. What we are seeing in the UK (and elsewhere) is simply the inevitable result. What's more, these events are also a warning to the rest of us. It is not too late for us. Why are the Islamists, Socialists, Communists, Fascists, and every other variety of -ist you can think of (okay, maybe not capitalists. Not most capitalists, anyway) teaming up to batter Western civilization from all sides? It is because they are afraid of us! There are still enough good, intellectually honest men and women from all over the world who are guided by the desire for true freedom (and the willingness to accept the responsibilities associated with those freedoms) to turn back the tide of evil that threatens to spill across the globe. But that can only happen if we have the wisdom to wake up and the courage to stand up for the cause of freedom.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Sorry for the Delays
I realize that two weeks have gone by without a new post from me. I've got several that I'm working on at the moment, but my schedule has been unusually hectic lately. I will have a new post up this Friday as well as a new poll on Monday. I will also be adding extra posts as time permits to make for the weeks that I missed. I apologize for the delays, but I hope you find that the wait has been worth it. Thanks for reading, and be sure to keep spreading the word if you like what I have to say. If you hate it, you can go ahead and keep it to yourself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)