a beauty from bolt..re: make peace overtures? with
Snooks..great read...worth the time to edit
No deal with death Andrew Bolt 05oct05
IT is the curse of the thinking classes – to imagine they can reason even the bloodiest mass-murderer into peace.
When 3000 civilians were killed in the September 11 attacks, then ABC 774 host Virginia Trioli announced her plan for peace with terrorist boss Osama bin Laden. Shouldn't we be "sitting down with" the al-Qaida leader, she asked? Shouldn't we "talk to him, understand their anger, listen to them"? What charming faith in the disarming power of a deep and meaningful chat. Such a hallmark it's become of our Left, tuned to its ABC. I say that because Trioli's acting replacement in her drive shift, Libby Price, has now asked listeners to suggest terms for "peace talks" with al-Qaida and the men behind these latest Bali bombings, in which 22 died. Sure, we shouldn't really negotiate with killers, Price said on Monday, but "things have progressed so far beyond that". To save ourselves we must open talks -- if not with bin Laden himself, at least with "someone within the (al-Qaida) organisation that doubts what's happening". And for half an hour her listeners rang with helpful suggestions to cut a deal with the terrorists who have killed so many of us. We should appoint an expert in "conflict resolution", suggested one. What about the United Nations, asked a second. And, of course, of course, we should get out of Iraq, the cause of all sorrows. Dear God, how strange it was, to hear so many callers assume that terrorists happy to blow up children and behead civilians are as reasonable as are they themselves, in a manner of speaking. Hang on, warned one listener, but wasn't one of al-Qaida's desires the return of Spain and East Timor to Mu slim rule? Well, that could be just a "starting point" in these talks, Price replied. That's right. An ABC staff presenter thinks we can negotiate with killers who feel that democratic, Christian Spain should be put under the rule of Is laimist fascists. Sadly, such fantasising is not restricted to the ABC. Since these latest bombings, former magistrate Brian Deegan, whose son Josh died in the Bali bombings of 2002, has also called for "discussions . . . even with militant leaders". Others have simply advised us to hand over whatever they fancy the terrorists want. Academics and Is laimic leaders, for example, tell us to pull out of Iraq. How long before we're again told to abandon Israel, too? From where does all this come? Is it stupidity? Is it the contempt, or fear, a brain-worker has for solutions needing brawn instead? All right. If we really must "understand the anger" of such terrorists and find the "starting point" of any negotiations with them, let us at least listen to what they say they really want. That should sober up even a fool. Of course, there's one bloody problem with this. In the past three months alone, Is laimist terrorists have struck in Bali, Britain, Iraq, India, Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Sudan, Israel, Algeria, Mauritania, Lebanon, Chechnya and Thailand. That's how far Is laim's death cult has spread. So many surrenders to negotiate! So many different killers to talk to, still wiping their knives! Worse, some of them barely seem to understand themselves what they're killing for. Explaining in 2002 why his Is laimic Army of Aden had just attacked a French tanker, a spokesman said: "We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels." Imam Samudra, one of the terrorist behind the 2002 Bali bombings, was just as casual, saying he'd actually expected to kill more Americans than Australians, but "Australians, Americans, whatever -- they are all white people". Actually, said his fellow bomber Amrozi, he killed his 202 victims because tourists "make our people weak and they take them to bars". Yet now his spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, head of the terrorist group Jemaah Is laimiah, says Amrozi was too dumb to make such a good bomb. It was, in fact, "a CIA Jewish bomb". Can we really reason with such insanity? Should we even try, knowing what these killers did to get our attention? And can we hope to settle all their local grievances anyway? Let's save time. Let's get to the bottom line of the spiritual leaders of these men. the leaders of this new Is laimist cult of death. Let's find out if there truly is any hope of a peace deal with such as they. Start with the demands of Osama bin Laden, as broadcast by him on Al-Jazeera two months after the September 11 attacks. Ah. More trouble. He in fact tells us there can be no peace. "This war is fundamentally religious," he said. "Under no circumstances should we (Mu slims) forget this enmity between us and the infidels. For the enmity is based on creed . . . We should also renounce the atheists and the infidels." This is why he denounced our "crusader Australian forces" for intervening to "separate East Timor, which is part of the Is laimic world". We thought we were saving civilians from death. He says we were killing Is laim. Can we ask the UN to at least discuss this with him? Actually, no. Says bin Laden: "Those who refer our tragedies today to the United Nations so that they can be resolved are hypocrites who deceive God, His Prophet and the believers." Got it? Is laimic rule must triumph. Non-Mu slim countries -- and Mu slim democrats -- are evil. Full stop. Not much room for talking there. But is there more hope with Abu Bakar Bashir, whose Jemaah Is laimiah was behind the first Bali bombings and perhaps these latest, too? Bashir last month gave an interview to Professor Scott Atran of the Jamestown Foundation, and helpfully set down his own peace terms. "All laws must be under Is laimic law. This is what the infidels fail to recognise . . . "They have to stop fighting Is laim, but that's impossible because it is destiny, as Allah has said in the Koran. They will constantly be enemies . . . "Is laim must win and the Westerners will be destroyed." Forget peace. "There is no (example) of Is laim and infidels, the right and the wrong, living together in peace." And so, his war will come to us: "If there is a state, the infidel country must be visited and spied upon. My argument is that if we don't come to them, they will persecute Is laim." And should Mu slims use nuclear weapons against us? "Yes, if necessary." So let's check. The leaders of these terrorists say we must submit to Is laim or die. Peace is not possible. And any of us may be killed -- even bombed with nuclear weapons -- because we are infidels. Or whatever. Perhaps you can see something in this that's worth negotiating over the bodies of the Bali dead. But if so, you are as mad as these men. The difference is they still have their pride. [email protected]
