Monday in NY with Spencer

As the nation gears up for the 2008 presidential election, the candidates’ positions on terrorism and Islamism are coming into focus, with major implications for national security of the United States and around the world. Especially of note is the vast difference in collective outlook between the Republican and Democratic candidates.  The Middle East Forum had Robert Spencer, the prolific author, brilliant Islamic scholar and theologian discuss this issue.

So of course I ran across town to catch Robert. He was, as always, most informing and alarming in his substantive warning. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why he's not a regular visitor to the White House advising Bush and his minions. 

I wound up commiserating with Robert after his remarks. We hit the streets of the citay - lunched, laughed our asses off and strolled the electrified streets of the greatest city in the world on a particularly spectacular day. Fabulous, all of it. Thanks Bob. It was swell.

Some pull quotes:

"The Democrats has limited to statements more notoriously such as John Edwards, "the war on terror is just a bumper sticker."

"On the Republican side there has been a little more realism about  the issue most notably when Gov Romney spoke in a TV commercial about the threat of global jihad and said this was something that directly threatened the survival of the  United States. He was roundly ridiculed for this. Saturday Night Live actually took the commercial and just put it to a laugh track as if it was self evidently ridiculous."

Spencer was not endorsing Romney but it is noteworthy that he is the only candidate to mention jihad. The WSJ actually ran a article about what a terrible thing it was that Romney used that word.

"The war on "terror" is a complete misnomer. Terrorism is a tactic. Terrorism is as old as war itself. Terrorism has been used throughout history. Words matter. Our refusal to name the enemy is the fundamental weakness which has so far has marked the prosecution of the war."The Bush administration obviously has not wanted to focus more clearly on who are fighting because of various sensitive political considerations in terms of our Muslim allies and yet it has to be done. Someone is going to grasp this."

On Israel:

"Much more urgently right now in these dark days .... with  Annapolis. No one is making the connection between the jihadist intransigents of Hamas and Hezballah and what we are facing in the war on terror in the United States. No one undeerstand that The enemies of Israel will not be bought off with this concession or that concession or this piece of land or that piece of land. It won't happen. Because the Hamas and Fatah charters are both very clear, that they intend to destroy Zionism, they intend to destroy Israel utterly because, and this comes back to Islamic theology, it is the offensive for any part of what is considered to be ruled by no Muslims. Once an Islamic land is an Islamic land it is an Islamic land forever. So you also see in the al qaeda  literature call for the Islamisation, the re-islamisation of Spain under exactly the same terms as they're calling for the destruction of Israel.

But these things are not being put together.

Because in the US, in the public discourse, everyone, liberals,  conservatives, whatever --  is afraid with --very few exceptions --  to talk about the actual ideology and the actual motives and the actual goals, that the terrorists themselves have articulated."

There's much more.  Please listen and watch the video.   The MP3 audio has more of the Q&A.
Download spencer.mp3

Comments

[john jay]

pamela:

good on spencer.

keep hammering on this message.

the next step is to get people to listen to what the islamists are saying, and to get people to accept we are in a religious war that is not going to go away, just as in the middle ages.

that we are in a religious war with a religion. not a war with a nation state that will compromise to secure an advantage gained, but with a religion that is playing for keeps, and seeks hegemony on this world and salvation in the next.

people in the west think those days are past.

the muslims do not.

i am not sanguine about western politicians protecting our heritage, protecting western civilization, because i feel they are without the underlying values, the religioius values, which are the bulwark, or were before incessant attack and erosion by socialists and leftists, to western political values, to western democracies.

i believe that people will be left to their own devices to defend against the islamic menace. i see nothing to indicate in europe that the governments will protect their countries. i see nothing to indicate things are any different in this country. the irony, of course, is that those politicians and elitists who think they will make deals with the islamists to stay on top if we succumb to islam, will be the first to have their heads on the blocks: they will die like sheep.

time to get organizing. no time to waste.

john jay

[SalamiBaloney]

Robert Spencer is one of the bravest men of our time and a treasure!!! G-d bless him. And more good on you, Atlas, for continually reporting what's going down without the usual "leftard, lamestream media" slant! Reminds me that if you ain't the lead dog the scenery all looks the same and you can't soar with the eagles if you're hanging out with the turkey's. Two great adages my old mamala taught me long ago that apply here to you and Mr. Spencer - absolute national treasures.

[TommyG]

Jihad has also been a cornerstone of the Tancredo campaign, and the newest commercial out today is a challenge to Americans - is the pourous border a way for jihadis to enter the US, or will his commercial be doomed by the public as being too "realistic" and harsh?

[Mega]

Mind-numbing Jew-hatred moment of the day by an ex-US official:

US anti-genocide task force to include W. Bank, Gaza probes
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza will be among the subjects up for examination by a new anti-genocide task force, according to one of the former US officials on the panel.

Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who also served as an ambassador to the UN, and former secretary of defense William Cohen announced on Tuesday the creation of a bipartisan task force that would develop new strategies and guidelines for the next US administration to use in preventing genocide.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380809948&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull