I Told You So
Dean
The FBI warned recently that they have data suggesting that Al-Qaeda is recruiting non-Arabs to do their dirty work, and is even going out of its way to recruit people with U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status.
You think it unlikely that they'd find such people to work with? When you look at certain kinds of people, I certainly don't, and you only have to look at some of the ties between groups like the Irish Republican Army and their friendly relations with the friendly ties to both Libya and the PLO to know that it is hardly difficult to find "non Arab looking" people who will work with Islamo-fascist groups if they believe they have mutual interests in common. Even if those "interests" are merely some sort of political revenge.
This is why, whatever conservatives might say about "racial profiling" being necessary, the truth is that while it may make some sort of sense in an emergency, in the long run it's rather short-sighted and dangerous thinking to view that as a primary tool.
How many of those folks on the recent build-a-bomb-in-a-bathroom dry run were non-Arabs?
It would be much nicer, and fairer, and more politically correct, if the forces of our enemy were neatly proportionately spread amongst all the people and races and religions of the world. But they're not. We only put our head in the sand trying to pretned that they are.
This is a war of culture against culture, religion against religion. Be sure that our enemies see this clearly. Our failure to do so is a powerful advantage for them.
Our greatest point of vulnerability to our enemy will be our obsession for looking for swarthy-white-skinned, Arab-looking males between the ages of 18 and 40. If that is where we concentrate our energies in looking for the enemy here at home, then the enemy is no fool and he will find people who do not match that description to do his business. And if you think he cannot find such people then you are all the more the fool.
I would quite agree that foreign nationals from certain regions may be worth extra scrutiny. And yet to presume that this is the primary danger is to give the enemy a great deal of power, for finding just one 60 year old white woman who hates America enough to smuggle a bomb onto an airplane will be a pearl of infinite price for the enemy, no?
When I hear conservatives ranting that "we aren't looking for 60 year old Norwegian grandmothers," I shiver. You don't think I can find one who hates America enough to kill? I do. Indeed, I fully expect that, were I to push the right buttons, I could get a woman named Bernadine Dohrn to do it for me right now, and she's pretty damned close to matching that exacdt description....
I don't fear racial profiling in this area, nor do I think it would ever become so all-pervasive as to cause us to ignore other dangers. I do fear the fear of racial profiling, and believe that it is right now causing us to ignore clear dangers.
This is but a symptom of the larger problem with the West of being so afraid to appear "imperialistic" or "unfair" that we will conspire to our own destruction.
Still, the majority of terrorists at this point in time are those of a Muslim background as well as belief, and we are suicidal fools not to look for them. Political Correctness: America's time-bomb? Mr. President: Stop coddling our deadly enemies. The "Religion of Peace" is the religion of the destruction of America and the West. Wake up!
Why in hell don't you start googling up some of this stuff before writing about it? None of us want Bernadine to sue your ass by associating her name with al Qaida agents.
And for that matter, I'm told Bernadette long ago retired from the terrorism business.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
The former Weather chick is indeed Bernadine Dohrn, who is that very same respected professor now at Northwestern University in Chciago. They are one and the same. You may read about the notorious former terrorist Bernadine Dohrn here, as well as here and here and here.
Indeed, if you do a Google Search on Dean's World, you will find that I have written about the "respectable" former terrorist, Professor Bernadine Dohrn here in the past on a few occasions. My favorite is probably this article: Kaus Whiffs It.
My favorite quote of all time by the "respected" Professor Dohrn was what she said in reaction to the news that the Manson family had killed the pregnant Sharon Tate and stuck a fork into her swollen belly:
"Offing those rich pigs with their own forks and knives, and then eating a meal in the same room, far out! The Weathermen dig Charles Manson."
Notably, neither Professor Dohrn nor her husband have ever expressed any real regret over their terroism in the past, and tend to refer to that period in their lives as a time of "idealism," as do others who whitewash their past.
Anyway, unfortunately, I'm not at all surprised that she would now be a professor in one of today's Politically Correct universities, teaching that terrorism is "idealistic".
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.