You Need to Read This

A libertarian friend of mine sent me a link to a featured article on the Ron Paul Institute's website authored by Peter van Buren and republished from his site. Below are a few excerpted paragraphs that I believe everyone needs to read even if they don't want to.

Paris: You Don’t Want to Read This

And so we Tweet hashtags and phrases in high school French and post GIFs to Facebook. We know what to do; we’ve done this before.

But it has to be said, especially looking at the sick repetition of the same story, that despite fourteen plus years of a war on terror, terror seems to be with us as much as ever, maybe even more. It is time to rethink what we have done and are doing.

We gave up many of our freedoms in America to defeat the terrorists. It did not work. We gave the lives of over 4,000 American men and women in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan, to defeat the terrorists, and refuse to ask what they died for. We killed tens of thousands or more in those countries. It did not work. We went to war again in Iraq, and now in Syria, before in Libya, and only created more failed states and ungoverned spaces that provide havens for terrorists and spilled terror like dropped paint across borders. We harass and discriminate against our own Muslim populations and then stand slack-jawed as they become radicalized, and all we do then is blame ISIS for Tweeting.

Note that it is the strategy of Islamic terror to generate a crackdown in France in order to radicalise French Muslims. Hundreds of French citizens have already traveled to Syria to fight with groups including ISIS.

But I do have this: stop what we have been doing for the last 14 years. It has not worked. There is nothing at all to suggest it ever will work. Whack-a-mole is a game, not a plan. Leave the Middle East alone. Stop creating more failed states. Stop throwing away our freedoms at home on falsehoods. Stop disenfranchising the Muslims who live with us. Understand the war, such as it is, is against a set of ideas — religious, anti-western, anti-imperialist — and you cannot bomb an idea. Putting western soldiers on the ground in the MidEast and western planes overhead fans the flames. Vengeance does not and cannot extinguish an idea.

I'm not in total agreement with every word and every idea but overall I think he does a good job of articulating some important points that everyone should keep in mind when considering what they're promoting in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris.

- We've paid an enormous price in human lives, suffering and dollars for 'revenge' and to 'fix' the ME and for what? How many repetitions before we accept the failure of the policies of the last two administrations? I'll spare you the cliche about the 'definition of insanity' but if we continue with more of the same, we can expect more of the same.

- We cannot in our anger and fear give up our civil liberties. Do the ends justify the means? After 9/11, privacy and due process took enormous hits. Today a man who wants to be President and is leading in the polls, talked about expanding the government's ability to close down places of worship and to my horror — my atheist horror — people are fine with this as long as it's "the other guy." It's always the "other guy" until it's you. Remember that.

- We cannot hold accountable innocent people for the actions of a few or even the actions of a few thousand. There is an illiberal, destructive, dangerous and counterproductive current of hate and misplaced blame coursing through the political rhetoric and public discussion. We've gone beyond simple xenophobia and run-of-the-mill bigotry — I've seen countless people promoting the use of nuclear weapons, interment camps, population control and all out call for genocide. There are people talking about refugees as a sleeper army waiting for the moment for millions of them to launch a coordinated attack. THIS IS UTTER LUNACY. Don't allow the rhetoric of hate mongers and zealots to pervert your perceptions. There are more than a billion and a half Muslims in the world, the numbers of terrorists and militants numbers in the tens of thousands.

Do not play your part in the strategy of ISIL/ISIS/Daesh. Do not be complicit in the holy war these monsters are trying to incite. They're counting on you...

Let them down.

Some of us have been saying this for many years and we were met with outright dismissal.

Thanks for posting. It needs to be said as many times as it takes for people to understand.

a reply to: theantediluvian

people are fine with this as long as it's "the other guy." It's always the "other guy" until it's you. Remember that.

We are doomed to repeat history unless we heed these words above,and the way it is going we are on track a rerun ....

Thx for posting S&F

Thanks for posting this.
Very rational common sense right there.

S&F

a reply to: theantediluvian

ISIS desires to destroy the ideology of America. They aim to raze Western Civilization to ruins.

They will not stop with the ME, Northern Africa, or The Mediterranean. America cannot simply go home and quit the war of ideologies. America has to lie in Her bed. Europe has much to suffer for their exploitations of the ME as well. ISIS aims to bury all who forcefully colonized the ME with their ideologies and presence.

Israel will Nuke everything if we leave them cold and in the darkness of the Caliphate Storm. The world will plunge into madness far beyond terrorist massacres.

American absence in the ME will not stop the Hell coming for us. God help us all for what we have become.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
A libertarian friend of mine sent me a link to a featured article on the Ron Paul Institute's website authored by Peter van Buren and republished from his site. Below are a few excerpted paragraphs that I believe everyone needs to read even if they don't want to.

Paris: You Don’t Want to Read This

And so we Tweet hashtags and phrases in high school French and post GIFs to Facebook. We know what to do; we’ve done this before.

But it has to be said, especially looking at the sick repetition of the same story, that despite fourteen plus years of a war on terror, terror seems to be with us as much as ever, maybe even more. It is time to rethink what we have done and are doing.

We gave up many of our freedoms in America to defeat the terrorists. It did not work. We gave the lives of over 4,000 American men and women in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan, to defeat the terrorists, and refuse to ask what they died for. We killed tens of thousands or more in those countries. It did not work. We went to war again in Iraq, and now in Syria, before in Libya, and only created more failed states and ungoverned spaces that provide havens for terrorists and spilled terror like dropped paint across borders. We harass and discriminate against our own Muslim populations and then stand slack-jawed as they become radicalized, and all we do then is blame ISIS for Tweeting.

Note that it is the strategy of Islamic terror to generate a crackdown in France in order to radicalise French Muslims. Hundreds of French citizens have already traveled to Syria to fight with groups including ISIS.

But I do have this: stop what we have been doing for the last 14 years. It has not worked. There is nothing at all to suggest it ever will work. Whack-a-mole is a game, not a plan. Leave the Middle East alone. Stop creating more failed states. Stop throwing away our freedoms at home on falsehoods. Stop disenfranchising the Muslims who live with us. Understand the war, such as it is, is against a set of ideas — religious, anti-western, anti-imperialist — and you cannot bomb an idea. Putting western soldiers on the ground in the MidEast and western planes overhead fans the flames. Vengeance does not and cannot extinguish an idea.

I'm not in total agreement with every word and every idea but overall I think he does a good job of articulating some important points that everyone should keep in mind when considering what they're promoting in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris.

- We've paid an enormous price in human lives, suffering and dollars for 'revenge' and to 'fix' the ME and for what? How many repetitions before we accept the failure of the policies of the last two administrations? I'll spare you the cliche about the 'definition of insanity' but if we continue with more of the same, we can expect more of the same.

- We cannot in our anger and fear give up our civil liberties. Do the ends justify the means? After 9/11, privacy and due process took enormous hits. Today a man who wants to be President and is leading in the polls, talked about expanding the government's ability to close down places of worship and to my horror — my atheist horror — people are fine with this as long as it's "the other guy." It's always the "other guy" until it's you. Remember that.

- We cannot hold accountable innocent people for the actions of a few or even the actions of a few thousand. There is an illiberal, destructive, dangerous and counterproductive current of hate and misplaced blame coursing through the political rhetoric and public discussion. We've gone beyond simple xenophobia and run-of-the-mill bigotry — I've seen countless people promoting the use of nuclear weapons, interment camps, population control and all out call for genocide. There are people talking about refugees as a sleeper army waiting for the moment for millions of them to launch a coordinated attack. THIS IS UTTER LUNACY. Don't allow the rhetoric of hate mongers and zealots to pervert your perceptions. There are more than a billion and a half Muslims in the world, the numbers of terrorists and militants numbers in the tens of thousands.

Do not play your part in the strategy of ISIL/ISIS/Daesh. Do not be complicit in the holy war these monsters are trying to incite. They're counting on you...

Let them down.

The truth of our planet and our place in this Universe will utterly shadow this entire thing thats happening witb Isis. ISIS and many like them will tremble in fear of the power and authority of....well....

a reply to: Boscov
Absolutely , with no questions. The reason it has failed is the weakness of current administrations. Our current President , since he is still campaigning , is appeasing his base . Not caring the depth of weakness and failure that is perceived here or in other countries. We need a leader who doesnt care what his base thinks and get serious about the subject. All I heard in his speech was rhetoric and the same old tired mess (re: BS) he has always projected.

a reply to: theantediluvian

I pray that we will just STOP this madness and leave that region. We have no business over there and we have plenty of oil and resources right here at home. Who cares if we pay a couple more dollars for gas if we can get our young men and women out of that hell hole and bring them home.

Leave those people alone and actually give them the freedom we always talk about. No wars of aggression.

a reply to: theantediluvian

I'd go one step further and suggest that someone or some group of individuals should actually be punished / imprisoned as a result of this continuous failing that 99% of the planet said would happen and didn't want or ask for.

I recall protesting from the moment Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell , Blair and Howard et al decided to say #### you to the world and invade Iraq because of trumped-up lies about Saddam and WMDs

RIP Dr David Kelly.

International criminal court time, and YES, time to come home from the Middle East

S+F

I was thinking exactly the same for couple of years now.
War on terror is just creating more terror,when will most people realize that ?
Whenever you drop a bomb or fire a shot you kill someones father,brother,sister,uncle.

Imagine what impact it has on a family when you kill their dear ones ? Imagine what happens if you kill a father who was working/providing for his family ? How many children have become orphans because of our dirty games in the ME ? How many people in the ME have we pushed down in poverty ? What other options do they have other than joining a filthy radical group that will take care of them and finally brainwash them in to commiting attrocities?

I bet that there are loads of those recruited by ISIS and other radical groups. Now i am not defending Isis goathumpers,they have to go but the fact is we created them. We are responsible for the rise of Isis.

Bush,Blair and their little gang of warmongerers are all war criminals and should be tried for crimes against humanity. But will they ? Nope. But they hanged Saddam. How can we demand justice and punishment for others if we dont convict our own ?

The easiest solution is to blame everything on muslims,butthe reality is different.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Have we considered that what we see now regarding terrorism and the destruction of states is exactly what the ruling elite have intended? Because I think it is.

a reply to: theantediluvian

"Don't allow the rhetoric of hate mongers and zealots to pervert your perceptions."
Spot on

a reply to: theantediluvian

You Need to Read This - I did and I agree with every word in it - so much insight and wisdom in that

a reply to: theantediluvian

You had me 100% right up until the "monsters" bit.

Who are we asking to stop this , tptb , they are funding , have orchestrated and want this , I won't be holding my breath.

Violence can never be solved with more violence.

Otherwise you are just perpetuating a cycle of the very thing that you proclaim to hate.

originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: theantediluvian

I pray that we will just STOP this madness and leave that region. We have no business over there and we have plenty of oil and resources right here at home. Who cares if we pay a couple more dollars for gas if we can get our young men and women out of that hell hole and bring them home.

Leave those people alone and actually give them the freedom we always talk about. No wars of aggression.

Good job, really well said ...

As a American citizen, I'm more concerned about getting shot and killed by a police officer or disgruntled white male than I am about those so called US created toerrorists. If I was in Chicago, I would be concerned about the gangs and their out of control violence.

Sorry, but ISIS isn't on my list of worries.

After 14 years of this, it seems to me it is not about stopping terrorism. It's about who gets the money. It's always about money...