A look at PC and the world in time of war

A POLITICALY CORRECT WAR?

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

by John Dicus

The support of the people, as well as the support of our allies both Western and Mid-Eastern is very important in this as in all wars of the past. But should we revert to the modern fascination with Political Correctness (PC) in order to ensure the continued support of our allies?
The al-Qaida network through their minions stationed here in the USA killed several thousand people in this country. The massacred people were all civilians, innocents murdered in the most nefarious act of terrorism in history. This massacre was against all tenets of modern and even ancient law and theory of warfare. These pigs did not care about the fact that war had not been declared; instead they performed a cowardly act of despicably craven wanton slaughter.

MEDIA COMPLICITY WITH TALIBAN PROPAGANDA?
  Yet even after the unconscionable acts of these cowards, they are met by the Western press, especially in the USA with Political Correctness. Our press refused to print or show photos of the hundreds of broken bodies pulled from the wreckages on September 11, 2001. The hopeless plunges of the victims tossed or hurled through the windows of the WTC were barely shown on film. Yet the major networks are daily showing the travails of the Afghan people, the smashed mud houses, the little children and weeping women in the hospitals. The camera will focus on the tear-streaked faces of an old man digging through his mud bricks looking for his family heirlooms. "Why are the Americans bombing us? What do they want from us?" they ask the Western reporters. The Taliban controls all news dissemination in that restricted country. So the media is unable to show the military targets destroyed in overwhelming predominance over the unfortunate 'collateral damage'. Yet they make little mention of this fact on their networks. A person might be forgiven for assuming that the USA was bombing mainly civilian targets.
  The Taliban is parking military equipment in residential areas, and stationing their troops among the civilians in a spineless attempt to hide this material from American bombing. This will certainly enable much of their equipment to evade destruction by the American ordnance. Even American bombs cannot destroy a tank or field artillery piece parked next to a Mosque without causing damage to buildings in the immediate vicinity. The Taliban hope to use the forth-rightness and honesty of the Americans to admit they destroyed a Mosque, the American press will likely exacerbate the situation by very seldom mentioning that the mosque had a military piece parked next to it. This act of subterfuge while effective is against many of the major agreements of the military. These agreements include such things as not bombing hospitals, orphanages and houses of worship. An ancillary agreement is that such buildings and places will not be used for war purposes such as quartering of troops, or movements of equipment. The Taliban is using the American reluctance to cause civilian casualties to their best advantage. And when we do cause damage anywhere the Taliban will trot out the journalists to show the 'civilian buildings targeted' by American forces. They are aware of our sensibilities and concerns, they will use our fear of killing civilians and our reluctance to destroying houses of worship to their own best advantage. They are more familiar with us, than we are with them. We need to put ourselves in their minds, and understand their way of thinking These 'almost cave-men' have put themselves in our minds, and used our own great transportation system and open society to destroy the Twin Towers. WE need to understand their thinking so we can anticipate their next move, whoever erratic and unpredictable they are.
BOMBING ON RAMADAN?
"You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone."
- Al Capone (1899-1947)

  Now there are many voices saying that we should not be bombing on Ramadan the Islamic holy month of most of November. But is it a good idea to cease tactical military operations due to the enemies' holy times? Would this not give them a good opportunity to regroup, and plan and stage for offensive operations?
  Yet the argument could be made that the Islamic Nations allied with us (or at least not speaking out against us), will be less offended if we showed compassion for an Islamic country on this one of their most hallowed occasions.
  Yet the history of Ramadan in Islamic history shows that wars and campaigns are not necessarily deferred for the occasion of this most sacred month in the Islamic calendar. In fact Mohammed himself fought several battles near Mecca in the year 624 AD. And Anwar Sadat attacked Israel during Ramadan during the Yom Kippur war. Iran and Iraq fought many battles with each other during Ramadan while they were in active warfare.
  So, while these monsters do not adhere to the restrictions placed on war within a civilized society, we of the West debate whether to continue bombing at this time in a 'wanton disregard of their feelings', or whether we should stop the bombing in respect for the Islam religion, while they use that time, not exclusively for praying and fasting, but for moving equipment around without fear of attack. I wonder if we should have stopped bombing Germany during Sundays to show respect for their Christian religion? If we had would they have agreed not to transport victims to the death camps on Sundays? Would they have agreed to not transporting them on Saturdays, The Jewish Holy Day? Monsters make no distinction as to the day, and will move when given the opportunity. We must deprive monster of the ability to move when we don't want them to.
  The bombing campaign can only have so much weight and force. There will be a time when there is really nothing much to bomb of real military value that is not shielded by civilians or mosques. The big guns will be stowed in mosques and hospitals, the Taliban soldiers are being spread throughout the population, and we will have to send in troops.
  Perhaps the bombing will have no real value by the time Ramadan comes along, if this is the case ceasing the bombing and telling the Islamic peoples the reason was 'in interest of showing respect for their culture', we can gain some 'brownie points' while masking the fact that the bombing is not having that much effect anymore other than to keep the Taliban hidden and holed up.
IS RACIAL PROFILING WRONG HERE?
  Shades of Political Incorrectness! There are people offended that they have been singled out for inspection. If I heard that there was a rabid dog running around the neighborhood I would be on the lookout for a rabid dog, and not examining the rabbits. This rabid dog needs to be hunted down and killed. The way to do this is to examine every dog found. To avoid hurting the dogs feelings should one examine one cat and one turtle for each dog one scrutinizes closely? How absurd! Yet this is the point that PC wants us to get and follow. Events such as this show the folly of adhering stringently to PC standards. The 19 hijackers who killed the people in the terror incidents of September 11 2001 were all Mid-Eastern. While we should not overlook the incidents of Domestic and 'copy-cat' terrorists, we should make sure to examine every person of Mid-Eastern appearance and extraction. While this is unfortunate for the innocents, it is imperative that we root out all the sleeper agents in this country. For this we need the co-operation of the Islam culture and officials in this country. We need the Muslim clerics in the USA to speak out publicly against the Terrorists, the attacks, the concept that this is a Jihad, and the idea of any kind of support, both monetary and intellectual for the Taliban, their minions and cohorts. Mid-Eastern people in the USA, if you are making this your new home, make it your home, and open up, embrace liberty with us, but recognize that this is a time of war, a time when we have the enemy among all of us, and we have a difficult time in this free society to tell you the innocent from the terrorists in sheep's clothing hidden among us. Help us in this, our endeavor to rid this country of these people, so if you have suspicions of someone you know, call the FBI and report them. The FBI will examine these people, and come to their conclusions fairly and equitably.
IT WAS PC THAT GOT US INTO THIS MESS!
  OK, PC itself is just the concept that made us all so 'super sensitive'. We let ourselves be made ridiculous. It shows how far things have come when stores have to have female Santa Clauses. When Mohamed Atta left a mechanically disabled Cessna parked without lights in the runway at a large airport in Florida and just walked off leaving it there; why didn't the FAA come down hard on him? Indeed, it would seem to be correct to go as far as hunting him down and deporting him. We don't need dummies coming here; we need people coming here who have some sense of decency, morals, work ethic and common sense. This scofflaw was pulled over in the weeks before his terrorist action and found to be driving without a license. This should be enough to get a non-citizen kicked out. Could it be that our reticence to deal with foreigners in a judgmental fashion has in fact lead to the ability of these thugs to infiltrate our system, learn and become familiar with the structure of our society, and using it against itself cause widespread panic, disruption and high costs at a low outlay to themselves.
  So, the end result is that we all have to button down some now, we all have to deal with the military in airports to ensure our survival. And besides the law, and the military to ensure our survival, we have another weapon to help us in this aim; this weapon is called common sense, and encompasses history, experience and knowledge. These three concepts meld into the trait we call common sense, which in reality is not all that common. Looking at history we see that singling out the enemy is a good action in time of war, regardless of the fact that it is not PC to do so. Our personal experience tells us the same thing. And knowledge based upon the aforementioned ideas tells us this also. Therefore we can apply this all to common sense in the fashion that we can say unequivocally that 'common sense tells us that Political Correctness is absurd, idiotic, and not conducive to a well-running, efficient and respectful society'.
  So let's use this war to reform the National thinking, let's bring common sense, values and high virtue back to all our thinking and actions. Act rightly, act responsibly, and act with high virtue. This will extend from you to your family, then on to the community, and the state and Nation. If our nation is acting with virtue and honor, the world will come into accord in time. And we will remain great among the nations. HOME John's Political Essays