Day: January 7, 2009

The pictures they don’t show about Gaza

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I came across a moving and insightful blog post from the mother of an Israeli soldier. First she writes about the people in the UN school that Israel bombed yesterday.

Everyone in that building yesterday KNEW that the school was being used as a launching ground…and yet, apparently not one of those thought it would be a smart thing to leave.

…And the people who now mourn the “innocents” who died in yesterday’s attack on the United Nations school don’t question why people remained in the building from which these weapons were fired. They don’t question that this defies human instinct and certainly what should have been every parent’s first reaction.

She goes on:

People will ask how it is that I don’t blame Israel and the answer is simple. Fire came from that building. Call it what you want – a school, a refuge, a mosque, a home…if you shoot at an enemy…common sense would say the enemy will shoot back. Do it from inside a mosque, and the mosque becomes a target. Do it from inside a school, and the school becomes a target. Do it from behind your citizens and families, and you show the true nature of your society, your culture, your cause.

The nature of their society is sick and evil. As many people have been pointing out, the Palestinians’ goal is to kill civilians, both Israel’s and their own. Israel’s goal is to get Hamas to stop attacking them; they target the attackers, but kill civilians only because the attackers ALWAYS locate themselves among civilians.

So this woman shows pictures to illustrate what Hamas and their supporters are like. We don’t post pictures here at RRW, so you’ll have to go to the link to see them, and it’s well worth going. First, “the images they show.” The suffering children. Then, “the images they don’t show.” A long string of photos — a little boy holding a grenade, children trampling on the American and Israeli flags, forming an army, throwing rocks, with fake blood on their hands, and so on — in other words, being trained for their future. She ends:

And what they forget to tell you – is the people who allowed these many pictures to happen, the ones who posed these children with guns, painted their hands with “blood” and strapped “explosive belts” to their bodies, the ones who raise them to believe death should be attained for the glory of God and the more Jews and heathens and infidels you take with you, the higher your place in Heaven – they are the ones responsible for the horror that happened yesterday because they are the ones who put hundreds of people into a place that should have been a sanctuary and then they turned it into a launching ground.

Thank you, Soldier’s Mother, for your perspective.

What is doing the right thing in Somalia?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m still trying to avoid saying much about the situation in Somalia itself (it is beyond my pay grade), except as it relates to refugees who have either come to the US, or have recently returned to Africa, leaving their good life in the US behind to attend terrorist training in Somalia.  But, just now this article by some supposed expert on Islam, Frankie Martin, appeared in my alerts and I couldn’t resist responding.  Writing at the Huffington Post, his opinion piece (Doing the right thing in Somalia) is basically one more instruction for Obama and gang from those who elected him.

So, given the dire situation, what is to be done? Despite its mistakes in the region, the United States is best suited to bring Somalia’s factions together in a lasting peace. 

So, Martin says the US is to blame for the Somali mess.  But, I can think of a half dozen other countries that have some responsibility and are more suited to step between the warring Islamic factions.

This time the US should go in not with drones but diplomacy. President-elect Barack Obama will face a dizzying array of challenges when he takes office, but he must not let Somalia once again be neglected.

Personally I’m opting for continued neglect!

Obama — who is very popular among Somalis — or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should go to Somalia immediately after the inauguration to give muscle and credibility to the peace process. This would open a new chapter in US/Somali relations and signal that the US was serious about engaging with Somalia in a sustained and intelligent way.

What the h… is a sustained and intelligent way?  I bet Martin doesn’t know either!  And, don’t you just love it, the same liberals who said it was wrong for Bush to butt in in Iraq, now want us to butt in in Africa.

The US and its Western allies should work with moderate Muslims and extend dialogue invitations to those who disagree with its policy in the region. It should fund health and education programs [yes, of course, add Somalia to the list of taxpayer bailouts] and make it clear to the Somali people that the US is not at war with them or their Islamic faith. This would both attack piracy at its root by restoring stability and help to swing the pendulum away from radicals toward the tolerant Sufi Islam native to Somalia.

Does Martin think there isn’t the remotest possibility that the Islamic faith might be in a war with the US?

Here is where I agree with Martin.   As a mother of an American soldier, I think we should send Obama or Hillary (or both!) to Somalia and keep our soldiers at home.

I’ll have more to say on Frankie later because I just learned he got involved in the Grand Island Swift Somali firing, but right now I have some other things to do.   Come back later tomorrow!    Update:    Here it is.