by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n Two recent news stories about Afghanistan reveal the delusional mentality of those conducting our foreign policy. The first is about some Marines who urinated on the corpses of Taliban fighters. Such behavior, of course, is mild compared to the sort of brutal treatment of both the living and the dead typical of all wars ever fought. Nonetheless, this act is contrary to the rules of war and the professional code of the Corp, and as such should be punished. That\u2019s all our official spokesmen need to say about the matter, for it concerns a violation of our military\u2019s high standards that have helped make it the most professional, lethal, and ethical force in the world.<\/p>\n The foreign policy establishment, however, has fallen all over itself issuing solicitous apologies. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed her \u201ctotal dismay,\u201d a reaction stronger than her comments about the Egyptian military slaughtering Copts. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta phoned the utterly corrupt and duplicitous beneficiary of our power and money, Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, to assure him that those responsible would be found and punished for such a \u201cdeplorable\u201d act. Of course, this is a part of the world where brutal violence against civilians is routinely used as a tool of politics, and where torture and mutilation of the living, let alone the desecration of the dead, are standard operating procedure. Yet we cede the moral high ground to Karzai, who said the soldiers\u2019 behavior was \u201cinhuman and condemnable in the strongest possible terms,\u201d something I don\u2019t recall him ever saying about the terrorists murdering our soldiers. Even more risible was the response of the Taliban, who condemned the \u201cinhuman act of wild American soldiers,\u201d one \u201cin contradiction with all human and ethical norms.\u201d This from a group that when it ruled Afghanistan, used a European-built soccer stadium to bury non-Sharia-compliant women up to their necks and then stone them to death, and to machine-gun and behead other miscreants.<\/p>\n I know the rationale for all these anxious protestations of our \u201cdismay.\u201d As one of the consistent purveyors of such pointless public relations efforts,\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>, put it, the video raised \u201cfears in Washington that the images could incite anti-American sentiment at a particularly delicate moment\u201d in the war. This is the same old delusion that has conditioned our behavior for a decade now: the notion that jihadist hatred of us is the consequence of our bad behavior and offenses against Muslims, and so we have constantly to apologize and remind them how much we respect and honor their wonderful religion. Even before 9\/11, our foreign policy officials took every opportunity to tell Muslims how wonderful their faith is. Bill Clinton\u2019s Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, called Islam \u201ca faith that honors consultation, cherishes peace, and has as one of its fundamental principles the inherent equality of all who embrace it.\u201d Except, of course, for women, homosexuals, and infidels. George Bush wasn\u2019t much better, claiming in his first address after 9\/11 that Islam\u2019s \u201cteachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah.\u201d Bush\u2019s Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, called Islam the religion \u201cof love and peace.\u201d Hillary Clinton is on record praising Islam\u2019s \u201cdeepest yearning of all \u2014 to live in peace.\u201d No surprise, then, that these days official government policy proscribes any mention of \u201cjihad\u201d in public communications, and forbids any linkage of jihadist terror to Islamic doctrine. Of course, all this puffery is contradicted by Islamic theology, jurisprudence, history of conquest and occupation, and the continuing record of religiously sanctioned terrorist violence \u2014 18,283\u00a0attacks<\/a>just since 9\/11.<\/p>\n Complementing this flattery has been our hysterical reactions to bad behavior, both real and invented, perpetrated by our forces. The abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, most of which rarely rose above the level of a fraternity hazing, was labeled \u201chorrific\u201d by the\u00a0Times<\/em>, making us wonder what adjective the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0could use to describe what went on in Abu Ghraib when Saddam Hussein ran it. Then too, multiple investigations and public apologies followed from the government. Worse yet is the reaction to outright fabrications, such as the lie that prisoners in Guantanamo were abused and tortured, or the absurd allegation that a Koran was flushed down a toilet. Once again, apologies and investigations poured forth from the government in response to transparent propaganda. The reason for all this public breast-beating is the fallacious belief that Muslims really want to like us, but our insensitive misdeeds against their religion leave them psychologically vulnerable to terrorist \u201chighjackers of Islam\u201d who promise justified payback for infidel disrespect.<\/p>\n But if we pay attention to actions rather than heeding duplicitous words, the record shows that considerable numbers of Muslims hate us not for what we do, but for what we are: infidel denizens of a civilization that once trembled at the approach of Allah\u2019s armies, but that now dominates the world and occupies the global preeminence rightfully belonging to what the Koran calls \u201cthe best of nations raised for the benefit of men.\u201d Contra the State Deparment and theTimes<\/em>, \u201canti-American sentiment\u201d is not something new created by our excesses in Muslim lands, but has long permeated the Middle East and doesn\u2019t need some minor scandal to be stoked. On the contrary, we have rescued Muslims from brutal dictators, provided aid to Muslim victims of natural disasters, poured billions of dollars into Muslim countries, and none of those good deeds has improved our image among the faithful. Indeed, despite Obama\u2019s continuous flattering \u201coutreach\u201d and protestations of respect for Islam, Muslims still\u00a0don\u2019t like him<\/a>\u00a0or the United States much.<\/p>\n The second story illustrates another delusion that has compromised our security and interests: the idea that enemies sworn to our destruction can be talked out of their violent intentions and actions by diplomatic negotiation. Though this tack has failed spectacularly to change Iran\u2019s behavior, we now are pursuing the same failed policy with the Taliban. Worse yet, we have been down this road before with the Taliban: In 1995, after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, Clinton\u2019s Secretary of State Warren Christopher relayed a message to Afghanistan\u2019s new rulers that the US wished \u201cto engage the new \u2018interim government\u2019 at an early stage.\u201d In the years following, State Department suitors tried unsuccessfully to cajole the Taliban into kicking bin Laden out of the country and closing the al-Qaeda training camps. But as Michael Rubin\u00a0writes<\/a>of this five-year stint of \u201cengagement,\u201d \u201cThe Taliban had, like many rogue regimes, acted in bad faith. They engaged not to compromise, but to buy time. They made many promises but did not keep a single one.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite having been gulled once before by the Taliban, Hillary Clinton has asked Qatar to open a representative office there for these Islamist fanatics, and she has pledged to release Taliban detainees, including murderers of Americans, from Guantanamo, in order to lure the Taliban into entering talks. The purpose of these \u201ctalks,\u201d of course, is to achieve some \u201cpeace agreement\u201d with these fanatics in advance of the American withdrawal. But the historical record shows over and over the futility of negotiating with religious radicals whose worldview allows only for our destruction or submission. As PLO chief Yasser Arafat brilliantly demonstrated for decades, the jihadists can achieve some benefit, or buy more time for strengthening their position, by engaging in negotiations that provide pusillanimous Western governments with verbal and procedural camouflage for their failure of nerve or their pursuit of political self-interests. So too Iran, which has followed the North Korea playbook and used the diplomatic process to buy time for achieving nuclear capability. Anticipating the American withdrawal, the Taliban are obviously doing the same thing, at least in the estimation of someone who should know, former Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah: \u201cReleasing Taliban detainees from Guantanamo,\u201d the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a>, \u201cand giving the insurgents international recognition in Qatar are concessions that may allow the insurgency to reinvigorate itself, he said in an interview. \u2018I don\u2019t want anything happening under the name of making peace that strengthens the war machine of the Taliban,\u2019 Mr. Abdullah said.\u201d<\/p>\n It is a measure of the Taliban contempt for us that it makes no bones about entering these negotiations solely to get their prisoners released, not to come to some agreement with Karzai\u2019s \u201cstooge Kabul administration,\u201d or to recognize the Afghan Constitution, which they deem insufficiently Sharia compliant, or to \u201csurrender from Jihad,\u201d as they said in a statement about the talks. And just so their meaning was clear, the Taliban killed coalition ally Hajji Fazluddin Agha, the governor of the Panjway district in Kandahar province. But even if the Taliban did cut a deal, there is nothing in their track record to show that they would hold to it. Again Arafat provides the best model of the tactical use of phony \u201cagreements,\u201d each one of which was followed by more Palestinian terrorist murders in pursuit of his long-term goal of destroying Israel.<\/p>\n But here we go again, participating in a diplomatic charade that will, like our apologies and protestations of respect, achieve nothing other than confirming the enemy in his oft-stated belief that we are weak and full of fear. And that\u2019s another reason why they hate us \u2014 not because of our deeds, but because we demonstrate over and over that we lack the courage of our convictions, and so deserve to be attacked by the faithful until, as the Koran says, we \u201cpay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority\u201d and are \u201cin a state of subjection.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Two recent news stories about Afghanistan reveal the delusional mentality of those conducting our foreign policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,196],"tags":[1051,319,161,12,143,1035,74,293,490,1053,1017,431,459,489,1060,197,1030],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-hh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2545,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-libya-venture-and-double-standards\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":0},"title":"Obama’s Libya Venture and Double Standards","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The champion of shameless chutzpah has always been the guy who murders his parents then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he\u2019s an orphan. But White House spokesman Jay Carney might be the new champ, given his response to the House\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Libya"","block_context":{"text":"Libya","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/libya\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2174,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/afghanistan-and-the-trojan-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":1},"title":"Afghanistan and the Trojan War","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Herbert Jordan Private Papers For perspective on the war in Afghanistan, President Obama ought to take a look through the lens of the oldest geopolitical conflict in the history of Western civilization, in which Greek warriors crossed the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor, besieged the citadel of Troy, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2009"","block_context":{"text":"November 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/november-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2437,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/taking-our-eye-off-the-jihadist-ball\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":2},"title":"Taking Our Eye Off the Jihadist Ball","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Given our economic doldrums and the still metastasizing debt, the legislation raising the debt ceiling won\u2019t keep the economy from dominating the nation\u2019s attention until next year\u2019s election.This means foreign affairs will continue to be an afterthought, at a time when dangerous developments in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2454,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/time-for-a-foreign-policy-paradigm-shift\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":3},"title":"Time for a Foreign Policy Paradigm Shift","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The greatest danger in foreign policy is a reliance on worn out paradigms and unexamined assumptions. This received wisdom acts as a mental filter that ignores new developments and lets through only that information which fits the preordained narrative. For nearly forty years American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7530,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/partisan-politics-bad-ideas-the-bergdahl-swap\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":4},"title":"Partisan Politics, Bad Ideas & the Bergdahl Swap","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine President Obama\u2019s exchange of 5 high-ranking Taliban murderers for a soldier who possibly was a deserter and collaborator encapsulates everything that is wrong with this administration\u2019s foreign policy. The serial failures of the past 5 years reflect a toxic brew of partisan politics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2962,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/foreign-policy-as-magical-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":5},"title":"Foreign Policy as Magical Thinking","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPageMagazine.com President Obama\u2019s foreign policy team is built around one key idea: the neglect of diplomacy by President Bush\u2019s \u201ccowboy\u201d unilateralism has damaged American prestige, alienated our allies, and worsened our problems abroad, particularly with the Islamic jihadists. Thus the new administration will restore diplomacy to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1072,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071\/revisions\/1072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}