LEAD SUSPECT REPORTEDLY MOTIVATED BY AMERICA’S 2003 INVASION OF IRAQ, TORTURE OF PRISONERS
|| By FITSNEWS || France remained gripped by fear Thursday as authorities stepped up a nationwide manhunt for two men linked to this week’s brutal terror attack at Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical publication.
Thirty-four-year-old Said Kouachi and his younger brother, 32-year-old Cherif Kouachi – both French nationals of Algerian descent – are the prime suspects in the attack, which was carried out in response to cartoon drawings of the prophet Muhammad deemed offensive by some Muslims.
The brothers – former jihadist activists – are to be considered “armed and dangerous,” according to a French bulletin.
“They are still free, they are heavily armed, so we can be afraid of further violence,” French prime minister Manuel Valls told RTL radio listeners.
The Charlie Hebdo attack – carried out by masked gunmen toting AK-47 rifles – killed twelve people, most of them employees of the magazine.
Paris deputy mayor Patrick Klugman told ABC News the gunmen “called out the names of their victims” and shot them “one by one in the head, execution style.”
The first to die? The paper’s 47-year-old editor Stephane Charbonnier – who only a few short years ago refused to cower to threats made against his paper.
Speaking fluent French, the assailants reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Great”) and “we have avenged the prophet Muhammed” as they opened fire.
After the attack, they fled into the streets of Paris as unarmed French policemen sought to apprehend them. One of these officers was shot in the head at point blank range on a sidewalk outside the publication – an event captured on video.
Ironically, the deceased police officer – 42-year-old Ahmed Merabet – was a Muslim.
Cherif Kouachi has a history of militant activity – and was well known to French authorities prior to the attack. In fact he was convicted in 2008 of helping recruit soldiers for militant Islamic leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – who was killed by Americans in a 2006 bombing in Iraq. Three years before his conviction, in 2005, Cherif Kouachi was arrested while attempting to travel to Iraq to fight against the U.S.-led occupation force.
What motivated his hatred? America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq – and the subsequent torture of prisoners by American soliders at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
Another suspect, eighteen-year-old Mourad Hamyd, turned himself in to French authorities early Thursday in Charleville-Mézières – a town near the Belgian border. Hamyd is said to be the brother-in-law of one of the other suspects.
It’s unclear whether he was involved in the assault. He claims to have been in school at the time of the incident, while French authorities initially reported that he was a getaway driver.
Could the brothers strike again?
“That question is entirely legitimate, that’s obviously our main concern, and that is why thousands of police and investigators have been mobilized to catch these individuals,” Valls said.
Obviously we – like all lovers of life and liberty – condemn these attacks. In fact they are especially deserving of condemnation given their underlying intention – to silence the free expression of ideas. Having said that, it’s becoming clear the root of this irrational evil wasn’t just misplaced anger over some cartoons – but a deep-seeded hatred of America’s ill-conceived warmongering in Iraq.
Is that any excuse for this sort of barbarism? Of course not. But it is another reminder that actions have consequences …
***
89 comments
LMAO!!! A ‘selfie’ of Rocky and Smirks at McDonalds to start the morning?:-)
Man ,FITS changed the picture on this article. FITS had a smiling picture of the the perps at what appeared to be a drive-thru and removed it.
Sorry Rock and Smirks. My comment is just not appropriate given what FITS has posted now.You both may be clowns however I doubt either one of you support the assassination of a defenseless cop.
Sandi, don’t you have an ISIS meeting to attend or something?
Sandi? No I am watching Democrat Senator Joe Manchain from WV rip Obama about Keystone and talking about switching to the Republican Party if Obama continues his path of destroying America,
I thought you were learning how to cite sources. Silly me, can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
I’ll help again. Source: Steve Dushy on Fox and Friends, just before they break to the commercial on Depends.
Defenseless cop – no! Redneck jerk off – jury is out on that one.
LMAO!!! I was wrong. Rocky is defending the terrorists killing of the cop. You really are disgraceful.
Paris shooting: Manhunt after gunmen attack office of …
http://www.cbsnews.com/…/charlie-hebdo-french-satirical-magazine...
CBS News
1 day ago – Paris suspects reportedly spotted as 3rd cop killed …. who was unarmed….
You might want to reread my post. You appear to have issues with nuance and reading between the lines. Here’s the hint – you sir, are the redneck.
I bow to your superior intelligence. I make these stupid posts hoping my hero Grandtango will hire me on to promote his website. Maybe then I’ll be able to afford something off the McDonald’s dollar menu in a couple years. LMAO!!!
You psyched them out. I think Karl Marx (FITS Booty-lover-in-law) has advised FITS to do what he and RonPaul tell us to do to murdering Jihadists (ignore them)…But the more they do that, the more you expose them for the clowns they are…
Believe me…you make a difference. TRUTH w/ intelligence is a such STRONG persuader….on a level w/ Robert Cray…LMAO….
I am humbled by your praise. Thank you sir.
Will FITS and RonPaul DEMAND Due Process…and donate to a legal defense fund that will dis-allow the video of the cop begging for his life, because the video may influence a jury and guarantee the “insurgents'” a fair and justice-based trial???
Another brilliant observation.Have you noticed the ‘closet’ muslim refuses to call the terrorists Islamists? Wonder why? :-)
Thanks, and you are correct (as usual)….I think the White House called it a ‘Horrible Act of Violence’ or something like that for most of the day, yesterday. Would not even call it Terrorism, because the isolationists told us if we buried our head up our @$$#$…these nice peace loving Islamists would play real pretty…
Correction, the White House called it terrorism immediately. Sorry you are once again – WRONG!!! What, were on the Romney campaign?
Rocky, you’re ignorant, or just a stupid liar…..
Your President’s exact words were – “strongly condemn the horrific shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that has reportedly killed 12 people. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this terrorist attack…..” – you stupid, lying idiot moron pile of Low Country horse manure dumb @$$.
Will you carry it on the SP Digestion blog? Seems to be quiet like for over a month now.
Obama said NOTHING for a while…only his press secretary did. And he would not call it Terrorism. They had to figure out if there was a way to blame an American for it…
You are correct. The press secretary went on NBC and stated what you just did. The wHite House didn’t call it terrorism until the French came out strongly that it was terrorism and Susan Rice reminded Obama that one of the reasons the Dems were devestated in November was the American people don’t trust him to defend this country.
Still didn’t call it ‘Islamic terrorism’. We know why.
“They are still free, they are heavily armed, so we can be afraid of further violence,”
“Afraid”, that’s a powerful word and it says a lot about what the French have allowed to happen. France has become “Balkanized”. They have allowed parts of their major cities to become “little Middle Easts” and they have reason to “be afraid”.
Since you brought it up, the “pebble in my shoe” thing seems to have worked, at least partially, for good ol’ boy Ted Vick. One of his DUIs has been dismissed. Not sure about the other one, but I’ll go out on a limb and predict he walks on that one, too.
Since I brought it up, SC has the highest number of DUI deaths per capita in the US – Vick should have been put under the jail.
“predict he walks on that one, too.”
But at least he’ll walk in discomfort, from the pebble in his shoe.
:)
I wouldn’t get bent out of shape over someone’s translation of what the French guy said.
Our media, as usual, is hysterical. And, that might be what we see influencing everything we have translated for us.
I’m not bent about what the “French guy said”.
I’m bent over the idea that these “morceaux de merde” blamed US actions as some kind of legitimization for their earlier misdeeds and Fits is reporting it as the causation for this event.
I agree that FITS goes overboard with his “libertarian” “stay the fuck out of (insert here)…” mantra
Like you I am a Gulf II vet not to mention Vietnam era,Gulf I & Bosnia but I could see this mess starting to brew up when Bush II got a chub to invade Iraq. I disagreed with it while all the fat-assed right wing wonks had a chub for us to go and vividly remember the whole “You are either with us or against us” BS not to mention renaming “French Fries” to fucking “Freedom Fries”.
But I went each time when activated because it was my duty not like some of those right-wing dicks who refused to go after Obama became Prez and claimed he was not legimate or like that fucking shirker Sanford (who you defended yesterday BTW) who claimed he could not be activated because he was now a governor when just months prior had joined the Air Force Reserves because he said (and I quote): “I want to set an example for my sons”
What has happened in Iraq has played pretty much the way I thought it would.
I get no joy or satisfaction in saying this but I believe we are kinda reaping what we sowed. Maybe it ain’t these “slackers” but it will be someone or something else that will come along afterwards.
But I sure as hell don’t agree with FITS fer sure on this matter..
See, I think all this has its roots further back in the Israeli/Palestinian issue and it will never get better until that situation is stabilized/solved. Palestinians have been treated like the scum of the earth and the US just kind of says: OK. And, we go along with anything Israel wants at the UN and anywhere.
We even accept Israeli ambassadors who were American citizens and renounced their American citizenship to come/stay here as ambassadors.
Many Americans seem to think Bibi Netanyahu has always been Israeli PM and was anointed by God to be so.
He has worked hard to make American political hay from the fundamentalist American Christians who probably don’t know that there have been time in the last 40 years when peace was close. But, right winger Israelis, with similar positions to Bibi, killed Israeli PM Yitzhac Rabin and have been ascendant ever since.
The line has hardened and the Palestinians treated worse and worse…and, they are not all Hamas.
Please don’t go there – everyone hates the Palestinians except rabble rousers.
When I say everyone, I mean everyone. No Arab nation will take them in, preferring to keep there where they are, semi supported to serve as a constant problem for Israel. Arabs (Muslims) who live in Israel proper (in other words people who have assimilated normally) have none of the issues that the Palestinians have. If the Palestinians would get a clue and run off the likes of the Yassar Arafts and Mahmoud Abbas they might actually realize that they’re their own worst enemy.
“Please don’t go there – everyone hates the Palestinians except rabble rousers.
“When I say everyone, I mean everyone. No Arab nation will take them in”
Similar to the situation for eastern Europe’s Jews and the west in the 1930s.
Similar but with two differences, no one is advocating shipping then off to the gas chambers and for the most part they’d be left alone if they’d stop effing with Israel.
Reaping what we sowed – can’t argue that. I’m not a huge fan of the French since they told Reagan to “fly around” and firmly believe that they are reaping what they sowed by the “embracing of multiculturalism for appearance sake”. They’ve let all of these ethnic groups in but done littel to nothing to integrate them (sound like someone else we know?) That said, no one deserves what happened yesterday.
As for defending Sanford – not really defending him per se but explaining the behavior of the group of pragmatic politicians who held their nose and voted for Boehner.
Ooohhhh – I love it when you speak French – reminds me of my grandmother. Merci mon amie.
Vous êtes les bienvenus!
My wife is the french speaker, Ich spreche deustch and hablando español conseguir mi cara abofeteada
Muy bien. I think every household should speak at least one extra language.
Maybe these “slackers” did use the invasion of Iraq as a BS excuse but you and i both know that our being based in Saudi Arabia during Gulf I (and for some time afterwards) was the prime motivator for OBL to start his little Jihad to get Western military out of Saudi Arabia.
Again, I read a great book by Schlesenger published not long after Bush I left the presidency I believe the the title is “New World Order…something”.
It’s NOT about the bat-shit crazy “trilateral commission” nonsense but based on what Bush I said about a new world order after the fall of the Soviet Union and our victory in Gulf I.
Long and short; the one thing I vividly remember was a graph showing young Arab males population curve. It grows upward till around 2020 or so before peaking..
You know as well as I do that a large young male population ANY FUCKING WHERE with little or nothing to do or look forward to is a recipe for trouble.
To me that said it all. Unless they bring back the CCC camps like during the 30’s in Europe and elsewhere its going to be a hard row to hoe for another generation or longer..
huh? You need a translator.
I’ve advocated compulsive service along the lines of the CCC for years. Roads, parks, forest restoration think of all the shit we could get done. Pay’em enough for a coke and a candy bar each day and hold the rest in abeyance for the 12-18 months of their service obligation. Give it to them once their obligation is over to start a business, go to college or spend the next year getting stoned.
That too is a mighty high bar. To expect some g’ment Central Planning poli-wogs to find good, valid needs for all of that unemployed manpower. … First thing ya know, they will be cleaning toilets at the Elks Club or sweeping the streets in from of the mayor’s house …
Better: No candy bar, no cokes unless and until they clean up their own front yard.
I’m not advocating for indentured servitude exactly, but an able bodied 18 year old ought to do a year of service or two years of military service (for higher pay) – we’d solve any number of problems with this idea.
No, I know it’ll never happen but one day, when I’m in charge…
I know some who are Middle Eastern but are Christian. They feel awful every time something like this happens. They get public shaming in times like this.
It’s important to realize, even at the height of horror like now, that the % of radicals among even the Muslim population is very small.
IMO, there is only one way to combat this radicalism…and that’s by creating wealth by instilling free markets around the world and engaging in trade instead of war.
When you make people around the world comfortable in life…fat, happy, with a family, etc….there’s a lot less incentive even for the crazy to kill people as they have something to lose.
Most of these recruited terrorists are psychologically damaged, but most also don’t have families, wealth, basically a life, outside their religion.
To argue w/ them, because you are right and know it, means NOTHING.
The left does not care about saving lives, curing poverty or enlightening humankind. They care about their own GREED, power and hate…
Trying to convince them w/ truth, justice or reality is a waste of time. There is NOTHING left to do but CRUSH these corrupt and bad-meaning people.
Until we purge liberalism…we’ll suffer and struggle. It is a false god full of idols and selfishness. Our punishment for letting the filthy rise to where they are, is chaos and, failure and malaise…
Ever served a day in uniform? NO. Ever ran for office of any kind to try and make anything better?…No. You and flip are just two huge pussies who hide behind your keyboard calling people names and scream about what you would do if you ever ran into anyone who disagrees with you..all while hiding behind your keyboards because you two are cowards who dont have the courage to put on a uniform or post under your own names. Pussies, you are both raging pussies who dont have an ounce of courage or integrity, proven by the fact you both are proven liars and cowards.
Osama bin Laden was the billionaire son of a billionaire developer. How much more free market can you get?
This is more about how crazy religion can make you and that includes our own Christian fundamentalist theocrats here.
You really are a disgusting POS. I read your attacks on people of the Christian faith and the comparisons you make to terrorism and I cringe with the evil you project.
What a life you must have inflicted on your children with the hate that fills your that empty spot-where the ‘soul’ is supposed to be.
Oh, good grief, you silly person.
flip, you are an asshole of the same coin as those assholes in Paris, just on the opposite side of the coin, yo are all raging religious nutjobs, and youre too much of a pussy to come out an admit it.
keep up the good work flip and if you are ever in myrtle beach stop by the street reach homeless shelter and bring me a toothbrush and a bottle of cologne to drink!
ah flip has to resort to posting as others to make his lame ass point..i guess as he posts as grand asshat then himself doing nothing but telling each other how brilliant they are even though everyone else thinks two of the angriest most hateful partisan hacks who cant even get a blog going..but hey keep it up little troll.
Dang. You made me cough on my soup with that one. Too funny.
I agree, there’s plenty of people who were living normal, successful lives up until they started listening to Islamic extremism. Religion has a strong hold over some people and being able to hand off extremely hateful rhetoric can cause someone to vehemently hate something, anything. This isn’t limited to Islam, either. Most people would be surprised to know there are extremist Buddhists.
Religion isn’t the only thing that causes people to join crazy violent groups, mind you, really anything that a person comes to hold as a core part of their personality can potentially be exploited in this way.
“Osama bin Laden was the billionaire son of a billionaire developer. How much more free market can you get?”
First, the people that did his “dirty work” were mostly poor.
Second, his family were semi-direct beneficiary’s of the House of Saud…no where close to a “Free Market”.
Third, if you notice, I also said “engaging in trade instead of war”, as OBL clearly stated that it was US intervention in the Arab world that drove his war.
Matthew 19: 23 & 24:
And Jesus said to his disciples, Verily I say unto you, A rich man shall with difficulty enter into the kingdom of the heavens;
and again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to enter a needle’s eye than a rich man into the kingdom of God.
He didn’t say it was impossible, nor did he say we should all be poor.
Jesus was not into regulating or stealing from people. Voluntary exchange, known as a free market, is nothing Jesus would have put down or he wouldn’t have been a carpenter.
Work is good for the soul, & wealth it’s natural byproduct.
You prosperity theology types are truly amazing in your rationalizations for justifying the worship of mammon.
Jesus is weeping.
Your mischaracterizations of Jesus, I’m sure he’d not appreciate.
That being said, I’m not as comfortable as you in telling people what would have him crying or not as I’m not God.
That you would demonize “propsperity” is actually bordering on crazy to me.
If you hate prosperity so much, sell everything you have and go live in a forest or a cave. Dump your internet too while your at it too.
Horseshit. The % is not small. Look around the world. Radical Islam is the rule and these terrorists are on the march.
You sound like ‘closet’ muslim Obama apologizing for his ‘brothers’ in Islam. until you folks recognize that MILLIONS of these people want to destroy America you are inviting ‘Paris’ over and over again.
“You sound like ‘closet’ muslim Obama apologizing for his ‘brothers’ in Islam.”
I don’t even have to argue or respond to you anymore.
Your comments are so ridiculous, that your only “brother at arms” here is Grand Tango of all people.
You have alienated almost everyone here regardless of political leanings by your rudeness, mischaracterizations, & blatant disregard for truth.
You have in effect, sewn the seeds of your own character assassination. You have made yourself a cartoon, just like your former avatar “Yosemite Sam” and people take you just as seriously as him, so after this I’m no longer responding because you’re not worth it and it’s unnecessary.
I apologize I hurt your feelings with the truth.My comments are always ridiculous to socialists and apologists for America’s enemies.
3 billion Muslims – two brothers in an industrial park – and to Flippy – “Radical Islam is the rule adn these terrorists are on the march” – hysterical much?
I certainly won’t argue that economic power will help stem the tide of Islamism, but I want to put just a little finer point on your comment that the percentage of radicals is “very small.” Depending upon your definition, you could be correct- if you mean actual bomb-throwers, assassins, and suicidal virgin seekers, your characterization is more or less true. Of the billion or so Muslims in the world, the best estimates are that only around 30-50,000 or so are actually under arms and engaged in violent jihadism at some point during a given year (ISIS *alone* can muster between 20-32,000).
That’s a “very small” percentage; around .000033%. However, that’s a pretty strict definition of radicalism. Those jihadists receive massive amounts of materiel support, political cover, and logistical assistance from a *much* more sizable percentage of the Muslim population. Therein lies the problem- that percentage is very hard to calculate due to the necessarily clandestine nature of the jihadist movement. I think that, rather than estimate wildly or make random accusations against entire cultures, we should simply listen to what they tell us. Poll after poll confirms the fairly widespread support for violent jihadism within the Muslim culture writ large.
A few quick examples- according to polling in the UK, 45% of British Muslims believe that 9/11 was a US/Israeli conspiracy, while a full 25% called the 7/7 bombings there “justified.” About a fourth of the Muslim population in Britain (28%) wants the UK to become a fundamentalist Islamic state. Polls in France (published by that far right-wing rag NewsWeek) revealed that 16% of the French population reports holding a “positive opinion” of ISIS. That figure jumps to 27% in the 18-24 year-old demographic. France is, of course, home to Europe’s largest Muslim population. A 2013 Pew poll of US Muslims revealed that 13% of even our Muslim population believe that violence against civilians to “defend Islam” is acceptable. In some countries and areas, obviously, these types of culturally-held attitudes are more widespread- in the Palestinian territories, 78% of adults report “positive” or “mixed” feelings about Osama bin Laden. Anyway, dozens and dozens of these polls have been conducted, but very only minimal coverage in the MSM. The reality these polls reveal, though, paints a very different picture than the jihadists’ usual characterization as a tiny little sliver of fringe radicals. The real number is still not a majority, but it’s not a tiny little sliver either. Most people have forgotten the footage of the massive street parties in the Muslim world in the weeks following 9/11. I got to watch some of those parties and even talk to the partiers, so it’s pretty fresh in my mind.
Liberals know only HATE for anything not like you..and you know nothing else. What a small way to live life…Close-minded and stupid…
You have your first amendment rights. If anyone knows hate, it’s you. You seem to an expert in the closed-minded and stupid department as well.
… and you like… to use… a lot.. of … ellipses… dots… more dots… random CAPITAL words… more DOTS…
the hypocrisy knows no bounds..truly staggering how a guy who makes up shit about people every dam day to justify his own extremism, who is a proven liar, over and over, and who has the most small minded never left god dam South Carolina perspective on the world..its truly staggering how delusional you truly are..but then we all need a laugh and thats about your only value..is humor for the adults. Hows the blog coming along? Still cant figure out why no one and i mean no one takes you seriously?
Just a question-what have I posted that is NOT factual?
sorry…you actually do post the truth 99.9% of the time…you said the buckeyes are america’s team…i don’t agree…you are right about obama and the democrats…i will be back…i am serving lunch and then have to clean the shower just like harry and nancy in d.c. now that mitch and john are in charge…
That you will be put in prison for not paying the ACA fee?
More than 46 significant changes already have been made to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: at least 28 that President Obama has made unilaterally.
Prison for those that don’t pay will be next. They need the money.
Shut up little troll. You’re a proven liar.
sorry for that outburst bout you and flip…been up drinking anti freeze since 5:00 am…been watching reruns of hogan heroes and the war got to me…keep up the good work…got to go…lunch time and I am making the apple sauce at shelter
Gripped by fear…? I saw video yesterday of French people in the streets, I heard 100,000 across the country, standing up for the murdered and what that little magazine believed in.
Did Americans come out in the streets like that the day OF 9/11? Honestly, I may not remember or missed it. Did we?
Or, did we just let the media and Bush administration absolutely terrorize us then and up to this very day?
Yeah, the inevitable victim-blaming that has arisen in the wake of these crimes is beyond disgusting…Political partisans doing what they do best: making hay out of unspeakable savagery and preaching hate to their respective choirs.
This is the result of Islamic fundamentalism, and it will continue to go on as long as there are people who believe the literal word of the Koran. It is not about lack of capitalism, it is not about being poor, it is all about believing in a book and believing in a certain type of afterlife. It is all about the danger of religious fundamentalism. I advise every thinking person on this website to go buy a Koran or a book explaining it before commenting further. You need to know what they teaching kids in their mosques and madrassa or schools.
I would submit that the Madrassa in paticular take the Koran and twist it even further. All of the Koran is taught as instruction for the here and now with no historical context
Cynics will argue that the Christian Bible has all kinds of “kill the men women and children” stuff in it as well but they fail to realize that those parts of the Old testament are history, not instructions on how to deal with your neighbors now. They always somehow miss the part that goes “…[Jesus said to his disciples:] “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect…”
I know what you’re saying. But, lots and lots of people don’t get the difference in the Old and New Testaments – it’s all The Book – and simply ignore what Jesus taught in the NT that superseded what they love in the OT. They like that OT vengeance and violence.
“They like that OT vengeance and violence”
It’s the nature of man.
Colonel, that’s a really high bar … Many of us try, too many of us are not perfect.
Romans 3:10 says “No one is perfect, no, not one” – that’s the reason we had to have atonement for sin.
Got it. But what about those g’ment Helots who keep stealing and lying? How do we get them to atone? Do you think God is working on that or is it just that they won’t get into heaven?
Just asking, this may not be the best blog to discuss this … ( goldtalk.com ?)
We’re at about the limit on this kind of discussion on Fits but to answer your question “Is God working on it?” Yes, I think he is, but to quote Jimmy Buffet “…My friend Desdemona told me that human beings are flawed individuals…”
The doctrine of “free will” says that we can screw up if we want to. However, every so often the scales fall from our eyes and we pull our heads out of our collective rear ends and right the ship.
We’re about due.
Mad at the Americans they kill the French. Good deal.
In the FITScentric universe, all negative outcomes are due to American incompetence, evil, etc. I suppose the Iraq “warmongering” inspired the 9/11 attacks as well. Oh, I know…I know…that was inspired by *old* warmongering. It’s certainly not because huge swaths of the Arab / Muslim culture (note that I said “culture,” not religion) are about a thousand years behind in regard to sociological change and advancement. It’s the same reason American Roman Catholics were involved in so many bombings and suicide attacks after Sinead O’Connor publicly disgraced an image of the Pope on National television, just like the Christians did when Serrano’s “Piss Christ” went on exhibit in NYC. Ooh…wait a minute. That’s right, that didn’t happen. It’s moral equivalency gone mad- no attempt should be made to legitimately link killing innocent, unarmed civilians in settings like the one in Paris and whatever “grievances” these clowns may have with US policy. A throwaway line at the end of the piece about how those grievances are no excuse for the attack doesn’t mean much when it’s buried within two paragraphs that would seem to do just that.
Did the Iraq War also motivate the jihadists who made the two assassination attempts on Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard after his Muhammad-with-a-bomb-turban cartoon? How about the Dutch Islamist who who shot and decapitated Theo van Gogh, a filmmaker who dared make a short film on the widespread mistreatment of women in Muslim culture. I could bore everyone here to the point of brown liquor consumption with these kinds of examples, but I’ll stop. No change to US policy (wholesale or otherwise) will fix the jihadist issues faced by the West, those are just hygiene issues in the sociological / psychological sense. As dumb as it sounds, it really *is* just “misplaced anger over some cartoons.” Political grievance is obviously in the soup there, but doesn’t deserve to be elevated to the discussion as long as Jihadists engage in this stupid, barbaric behavior.
Shouldn’t there be an obligatory “difficult brown” comment associated with the Sinead O’Conner reference?
Had to look that one up (not being a big Sinead O’Connor fan). She’s nuttier than a can of cashews…
Come on Mike!
:”America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq – and the subsequent torture of prisoners by American soliders at Abu Ghraib …”
Eleven years later French cartoonists killed.
Can’t you connect the dots?
Ah, I see it now…thanks! I read about FITS’ crazy Uncle Ron, and now I get it:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/01/ron-paul-charlie-hebdo-jihad-attack-was-a-reaction-to-frances-foreign-policy
Meanwhile, keyboard-warrior libertarians have barely allowed the bodies to cool before calling the French — and indeed, all of Europe, if not the whole world — “pussies” and “cowards” for not immediately rallying in an all-out retaliatory Muslim hate-fest. See the brave and anonymous libertarians fight the good fight from their comfy cubicles, where their greatest personal danger comes from paper cuts and those painful winter static-electricity shocks.
TEASER:
“The entire world is in a competition to prove who is the biggest pussies. Right now, France and Sony are tied for the lead.”
“Once you make yourself a target, you had best have the balls to continue doing
what you’re doing because otherwise people will end up dying as a result of your cowardice.”
THIS IS WHAT LIBERTARIANS ACTUALLY BELIEVE.
http://reason.com/blog/2015/01/09/danish-mohammed-cartoon-publisher-jyllan