This horrible essay by leftist blogger Billmon reminds me exactly of why the left must never be allowed to take power in this country. It’s a piece that essentially says that because Americans lynched blacks 80 years ago, that those killed in the horrible atrocity in Fallujah got what was coming for them. That we’re all just as bad as those terrorists, so we should just spend our time in constant self-flagellation and forget about it when a couple thousand of us get savagely murdered.
I have no patience for such a disgusting argument. Yes, there are dark chapters in every nation’s history, and the US is no exception. However, that has no bearing on the events of today. We no longer tolerate racism on a national level. Someone who so much as makes an impolitic statement is tarred and feathered on the national stage. We don’t lynch people anymore, and when we do we hunt those responsible down and subject them to the fullest extent of the law – up to and including the death penalty.
This is why the left is appropriately titled the “blame America first” crowd – because when four Americans are savagely killed, the first reaction of the radical left is to blame the actions of people in the distant past who in all probability had nothing to do with the people who died. Yet Billmon and his ilk want everyone to simply see this is some kind of just retribution for our national shame.
Furthermore, the argument doesn’t even make sense. Americans are bad for lynching people. When Iraqis lynch Americans, they’re not bad, they were provoked by Big Bad Uncle Sam. Instead, the logical conclusion of that line of reasoning is that the Iraqis who performed this horrible act should be treated like the common criminals and slime they are – just as we sentenced those responsible for the hidious death of James Byrd in Texas to execution for their crimes.
The radical blame-America-first crowd is no different than those that argue that a woman deserves to be raped for dressing “provocatively” or that that “Negro” had what was coming to them because they talked up or sat at the wrong lunch counter. The four individuals that died were killed because they were trying to bring freedom to the people of Iraq, a task that is a prima facie noble goal. They were aid workers, not soldiers. Billmon’s piece is nothing more than a piece of trash, the very essence of what he claims to despise. It’s as disgusting as those who sat by and watched a lynching but justified their inaction on the grounds of blaming the victim.
Things like this remind me why the left must never be allowed anywhere near power.
UPDATE: And Billmon responds with this wonderful argument:
What are you going to do? Use your guns? Lynch us?
No, this country will continue to do what it always had – make sure that people with disgusting beliefs like yours never get into positions of power through a little thing called the ballot box. Of course, when you’re entire political ideology is based around the tacit embrace of totalitarianism it’s hard not to think like a good little totalitarian.
Things like this remind me why the left must never be allowed anywhere near power.
What are you going to do? Use your guns? Lynch us?
That’s what we call a “straw man”…
This is what we call a ballot box. It’s the thing that people vote with. I know that the left doesn’t like elections since they lose them, but so long as America is a republic, appeasers will lose – and thank God for that.
So long as America is a republic, appeasers will lose
You mean like Clinton lost — twice?
You never know, we might win — and take away all your guns! Bwah ha ha ha!
Better get Shrub to nuke those heathen Iraqis while he still can…
Ah, the typical claptrap of the common troll.
Funny thing is, Billmon actually does fear that conservatives mean to lynch him and his.
Wrap your head around that, and you’ve got the man more or less down.
This is why the internet is or will be the new talk radio. More difficult to pull off though, as viewers can pick and choose what to read while visiting a site. Sure listeners of talk shows could change the channel, but their remains the possibility that the host will say something interesting later.
You never know, we might win — and take away all your guns! Bwah ha ha ha!
What the hell is that, the Attack of Eddie Munster?
Way to go, Jay.
Tacitus -I’m very angry about what you wrote at your blog about “mercenaries”, including your speculation that they were assassins on their way to a “hit”. Not an appropriate time to make such speculations without evidence, I think. And DoD contract employees are “mercenaries” only in the narrow oxygen-deprived world inhabited by the likes of Billmon.
Well, Billmon’s comments here aren’t particularly sane, but I didn’t think his essay was offensive.
If I read him right, Billmon isn’t saying that US contractors *deserved* to get lynched; he’s saying that the White House should have *predicted* this kind of resentment would occur, and should have either had better plans in place to deal with it or should not have overthrown Saddam.
I think his shot at Tacitus is unfair, and I’m not sure if his underlying point is right or wrong, but I don’t read Billmon to be saying the Fallujah lynchings were excusable.
Glen, you can e-mail me or we can talk in comments at my site. Lots of people mad about “mercenaries”; not one is taking the time to explain himself.
Billmon suffers from a self loathing projected onto an entire nation; and on that point I’d say I must agree with you, Ms. Billman. You have a a whole host of reasons to hate yourself. Its a real shame you can’t think for yourself. You can’t even feel for yourself.
“It’s a piece that essentially says that because Americans lynched blacks 80 years ago, that those killed in the horrible atrocity in Fallujah got what was coming for them. That we’re all just as bad as those terrorists, so we should just spend our time in constant self-flagellation and forget about it when a couple thousand of us get savagely murdered.”
It doesn’t say that at all.
And would you care to actually prove that statement?
I disagree with most of the comments here. I read Billmon’s post and felt enlightened by it. It should go without saying that America has a dark side as well as a light side, but every so often we must remind ourselves that the dark side really isn’t far beneath the surface. In fact, many would argue that the whole Iraq adventure is an expression of our darker side, with just a more carefully controlled media stream. I assure you that not many post cards saying “wish you were here” with the image of a few smiling marines standing over a smoldering child will find there way to a post office near you, but you can bet that more than a few of our servicemen have seen firsthand the atrocities that result when the detonation of modern ordnance and high velocity rounds find a target in innocent Iraq flesh.
Those who condemn Billmon for pointing this out are perhaps emotionally reacting to the horror in Fallujah (which is too horrible for words), and are refusing to see the historical comparisons that Bilmon has written about. It has nothing to do with hating America, at least the America I connect with. It has everything to do with understanding how America is fully capable of ‘such beautiful dreams and such terrible nightmares.’ Those who insist on seeing only the beautiful the dreams are rarely prepared when the nightmare visits. Such is life.
One more thought. Although the horror of Fallujah was indeed horrible, one must remember that the mercenaries or private contractors (your choice) died in a hail of gunfire and grenade explosions. They suffered nothing from the ensuing fire and the mutilations perpetuated upon their dead bodies. It was quite another story with the lynchings of Blacks in America. The purpose of those events was to inflict horrible pain by fire and mutilation while the recipients were still alive. That and have a social gathering. The latter was a greater horror by an order of magnitude than the former.
I hope to God that an Iraqi mob doesn’t do to American soldiers what was done to American blacks back in the heyday of white mob rule. But I fear it’s only a matter of time.
what James Emerson said, plus:
It’s a piece that essentially says that because Americans lynched blacks 80 years ago, that those killed in the horrible atrocity in Fallujah got what was coming for them.
He did not say that. You used here the word “essentially”, because you assume that is what he meant, but you can not provide a direct quote.
This is why the left is appropriately titled the “blame America first†crowd
This is your own a priori assumption. It may be validated by your past experience with the left, but here it prevents you from correctly understanding what Billmon was telling.
when four Americans are savagely killed, the first reaction of the radical left is to blame the actions of people in the distant past who in all probability had nothing to do with the people who died.
I think you deliberately left out important middle steps:
– the four die; their bodies desacrated
* LGF BLOGGERS DEMAND RETRIBUTION, “Bomb the shit out of them.” “Napalm the ‘celebrants’.”
– billmon calls it a “genocidal frenzy”
* Tacitus sees (causal?) connection between culture, terrorism and barbaric scenes
– billmon reminds that the US has it’s own barbaric scenes
as you see, Billmon did not blame the people in the past. He takes on the COMMENTS.
Yet Billmon and his ilk want everyone to simply see this is some kind of just retribution for our national shame.
He did not say that. If he did, you could provide a direct quote. You just assume that is what he meant.
Furthermore, the argument doesn’t even make sense.
You are right. And wrong at the same time. The argument really does not make sense. But Billmon did not make such an argument. You are fighting here your own projection of the Lefts image.
The four individuals that died were killed because they were trying to bring freedom to the people of Iraq, a task that is a prima facie noble goal.
That sentence can tell us a lot about the way both the Left and the Right thinks. Let me try to reverse it:
If the task to bring freedom to the people of Iraq is a prima facie noble goal, then the four individuals that died were trying to accomplish it are noble, too.
You made the assumption that this really is the task. The Left makes the opposite assumption. If we are not aware of the assumptions, we can never arrive at understanding the logic behind the thinking. But the reverse order in the original sentence prohibts us from understanding what the direction of the implications is.
Things like this remind me why the left must never be allowed anywhere near power.
Again, you had an a priori thesis about the Left to prove. You picked the facts, assumed some implications. That way you proved your thesis but you never came close to understanding what Billmon was talking about, because that would not be in line with the thesis.
Of course, when you’re entire political ideology is based around the tacit embrace of totalitarianism it’s hard not to think like a good little totalitarian.
That one is below the waist. But being accused to be a lyncher is a faux pas, too.
Here is my take on Billmon’s post.
Billmon points out that we claim to have a higher morality. But their is no morality in the quotes at LGF. They call for genocide, which prima facie is not noble at all. They are a hateful call for mass murder in revenge.
The German Wehrmacht had the rule to execute 10 innocent civilians for one soldier killed by partisans to terrify the population into obedience. Consider the quote “drop a daisy-cutter on both Fallujah and Mecca. All this nonsense would end in 24 hours.” I personally see no difference.
Also consider the following quote:
At a minimum, though, history suggests the connection between “terrorism, culture and barbaric scenes” isn’t quite as tight as some of our cuture war idealogues seem to think.
Then again, maybe it’s actually tighter — considering that just about every human culture in history has had its barbaric moments, including behavior that might reasonably be described (certainly by its victims) as terrorism.
Tacitus implies that culture is the cause of barbarism. If Tacitus’ implication is true, then all the Iraqis are “barbarous savages”, because they all share the same culture.
Billmon reminds us that there was widespread barbarism in the Western culture. If Tacitus were right, then those atrocities were caused by Western culture.
We can not simply claim that our culture is better, if it causes as brutal acts as theirs. If the quotes from LGF are any measure, we have found the savages, and they are us.
—
P.S. OTOH Reagan once said: “Our nation too has a legacy of evil with which it must deal. The glory of this land has been it’s capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past.”
damn it, my above post got mangled badly.
what James Emerson said, plus:
It’s a piece that essentially says that because Americans lynched blacks 80 years ago, that those killed in the horrible atrocity in Fallujah got what was coming for them.
He did not say that. You used here the word “essentially”, because you assume that is what he meant, but you can not provide a direct quote.
This is why the left is appropriately titled the “blame America first†crowd
This is your own a priori assumption. It may be validated by your past experience with the left, but here it prevents you from correctly understanding what Billmon was telling.
when four Americans are savagely killed, the first reaction of the radical left is to blame the actions of people in the distant past who in all probability had nothing to do with the people who died.
I think you (deliberately?) left out important middle steps A) & B) in the causal chain:
the four die; their bodies desacrated
A) LGF BLOGGERS DEMAND RETRIBUTION, “Bomb the shit out of them.” “Napalm the ‘celebrants’.”
B) Tacitus SEES (causal?) CONNECTION between CULTURE, terrorism and barbaric scenes
billmon calls A) it a “genocidal frenzy”
on B) billmon reminds that the US has it’s own barbaric scenes
Billmon did not blame the people in the past. He takes on the COMMENTS.
Yet Billmon and his ilk want everyone to simply see this is some kind of just retribution for our national shame.
He did not say that. If he did, you could provide a direct quote. You just assume that is what he meant.
Furthermore, the argument doesn’t even make sense.
You are right. And wrong at the same time. The argument really does not make sense. But Billmon did not make such an argument. You are fighting here your own projection of the Lefts image.
The four individuals that died were killed because they were trying to bring freedom to the people of Iraq, a task that is a prima facie noble goal.
That sentence can tell us a lot about the way both the Left and the Right thinks. Let me try to reverse it:
“If the task to bring freedom to the people of Iraq is a prima facie noble goal, then the four individuals that died were trying to accomplish it are noble, too.”
You make the assumption that this really is the task. The Left makes the opposite assumption. If we are not aware of the assumptions, we can never arrive at understanding the logic behind the thinking. But the reverse order in the original sentence prohibts us from understanding what the direction of the implications is.
Things like this remind me why the left must never be allowed anywhere near power.
Again, you had an a priori thesis about the Left to prove. You picked the facts, assumed some implications. That way you proved your thesis but you never came close to understanding what Billmon was talking about, because that would not be in line with the thesis.
Of course, when you’re entire political ideology is based around the tacit embrace of totalitarianism it’s hard not to think like a good little totalitarian.
That one is below the waist. But being accused to be a lyncher is a faux pas, too.
Here is my take on Billmon’s post.
Billmon points out that we claim to have a higher morality. But their is no morality in the quotes at LGF. They call for genocide, which prima facie is not noble at all. They are a hateful call for mass murder in revenge.
The German Wehrmacht had the rule to execute 10 innocent civilians for one soldier killed by partisans to terrify the population into total obedience. Consider the quote “drop a daisy-cutter on both Fallujah and Mecca. All this nonsense would end in 24 hours.” I personally see no difference.
Also consider the following quote:
At a minimum, though, history suggests the connection between “terrorism, culture and barbaric scenes” isn’t quite as tight as some of our cuture war idealogues seem to think.
Then again, maybe it’s actually tighter – considering that just about every human culture in history has had its barbaric moments, including behavior that might reasonably be described (certainly by its victims) as terrorism.
Tacitus implies that culture is the cause of barbarism. If Tacitus’ implication is true, then all the Iraqis are “barbarous savages”, because they all share the same culture.
Billmon reminds us that there was widespread barbarism in the Western culture. If Tacitus were right, then those atrocities were caused by Western culture.
We can not simply claim that our culture is better, if it causes as brutal acts as theirs. If the quotes from LGF are any measure, we have found the savages, and they are us.
P.S. OTOH I have Reagan’s speech on mp3, where he explains: “Our nation too has a legacy of evil with which it must deal. The glory of this land has been it’s capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past.”