The most effed up thing I've read in awhile...

[Larry Gude]

WashPost:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201943.html

As I started reading 'The Discreet Charm of the Terrorist Cause' the text seemed to be going to what I think obvious; the support from afar a violent group has from those like them, in the case of the begining of her column, the IRA and it's supporters in US Irish communities, especially Boston.

To wit:

The idea that British Muslims, whose parents received asylum, found jobs, and made lives in Britain, could be so deeply affected by the "oppression" of Muslims in countries they have never visited seems incomprehensible. The notion that events in distant deserts should lead the middle-class inhabitants of London or Leeds to admire terrorists seems inexplicable. But why should this phenomenon be so incomprehensible or inexplicable, at least to Americans? We did, after all, once tolerate a similar phenomenon ourselves.

I am talking about the sympathy for the Irish Republican Army that persisted for decades in some Irish American communities and is only now fading away.

So, I read on to see why this surprised her. Well, it wasn't that it surpirsed her. Anne threw me for a loop and went down a completely different path;

My point here isn't really about Northern Irish politics, however, but about the extraordinarily powerful appeal of foreign, "revolutionary," "idealistic" violence to the inhabitants of otherwise peaceful societies. You don't have to be Muslim, or poor, or an extremist, to feel the romantic pull of terrorism.

Romantic pull? powerful appeal?

Now, I'm no fan of tyranny and my own government peeves me off on a regular basis but I can say without hesitation that when The Murrah building went up, I was sick about it and ashamed that a fellow American would do such a thing.

I think Ted Kazynski a brutal sociopath. IRA bombs that killed innocents while shopping has always been repugnant to me. When 200 US Marines went up in smoke some 20 years ago in Lebanon I felt for damn sure no allure or charm.

When pizza parlours in Israel become bloodbaths, I'm not attracted. Beheadings in Iraq do not inspire romance. Munich 1972 is a horror in my childhood memory, not a lark or noble crusade. You don't even want me to paint a picture of the wrathful rage 9/11 brought out of me.

Is there anyone out there who knows what the flying hell she is talking about? I swear to God, I feel like I just read a column that states she likes to have sex with dead babies.

Sure, we got annonymous nut jobs brought to us by Drudge and other sources a dozen a day but Anne is, at minimum, a decent, known writer who I would never, while mostly disagreeing with her, thought to be particularly mad.

What go on??? Am I missing something important here or is she revealing something rather dark, not romantic, about herself and those she sees as of a similar mind?

 

[vraiblonde]

Read the column and have to believe that Anne Applebaum was under the influence of recreational drugs when she wrote it. On one hand, she seems to be saying that Muslims should police their own. On the other hand, she seems to be looking for an excuse for the terrorists, as in it's not their fault because they have all this "romantic" support for their "revolution".


Mishmash opinion, hard to decipher, pure free association. I give this column an F.

 

[dems4me]

Read the column and have to believe that Anne Applebaum was under the influence of recreational drugs when she wrote it. On one hand, she seems to be saying that Muslims should police their own. On the other hand, she seems to be looking for an excuse for the terrorists, as in it's not their fault because they have all this "romantic" support for their "revolution".


Mishmash opinion, hard to decipher, pure free association. I give this column an F.

maybe she was talking in circles? :shrug:

 

[Pete]

The gist of the column as I read it was just another, "Oh yea, well no matter how effed up your stuff is I have an example of America being worse"

 

[Tonio]

By "romantic pull," I assumed she meant that people are attracted to terrorism because they want to feel like heroes or martyrs for some glorious cause. I hope she understands that there's no heroism in killing innocents.

I've read before that the IRA has received financial backing from Irish-Americans. You would think that the English, especially those who lost loves oned suring during the heavy period of IRA terrorism in the '70s, would blame Americans in general. I think it speaks well of England that they didn't.

 

[FromTexas]

She is f'ed in the head. That is my clinical diagnosis.

 

[Bruzilla]

I see her point very well, and I'm surprised some of you don't. We've seen the exact same thing happen in this country... perhaps not to ourselves or anyone we know, but to a lot of people.

Let's look at support for the poor oppressed "farmer and worker" armies of the Communists, especially the Vietnemese. How many middle-class Americans fell all over themselves supporting them? We're only now learning of the violence and brutality of the folks that over-turned the government of South Africa, yet how many middle-class Americans were tricked into supporting those people?

If you can be successful at painting yourself, or a group, as victims of oppression, you can get middle-class America to pant with support for you. Look at the recent cases of American idiots getting sold on some notion that fighting for Islam is some glorious endeavor, and a means of making up for alledged years of oppression by the evil United States, and off they go into a terrorist version of the foreign legion.

And this is a problem that I see worsening as Democrats continue their climb back to power by demonizing everything America does. Sure, a lot of us know that this is just political hogwash; but there are plenty of idealistic and stupid Americans who take it all very seriously, and an offer by foreign terrorist groups to help them teach America a lesson is all they'll need to sign up.

 

[Tonio]

We're only now learning of the violence and brutality of the folks that over-turned the government of South Africa, yet how many middle-class Americans were tricked into supporting those people?

If you can be successful at painting yourself, or a group, as victims of oppression, you can get middle-class America to pant with support for you.

That makes sense. The anti-apartheid cause was popular when I was in college. I think many students were attracted to the cause because they craved simplistic good-versus-evil issues. Plus, as I've said before, they tend to side with the little guy against the big guy.

I agree that apartheid was wrong and deserved to be dismantled. It should have been replaced with true democracy instead of more brutality. It's like Iran--the brutality of the Shah's rule was replaced with the brutality of Khomeini's rule. The Iranians traded one bloodthirsty tyrant for another.

 

[Bogart]

Sure, a lot of us know that this is just political hogwash; but there are plenty of idealistic and stupid Americans who take it all very seriously, and an offer by foreign terrorist groups to help them teach America a lesson is all they'll need to sign up.

Stop hating on college students and celebrities

 

[Bruzilla]

Stop hating on college students and celebrities

You can add skinheads, religious zealots and self-porclaimed demi-gods, and the conspiracy theorists to that cabal as well.