Lincoln Brandenburg, CBR Project Director, Georgia

by Lincoln Brandenburg:

I’ve debated posting my thoughts on the Orlando terrorist attack.  Like many, I was outraged and deeply saddened on Sunday morning to hear of such a senseless, cowardly act of hate.

Like many, I have strong opinions on how we should respond to such disregard for the lives of others.  There are questions and exhortations to be had in terms of public policy, ideology and (not mentioned often enough) personal responsibility.

I may hash some of those opinions out in the days to come.  But in the meantime, I’ll leave it with this:

I don’t care if you’re different than me.  I don’t care if we disagree with each other’s lifestyles, politics or religion.  You are a valuable human being with dignity.  Your life matters, simply because you are a fellow human.  And I like to think that, given the chance, I would stand up for you if your life were in danger.

When Christ reiterated the greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor,” he was asked by a sly lawyer, “and who is my neighbor?”  Christ proceeded to tell the well-known story of the Good Samaritan.  In doing so, he placed two people who were culturally, racially and religiously very different side-by-side as neighbors.  The implications are obvious.

Sadly, Mr. Mateen was devoid of this kind of love for others.  Whether you want to blame radical Islam or guns for this horrible tragedy, one thing is clear: Mr. Mateen was filled with hate for others.  By all means, let’s hash out the tough issues.  But as we do so, let’s not stoop to the level of this coward.  Let’s advocate for our positions.  But let’s also listen to each other without demonizing each other.

Lincoln Brandenburg is a Project Director for CBR and regular contributor to FAB. 

From Don Feder:

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What would have happened if we had fought World War II the way we’re fighting the war on Islamic terrorism? What if political correctness guided America in the weeks and months after Pearl Harbor?

1. On December 8, 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt would have come before a joint session of Congress to apologize for the presence of U.S. Marines in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic earlier in the century, and the Spanish-American War. He would have offered to give the Philippines back to Spain and pay reparations.
2. He would have referred to December 7, 1941 as “a day pretty much like any other and let’s not make a big deal of it” and cautioned that, “I think that at a time when the country is anxious generally and going through a tough time, then fears can surface, suspicions can surface. We have to make sure that we don’t start turning on each other.” To put the emphasis where it properly belonged, the president would have said that anniversaries of Pearl Harbor would be officially designated National Days of Service.
3. America’s slogan would have become “Remember, Pearl Harbor was no one’s fault.”

More …

I still haven’t had a chance to read Time, but the story is really the photo on the cover.   I’m guessing that this photo alone will buy Obama an additional two years to find victory (or at least the appearance of victory) in Afghanistan.

Why is that important?  And why would Time Magazine want to help prolong our presence there?

Rightly or wrongly, the war in Afghanistan is perceived as Obama’s war.  Iraq was Bush’s war, but success or failure in Afghanistan will belong to Obama.  Ever since the invasion of Iraq, the Dems maintained the mantra, “We should never have ever gone there; we should have focused on Afghanistan instead.”  It was their way of trying to appear to be anti-war (in Iraq) and pro-security (in Afghanistan) at the same time.

Now that they control the government, the Dems are trying to navigate between (a) the American public who heard them say for so many years that we should be in Afghanistan, and (b) their own base, the fringe left, who expected Obama to bring all the troops home on January 21, 2009, no matter what.  For whatever reason, they’ve decided to stay.  For now.  And now that they’re in, Obama really needs a victory (or at least something that they can claim is a victory).

However, to achieve victory, Obama needs time to prosecute the war before political forces pushing for withdrawal become irresistable.  That’s where Time Magazine comes in.  They are heavily invested in their guy Obama, and they will do anything they can to make him appear to be successful.  The photo is a powerful argument to do what’s necessary to make sure young women like Aisha don’t have to live in a country governed by barbarians.  It’s an argument to give President Obama more time.

It is facinating to see how the press selects the photos it will use based on the public policy objectives it wants to support.  The press hated LBJ and Nixon, so they published photos of war violence that diminished public support for US involvement in Vietnam.  They hated Bush, so they published photos of war violence that suppressed public support for the war in Iraq.  But now they love Obama, so they publish a photo that will actually increase public support for Obama’s war.

Of course, it is a powerful photo.  It certainly refocused in my own mind what’s at stake in Afghanistan.  For myself, I hope we do everything possible to bring peace and justice to this corner of the world.  Not only for Aisha’s sake, but for many more just like her.  Taliban barbarians are a cancer that needs to be eradicated.  I say publish the photo.

What do you say?

In a surprising betrayal of left-wing kooks everywhere, Time Magazine has published (on its August 9, 2010 cover) a shocking and disturbing photo of 18-year-old Aisha, an Afghan woman who had her ears and nose cut off by the Taliban. Her crime? Trying to escape from abusive in-laws who beat her without mercy. She posed for the photo because she wants the world to see what a Taliban resurgence will do to the women of Afghanistan.

This has to be a setback for the fringe Left, who say we should forget about 9/11 and get out of Afghanistan and Iraq right now because, after all, America is the real source of evil in the world.

The political Left has allied itself with radical Islam, much in the same way that it embraces Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro (just one example).  This is especially ironic because radical Isalm seeks to impose Sharia Law, which would beat, imprison, and kill the very people that make up the Left: radical feminists, homosexuals, atheists, etc.  I guess they see America as the common enemy, and the defeat of this enemy is so important, they are willing to make common cause with barbarians.

I’m guessing this photo will make it a little more difficult for the kook Left to justify their collaboration with radical Islam.

What do you think? Am I wrong? Am I right? Tell me how!

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