The Gaza War

Mark Noonan49 Comments

Some hours ago word got out that Israel had commenced ground operations into northern Gaza. I doubt this is the real start of it; they are probably just going for position and also testing Hamas’ resolve: just how much fight is there in them. There might not be as much as people think: Arabs have never made great soldiers. They are good at irregular operations and taking advantage of an opponent’s weaknesses or mistakes, but in the main their tactical ability and willingness to stand and fight have been limited ever since they emerged from the deserts of Arabia. How long will Hamas fighters stand in the rubble when death stares them in the face? We’re going to find out; but my bet is a lot of the tunnels Hamas has dug are for escape…a way out once the IDF appears. To completely defeat them, the IDF will have to corner them in places where they have no choice but to stand and be destroyed, or surrender.

However it goes, this will be an extended process and Israel will take her losses; if even some of Hamas stands and fights then digging such people out of rubble has always been a difficult process. But it can be done; we lost a lot on Iwo Jima where the Japanese were splendidly dug in but in the end our Marines killed the Japanese at a 3:1 ratio…which is a reversal of normal offensive losses against dug in opponents. You just have to be good and apply firepower liberally.

Immediately upon the news getting out, the Left sprang into action to try to save Hamas – calls for a ceasefire and the usual drivel about an Israeli genocide in Gaza filled social media. This is simply vile but it is also in the nature of things. Make no mistake about it: many people admire what Hamas did on October 7th. And I’m not just talking Muslim Jihadists; plenty on the secular Left in the West clearly feel that the Hamas attackers were he-men, doing what the pathetic, sniveling Western Left only dreams about doing. They are now rising to defend Hamas because Hamas are their heroes. They look forward to stopping the IDF so their guys can do it again.

But in a larger sense, the whole West is really responsible for this state of affairs. I’ve talked many times about the French war in Algeria in the 1950’s and the longer I think about it, the more watershed that conflict becomes. The harbinger of the modern world. While the West flattered itself that post-WWII it had created a rules-based global order where social democracy under their guidance would rule the world, what was really happening was a revival of savagery not seen since the Vandals of the 5th century or Tamerlane’s hordes in the 14th. And it all really started in Algeria.

Sure, there were signs and portents before this – and Hitler’s whole program was based on a belief that savagery would beat civilized weaklings. This was wrong, as he found out just before that bullet ripped through his skull: savagery works against weaklings, civilized or not. It doesn’t work against the brave…and so Easy Company drank Goering’s booze on Hitler’s patio. Hitler had misjudged the time; had he held fire until a decade later, he might have pulled it off. But, then again, it took Hitler and his war to bring about the triumph of the cowards in the West.

Oh, they were there before WWII! Various writers and artists, civil servants and educators; especially in England and France. Basically ridiculing the notions of patriotism and bravery. Mostly, of course, because they were neither patriotic nor brave and so to get the world where their like were on top, they had to play their part in tearing down the old order. And they did – and by the post-WWII world, they were the people in charge of passing out degrees and awarding prizes; and they naturally rewarded their like – who between 1945 and 1965 wormed their way deeply into all institutions. Most of them were to one degree or another Marxists just as most of them were … well, lets just say non-traditional in their sexual attitudes.

It was these people, ensconced in editorial offices, college administrations, entertainment, departments of government, who essentially sabotaged any fight against barbarism. And after WWII they became dominant because it appeared that their class had slain the Nazi beast. It hadn’t; it was a lot of average Joe’s and Jane’s throughout the world who had saved the Ruling Class’ bacon after they nearly handed the world to Hitler. But on VJ day, it looked like the pinheads had done it, and so they carried into the post-war world a sense that they knew what they were doing and it was good. They did, at least in part, know what they were doing – but it wasn’t what was advertised and it was all bad.

Here’s how it would go, time and time again: savages attack. Civilized soldiers respond. The leaders of the Ruling Class pitch a fit about the civilized response. On and on like that. Never, of course, giving more than a passing mention of the savagery except to justify it on their way to tearing apart those trying to stop it. And, in my view, it really got rolling in Algeria.

No matter what complaints some Algerians had about the French – and there were significant complaints to be made – the FLN used absolute barbarism as their primary method of warfare. While at times they would try an attack on a French military target, most of the time what they were doing was going after civilians. French and Algerian. The French for obvious reasons, the Algerians because many of them wanted nothing to do with the FLN. Algerian rebels set bombs in stores; tortured people to death; raped; mutilated. Nothing France had ever done remotely justified such savagery – but the FLN made the bet that they could do this and provoke a French response which would eventually get the upper reaches of French society to give in. In this they were completely correct. As the French army set about the FLN they had to do some quite brutal things of their own (but never as brutal as the FLN did). That was the nature of the fight; that is what the FLN wanted. And they only way to defeat them was to quite ruthlessly go after the enemy.

And here’s the kicker: it worked. The French army won the war. The FLN had alienated a large segment of the native Algerian population (more Algerians served in the French military – by far – than ever served in the FLN) while the French army had pushed them deep into the margins of Algeria, there to be eventually hunted and exterminated. But while the French army was doing this, back home the voices of the cowardly started to dominate. How could we? Aren’t we better than this? Can’t we negotiate? On and on like that – until, politically, the fight could no longer be sustained and France teetered on the brink of Civil War. By the time France called in De Gaulle to rescue the State he saw as his only option to scuttle the French effort in Algeria. And so it was done: the whole country was turned over to the savages…who went on a rampage against anyone in Algeria who hadn’t supported them while a couple million people fled to France.

And that was the lesson the world learned; more importantly, what the savages learned. The more brutal and cruel you are, the more the leaders of the West will justify your actions and undercut their own efforts to fight you. Its all just been a progression from that. And even now, faced with what happened 10/7 (it really was quite horrific) we’re still holding back. Our government is urging restraint. Other Western governments are calling for a ceasefire which would hand outright victory to Hamas. Even the Israelis are going as gentle as they can…perhaps too gentle. We’ll know in a few days if that is the case.

For heaven’s sake: they raped women to death and cut off the heads of babies! If this doesn’t call forth the West’s manhood, what will? It isn’t a matter of becoming cruel like them – we are not beasts – but of becoming quite ruthless about getting after them. We know that civilians are going to die. The enemy wants that. It is just part of their plan: they don’t care about human life. The children of Gaza are just a prop in a morality play to them. The more of them killed, the better. Getting at the enemy will mean going through those the enemy places in front. It is sad. It is terrible. It must be done. And no man should tremble at it: once it is done, there won’t be anyone around who will either cut off an Israeli baby’s head, or use a Palestinian baby as a shield. It is good for the babies of both people that the enemy is utterly destroyed. That is what should be on our minds.

This might well be our last stand; our last chance to stand firm against barbarism, and maybe one day even start pushing it back. I hope the IDF gets the job done, as distasteful as I know it will be for them. You can bet that if I were a 20 year old Israeli the last thing I’d want to do is comb through the rubble of Gaza looking for psychotic killers. But I hope that if I were a 20 year old Israeli, I’d have the courage to do what is necessary…and I hope we here in the USA rediscover that courage.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan51 Comments

The same government which is sending grandma to jail for 5 years over J6 says they lack the ability to arrest all known gangsters and seal the border. Bluntly: your government approves of criminality. It is probably bribed by the gangs.

Think about it – they know who the gangsters are. They know where the gangsters live. It is almost an existential certainty that any gang member, if he’s not already wanted on a warrant, has evidence on or around him proving criminal activity. We could, like El Salvador, sweep these people up. Sure, we’re a much larger nation with many more people…but you gotta know we can get 90% of them if we picked a day and then just did it. But we don’t. And if we ask, we’re given 10,000 excuses.

And, sure, defense lawyers would be all over such an action. But, why? Because they would be paid to be all over them. Meanwhile, the government can RICO all your assets away from you without trial…but we somehow can’t confiscate the gang money which would be used to pay for gang lawyers. And the same appellate system which is refusing to help out the J6 defendants would be releasing gangsters on ridiculous technicalities in a heartbeat. We are crime-ridden because at least enough of our government is well paid to make it so.

Now, think of all the people coming across – especially those caught and released. The government knows precisely how many of them have terrorist affiliations…and yet they are allowed to come in.

I bring this up because it is why Israel suffered 10/7. The Israeli government knew that Hamas was raising up a generation of psychotic killers and training them in methods of massacre. It was an open secret that “aid” shipments to Gaza were stuffed to the gills with military material. That Hamas had entire manufacturing facilities for rockets and other weapons of war. While I am confident they just totally missed this attack, the fact that there was going to be a major attack simply could not have been missed. But the Israeli government – like our government and all Western governments – isn’t paid to protect the people. There’s no upside for expending that effort and taking that political risk. Israel has been engaged in an absurd fight over whether or not judges should have some control outside the judiciary…which is obviously something needed but they went and had a fight about it while Hamas put the final touches on massacre.

The only reason we don’t have an endless series of these attacks is not lack of power and opportunity, but simple gumption. Hamas did what all terrorist groups want but heretofore have simply lacked the will to carry out. That will now exists. No matter what Israel does to Gaza, the maestros of massacre now see what can be done and how overall weak the response is. Israel is allowing aid into Gaza; they are feeding their enemies. They are still providing advance warnings of attacks. It was a good joke for the IDF to respond to UN complains of lack of fuel in Gaza to point out (with pictures) that Hamas has a huge fuel storage facility. But why hasn’t it been blown up? And at least Israel is fighting back! With a couple score Americans confirmed dead and maybe a dozen held captive, we’re still urging restraint and talking up a two-State solution at the UN. European governments are even more craven.

I think we might be in for a bad time.

We at least have a new Speaker and to the shock of everyone, he’s not an Establishment creature. Mike Johnson is mostly an unknown quantity but he’s been a Trump supporter in the past and seems pretty America-first; he’s been given a grade of F by something called “Republicans for Ukraine”. When Gaetz threw his hand-grenade I think we all expected some sort of disaster…but in the end, the guy we got seems to be loved by MAGA and at least respected by RINO. We could have some good things. One of the things he’s promised – and he’ll be under MASSIVE pressure to break this promise – is no more Continuing Resolutions. Budgeting will be done via the budget process with each agency budget getting its up or down vote. This might seem small but it is crucial…it brings accountability and control. It makes the agencies justify their budgets. It means a lot of Leftwing wish-list stuff will end up on the cutting room floor.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan84 Comments

Still no major movement into Gaza and now we’re providing aid for Hamas. But don’t worry, Pudding Brain’s people say that if Hamas tries to steal the aid, they’ll condemn it. This is not looking good.

On the other hand, the IDF is still talking victory – that they will totally destroy Hamas in Gaza. Can’t see how they do that while allowing us to feed Hamas…but I can only assume they at least think they’ve got a plan that’ll work. We’re going to find out.

Pudding Brain went to Israel and it was just so entirely humiliating…this aged, senile crook out there to provide cover for aids who are desperately trying to get Israel to surrender to Hamas. We are a very pathetic nation right now. The pissant King of Jordan refused to even meet with Biden. I’m sure the Israelis didn’t want to…but as he’s the guy signing the checks, they had to put up with it. While Israel has built a robust domestic arms industry, there are still come crucial elements which come from us so I guess Israel still feels over a barrel.

For future reference on Israel’s part, I’d buy about 100 Panzerhaubitze 2000 from the Krauts (given the past, the Germans would likely do an easy-payment deal); its a 155mm self propelled howitzer which has an effective range of 67 kilometers. This means, depending on where positioned on Israeli-controlled territory, it can hit anywhere in Gaza or the West bank and very deep into Lebanon and Jordan, as well. Get about a million rounds of ammo for it (the stuff keeps forever) and anytime anyone in range causes trouble, just level an area with cannon fire. 155 mm is very common and no matter what is going on, you’d be able to replenish ammunition from some source. One thing the IDF has always had a lack of is tube artillery; when fighting conventional forces, that isn’t much of a handicap but when confronting dug in irregular forces like Hamas, it is just what the doctor ordered.

The GOP still can’t come up with a Speaker. The battle is between those who want a MAGA purist and those who want a conventional GOPer who can be relied upon to fully fund Democrat priorities. To me the easy deal is to agree to the RINO with a proviso that any funding bill will, once it gets to the floor, be stripped down to its components for an up or down vote. For instance, Pudding Brain wants us to cobble together a bill for Ukraine, Israel and border security. Fine. But once it comes time for a vote, it is broken up into 3 separate bills. This doesn’t mean all of it fails…but it does mean there will have to be some real horse trading…like in return for Ukraine aid, we get, say, funding to Texas for building a border wall (if we give the money to Biden, his people either won’t spend it or will buy something ineffective). On and on like that.

This battle over the Speakership is causing all sorts of heartache…in government and the pundit class. Most Americans are probably only vaguely aware of it and don’t care one way or the other. This will not hurt GOP prospects for 2024 unless something really ridiculous happens, like some RINOs joining Democrats to make Jeffries Speaker. I really do discount this – though the rumor does abound. Any GOPer voting for such a thing has got to know the career ends with that vote. There will be a successful primary challenge.

Meanwhile, GOP prospects brighten by the day – some recent polling shows any of Trump, DeSantis or Haley beating Biden (keeping in mind that anything less than Biden +5 in the popular vote likely means a GOP victory). This is not because the GOP is any good – it isn’t, and we just about universally despise it, as a thing – but because Biden is just so very bad. There have been rumors of Democrats trying to ditch Biden but I don’t think it’ll happen. Though Obama and Clinton people are all over the Democrat establishment, they generally don’t like each other and getting them to agree to an alternative is going to be hard (especially as Clinton’s people would probably want Clinton to be the alternative); if they don’t come together, then the Biden people hold sway…and as they only survive in power as long as Joe does, they simply will not let it go. Unless Biden dies, he’s the guy. And there may come a point when the Democrat powers that be just let it alone – knowing that Joe is a goner. Trump if he gets back in is only for one term; if its DeSantis they figure they can still win Congress in 2026 and do to him in 2028 what they did to Trump in 2020.

As the Gaza war has gone on we’ve been treated to some MSM lies astonishing in their scope and, indeed, arrogance. Some people are pretending to be shocked about this. They also pretend to be shocked when the corruption of our government is revealed. Everyone knows. It isn’t a surprise. The MSM lies, it lies all the time and about everything. So, too, the government. But here’s why a lot of people pretend it is all shocking: they know what it means to admit that our government and media are just liars. It means we can’t allow either to go on as is.

I’ve been pointing out for a while that the First Amendment cannot sanely be construed to protect lying. That our Founders knew we would have liars does not mean they were trying to secure a right to lie. They were trying to secure a right to tell the truth – what we Catholics called rightly ordered freedom: The freedom to do what is right. While we all can do evil, we are not being free when we do so…we are, in fact, enslaving ourselves when we do wrong. What I’m saying is that we, the people, can enact laws punishing lies. We can make anyone who publicly utters a lie pay for it – in civil or criminal court, or both. And we are going to have to do this – because the MSM cannot at this point correct itself. It is, as it were, determined to lie at this point. In a sense, they’ve told so many lies that they are committed to lying. Not really, of course; anyone can repent. But in their minds to admit that they’ve been lying for years is too humiliating. So, they’ll just double and triple down on the lies. But we can’t have a Republic if liars are allow to lie with impunity…so we will have to stop them.

The other thing I’ve been yammering on about is the need to end government secrecy. It really does have to go, and in its entirety. Whatever tiny advantage we gain against foreign adversaries by having secrets is vastly outweighed by government’s ability to hide corruption and incompetence under a veil of secrecy. For us to have a Republic we must know what the government is doing as it does it. Only thus can we judge if our agencies of government are working in our interest. We must enact laws requiring the government to do everything out in the open. No secrets. Ever.

A Decisive Moment

Mark Noonan72 Comments

I’m not feeling all too positive about the Israeli-Gaza War; there seems to be a lack of willingness to press home an assault.

I do realize that it is a formidable thing; if Hamas does have 40,000 troops then the assault force will have to be in the range of 120,000. They’ll have to fight in a tightly packed area with plenty of opportunity for ambush and infiltration by the enemy. Hamas will be hiding behind women and children. In short, it would be bloody and perhaps the Israeli government is just unwilling to spend the blood? I can’t see an assault costing less than about 12,000 casualties; call it 4,000 dead and 8,000 wounded. That is a lot, especially given Israel’s small population.

That sort of shock to the Israeli body politic will be hard to absorb; can the Israeli government actually survive that kind of loss? Jews in general and Israelis in particular are very chary about spending blood. This probably stems from now-ancestral memory of the Holocaust. Israel’s Labor Party never fully recovered from the shock of the Yom Kippur War. It now holds just 4 seats in the Israeli Knesset after being dominant from 1948 to 1977. This will work into the calculation, sad as that is to say. And they’ll also worry that it won’t work; that Hamas dug in will be able to hang on and inflict sufficient casualties to get the Israelis to quit.

But I can’t see other than Israel has to do it. It will take some real steel in the veins to get it done, but it must be done. Hamas just proved it has no limits in its actions. If it survives, then it wins – recruits and money will flow in. Hamas is already developing advanced military capabilities. A little more time and it won’t be rockets fired into the blue but precision munitions with deep penetration capabilities hitting vital Israeli targets. They will, if they do expand, be able to attack on several fronts at once and other radical Islamist groups will want to get in on the action…raiding an Israeli village will become a requirement for any organization which wants to have credibility on the Arab street. In short, if Israel doesn’t go in it will be a catastrophic defeat. And a defeat which will place the long-term survival of Israel at risk. Iran will soon have a nuclear weapon…and against an Israel perceived as morally weak, they probably will use it. It might make surviving Israelis feel good to know that Tehran got nuked in the response, but Israel is tiny and just two or three hits to major population centers and the country is done for.

Pudding Brain is heading to Israel – almost certainly because his puppet masters want to pressure the Israelis to quit. It is a matter of conviction on the Left that the reason the Arabs hate Israel is because of the “occupation”. They simply will not admit that it is because of decades of propaganda that the Arabs hate Israel. That if the Arabs simply stopped, it would all be over almost instantly. But the Arabs can’t stop – not the leaders of the Islamist groups; their only claim to legitimacy is their promise to conquer Tel Aviv…if that goes away, they go away. So, they won’t stop. They have no reason to. And if they see Israel wimp out in the face of casualties, then they’ll know that victory beckons. But Biden’s people don’t see it that way – they’re sure if they get the Israelis to back off and can get aid into Gaza that they’ll eventually get Hamas to agree to Israel’s existence (after massive Israeli concessions, of course). I’m hoping that the Israelis just ignore him and rely on Congress to ensure that whatever aid is needed will still flow no matter how mad Biden’s people are.

The other thing bringing me down is the revelation of how many Americans are buying Hamas propaganda. Polling is good but we’ve clearly got at least 20-25% of the population so ignorant of history that they fault Israel for the war. They are out in the streets praising Hamas – that is praising people who just sent in death/rape squads. Don’t believe them when they deny the squads; they are out to cheer precisely that, but they’ve been coached to deny the reason for their joy because their masters know how bad that would look on TV.

For now.

This keeps up much longer and in a few years they’ll be quite open in their support for genocide. We’ve got a serious problem. It has moved me to reconsider just how we govern ourselves: we need to devise mechanisms to ensure that people who favor Nazi-like policies are not allowed a say. Not sure how we do it. The long term fix is to increasingly gain control of the education system and make sure drivel isn’t imparted…but meanwhile we’ve got a whole generation raised on drivel. How do we control them for th next fifty years?

Then next 72 hours or so will be decisive, I think. We’ll find out by then if Israel will move. God bless them and give them strength to endure.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan55 Comments

Someone wrote some years ago that how a person views Israel is shorthand for whether or not they’re decent. I don’t think this is 100% but the past few days have shows the overall truth of the statement. The huge divide right now is over Israel.

To be sure, most of the Left is firmly in Hamas’ camp though there have been a few big voices on the Left raised in support of Israel. It is on the Right where we’re finding some surprises with many big Right voices – including many self-identified as MAGA and/or Trumpster – basically swallowing Hamas’ propaganda; some to the point where they’ve gone to overt anti-Semitism. It is strange, but also explicable.

The first thing to consider is that the conspiracy theory side of things remains mostly ridiculous – but with bizarre and disgusting things such as the failure to release the Epstein client list and the continual revelations of well-placed people being exposed as pedophiles, the Conspiracists have found much grist for their mill. There isn’t a cabal of Globalist pedophiles running the world…but there are a lot of pedophiles who are Globalists and the Globalists do often protect them. But it isn’t a very long step to seeing all this nauseating stuff and falling for the Conspiracy Theories which have grown up around them…from there is just a skip over to the anti-Semitic side of the aisle where it is asserted – as it has been since the Protocols were fabricated – that The Jews are behind all that stuff. I think some of our people have fallen for this. And having fallen – and being by nature Isolationists, into the bargain – they were primed to condemn Israel and now fall for Hamas.

It is sad and we will have to battle against it – but I think we should go easy on ostracism for the moment. As my Dad pointed out to me decades ago, you’re going to hate a lot of your best allies in the fight for freedom. I’ll say that in the pressure of the moment, a lot of people got suckered and I think we can induce them to come back to the side of the angels on it. Keeping in mind that I am Isolationist, Protectionist and America First…but I recognize evil when I see it and Hamas is downright evil.

A few things to keep in mind about this:

  1. The battle is not thousands of years old. It it 94 years old. It started in 1929 when the Muslim population of then-British Mandate decided, entirely unprovoked, to have a pogrom. Why? Because the Muslim Ruling Class felt threatened in its position and the Muslim population greedily eyed the rising Jewish prosperity. In short, they wanted to steal. It was only after 1929 that the Jews in the Holy Land started to arm themselves and then only in self defense. Every subsequent event in the Jewish-Muslim war started right then…it has just been a progression. But always keep in mind that the Muslims started it…and not for any good reason; just over greed for power and money.
  2. The Muslim population of the West Bank and Gaza have been rigorously educated from pre-school to hate Jews and glory in killing them. There are about 4.5 million Muslims in the area. Half are under twenty. That means that half of them – more than two million – are just eagerly waiting for their chance to kill a Jew. Its all been one gigantic Hitler Youth camp. They are now a poisoned tree and it will take a long while to purge the poison. In other words, no sane person can make a deal with them right now.
  3. Iran probably fostered this attack to scuttle the growing rapprochement between Israel and the Arab States. Iran has a deep fear of being isolated in hatred of Israel and the purpose of Hamas, for Iran, is to have an absolutely lunatic pawn to be used when Iran feels necessary.
  4. Iran and Hamas probably calculated that Israel would hold back. They still might be calculating that. In fact, Israel might still hold back – and the world is already starting to pressure Israel to hold back. Hamas wins if the Israel attack ends and Hamas is still around. They don’t care how many people die. Israel should not hold back.
  5. Hamas has no moral grounds to continue fighting. Not just on the fact that their chosen method of warfare is murder and rape, but on grounds of simple military reality: they can’t beat the Israelis. Nobody fought harder than the Warsaw Poles against the Germans in 1944 but even they, when faced with the stark fact that continued resistance just meant death with no different outcome, they honorably surrendered. Hamas has a moral obligation to surrender to spare lives. If they do not, then all lives lost are Hamas’ responsibility. This is entirely outside any other considerations – continuing to fight a hopeless battle, unless your enemy proposes to massacre all of you, is immoral. The whole world should be pressuring Hamas to surrender, not for Israel to hold back.

It is a War to the Death

Mark Noonan93 Comments

A lot of people – left and right – are all “how could this have happened?” over the past few days. This infuriates me. The program of Hamas is the destruction of Israel and the extermination of the Jews. They hold to every libel ever issues against Judaism; they believe The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. They believe that killing Jews is pleasing to God.

This is not a sort of people Israel can strike a deal with, even supposing Hamas was willing to strike a deal, which they’re not because they believe they have to kill all Jews and “liberate” every square inch of “Palestine”. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that they only response Israel can ever make to Hamas is to kill them until they unconditionally surrender. Hamas is a modern-day iteration of Nazism…its existence is incompatible with the existence of Judaism. One or the other has to go.

And I saw it. Back in 2009 right here on the blog:

…even if one wishes to suppose the worst of Israel, all stopping Israel does at this point is ensure that more people will die at a later date at the hands of Hamas and then at the hands of the IDF in response.

Here we are, at that later date. But even more horrific because Hamas has thought carefully about how they want to do this. Do not discount the intelligence put into this – they hit Israel very hard. At least a thousand dead including hundreds of Israeli soldiers. That would be the equivalent of killing about 45,000 Americans in a day. Latest story is that Hezbollah is starting to sending death squads into northern Israel. And don’t discount that the Arab street is very pleased with this. Sure, the Arab nations were rapidly making peace with Israel but that was the Arab Ruling Class…the basic Abdul on the street is heir to a century of vicious anti-Semitic propaganda and is just thrilled at Hamas’ attack. Hamas is counting on the people of the Arab world to make peace with Israel politically impossible.

But they are also counting on Israel holding back; to not take that last step. Keeping in mind that Hamas’ senior leadership is in five star hotels in Qatar (our “ally”); they are not at risk, personally. They have their money in Swiss bank accounts. They don’t care how many people in Gaza die nor how much destruction happens. But they are expecting Israel to stop at some point with Hamas’ power structure in Gaza intact. Then Hamas’ plan would be to suck in billions of foreign aid (most going to pad their personal bank accounts) to rebuild Gaza and then on to the next round.

The question is: will Israel stop? We’re going to find that out. But one thing nobody should be is surprised and shocked, nor should anyone be shedding a tear for Gaza. This is what they wanted. This is what the believe. They are willing to die for their beliefs. Israel has to be willing to die for Israel, as well. But there is no half way point – Israel has to either entirely win, or they will entirely lose.

There Are no Non-Combatants

Mark Noonan72 Comments

Julius Streicher was hung as a major war criminal at Nuremberg on October 16th, 1946. What did he do? Well, he didn’t kill any Jews. Didn’t organize shipments to death camps. Wasn’t a member of the SS or Gestapo. Wasn’t part of Hitler’s inner circle. He wasn’t even a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA) until he was made an honorary member in 1934. Heck, he hadn’t even had an official position in the Nazi government since 1940. So, what was it? Why did we bother executing him as one of the major war criminals?

Because he was the publisher of Der Sturmer. This was a hideously anti-Semitic rag which pushed the blood libel of the Jews and accused them of every manner of depravity. Basically, what Streicher did was set the stage for the Holocaust; he infected the German mind with the most vicious type of anti-Semitism so when it came time to round up the Jews and ship them off to camps, the Germans could tell themselves it was a good thing to do. The judgement of the Nuremberg Tribunal was that without people like Streicher, the Holocaust would not have been possible.

In the past I’ve noted my objections to the Nuremberg Trials – most notably that they had Soviet judges – but this is one thing I believe the Tribunal got right: the crime of not doing the right thing. My only real objection to the Streicher conviction was that it wasn’t carried further. That is, it wasn’t applied more broadly to the German people. You see, Streicher knew what he was doing; he wasn’t some complete moron; he was a school teacher and the son of a school teacher. He knew that you aren’t supposed to spread hate and lies. How do I know for certain he knew? Because it is rock-solid certain that Streicher wouldn’t want hatred and lies spread about him and his own. Whatever Streicher’s real views about Jews, he knew going in – before be put the first lie to paper – that he wasn’t supposed to do that. The German people, as a whole, also knew: their protestations in 1945 that they had no idea about the Holocaust were drivel…the Nuremberg Laws were enacted in 1935 and any fool could see that only very bad things would result from a legal system which denied the humanity of a segment of the population. Once again: we’re certain of this because no German would want to have laws enacted making Germans into a sub-human class.

I bring this up because we’re already getting the stories of “innocent Palestinians” being killed in the Israeli retaliation. My contention is there are no innocent Palestinians. As I’ve noted before, we started seeing those videos out of Palestine some years back where cute, little Palestinian kids are taught to hate Jews and to glory in killing them. Those cute, little Palestinian kids are now the adults in the Hamas death squads. The whole of Palestinian society – especially in Gaza where Hamas dominates – is geared towards teaching hatred of Jews and the glory of killing them. Just as Germans didn’t make the leap immediately to shoving Jews into gas chambers so, too, did the Palestinians not start raping and murdering random Israelis right out the gate. It took time, patience and careful instruction. It took a religious, social and political infrastructure all singing the same song to craft the sort of people who would think it was a good idea to walk up to an old Israeli at a bus stop and shoot him. To rape a girl next to her dead friends at a concert. To parade naked corpses through the streets. And the Palestinians who have created this system and now unleashed it on Israelis knew when they started that it was wrong. How do I know? Because you can be certain that the Palestinians don’t want the Israelis to teach their children from the ground up that God wants them to rape and murder Palestinians. The Palestinians have no excuse; they are participants in what amounts to a very large Hitler Youth camp. They deliberately made people eager to commit evil; just as the Nazis did.

And, now, the Palestinians have to pay. In blood. Lots of it. There is a cancer in the Palestinian body politic and until it is cut out no cure is possible. It isn’t enough to just hit some targets; the entirety of the system which makes death squads has to go. I do not know what Israel has planned – they are clearly gearing up for a massive operation and the troops sent in will have little reason to be gentle. But I hope the Israelis realize the magnitude of their task – all of Hamas has to go. The whole idea of it has to be wiped out – that is, so much violence has to be applied to the people of Gaza that they come to realize – as the Germans did in 1945 – that the lies they believed were a false god. Nazism was exterminated with thousands of tons of bombs and allied boots kicking in German doors. So, too, it will have to be in Gaza.

And in this operation the Israelis are incapable of committing a crime. There is nothing they can do which would be out of bounds. I know lots of people like to think there are hard and fast rules of war but there really is only one rule: if the enemy does it, so can you. Once the enemy uncorks hell, then hell may be applied to the enemy. You must never be the first, but once the other side does it, you’re free to act in whatever manner seems best to you.

To be certain, the Israelis are civilized people so we’re not going to see IDF soldiers raping and murdering Palestinian women. But because Palestinians raped and murdered Israeli women, there is no limit on the application of force. There are no non-combatants. There are no innocents. There are people who must be compelled to stop believing in Hamas and whatever application of violence proves necessary is legitimate.

My prayers are for the soldiers of the IDF – that they may conduct themselves with courage and as they go through their distasteful task I ask God to give them the wisdom to know when it is time to kill and when it is time to heal.

Attack on Israel

Mark Noonan21 Comments

Why did Hamas send murder squads into Israel? Same reason we see packs of feral people looting stores in the USA: because it was allowed.

This is going to be the hard part for everyone to swallow. Nobody wants to hear that they are responsible for something bad happening. When we see packs of looters we blame their parents, the police, the government; never ourselves. But we allowed it. To be sure, the fight to forbid it would be long and difficult and there are those who essentially encouraging it who bear even greater responsibility…but we all allowed it. Whenever we tolerate any bad behavior, we’re giving permission, even if not encouraging. Looters in our stores are the result of decades of everyone letting things slide. So, too, the attack in Israel.

Lets recap here, guys. In 1948, the Palestinians were offered the lion’s share of the land. They rejected it and attacked and then lost. Almost immediately after this defeat Arab terrorism was born…and all through the past 75 years it has been an on-going activity. To a greater or lesser extent, the Muslim people have sought to murder Israelis. Through war after war – all unprovoked attacks on Israel – the terrorism has continued. The Muslims have again and again been offered deals they could not secure by battlefield efforts. They were given back the entirety of the Sinai as an inducement to land for peace. Nothing doing. It just keeps going on and on. Because the Israelis allow it.

To be fair, the world does act as a restraint upon Israel; this does make us partially responsible as well. We’re always telling them to hold back, to pull back, to not hit too hard. One of the most infamous examples of this as at the conclusion of the Yom Kippur War when we directly forbade Israel from destroying the surrounded Egyptian Third Army. It was said that we didn’t want Egypt humiliated.

But, why not? I don’t really know. I can’t explain it in any rational terms. It was a perfect opportunity to give the Egyptians – and the larger Muslim world – an object lesson. A reminder that Muslim arms always have been second rate. In just 48 hours Third Army would have had to raise a white flag for lack of water…and that would have been the time to dictate peace to a prostrate Egypt and instruct the Muslim world that war against Israel leads to humiliating defeat. But, no. And while the peace between Egypt and Israel has held, the larger war has never stopped. Because Third Army was allowed to live…it taught the lesson: fight Israel. Do your worst…and when you get your ass kicked, the world will step in and Israeli conscience will kick in and you’ll be spared total defeat.

Hamas did not think it was going to march on Tel Aviv with a few murder squads. And they also know that the Israeli response was going to be very strong. They don’t care about that. They don’t care about their own people any more than they care about dead Israelis. Its all part of their game – a war game which keeps them in power (and banking NGO money in Switzerland) and which they believe will eventually destroy Israel. They expect after a few days or maybe a week of Israeli attacks that the whole thing will be called off. Money will pour in to rebuild damage in Gaza, the global Left will be thick with denunciations of Israel, Leftist Jews would deplore Israel’s response and so on to the next round. In other words, Hamas would be given permission to send more murder squads in. Just as the Muslim terrorists have been repeatedly given permission since 1948.

So far, the Israeli response is far harsher than any I’ve seen before – but I do note that they are taking Hamas fighters alive and they are giving warnings to Gaza before buildings are hit. This is not the way; in fact, any softness at all just tells Hamas that they are winning. This has to get very, very harsh…a humiliating defeat for Hamas or it’ll just happen again. There are some indications that Israel is willing to go that route. Its going to be hard, though, because the whole world will tell them not to. They have to steel themselves to it. They can’t be held back by false morality.

Already you’re hearing the stories of Palestinian civilians being killed. The Palestinian propaganda outfits made sure that the reported number of dead Palestinians was greater than the number of dead Israelis…that is crucial for the propaganda; Israel is the bad guy. This must be ignored. There are no non-combatants in Gaza.

Do you remember about 12-15 years ago when you first started seeing videos of cute, little Palestinian pre-schoolers being taught to hate Jews and to consider killing them glorious? Well, those cute, little Palestinian pre-schoolers are now the men who just went on a murder spree. Get it? The whole of Palestinian society – parents, teachers, religious and government leaders – is creating generation after generation of Palestinian men who yearn for the chance to murder Israelis and parade their naked bodies around. It is very much Hitler Youth stuff. Everyone in Gaza is complicit in this. Sure, I understand that the bully boys of Hamas enforce conformity but there is still consent. There is still culpability…and more important, as the whole of Palestinian society is engaged in creating men who can murder people randomly, the whole of Palestinian society must be destroyed. So: no non-combatants. If Israel leaves Hamas in place then all they’ll be doing is giving Hamas permission to raise another crop of murderers.

Gaza has to be attacked until the survivors raise their hands as they emerge from the rubble. There has to be acknowledged defeat on the part of the Palestinians. However long it takes, however many lives it costs. This must end…or Israel will end in the long run.

We Live in a Progressive World: It Sucks

Mark Noonan55 Comments

You might have heard about Ryan Carson getting killed in New York – a Progressive activist, it appears he was killed by a random lunatic over nothing; the lunatic likely being high at the time. After reading the story my reaction was to post on X that I simply felt no sympathy. Trying to express it, I brought up that scene at the end of The Cowboys where the boys are standing around the bad guy pinned under his horse with a broken leg; my reaction is like that. Not hating. Not gloating. But not caring; the person on the ground chose this.

It ended up being one of the most engaged posts I’ve ever done on X. As of this moment, it has more than 155,000 views; 20 reposts and more than a thousand likes. And lots of comments. The basic Left comment is that I’m a horrific bastard; un-Christian (always amusing to get that comment from avowed Marxists!); evil; hate-filled. I shouldn’t cheer death. Which, of course, I didn’t. I merely pointed out that I had no sympathy. Most of the Left comments got no response from me (a huge numbers of comments were blocked). But I did engage some people who seemed to be trying to say something. Unfortunately, in the end, they had nothing to say and were just doing polite variations on “you bastard” that the less articulate went with.

I think the reaction all stems from the fact that the Left in general but also many people on the right don’t know what morality is. Basic right and wrong is very confused in their minds. You see – and this is especially true in a Republic – everyone bears responsibility. None of us ever get to stand aside. What we choose as individuals – both by action and omission – goes to make up the corporate decision of the whole body politic. We are not – at least in theory – ruled. If we were, then we could assign blame for many things to our rulers. Such is not the case; we are free (pro tempore). As such, we must ensure that as far as possible our choices tend towards furtherance of liberty, peace and prosperity. You woke up this morning and you decided not to get drunk. Because of this decision, you went to work instead of passing out on the floor. Because you went to work, your job got done which allowed other people to get their job done and so on. Just that one, small decision rattles on and on through our society for good or ill.

So, too, the bad decision. Had you decided to get drunk, your job doesn’t get done and so on. And there’s no excuse. Unless you are a minor incapable of reason or verily insane, you know very well what you are supposed to do and you also can understand, if you but put some effort into it (said effort you are morally bound to make), the likely results of your decisions. The drunk knows full well – or, if he doesn’t, he ought to know; he has an inescapable obligation to know – what bad things are likely to result from the choice to drink rather than go to work. This is why when the drunk loses his job and house and the Mrs leaves him we’re not terribly sympathetic, if at all, to his plight. What on Earth did he think was going to happen?

Well, it goes like that for every decision. One of Carson’s pet projects – one of the things he advocated for – was “safe” places for drug addicts to get high. From what I can determine, he asserted this as a merciful and kind service to drug addicts. Here’s where a lot of people will reject what I say: Carson was lying when he made that assertion. He knew full well that the only proper course of action to take with someone who gets high is to get them to stop. To be sure, none of us may be able to stop any particular person from getting high, but if we can’t actively stop it, we must certainly not abet it. Because we all know what happens when people get high; they ruin their lives and wreck destruction on the lives of everyone who comes into contact with them to a greater or lesser degree. There is no upside to drug addiction. It is all downside. Every person who gets high makes life for everyone else in society worse. If Carson were to be able to assert to my face this very day that he thought it was good to give a “safe” place to get high I would not take the coward’s way out and go, “well, your heart is in the right place”. His heart was not in the right place. It was in an evil, wicked place. I would call him a liar because as a mentally competent adult he knows you can’t properly help someone get high.

So, too, with a host of other Leftist nostrums: de-fund the police; ending cash bail; de-criminalizing looting; false accusations of racism. These are not the actions of people who have their heart in the right place. These are the actions of evil people who know full well they are doing evil. Their only way out of being wicked is to proclaim themselves simpletons and surrender their franchise. If they aren’t idiots, then they know you can’t do things like de-criminalize looting and expect anything other than more looting to occur. Looting is bad. There is never any justification for it. Society cannot function if the products of labor can be taken without compensation. Carson, from what I can tell, backed all of these Leftist programs. Given he is of the Left – and the way the Left enforces ideological conformity – we can with great certainty assume that every aspect of Leftist ideology was supported by Carson. And what this means – as small time as he was in the grand scheme of things – he was a willing, knowing participant in policies which are obviously evil. Policies which make life miserable – and especially for poor people who are not insulated from the results of Leftist policy.

So, when Carson was killed by a crazed person likely high, all I saw was a bit of poetic justice. Just like the bad guy in the movie now suffering…the bottom line is he was suffering because of what he tried to do. People like Carson – upper class, white, urban Progressives – have mostly been insulated from the effects of their policies. But that insulation crumbles as civilization at last crumbles under the Leftist assault. We’re now several generations in; the inculcating of barbarian ideals into the minds of people has taken its toll. Its why we see those videos of people getting into brawls over nothing or packs of feral children mercilessly beating a weaker person. This is what Leftists wanted. Heck, they told us it would be great – if we just got past our old, Christian hang-ups and embraced a society of free flowing drugs and sex everything would be wonderful. This world we live in is a Progressive world. It is what they wanted. We never approved of it. We warned repeatedly what would happen. We were ignored on the best days and viciously slandered on most. And, so, when a cog in that Progressive machine runs afoul of his own actions…sure, I’m going to watch impassively. I’m not going to shed a tear. Why should I? Should I shed a tear for the drunk who is killed driving his car into a telephone pole?

Sure it is bad that he’s dead. I’d rather he hadn’t died. I am going to do my best to build a world where such things don’t happen. But, guess what? In fighting for that world, I’ll have to battle through a host of people like Carson who will fight tooth and nail to keep the system which killed him. It is still what they want. They are still lying; still saying that if we just get more Progressive, it will at last get better. They know it won’t. They don’t care; no person with the least bit of humane feeling can be a Leftist. It is how they become Leftists; they kill genuine sympathy; they kill off anything resembling love. They come to view all people are entirely utilitarian…and that is why they can say, “hey, lets help junkies get high”. They don’t see a suffering soul who will spread suffering…they see a block of wood with appetite, just as they see themselves. And as their only measure is to feed their own appetites, so their only reaction to another person is to figure out how to feed their appetites. You want drugs? Here are some drugs. You want sex? Here is some sex. Never for a moment is there the thought of repenting because, indeed, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

So, thanks very much, I’ll save my sympathy for the real victims – the usually poor or middle class people who have been suckered by the Left and who are diligently ruining their lives because of it. They still have agency, of course; but at least they aren’t actively destroying society. So when one of them runs afoul of our dying Progressive society, I will shed a tear – I will express sympathy. But for one of the Leftist architects of destruction? Not a chance. They got what they wanted – that what they want sucks isn’t my problem.

As a side note; after more than a day of Leftists calling me an insensitive bastard for not expressing sympathy for Carson’s demise it came out that in his own X account he was free with advocating violence against his opponents and had gloated over the death of Rush Limbaugh. I did not know this at the time I wrote my post. It does not surprise me in the least. As I’ve said: the Left is wicked. They are not nice people with misguided programs to get to peace, freedom and prosperity. They are wicked people doing evil things to destroy society…and they do it because they are wicked. You really don’t have to explain it beyond that.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan109 Comments

I was at an impasse in Book VIII – mostly how to deal with a character who, it turns out, does have to die in order to build a really good story line for another character – the other day and so I sat myself in front of the idiot box to drop thinking for a bit (it does help; a clear mind can suddenly solve a riddle that has bothered you all day) and just absorb passively. As I clicked through the available product – mostly dreck, it goes without saying – I came across an interesting documentary. Produced by the BBC in 2015, it is called 1945: The Savage Peace.

The story it tells is what happened to the Germans of eastern Europe after WWII. Spoiler: it was bad. Like really, really bad. For a lot of people it will come as a revelation because it is something not covered in depth in Western histories of WWII and its aftermath. To nutshell it, after WWII the German territories of East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia were transferred to other nations – most to Poland with a slice of East Prussia going to the Soviet Union (and still part of Russia today – you can see it on the map as a small exclave between Lithuania and Poland). The German population of these territories was forced out – ethnically cleansed as we would put it today. Additionally, the German population of the Sudetenland in today’s Czech Republic as well as long-established German communities in Hungary and Romania were also sent off to Germany. It was many millions of people. Nobody knows exactly how many because in the chaos of the time nobody bothered to count how many were left in these Soviet-occupied areas of post-WWII Europe (quite a large number of them had, of course, fled ahead of the Soviet advance at the end of the war).

And it wasn’t done gently; the people who exiled the Germans were Poles, Czechs and others who had just spent years under very brutal Nazi German occupation and once they got on top of the Germans they very cruelly extracted their pound of flesh. Not only did these Germans lose their land, they lost pretty much everything but the clothes on their backs and while in transit to Germany they were subjected to beatings, rapes and murders. The documentary interviews several Germans who endured it – all very old by 2015 and between 10 and 15 years old or so when it happened. So, it is designed to evoke sympathy for the Germans and while the documentary does make passing reference to the immediately prior Nazi brutality, the whole thing is pitched to make out that the Germans were mere victims. And, to be sure, the people they interviewed – all kids at the time – were specifically innocent. They couldn’t interview their parents because by 2015 all those who were adults in 1945 were dead. But by doing this, it really wrecked the context. While little Helga was innocent her mom and dad were probably participants – or approved of – the equally brutal relocation of Poles in 1939-40. And like all German adults, they knew about the Holocaust and did nothing about it. And like the Russians who threw themselves upon the German population at the end of the war, the Poles and Czech almost to a man and woman had someone close murdered or otherwise brutalized by the Germans during the war. Two wrongs do not make a right…but you can’t lord it over people and treat them like despised slaves for 5 years and not expect some payback. That Helga had to watch in terror as her family was brutally exiled is sad…but Helga’s family should have considered that possibility while they were going Sieg Heil for all those years (East Prussia, for instance, voted overwhelmingly Nazi in the last free election).

I bring this up because this documentary works out to a re-write of history and coming off very badly in it are the Poles. Jews and Czechs also not looking all too kind. It is a white-wash of Nazi history and an attempt to slander people who are clearly out of favor in the European Establishment; the Poles, especially, not knuckling under to EU dictates about Woke policies and immigration. Germans, of course, are the pillar of the EU Establishment…so I guess they’ve decided to kinda gloss over that 1939-45 unpleasantness. I do perceive that we’re getting a lot more of this sort of thing…not just the “black people did everything wonderful” drivel, but attempts to reassign within European/Western history who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. The bad guys are, of course, you; this started actually back in the 1980’s when people accused Ike of being a war criminal because some number of German POWs died in American captivity post-WWII. Some did; but people are always dying. An in-depth study showed that the German POW death rate was in line with everyone else in the area…all higher than normal but it was the immediate aftermath of WWII with Germany an entire wreck. But that didn’t stop the “bad Ike” stories…and in spite of being debunked, the myth persists to this day. The past is being edited just as in 1984 in order to control the present and future.

In a ridiculous attempt to cover up the side effects of the Covid vaccine they are now claiming that the common cold, all along, causes heart problems. They are really desperate to hide the truth.

The former CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch is accused of sexual abuse. I do admit to being entirely creeped out by the picture of the guy. Our world is run by degenerates.