West is best: Worthington
BY PETER WORTHINGTON ,QMI AGENCY
FIRST POSTED: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2012 11:14 AM EST | UPDATED: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2012 11:21 AM EST
Why Allen West is important is not because he’s the first African-American Congressman from Florida in over 130 years, nor because his father served in the Second World War, his brother in Vietnam and his mother worked for the U.S. Marines — a legacy of patriotism — but because he has a master’s degree (political science) and understands the nature of war and Islam.
TORONTO - This is a story about Lt.-Col. Allen West — a U.S. Army battalion commander in Iraq who was forced to retire before his time.
He subsequently became an advisor to the Afghan National Army, a high school teacher and in 2010 was elected as a Republican Congressman in Florida.
There is also a faction today that sees him as a future U.S. president.
This aspect of West’s story begins in Iraq, 2003, when it was learned that a plot was in the making to ambush and kill him along with many of his soldiers.
An Iraqi police officer was apparently involved.
The police officer was taken into custody and questioned, but adamantly refused to talk. West interrupted the professional questioning, shoved the man’s face in a bucket of sand that was used for proving weapons, and fired a shot from his pistol into the sand by the guy’s head.
He said talk, or the next shot is for you.
The frightened individual then became a babbling brook. No only was the ambush averted, but no other attempt was made on his battalion. On his part, West acknowledged he’d crossed the line.
He reported himself to his chain-of-command for firing a pistol near the head of the suspect — a military no-no. He took early retirement in 2004 with full benefits, after 20 years of service. He was 43.
When asked later if he regretted his action, he replied: “If it’s the lives of my soldiers that are at stake, I’d go through hell with a gasoline can.” His troops revered him.
He added that he knew the method he used “was not right, but I wanted to take care of my soldiers.” He felt time was of the essence to thwart the ambush.
When asked recently about the four marines who urinated on the dead bodies of Taliban fighters, West said he didn’t recall any “self-righteous indignation” when the bodies of mutilated Delta snipers were dragged through Mogadishu.
Nor could he recall “media outrage and condemnation” when Blackwater security contractors were burned and hanged from a bridge in Fallujah.
“All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill,” he said, recalling two soldiers from the 101st Airborne being beheaded and gutted in Iraq.
As for the marines: “They were wrong. Give them field grade level (non-judicial) punishment, place a letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their battalion, and each personally apologize to God, country and corps, all videotaped. And conclude by singing the Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.”
He added: “As for everyone else — unless you’ve been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth. War is hell.”
Why Allen West is important today — and should be listened to — is not because he’s the first African-American Congressman from Florida in over 130 years, nor because his father served in the Second World War, his brother in Vietnam and his mother worked for the U.S. Marines — a legacy of patriotism — but because he has a master’s degree (political science) and has studied and understands the nature of war and Islam.
West is uneasy about America’s future — and the reluctance of U.S. leaders to face reality, or even acknowledge it.
In speeches, he points out that a prime threat facing the world today is not Jihadists, not Muslim extremists nor fundamentalists, not what’s called Islamists — but Islam itself; not Islam with adjectives.
He cites great battles with Muslims dating 1,400 years to the Battle of Tours (or Poitiers) in 732 that decisively preserved Christianity in France and was the high tide of Islam’s conquest of Europe.
Wars over succeeding centuries had German and Austrian knights saving Vienna from Islamic conquest, yet Caliphate armies dominated an empire extending from the borders of China, the Indian sub-continent, Central Asia, North Africa, Sicily, Spain. West thinks it should be no surprise that Islam is again on the march. It is their destiny.
To West, there is little in the Koran, or the Suras, or Hadith that suggests Islam is a religion of peace instead of conquest. This reality has should be understood by America’s leaders — but instead it is scrupulously avoided.
West emphasizes that it is not individual Muslims who are a concern or threat, it is the tenets of Islam. All Germans were not Nazis, nor all Italians fascists. All Japanese weren’t imperialists in the Second World War. But ignoring reality is akin to suicide.
The grave mistake America is making today — dating to George Bush’s presidency after 9/11 — is its war against “terrorism.” To West, that’s declaring war against a “tactic.” It is like declaring war against “blitzkrieg” instead of against Nazi Germany, or against ”kamikazes” in Japan’s case.
One can’t go to war against an “idea.”
Europe is starting to wake up, but North American leaders continue to doze.
ARS LONGA. VITA BREVIS.
I don't care for them. I don't watch them and I turn them off when they are on TV!!! Yeah, I don't subscribe to their magazines and newspapers.
Number One populous city is a quite a surprise! It beat China and India.
