It’s funny how for lefties, “blowback” is only something that happens when we take violent actions; never: “Hamas is experiencing blowback for launching thousands of rockets into Israel”; not “al-Qaeda is incurring blowback for pissing off the United States”.
Juan Cole is one of those academics poisoning the young minds of college students and gullible left-leaning minds.
He now sees fit to hold Israel accountable for bringing on the events of 9/11.
His post from Wednesday:
In 1996, Israeli jets bombed a UN building where civilians had taken refuge at Cana/ Qana in south Lebanon, killing 102 persons; in the place where Jesus is said to have made water into wine, Israeli bombs wrought a different sort of transformation. In the distant, picturesque port of Hamburg, a young graduate student studying traditional architecture of Aleppo saw footage like this on the news [graphic]. He was consumed with anguish and the desire for revenge. As soon as operation Grapes of Wrath had begun the week before, he had written out a martyrdom will, indicating his willingness to die avenging the victims, killed in that operation–with airplanes and bombs that were a free gift from the United States. His name was Muhammad Atta. Five years later he piloted American Airlines 11 into the World Trade Center. (Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower, p. 307: “On April 11, 1996, when Atta was twenty-seven years old, he signed a standardized will he got from the al-Quds mosque.l It was the day Israel attacked Lebanon in Operation grapes of Wrath. According to one of his friends, Atta was enraged,and by filling out his last testamentd during the attack he was offering his life in response.” ).
And if Atta didn’t find offense and inspiration from Operation Grapes of Wrath, his radical beliefs would have found outrage by any number of other subsequent perceived “offenses” against fellow Arabs/Islam. And if Atta hadn’t participated in the events of 9/11, perhaps his soul wouldn’t know unrest from having participated in a terrorist act that has led to the deposition of an Islamic fundamentalist state in Afghanistan and the hanging of an Arab dictator, the violent deaths of hundreds of thousands of Muslims, and the loss of prestige of al-Qaeda in the eyes of the Muslim world. These are all “blowback” for his actions.
And speaking of “blowback”, Juan Cole includes Michael Scheuer in his post:
Michael Scheuer, who headed the CIA Bin Laden desk for some years and knows something about radical fundamentalism, concludes, “What is likely to become known across the Islamic world as the “Gaza slaughter” will ensure the continued growth of the Sunni insurgency al-Qaeda leads and inspires.”
And as though on cue, Ayman al-Zawahiri came out with a video Tuesday, saying, “”We will never stop until we avenge the death of all who are killed, injured, widowed and orphaned in Palestine and throughout the Islamic world . . .” He then attacked Barack Obama, saying “These air strikes are a gift from Obama before he takes office, and from Hosni Mubarak, the traitor who is the primary partner in your siege and murder.”
What I am saying is that Israeli leaders like Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak and the Israeli high command and intelligence all knew this danger very well when they launched this bloodbath. They subjected you and me to it anyway, because it is immaterial to them what happens to the United States as a result of their bloody-mindedness. They want theirs. They are no different in that regard from American hawks. Bush knew he was endangering Madrid and Glasgow when he attacked Iraq. He didn’t care about his allies, either. In the Hawk Business, provoking terrorism is all to the good. Nor are they different in this regard from the leadership of Hamas, which also acted provocatively without regard to the wider consequences.
Juan Cole is a useful idiot to the likes of Zawahiri and Hamas; an ally in their propaganda dissemination. Zawahiri is being opportunistic here, trying to salvage al-Qaeda’s failed goal of uniting the Muslim world to answer THEIR call to “jihad”. Zawahiri doesn’t need Israel as an excuse to continue on with al-Qaeda’s murderous killing spree in the name of Allah; but Israel defending itself does give him propaganda fodder. And rather than countering it, Cole gives legitimacy to it in the eyes and ears of those Palestinian supporters and Hamas sympathizers who have a slanted perspective on Israel-Palestine history. He is an appeaser and an enabler for the world to receive more of the very violence he decries.
The burden of peace is on Hamas. It is the writings and lectures of liberal academics like Juan Cole who make the moral inversions of terrorist apologists and the anti-war movement possible. They are silent on Iranian dissidents being tortured in Iran everyday; they express love and admiration for dictators like Castro; they sympathize with the plight of Hamas and Islamic terrorists; all the while they call President Bush who has liberated 60 million Muslims the warmonger, and the plight of Israel “illegitimate”, “criminal”, and an “illegal occupation”.
It is the moral inversion of liberal peace/anti-war movements that causes war and the perpetuation of “the cycle of violence” by not protesting and pressuring the true dictators and violators of human rights.
I encourage all FA readers to go support Michael Totten in defeating Juan Cole in the 2008 Weblog Awards for Best Middle East or Africa Blog:
Juan Cole is decrying all the neocons he’s forced to compete with in the 2008 Weblog Awards for Best Middle East or Africa Blog. He thinks Helena Cobban — a deranged Hezbollah supporter — should have been nominated instead of someone like me. He’s worked his leftist readers into a tizzy, and they’re putting him over the top. I don’t really care if I win this award; I won it last year. But Juan Cole certainly doesn’t deserve it.
You know what kind of abject nonsense he’s peddling now? He’s arguing that Israel’s 1996 attack in Qana, Lebanon, inspired Mohammad Atta, who led the Al Qaeda cell on September 11, to write his “martyrdom will.” But Atta’s will, as Martin Kramer points out, was written before the attack in Qana. And it wasn’t a martyrdom will. It was a standard will. But Cole won’t let facts get in the way of blaming Israelis for just about anything, including violence committed by Al Qaeda.
Don’t let Cole win. Go over there and vote for me.
Go vote. Spread the word. Let Juan Cole experience firsthand what blowback is for his years of blogging 6 years of long-winded academic cyber-rubbish.
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If I was in Cole’s class and had to listen to this crap, I would say certain things and you would hear me because I would be yelling so loudly that people in Israel could hear me! Quite frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cole regularly wore a swastika arm band. He strikes me as being that full of hate and that full of stupid.
BTW, I voted in the poll and Totten currently has a 45.9%.
Juan better get on the DNC crazy train soon because it’s leaving the station in support of ISRAEL, and his little search for scapegoat is leading him down the wrong path and away from militant Muslim extremism.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,477450,00.html
Well, I voted, and Totten’s blog is over double the votes of Cole’s
It can also be said that Usama bin Laden (UBL) inspired a generation of young Americans (“Generation Kill”) to take up arms against idiot Muslin zealots who think it sport to kill non-combatants in their quest for sexual adequacy with the mythical 72 (re-virginating) virgins.
In the process, UBL made the US public more complacent to accept the Israeli operation in Gaza as the price to be paid when dealing with those who indescriminately fire rockets into civilian (non-combatant) areas.
This then goes to prove that UBL is responsible for the Israeli attack of Gaza.
By the same logic, then japanese and vietnamese terrorists should be killing millions of americans for the nuking of Nagasaki, Hiroshima and the bombing of Vietnam.
OK, let’s all start killing americans now. We can start with academics.
Cole is an idiot. His presence is one reason I no longer support my alma mater ( U of Michigan). Did Cole consider that the World Trade Center was first hit in February, 1993 – THREE YEARS before the Qana tragedy? And you just knew he would try again or go for a similarly spectacular operation. If not with Atta then with someone else. There’s an army of offended, frustrated, outraged or humiliated Muslims out there looking for an excuse and an opportunity.
Yup… agree with Raymond in DC. Cole is, and has always been, an idiot. Hang, said idiot wrote the only difference between Palin and Muslim fundamentalists (the PC phrase for the terrorist enemy) was lipstick for heavens sake. Reality left the Cole household a long time ago. So no surprises there for me.
Yet I wonder if Cole will weigh in on the latest rocket attack into Israel, coming from Lebanon? One hit a nursing home’s kitchen, where the residents were eating breakfast. Now there’s a strategic military target… uh huh. And I’m unaware of Lebanon being the object of a blockade, or under Israeli occupation.
The Lebanese govt has condemned it (that oughta stop it…. snort), and Hezbollah isn’t taking credit. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Hamas friendlies assailing Israel on another front, trying to incite them into substantial response. They are hard at work on the anti-Israel PR war. But can Cole see this? Hang no…. the guy needs to replace the rose-colored specs with something more transparent.
In a more humorous note on Cole, he’s whining about Totten’s weblog lead on his “Informed Comment” site, accusing him of using the evil, underhanded Bush/Rove tactics he says they used on Kerry in 2004:
Interesting that it’s a negative to respond to Kerry’s outright lie and slam against our military strategic leaders with actual military mouthpieces, telling it like it is. Instead, he calls fighting lies with truth, in essence, Rovian tactics.
But who is actually utilizing the tactics Cole writes about? Hummm…. what about that Obama campaign play book based on Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals? Oh yeah… let’s compare:
Well… at least Cole is well versed on such tactics. But apparently he didn’t learn them from Rove.
@MataHarley:
What a sniveling, petty snot.
From Martin Kramer’s Sandbox:
Juan’s revision is absent of this:
It seems you can vote every 24 hours.
Go double Totten’s vote count.
Thanks for the tip, Juan Cole.
Totten is now ahead 10,684 votes to Cole’s 7,146.
Last day to vote. Michael Totten is at 43.3% with 16,272 votes, Cole is at 31.6% with 11,902 votes.