These are a few things that will not solve the terrible and
tangled web of causation and violence in which the attacks of Friday night were
spawned. A 242-ship Navy will not stop one motivated murderous fanatic from
emptying the clip of an AK-47 into the windows of a crowded restaurant. The
F-35 fighter plane will not stop a group of motivated murderous fanatics from
detonating bombs at a soccer match. A missile-defense shield in Poland will not
stop a platoon of motivated murderous fanatics from opening up in a jammed
concert hall, or taking hostages, or taking themselves out with suicide belts
when the police break down the doors. American soldiers dying in the sands of
Syria or Iraq will not stop the events like what happened in Paris from
happening again because American soldiers dying in the sands of Syria or Iraq
will be dying there in combat against only the most obvious physical
manifestation of a deeper complex of ancient causes and ancient effects made
worse by the reach of the modern technology of bloodshed and murder. Nobody's
death is ever sacrifice enough for that.
Not everything is a nail that can be hammered by the military.
In 2010, thanks
to WikiLeaks, we learned that the State Department, under the direction of
then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, knew full well where the
money for foreign terrorism came from. It came from countries and not from a
faith. It came from sovereign states and not from an organized religion. It
came from politicians and dictators, not from clerics, at least not directly.
It was paid to maintain a political and social order, not to promulgate a
religious revival or to launch a religious war. Religion was the fuel, the
ammonium nitrate and the diesel fuel.Authoritarian
oligarchy built the bomb. As long as people are dying in Paris, nobody
important is dying in Doha or Riyadh.
It's time for this to stop. It's time to be pitiless
against the bankers and against the people who invest in murder to assure their
own survival in power. Assets from these states should be frozen, all over the
west. Money trails should be followed, wherever they lead. People should go to
jail, in every country in the world. It should be done state-to-state. Stop
funding the murder of our citizens and you can have your money back. Maybe. If
we're satisfied that you'll stop doing it. And, it goes without saying, but
we'll say it anyway – not another bullet will be sold to you, let alone
advanced warplanes, until this act gets cleaned up to our satisfaction. If that
endangers your political position back home, that's your problem, not ours. You
are no longer trusted allies. Complain, and your diplomats will be going home.
Complain more loudly, and your diplomats will be investigated and, if
necessary, detained. Retaliate, and you do not want to know what will
happen, but it will done with cold, reasoned and, yes, pitiless calculation. It
will not be a blind punch. You will not see it coming. It will not be an attack
on your faith. It will be an attack on how you conduct your business as
sovereign states in a world full of sovereign states.
Yes. I did want to copy and paste his whole piece. From the wikileaks link above:
"Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant
source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," she said.
Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
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