The World Trade Center is lit in the French tricolor, President Obama and other world leaders have sent their condolences, offered moral support, promised their assistance in any way.
I'm not feeling it with this one, I am not feeling Je suis francais. It is not for lack of sympathy with our brothers and sisters in Paris. It is that expressions of solidarity, official condolences, offers of assistance, they're old hat at this late date, they are not enough, they have never been enough. They do not work. They have not stopped the attacks, not after 9/11/01, not after the 7 July bombings, not after 9/11/12, not after Boston, not after Charlie Hebdo, not after KGL9268. Not even the usual suspects, Muslims, rouse me tonight. I haven't been curious enough even to find out for sure. Because I know. We all know.
We all know that it is Muslims who are responsible for the attacks tonight and for the others above but the world's leaders will not do what needs to be done and I'm not feeling all broke out with outrage again. I haven't put the Muhammad turbanbomb on the header or on a post. It does no good, has never done any good. I am intellectually and emotionally detached tonight. I have that sort of cynical resignation that President Obama has when he talks about gun violence in America. "For the seventh time in my presidency I come before you to report another mass shooting in America." He knows what needs to be done about that, Congress has to pass gun control laws. Congress won't, so he somewhat mechanically, frustrated, walks into the press room and reports it and what can be done to stop it. He doesn't do that with Islam, he never will. Yet, he, and all Western leaders know that war on Islam is what is needed. They won't do it. War scares them, it intimidates them, war against Islam short-circuits them with awe. They cannot imagine it. I kept waiting after each of the above attacks for a Neville Chamberlain-like about face, like he made in that speech in Birmingham when the Nazis invaded Poland. But it has never come. In vogue American patois, "it is what it is." Like President Obama's challenge to the American people, "elect representatives who will pass serious gun control legislation." Unspoken by the president was "If you don't, you get the government you voted for, and you voted, and keep voting for, anti-gun control representatives. It is what it is."
That's the rub with democracies, you can't blame the leaders, they are who the people want. You must blame, if you are intellectually honest, brutally honest, you must blame the people in democracies. Nowhere among the major world powers, save perhaps in Russia, is there a leader cold-eyed and steel-hearted enough to play offense against Islam instead of defense. We'll see how President Putin responds to his own most recent experience with Muslim war on Russian infidels. President Hollande talked the talk tonight, "ruthless," "merciless" and we will see if he walks the walk. From what he said a "riposte" is not in the cards. A riposte is not ruthless, it is measured, reasonable. Putin may walk the walk. Hollande, I don't see Hollande walking ruthlessly. Obama, fuggeddabout it. He's as likely to blame it on "a disgusting movie." I wonder, but my capacity for wonder will not move me to find out, what David "I am not Charlie" Brooks will write about this. I won't check because I don't care. I don't care what Official America or Quasi-Official America says or writes or thinks. It's all too predictable. We have gotten what we wanted, that is to say, what we voted for, and what we read and give credibility to. Obama and the New York Times and Brooks will, borrowing again from common parlance, give us the same old same old. We all know that. I know that. So I'm sitting this one out.
So, knock yourselves out fellas, light as many buildings as you want in the French tricolor, maybe Pitt will play this week with the French colors on their helmets; maybe some NBA players will pull up their jerseys to reveal Je suis Francais on their undershirts, there are all kinds of eventualities, just none that will do any good. Only wake me up if they wake up. Good night.
I'm not feeling it with this one, I am not feeling Je suis francais. It is not for lack of sympathy with our brothers and sisters in Paris. It is that expressions of solidarity, official condolences, offers of assistance, they're old hat at this late date, they are not enough, they have never been enough. They do not work. They have not stopped the attacks, not after 9/11/01, not after the 7 July bombings, not after 9/11/12, not after Boston, not after Charlie Hebdo, not after KGL9268. Not even the usual suspects, Muslims, rouse me tonight. I haven't been curious enough even to find out for sure. Because I know. We all know.
We all know that it is Muslims who are responsible for the attacks tonight and for the others above but the world's leaders will not do what needs to be done and I'm not feeling all broke out with outrage again. I haven't put the Muhammad turbanbomb on the header or on a post. It does no good, has never done any good. I am intellectually and emotionally detached tonight. I have that sort of cynical resignation that President Obama has when he talks about gun violence in America. "For the seventh time in my presidency I come before you to report another mass shooting in America." He knows what needs to be done about that, Congress has to pass gun control laws. Congress won't, so he somewhat mechanically, frustrated, walks into the press room and reports it and what can be done to stop it. He doesn't do that with Islam, he never will. Yet, he, and all Western leaders know that war on Islam is what is needed. They won't do it. War scares them, it intimidates them, war against Islam short-circuits them with awe. They cannot imagine it. I kept waiting after each of the above attacks for a Neville Chamberlain-like about face, like he made in that speech in Birmingham when the Nazis invaded Poland. But it has never come. In vogue American patois, "it is what it is." Like President Obama's challenge to the American people, "elect representatives who will pass serious gun control legislation." Unspoken by the president was "If you don't, you get the government you voted for, and you voted, and keep voting for, anti-gun control representatives. It is what it is."
That's the rub with democracies, you can't blame the leaders, they are who the people want. You must blame, if you are intellectually honest, brutally honest, you must blame the people in democracies. Nowhere among the major world powers, save perhaps in Russia, is there a leader cold-eyed and steel-hearted enough to play offense against Islam instead of defense. We'll see how President Putin responds to his own most recent experience with Muslim war on Russian infidels. President Hollande talked the talk tonight, "ruthless," "merciless" and we will see if he walks the walk. From what he said a "riposte" is not in the cards. A riposte is not ruthless, it is measured, reasonable. Putin may walk the walk. Hollande, I don't see Hollande walking ruthlessly. Obama, fuggeddabout it. He's as likely to blame it on "a disgusting movie." I wonder, but my capacity for wonder will not move me to find out, what David "I am not Charlie" Brooks will write about this. I won't check because I don't care. I don't care what Official America or Quasi-Official America says or writes or thinks. It's all too predictable. We have gotten what we wanted, that is to say, what we voted for, and what we read and give credibility to. Obama and the New York Times and Brooks will, borrowing again from common parlance, give us the same old same old. We all know that. I know that. So I'm sitting this one out.
So, knock yourselves out fellas, light as many buildings as you want in the French tricolor, maybe Pitt will play this week with the French colors on their helmets; maybe some NBA players will pull up their jerseys to reveal Je suis Francais on their undershirts, there are all kinds of eventualities, just none that will do any good. Only wake me up if they wake up. Good night.