Sunday, July 24, 2011

Teleporting To Conclusions On The Norway Attacks, Part 2

After railing Friday that the Norway attacks had to have been Muslim extremists, Jennifer Rubin now says she was both wrong and that Muslim extremists are still responsible, which is the equivalent of apologizing by saying "I'm sorry you're dumb enough to believe Muslims are anything other than terrorists."

Early suspicion that the attacks might have been linked to a jihadist bombing plot in Oslo last year or the recent Norwegian prosecution of an Iraqi terrorist did not bear up. Right Turn specifically quoted Thomas Joscelyn of the Weekly Standard for the proposition that we “ [didn]’t know [emphasis added]” at the time if al-Qaeda was responsible, although there was plenty of concern in Norway about jihadist terror plots that have increased in Scandinavia. As Joscelyn did, at the time I believed the best working theory, given Norway’s recent experiences, was that it was jihadist-related. It nevertheless is a good reminder to all of us including myself that early reports are often wrong. (Indeed, late today there were new questions as to whether the suspect acted alone.)

Rubin blames the Weekly Standard for her own stupidity and argues that any thinking person would have come to the conclusion that it had to have been Islamist terrorists.  You know, except for all the truly thinking people who said "There have been enough terrorist attacks in the world that have not been committed by Islamic extremists to say that we should perhaps wait for details, especially those of us writing columns for major national newspapers."

But no, Rubin has an agenda to push and she immediately goes right back to it:


As to the horror in Norway, once again we are reminded how vulnerable free and open societies are. We are reminded that the best security system is not airtight. And, we are reminded that the first obligation of government is to protect its citizenry.

That the suspect here is a blond Norwegian does not support the proposition that we can rest easy with regard to the panoply of threats we face or that homeland security, intelligence and traditional military can be pruned back. To the contrary, the world remains very dangerous because very bad people will do horrendous things. There are many more jihadists than blond Norwegians out to kill Americans, and we should keep our eye on the systemic and far more potent threats that stem from an ideological war with the West.

Translation:  terrorist attacks by Muslims are the only ones that count.  Terrorist attacks by non-Muslims are simply aberrations committed by lone wolf actors that only reinforce my point that Muslims are an existential threat to America.  The lessons of a right-wing Christian who has now confessed to killing nearly 100 people in Norway are that you should be afraid America and that Muslim are our enemies.

Brilliant.  Rubin cannot be fired fast enough from the Washington Post at this point.

No comments:

Post a Comment