The Four Stooges: Loney, Sooden, Fox and Kember. Helping tyrants sleep easier.

Ever wonder how it is that America can be criticized for propping up Arab dictators by buying oil (Saudi Arabia), yet also criticized when it undermines Arab dictators by not buying oil (Iraq), and both for intervening and not intervening in world affairs?

Welcome to the whacky world of anti-Americanism, where the only rule is that the United States is ultimately to blame for anything that goes wrong in the world, no matter how good its intentions are (or how appalling the standards of its enemies).  True believers are not above holding contradictory positions concurrently, as long as it facilitates exaggeration and strategic omission against the Great Satan.

If you listen to these types you'll forget that the Soviet Union and its gulag ever existed, and come to believe that America operated in a vacuum during the Cold War era.  You'll also think that the United States invented slavery, and fail to recall that the lives of 500,000 Americans were spent to end it.  And, of course, you'll believe that any aggressive act by the Americans to defend themselves against Islamic terror is completely unwarranted and ultimately to blame for all acts of terrorism, perhaps even those that unwittingly preceded it.

The most extreme anti-Americanists tend to be Western pacifists - those sanctimonious types who enjoy a life of comfort and ease without the slightest acknowledgment that it is only made possible through the sacrifice of others, past and present.  Pacifism itself, the philosophy of rigid non-violence in any circumstance, is a great idea, provided that every person on the planet is also on board.  Otherwise it's just a prescription for nihilism, as those without such scruples take what they want with impunity.

One would think that if any group of pacifists had reason to realize the obvious it would be James Loney, Harmeet Sooden, Norman Kember and Tom Fox, the so-called 'Christian Peacemakers' who went to Iraq to denounce the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the subsequent American effort to help Iraqis succeed.

Their stated mission was to examine claims of detainee abuse at the hands of Americans, so when all four were taken hostage by terrorists in December it afforded an excellent opportunity to contrast the general treatment of detainees by both sides.  After all, perspective is a critical element of judgment, is it not?

Tom Fox, the group's only American, was on record as having said that he did not want the U.S. military to rescue him, for fear that his captors might be harmed.  Fortunately these same captors mercifully spared him the ordeal of a military rescue by beating his handcuffed body with electrical cables and then killing him two weeks before the others were extracted by American and British Special Forces (ironically based on information obtained from a detainee under interrogation).

So how have the three surviving dhimwits reacted to their captivity and rescue? 

• By realizing that true evil does exist in this world and often requires good men to respond forcefully in their own defense or on behalf of others? 

• By acknowledging the sacrifice that their rescuers were willing to make on their behalf, and perhaps apologize for the sort of foolhardy self-righteous behavior that put others in that position? 

• With renewed appreciation for the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo against the reality of what the enemy does with its prisoners? 

• Helping authorities apprehend their captors and thus spare others the same tragedy?

In fact, none of the above.

Rather than express gratitude to their rescuers for saving them from the fate of their murdered colleague, these dhimwits have offered nothing but harsh criticism of the military.   It took three days of media pressure before the Englishman, Kember, even bothered to offer a conditional acknowledgement.  The self-absorbed James Loney showed more interest in getting back under the sheets with his gay lover than in thanking those who saved his life.

All three blamed their kidnapping on the "American occupation of Iraq" (without offering any insight into how their own capture and Fox's death were in any way necessary).  Naturally, they are refusing to cooperate with authorities, thus leaving the criminals free to savage someone else.

These meek, little souls are demonstrating the same unhealthy level of personal arrogance that seems endemic to all those who hold the West responsible for victims of Muslim terror.  But don't they know the history of Islam?  Where was Europe or America when Muhammad first exhorted his followers to make war on unbelievers and slay or enslave those taken in battle (while saving the wives and daughters for rape)?

Fortunately, when Muslim armies did roll across the Middle East, Africa and Asia to threaten Europe on both sides there were men at Tours and Vienna who stood up to them.  These reluctant warriors not only saved Western civilization and their own families, but also the great discoveries that were subsequently made in science and medicine, which have literally saved billions from disease and death.

By contrast (and despite the noble sounding name), these "Christian" Peacemakers are really just short-sighted little church mice whose net sum contribution to life is the justification of totalitarians through narrow, unbalanced criticism that holds one side of a conflict completely responsible without prescience for what would happen if the other side triumphs.

They owe their lifestyle - and even their very religion - to the work and sacrifice of others.  They aren't men.  They are evolutionary dead-ends.  And their success would leave the rest of us at the mercy of tyrants.

Go back to the List of Islamic Terrorist Attacks