Hey, Michael, it’s Mahdi Gras at NRO! I also mentioned the old boy’s ending up as Kitchener’s souvenir knicknack in my weekend column, forthcoming tomorrow.
I realized this morning that I’m old enough to have gone to school when the Battle of Omdurman was taught approvingly. And, notwithstanding the president’s 45-minute Muslim funeral service for the late Mr. bin Laden, I would be surprised if American grade-school teachers ever wind up according the same treatment to last Sunday’s events.
PS Steven, re that River War passage, I quoted it here.
As Obama is so deferential to Muslim sensibilities, I was rather surprised that he did not follow recent Islamist practice and have OBL on his knees while a SEAL held his head before removing said head with a scimitar...all the while being filmed so that the decapitation could be broadcast on the web via You Tube. As a bonus, it would have been a rather effective way to show the difference between a weak -beheaded- horse and a strong horse. Then again, I doubt it would have made up for all of kowtowing that this administration and our cultural elites have bestowed upon the Muslim world. As an example, having our soldiers 'fight' under the rules of engagement that are in force in Afghanistan probably does more harm (showing weakness/fecklessness) than good (winning hearts and minds).
PS..No, I am not advocating that OBL's head should have been removed by a US soldier...just noting a rather obvious difference between a culture that is of the 21st century and one that is of the 7th century.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBack in the day those Entebbe movies were pretty popular, along the way helping cement the Israeli Army invincibility mythology.
Perhaps Hollywood can get its American groove back and make an ‘Operation Osama’ movie. Obviously we need to wait for those involved to retire so we can get an accurate story...attempting to piece together the government's ever changing version likely would prove too much for any competent screenwriter.
Michael Moore is up to the task, he can effortlessly rewrite history through his distorted lens...but I’m looking for a Pro-America movie...so that option is out.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"...a culture that is of the 21st century and one that is of the 7th century."
Ah, no, wrong. 7th century Byzantine soldiers would not have summarily beheaded captured innocents with a dull sword, and if someone in that society did they would have faced ridicule, rebuke, and death. Even the Black Legend about Spanish Catholics and their particularly lurid Inquisition doesn't compare well to Osama's bully boys. Keep in mind that the Spaniards learned their unusual medieval cruelty from interactions with the Moors during the Reconquista, the sheer cruelty of whom deformed Spanish society into what it became. (Let us hope and pray that the same fate does not befall the USA.)
Marx was wrong. Who you worship matters. Who you compete with, perhaps, matters. At what point you are in history... not so much.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think you over assumed what the C man would had said about the UBL burial at sea. The Mahdi was already dead and buried when they dug him up ... he was not killed by the troops that dug him up ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseApples and Oranges I think ... I believe the C man would have been fine with an unmarked burial at sea with no ceremony or rituals ...
@RobL: No, I think your idea could work at this point. The story is told from each of the different narratives, a total of 5 times (40 minutes compressed into 25, gives you a 2 hour movie; compressed into 20 gives you time to show "what really happened" at the end). Each time, it is told from the viewpoint of one person in the administration. It could do really well at the box office - it could be another "Vantage Point"!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI hope Al Qaeda folds like the followers of the Mahdi, but it may follow the example of the troops in a previous takedown. I hope not.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAdmiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the planner of the Pearl Harbor attack, was targeted by the US and shot down on 18 April 1943. The war raged on for over two more brutal years.
UBL ... is that underwater body litter?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOregon Engineer:
Ah, no, right, in regards to Islamist culture of the 7th century.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRegarding beheading, I noted recent Islamist practice. However, Muhammad issued edicts that innocent non-Muslim women and children could suffer the fate of the male unbelievers, and that when you 'meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks' (Qu'ran 47:4). Numerous beheadings occurred to prisoners after battle (e.g., Qurayzah prisoners after the battle of The Trench; 627 AD).
@GWB – I see your point...a variation of Kurosawa’s Rashomon, we’ll call it Obamamon. That would make an entertaining documentary.
I’m still partial to a military film though that makes you proud of America and those who volunteer to serve in her military. Part The Longest Day meets Band of Brothers with a dash of The Great Escape.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@sawdin: Perhaps I assume too much historical knowledge from readers of National Review.
First, Byzantium was a Christian empire, the remnant of the Roman empire. It lasted until a few decades before Columbus set off for the new world.
Second, Marx wrote about the "inevitable march of history", as if things were destined to get better. Phrases like "being on the right side of history" (and points like the one you made about the 21st century being better than the 7th because, well, it is the 21st) in a real sense represent a marxist mindset.
Being neither a marxist nor a man who believes that Islam and Christianity are plug compatible, I objected to your final thesis that time was the primary differentiator between western and muslim civilization. Instead I posited that it comes down to who you worship, who you follow, and contrasted Christian Byzantium and Spain with Osama's world.
Following Jesus will lead to a better civilization than following Mohammed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@ Oregon Engineer: Perhaps I overestimate the ability of engineers to comprehend written material.
I think it was quite clear to most people, but obviously not you, that I was referring to 7th century Islamist/Tribal culture. In the context of the original thread, how one worships (e.g., an Islamist literal interpretation of the Qur'an and Hadiths/Sunnah versus a non-literal 'modernized' interpretation) is just as important, if not more important, then who one worships.
FYI, most people do not read comments from bombastic pontificators.
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