Thomas Wictor

Today I read an infuriating article by the Associated Press, an organization that pines for the destruction of civilization. Well, as long as members of the Associated Press get to live in civilized enclaves, of course. The rest of us can go die, apparently. This is peak craziness. It won’t last for much longer.

Arab areas of Jerusalem blocked off in Israeli crackdown

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinians in Jerusalem, more than a third of the city’s population, have awoken to a new reality: Israeli troops are encircling Arab neighborhoods, blocking roads with concrete cubes the size of washing machines and ordering some of those leaving on foot to lift their shirts to show they are not carrying knives.

The unprecedented clampdown is meant to halt a rash of stabbings of Israelis. Many of the attacks were carried out by residents of east Jerusalem, the sector captured and annexed by Israel in 1967 and claimed by Palestinians as a future capital…

Arab residents, who have long complained of discriminatory Israeli policies, say the latest closures are bringing them to a boiling point and lead to more violence.

“They want to humiliate us,” said Taher Obeid, a 26-year-old janitor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He spoke over the din of car horns, as drivers stuck at one of the new checkpoints vented their anger…

While Netanyahu has said he supports the establishment of a Palestinian state, there has been no progress in peace efforts during his six years in office, and expectations of a negotiated agreement have faded.

The reason that there has been no progress in peace efforts during Netanyahu’s six years as prime minister is that the Palestinians started two wars and fired almost 4400 rockets into Israel.

And now Palestinians are hacking Israelis to death with cleavers. Israel has rightly refused to bow to Palestinian demands. Civilization can never reward savagery. It doesn’t matter what the grievances are. Let me put it in terms that everyone with a functioning brain can grasp.

I hate Obamacare, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It cost me my doctor and some of my medications. Because of it, I now have to go to three doctors instead of one, my primary-care physician can see me for only four minutes at a time after a two-hour wait, and my health-insurance rates have tripled. President Obama and Nancy Pelosi lied to me, blatantly and without remorse. They’re completely indifferent to my plight.

A huge number of people on my mother’s side of the family were in law enforcement. They were also firearm collectors. As a result, I have access to one of these.

Each drum holds 100 .45-caliber bullets. The .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) bullet was invented by John Browning in 1904 in answer to US Army requirements. Pistols of smaller caliber failed to stop charging enemies, so the .45 ACP was adopted. A hit from a .45 ACP round anywhere on your body will put you down.

However, they also make hollow-point rounds.

What if I loaded up ten 100-round drums with hollow-point .45 ACP bullets, took that submachine gun to a crowded mall, and opened fire as a protest? Should the government then repeal Obamacare?

Or should the president and Congress announce that the one thing they won’t do in response to my actions is repeal Obamacare?

When people carry out atrocities that contravene all mores of civilization, the reaction should be to never—under any circumstances—even consider giving in. Is this really so hard to understand? If you do what terrorists want, you’ll get more terrorism. Guaranteed.

Spanish troops fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom Phase I. On March 11, 2004, al-Qaeda set off ten bombs on the Cercanías commuter rail system in Madrid, killing 191 people. Three more bombs were detonated by the police in controlled explosions. The People’s Party of outgoing prime minister José María Aznar was defeated by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party in the elections of March 14, 2004; the next day, new prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero promised to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq.

After that, al-Qaeda left Spain alone forever.

Well…

On April 3, 2004—long after Zapatero had bowed to the will of terrorists—the police use monitored cell-phone conversations to locate the al-Qaeda bombers in an apartment in Leganés, south Madrid. A four-hour gun battle ensued. A little after 9:00 p.m., the national police special forces or GEO (Grupo Especial de Operaciones) assaulted the apartment.

Sub-inspector Francisco Javier Torronteras was killed.

Eleven other officers were wounded. Seven men in the apartment died.

Inside the wreckage, the police found evidence that the group planned further attacks after the March 11 bombings. One target was a Jewish community center. A video threat made in the name of the Al Mufti Brigades and Ansar al-Qaeda was also recovered.

In July of 2004—three months after the last Spanish troops had left Iraq—government informant Abdelkader Farssaoui told the police that Mohamed Achraf was working on a plan to blow up the National Justice Building (Audiencia Nacional) in Madrid with 500 kilos (1,100 lbs) of explosives. Achraf was imprisoned in Switzerland on immigration charges, but he still controlled a network that raised money through robbery and drug trafficking.

The bomb would kill Baltasar Garzon and Juan del Olmo, judges who headed investigations of al-Qaeda suspects in Spain. Such a massive explosion would also destroy documents identifying Islamists in the country. The plotters were arrested in October of 2004.

Today, eleven years and multiple arrests after Spain caved to terrorists and pulled its troops from Iraq, how does the nation fare?

Spain is one of the EU’s terrorism hubs, with only France and the UK more at risk of terror attacks, a Europol report published on Wednesday reveals.

There were 33 terrorist attacks and 90 arrests for terror-related activities in Spain in 2013. Only France with 63 attacks and 225 arrests, and the UK — which saw 35 attacks and 77 arrests — were more dangerous due to terrorism…

[Nine men] arrested in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta (Spain) [are] suspected of belonging to a terror cell which sent volunteers to Syria, to fight alongside groups including Jabhat al-Nusra (‘support front’) and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The network appears to have had international links to Morocco, Belgium, Turkey and Syria, and to have successfully sent at least 12 young Spanish and Moroccan men to Syria, a number of whom died there in suicide attacks or combat.

“There is a growing threat from EU citizens who, having travelled to conflict zones to engage in terrorist activities, return to the European Union with a willingness to commit acts of terrorism,” says Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol.

Civilization is better than savagery. Giving in to the savages is suicidal.

Some cultures have a long, long way to go.