futility
A British army officer and an Irish army officer, citing some vague acquaintanceship with me, demanded I have lunch with them.
I was disinclined to meet them.
Meet them I did.
Over tiffin our discussion turned to the next threat to world peace.
The Irish Times had just printed an article suggesting that the collapse of the Soviet Union meant history had come to an end.
I was inclined to disagree.
The idea of history coming to an end first surfaced nearly a century ago in a book called 1066 And All That.
Writing shortly after World War One, the book's authors concluded that with the end of that conflict, history came to a stop.
Boy were they wrong.
I had a hunch that all such present day predictions would prove equally facile.
Nor did I think it likely that the beast, who is called by some satan, and by others beelzebub, having stalked mankind from the campfire to the skyscraper, would now desist from his ancient and infernal attempts to lay low the human race.
Even now I was sure satan would already be seeking new ways to set men and nations at each other's throats.
Wind and rain squalled against the window in the restaurant where we dined.
I said: "I think the next threat will be the Arabs. There are terrorist groups operating in every single Arab country. There are Arab terrorist groups in Lebanon and Gaza. Iran and Syria are sponsoring terror movements beyond their own borders wherever they can. Even comparatively stable Arab countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, even those have their own quite ferocious terror movements. Sometimes Arab terror movements can be seen working against their own governments, sometimes with them. No Arab or Muslim country has allowed its citizens the benefits of democracy. There is no tradition of civilised discourse within the Muslim world. The only widespread expression of dissent in these countries is coming from terrorist groups. And the only capacity Arabs and Muslims have for getting on with each other is by making war with everyone else. Even in countries without a Muslim majority such as Thailand and the Philippines, there are Muslim terror movements. Muslim terror has surfaced in Russia in the Chechnya region. It's surfaced in communist China in the Uygur region. Then there's Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Kashmir, all of them have localised Islamic terror groups. Across north Africa every Arab and Muslim country has a terrorist movement. These movements are alreader projecting themselves outward into non Muslim African nations. In south east Asia, you will find Malaysia and Indonesia have similar movements. All that has to happen is for the members of these groups to pick up their mobile phones and start talking to each other. Then overnight we will be facing a fully functioning worldwide Muslim terror army, armed, trained, equipped and ready to commit mass murder."
The British army officer gazed out the window.
What I was talking about seemed too much like scare mongering to be of interest.
The Irish army officer harrumphed.
"Harrumph," he said. "The Arabs will never get it together."
This happened in December 2000.
We were less than a year away from Nine Eleven.
No one was listening.
I didn't manage to save a single life.
I was disinclined to meet them.
Meet them I did.
Over tiffin our discussion turned to the next threat to world peace.
The Irish Times had just printed an article suggesting that the collapse of the Soviet Union meant history had come to an end.
I was inclined to disagree.
The idea of history coming to an end first surfaced nearly a century ago in a book called 1066 And All That.
Writing shortly after World War One, the book's authors concluded that with the end of that conflict, history came to a stop.
Boy were they wrong.
I had a hunch that all such present day predictions would prove equally facile.
Nor did I think it likely that the beast, who is called by some satan, and by others beelzebub, having stalked mankind from the campfire to the skyscraper, would now desist from his ancient and infernal attempts to lay low the human race.
Even now I was sure satan would already be seeking new ways to set men and nations at each other's throats.
Wind and rain squalled against the window in the restaurant where we dined.
I said: "I think the next threat will be the Arabs. There are terrorist groups operating in every single Arab country. There are Arab terrorist groups in Lebanon and Gaza. Iran and Syria are sponsoring terror movements beyond their own borders wherever they can. Even comparatively stable Arab countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, even those have their own quite ferocious terror movements. Sometimes Arab terror movements can be seen working against their own governments, sometimes with them. No Arab or Muslim country has allowed its citizens the benefits of democracy. There is no tradition of civilised discourse within the Muslim world. The only widespread expression of dissent in these countries is coming from terrorist groups. And the only capacity Arabs and Muslims have for getting on with each other is by making war with everyone else. Even in countries without a Muslim majority such as Thailand and the Philippines, there are Muslim terror movements. Muslim terror has surfaced in Russia in the Chechnya region. It's surfaced in communist China in the Uygur region. Then there's Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Kashmir, all of them have localised Islamic terror groups. Across north Africa every Arab and Muslim country has a terrorist movement. These movements are alreader projecting themselves outward into non Muslim African nations. In south east Asia, you will find Malaysia and Indonesia have similar movements. All that has to happen is for the members of these groups to pick up their mobile phones and start talking to each other. Then overnight we will be facing a fully functioning worldwide Muslim terror army, armed, trained, equipped and ready to commit mass murder."
The British army officer gazed out the window.
What I was talking about seemed too much like scare mongering to be of interest.
The Irish army officer harrumphed.
"Harrumph," he said. "The Arabs will never get it together."
This happened in December 2000.
We were less than a year away from Nine Eleven.
No one was listening.
I didn't manage to save a single life.
posted by heelers | 12:20 AM
2 Comments:
I hope against hope that because of their war-like nature they will never be able to come together long enough to cause any wide spread harm.
However, they do have a tribalism that will work in their favor.
Hi Adrienne.
I'm hoping God will not withdraw his favour from the free world.
I'm hoping our pornography, our drugs, our violence culture, our objectification of women, our abortions and our atheism will not cause God to permit our overthrow, even at the hands of barbarians.
We cannot be sure of victory.
We can only deserve it.
James
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