Daniel

Pipes

February 8, 2010

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Western Civilization on Trial: Why We Should Be Watching Geert Wilders

by Daniel Pipes
February 8, 2010

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/02/geert-wilders-western-civilization-on-trial

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As the Geert Wilders case goes into pre-trial, National Review Online asked our experts: Is there any legitimate reason he's in court? What are the implications of such a trial being held, never mind its outcome? (For replies by Bat Ye'or, Paul Marshall, Clifford D. May, Nina Shea, and Robert Spencer, click here.)

Pro-Wilders demonstrators outside the Amsterdam courthouse where he is to be tried.

Wilders is in court because the Netherlands has no First Amendment and so, endlessly, tries to figure out what speech to permit or prohibit. Wilders is hardly the only victim of this predicament; the arrest and jailing in 2008 of a cartoonist who goes by "Gregorius Nekschot" notoriously symbolized the state's incoherence.

U.S. media should cover the Wilders proceedings because Wilders' career has implications beyond one man, one party, or one country. It potentially affects all of Europe as the continent works out its response to the Islamic challenge. The U.S. media does an adequate job of informing its audience about this topic, so the near-silence about Wilders comes as a bit of a surprise.

The Islamic challenge forces Europeans to take stock of themselves in an unprecedented way. Colorful examples include the British ICONS project that features 120 "national treasures" that help define English culture; the Dutch government's film for potential immigrants that features a topless woman on the beach and two men kissing; and the French prime minister's decision to expel a man from France for compelling his wife to wear a burqa.

Europe's future is in play. Wilders' time in court affects the outcome. (February 8, 2010)

Related Topics: Dhimmitude, Media, Muslims in Europe

Wasting U.S. Taxpayer Money in Afghanistan

by Daniel Pipes
January 30, 2010

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/01/wasting-us-taxpayer-money-in-afghanistan

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A 2009 critique found that the taxpayer has invested some $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since 2003, or about $9 billion a year. Most or all of it has been or will be wasted.

Nonetheless, here we go again, this time in Afghanistan, at least on a small scale. "Marines Invest in Local Afghan Projects" reads the New York Times headline and it provides details of American soldiers making nice, starting with an anecdote from Bograbad, described as an impoverished Afghan village, where American soldiers provided $1,200 for a mosque's new concrete floor and two windows. (Beside the inutility of this gesture, I have severe doubts about its constitutionality, as I elaborate at "The U.S. Government Builds Mosques and Madrassahs.")

U.S. Marines are paying for a new bridge over this canal.

The Marines' investment, to pay for building materials and labor, was part of an outreach effort intended to reduce violence in Helmand Province. Following the emphasis on a more assertive counterinsurgency approach mandated last year by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, here on some of the country's most dangerous ground, infantry units are using this winter to try a soft touch. In the province's lower Nawa District, many conventional missions for now are a low priority. Airstrikes and high-explosive artillery fire are in disfavor. Even mortar fire is rare.

Instead, in places where it is able, the infantry is sending patrols to enter into development contracts with local men. The ambition is to use local labor to build bridges over canals, shore up irrigation systems, repair water gates or small dams and, in the most determined contest of influence against the Taliban, renovate mosques.

The effort rests on a simple premise: to fight the Taliban, money may be more effective than guns. "We're trying to buy a little peace," said Capt. Paul D. Stubbs, commanding officer of Company W, First Battalion, Third Marines, which operates in this area.… In all, the company has spent $50,000 on 20 projects since early December, and committed another $50,000. It anticipates spending $200,000 on as many as 75 projects by late spring.

Comment: "We're trying to buy a little peace" exactly fits McChrystal's "war as social work" approach. It also amounts to the worst war-fighting idea the U.S. military has yet come up. (January 30, 2010)

Related Topics: US policy This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

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