A Kosovar Muslim man shot and killed two American airmen as they were preparing to fly from the Frankfurt, Germany, airport. Witnesses state that he screamed "Allahu Akbar!" as he stormed onto their bus. It is only by pure luck that his gun jammed and the body count isn't higher than two dead, two wounded.
Sources in Germany say that Arid Uka saw videos of U.S. soldiers conducting missions in Afghanistan and decided he wanted revenge. German officials are investigating whether or not he had contact with Islamic extremists in his country.
My thoughts:
The people of the United States, and especially our armed forces, have spent the better part of the last 20 years providing support and protection to Balkan Muslims, including those in Kosovo. We have spent billions of dollars to airdrop food to Muslim civilians who were cut off by Serbian forces in both Bosnia and Kosovo. Several American soldiers have died as a result of our efforts to help predominantly Muslim governments in these two countries grow strong enough to stand on their own two feet. We did this while the oil rich Muslim countries either sat on the sidelines and clucked their tongues at the situation, or just sent cash to the governments to buy more weapons. No effort was made by the Islamic world to put boots on the ground in Bosnia or Kosovo in order to prop up the governments of Bosnia and Kosovo during the war. There was no Saudi battalion at Mostar. There were no Pakistani planes flying food and medicine into Sarajevo. Yemeni engineers did nothing to rebuild bridges in Kosovo.
Apparently our sacrifices are not enough. Uka watched a few videos on YouTube, read some Islamic rhetoric on the Internet, and possibly listened to some inflammatory sermons at Friday prayers, and decided that American service members deserved to be murdered.
I have a prejudice here, in that I was involved with the Balkan War from the night it began in 1991 until the day I left government service in 2001. I have an emotional connection to the sacrifices our country has made to help the people of that area. I knew two of the men who were wounded in Bosnia, and thank the Lord that none of my soldiers died there. I have seen with my own eyes the results of the inhumane way the Serbs conducted that war. At the time, and for a long time afterward, I hoped that our actions in that region would be an example of how we used our might to help the weak, and that we could point to Bosnia and Kosovo when we were confronted by Muslims who accuse us of atrocities against the Islamic world.
But as I've watched the anti-West and anti-American rhetoric that flows like a river of poison out of the Islamic world, those hopes have withered. I have come to the conclusion that no matter how much time, blood, treasure, and sweat we pour into making these people safe and prosperous, a large number of them will continue to spew hate and treachery at us. We have, through our dependence on the natural resources in the Islamic areas of the world, chained ourselves to madmen. Even though I know there are Muslims who look at these actions and the actions of other terrorists with horror, the strong vein of hate that runs through that otherwise decent portion of the world population causes me to question our willingness to share our bounty in treasure, food, and military strength with the parts of the world that genuinely need it, but are dominated by Islam.
If we are to be continually attacked as conquerors and infidels no matter now much we give, why do we continue to give? If a Kosovar Muslim feels so bad about the situation in Afghanistan, why doesn't he volunteer with the Red Crescent to go there and help to improve the lives of his fellow Muslims? How many times must we absorb casualties before we finally give up and allow those who wish to revert to the squalor of the 12th century to do so? Where is the tipping point of ingratitude that causes us to realize that these nations are only our allies so long as it is a cash and carry transaction, and even then we will be stung by the actions of those who don't care how much we do for their people?
Sources in Germany say that Arid Uka saw videos of U.S. soldiers conducting missions in Afghanistan and decided he wanted revenge. German officials are investigating whether or not he had contact with Islamic extremists in his country.
My thoughts:
The people of the United States, and especially our armed forces, have spent the better part of the last 20 years providing support and protection to Balkan Muslims, including those in Kosovo. We have spent billions of dollars to airdrop food to Muslim civilians who were cut off by Serbian forces in both Bosnia and Kosovo. Several American soldiers have died as a result of our efforts to help predominantly Muslim governments in these two countries grow strong enough to stand on their own two feet. We did this while the oil rich Muslim countries either sat on the sidelines and clucked their tongues at the situation, or just sent cash to the governments to buy more weapons. No effort was made by the Islamic world to put boots on the ground in Bosnia or Kosovo in order to prop up the governments of Bosnia and Kosovo during the war. There was no Saudi battalion at Mostar. There were no Pakistani planes flying food and medicine into Sarajevo. Yemeni engineers did nothing to rebuild bridges in Kosovo.
Apparently our sacrifices are not enough. Uka watched a few videos on YouTube, read some Islamic rhetoric on the Internet, and possibly listened to some inflammatory sermons at Friday prayers, and decided that American service members deserved to be murdered.
I have a prejudice here, in that I was involved with the Balkan War from the night it began in 1991 until the day I left government service in 2001. I have an emotional connection to the sacrifices our country has made to help the people of that area. I knew two of the men who were wounded in Bosnia, and thank the Lord that none of my soldiers died there. I have seen with my own eyes the results of the inhumane way the Serbs conducted that war. At the time, and for a long time afterward, I hoped that our actions in that region would be an example of how we used our might to help the weak, and that we could point to Bosnia and Kosovo when we were confronted by Muslims who accuse us of atrocities against the Islamic world.
But as I've watched the anti-West and anti-American rhetoric that flows like a river of poison out of the Islamic world, those hopes have withered. I have come to the conclusion that no matter how much time, blood, treasure, and sweat we pour into making these people safe and prosperous, a large number of them will continue to spew hate and treachery at us. We have, through our dependence on the natural resources in the Islamic areas of the world, chained ourselves to madmen. Even though I know there are Muslims who look at these actions and the actions of other terrorists with horror, the strong vein of hate that runs through that otherwise decent portion of the world population causes me to question our willingness to share our bounty in treasure, food, and military strength with the parts of the world that genuinely need it, but are dominated by Islam.
If we are to be continually attacked as conquerors and infidels no matter now much we give, why do we continue to give? If a Kosovar Muslim feels so bad about the situation in Afghanistan, why doesn't he volunteer with the Red Crescent to go there and help to improve the lives of his fellow Muslims? How many times must we absorb casualties before we finally give up and allow those who wish to revert to the squalor of the 12th century to do so? Where is the tipping point of ingratitude that causes us to realize that these nations are only our allies so long as it is a cash and carry transaction, and even then we will be stung by the actions of those who don't care how much we do for their people?
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