On the West's suicidal self-loathing

Note especially the comments by Pera. From the excellent What Would Charles Martel Do?:

And who but Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really hit the nail on the head this time, with his comment, "No people accepts its own humiliation."

He's absolutely correct on that point, for all of his nonsense regarding the Holocaust and his present desire to adopt the Palestinian cause for his own gain (a not uncommon tactic for Middle Eastern leaders wanting to start trouble; note how suddenly bin Laden started claiming the plight of the Palestinians once he wanted to gain favor in the Muslim world). NO groups accepts its own humiliation. Apologizing and trying to make things right, as well as fully admitting (as the U.S. has done regarding slavery) is one thing. But the constant beating oneself over the head over historical issues that has become common in the West, even the U.S, is an Achilles' Heel, and one that is not found often in Muslim countries. They may blame their troubles on turning away from "Allah", but they usually project their internal problems onto other countries. We in the West have decided in more recent history to do quite the opposite, and therein lies the problem.

I just hope that we can learn from these statements of Ahmadinejad and realize that the strength that lies in the attitude of the people of the Islamic world, particularly in the Middle East, is this refusal of self blame. We cannot continue to go on as the West with the current attitude of self-hatred so prevalent in our civilization, especially with such a deft opponent as Ahmadinejad calling us to task as he prepares all the while for attacks on our interests (as if the nuclear program weren't enough, his "martyrdom brigades" and threats to Israel should make this plain even to a 10 year old). His rhetoric and tactics have become too deceptive for the less perceptive elements in our society to keep straight. Unfortunately, many of these easily deceived pawns lie in our own mainstream media and in the lemmings on the left, who I continue to urge to run over their cliffs soon, as they are no longer necessary in a world at war.

As Philosopher Marcello Pera writes to the current Pope, Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in Without Roots:

"So why should Europe reject the very fact of war? Why should the same Church that once launched crusades refuse to see a war that has been declared against "Jews and crusaders," as Islamic terrorists say every day? Do the Church and Europe realize that their very existence is at stake, their civilization has been targeted, their culture is under attack? Do they understand that what they are being called on to defend is their own identity? Through culture, education, diplomatic negotiations, political relations, economic exchange, dialogue, preaching, but also if necessary, through force?

I fear that Europe has not realized this. And thus I fear that European pacifism, however noble and generous it may be, is not so much a realistic, meditated, conscious choice as a heedless, passive consequence of its angelic relativism. This is why I speak of the spirit of Munich, which has an additional irritant today. Namely, that relativism, after teaching that all cultures and all civilizations are equal, makes the contradictory insinuation that our culture and our civilization are worse than others. Hence, there has been a spread-especially throughout Europe-of a sense of guilt, of self-flagellation, of a need for forgiveness from which not even the Church is exempt, together with a smugness of the dangers avoided. The September 11 atrocity? Blame it on our own genocidal acts, says Chomsky. Suicide bombs? Our fault: We have reduced the Palestinians to desperation, says Saramago. And so on, accompanied by a crescendo of breast-beating. How can we restore realism to a Europe that thinks along such lines?"

He has his finger on the problems at hand as accurately as does Ahmadinejad. The trouble is that Ahmadinejad has the missiles, the nuclear program, a whole nation to rule, as well as the fighters and the will to fight without any of the self- guilt that needlessly plagues the West. I can only hope that the correct experts are consulted for media responses to Mahmoud's latest round of Taqiyya. Yet hope all that I want, I have little faith that this will happen. Of course the experts will weigh in, but as has happened since 9/11 their analysis will fall mostly on deaf ears, if it reaches them at all.