Topic: Liberal Fascism
The vile and vicious anti-Americanism of the Left is well on display in this story from the odious Robert Fisk, who has seized upon the massacre of sixteen Afghan civilians by a US soldier to spew out this nonsense (Fisk is referring to General John Allen’s cautionary statement to his troops after six NATO soldiers were killed in revenge for the burning of desecrated Korans):
Now this was an extraordinary plea to come from the US commander in Afghanistan. The top general had to tell his supposedly well-disciplined, elite, professional army not to "take vengeance" on the Afghans they are supposed to be helping/protecting/nurturing/training, etc. He had to tell his soldiers not to commit murder. I know that generals would say this kind of thing in Vietnam. But Afghanistan? Has it come to this? I rather fear it has. Because—however much I dislike generals—I've met quite a number of them and, by and large, they have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the ranks. And I suspect that Allen had already been warned by his junior officers that his soldiers had been enraged by the killings that followed the Koran burnings—and might decide to go on a revenge spree. Hence he tried desperately—in a statement that was as shocking as it was revealing—to pre-empt exactly the massacre which took place last Sunday.
Of course, what Fisk suspects is in no way backed up by anything like evidence, and we can probably discount his claim to expertise where generals are concerned. Anyone who has actually served in the military could have explained to this jerk what General Allen was thinking, and there was nothing “extraordinary” about it. He well understands that even well-trained professional soldiers are vulnerable to the atavistic emotions roused by the dehumanizing conditions of combat. One of the purposes of military discipline—indeed, its most important purpose—is to manage these emotions. That’s what General Allen was doing.
Atrocities have of course occurred in all wars, and they are of two types: those resulting from a breakdown of discipline, either individually or at the unit level, and those carried out as deliberate policy. Examples of the first type are My Lai and the recent massacre in Afghanistan; examples of the second type are the Nazi German campaign in the Soviet Union and Islamofascist terrorism.
Fisk pretends to see no difference between an atrocity resulting from a lapse of discipline and one resulting from a deliberate policy of terror. To call him intellectually dishonest would be too gentle a condemnation of the America-hating hard Leftist. He’s an implacable enemy of America—and the fact that he’s alive and well and spewing out this garbage is a sufficient proof of the difference between America and its Islamofascist enemies.
