Most Impact in 2006
SVC has challenged the contributors here at NWBloggers to nominate our critter/person/entity/group/thing that impacted history the most in 2006…
After a great deal of thought, and with the criteria of Impacted History foremost in my mind, I don't believe that there can be any doubt that the Person/Group that most impacted history in 2006 was the Islamic Terrorist.
These fanatics have, just this year;
1. Kept the most powerful nation on earth tied down in a war of attrition.
2. Harassed and murdered civilians from numerous countries, almost with impunity.
3. Contributed strongly to the recent electoral defeat of the Republicans in the House and Senate, with repercussions for the next two years, if not more…
4. Cost average travelers literally millions of extra lost hours due to ever increasing restrictions on travel paperwork, and even how bags are packed.
I can't imagine a person or group that has had more impact on the world, and history in 2006.
Now, if I am just looking for a Person or Group that deserves the honor of being the most worthy for praise - most necessary to freedom and liberty, most self sacrificing, most under appreciated - there can also be no doubt that it is the Military Man/Woman: Be they Grunts, Wing-nuts, Squids, Jarheads, Ground-Pounders, Leathernecks, Fly boys, Swabbies, whatever.
What we have built would not have been possible without them, and would not last if they were not there, on the wall, to protect us.
On January 1, 2007 at 3:57 pm, SVC Alumnus wrote:
Okay recommendation, I sort of like it because the Islamic Fundamentalist is at the center of so much evil and trouble in our midst as a nation and as a civilization.
http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/2006/12/2006_12Dec.pdf has some interesting material I’d recommend. Saddam was training terrorists and had some links to al Qaeda.
On January 1, 2007 at 4:25 pm, Playin' Possum wrote:
I’ll compromise with you… We can feed the terrorists to the bears…
On January 1, 2007 at 7:57 pm, Playin' Possum wrote:
Seriously…
Perri Nelson admonished me to be careful lumping Arabs together… I send you the same caution: It’s a mistake to lump all "Islamic terrorists" together. There may even be a few of these groups with just causes… It isn’t "terrorists" that are pinning us down in Iraq - it’s our blunders and a Sunni resistance that is a lot more legitimate than we are willing to admit… We’ve been backing the wrong horse… again… We’re good at that.
Second, that election canard… I don’t buy that at all, any more than I buy the idea the Iraqi resistance is primarily composed of foreign fighters. There were a lot of factors in the House turnover and the Senate turnovers were mostly squeakers, including the ones the Repubs won. I think corruption in the Repub ranks is what cooked them in the Senate, whereas in the House it was a combination of the bungled war and a rising populism.
And murdered with impunity? A lot of them died trying…
I think there is a vested interest or two here in the US that has little to do with fighting real terrorists and a lot to do with maintaining a big fat new baby bureaucracy that purports to be about fighting terorists but is branching out into all sorts of questionable areas, pouring money into all kinds of crime on local levels where the Feds properly don’t belong. They’re doing this at least in part because there are no real terrorists to fight here at home… Just look at the kind of "terrorist" they’re catching… I am leery of too much money being poured into this sort of thing - there is too much graft and abuse of power among the local fuzz. If this lands us in a police state, then what?
On January 2, 2007 at 9:10 am, Aurelius wrote:
I am, of course, aware of the different flavors of Islamic Terrorist: From the Iraqi Ba’athist dead-ender Sunni’s, to the primarily anti-Israel/Jew/Zionist Hamas and Hezbollah, to the Anti-West/Technology/Anything-Not-Islam Al-Qaeda and friends, to the garden variety fundamentalist Islamic nut-bar trying to get to his 72 Virgins by killing some infidels… But they are all branches of the same rotten tree of fundamentalist Islam, which promises rewards for killing or subjugating non-Muslims.I do agree somewhat that we need to be cultivating the Sunnis as a balancing force for the Shiite, because of the tendency for Al-Sadr, Al-Maliki and the ilk to go running to Iran for support, aid, and terror training lessons.As to the election - While the press made a huge issue of Republican corruption, while ignoring or covering up Democrat corruption, I think most people are so used to the idea that their politicians are corrupt scum, that it simply is not that big of an issue.Undoubtedly, there is a huge constituency in the bureaucracy for the new Security money that is available. Just wait until TSA unionizes…The Ethiopians have shown us the way - massive and overwhelming firepower, and a desire to WIN. Our troops have the morale and the mindset, they just need the manpower and resources. I think that part is pretty easy: Pull ALL ground troops out of Korea and Germany, and feed them into Iraq. Just a thought…