Mr. President: 26 Sep 13
I be Captain Shivers, the Blind Pirate, and I wanted to take some time out of me pillaging this morning to write to about the recent attacks in Kenya I’ve been watched on the news.
Having heard you recently state your belief that the forces of al Qaeda are “on the path to defeat” I am concerned that you may not accurately perceive the threat they still present.
Please indulge me while I provide my own assessment of al Qaeda.
All religions are primarily peaceful in nature. However, in every religion there are violent radicals. The reason for this is simple. Man has a violent nature, and some people are violent to the point that religion is not enough to suppress that nature.
You have often commented that you believe that there is a faction in America that prefers to cling to their God and guns, yet you cannot bring yourself to say that there is a faction of Islam that does the same thing.
I’ll not debate whether there are more or fewer violent Christians than there are violent Muslims, but one fact is clear – at the moment violent Christians have no global unifying theology around which they rally in order to plan and commit murder… more frequently succeeding only in murdering their own religiously like-minded fellows than those they oppose I might add.
Islam has that unifying theology and it is personified in al Qaeda and its many affiliates, which – contrary to your assessment – we now see metastasized in many locations around the world such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Europe… and of course in Africa in places like Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and most recently in Kenya which is the impetus of this letter to you today Mr. President.
Fundamentalist Jihadist Muslims have physical training camps in places like Chechnya, a cadre of experts in murder to train them in the form of al Qaeda, Iran’s Quuds Force and the Pakistani ISI, a host of billionaire benefactors that fund their efforts, a digital network to assist them in spreading their propaganda and facilitate recruiting, and – here’s the most tragic part of the story – operate within a growing global religious community of fellow Muslims that are too afraid to speak out against them, let alone actually intervene.
Surely you must see this Mr. President. Surely your daily Intelligence briefings bring you these facts, analyzed by experts in these fields.
Mr. President, al Qaeda is not “on the path to defeat.” It is strong and growing stronger.
Yet you continue to deny the danger posed by the Fundamentalist Jihadists. You placate the American people with false words, relax your vigilance, recall American forces back from foreign conflicts against the Jihadists, make rousing speeches to your supporters and bury your head in the sand. All the while al Qaeda grows, becomes more brazen and more powerful, takes more ground and more innocent, peaceful Muslims fall under the control of these radicals.
With all due respect Mr. President, to deny that this is happening – to refuse to see the Fundamentalist Jihadist movement and the threat it presents to the world – is ignorant – it is an opinion “lacking in knowledge or awareness in general, as a result of being uneducated.”
Your false words, in part, won you four more years as our President – four more years for you to further weaken America, and four more years for you to refuse to allow America to engage this growing danger.
Let me clearly state my point; the Fundamentalist Jihadist movement is a major threat to the world. Russian sees this. China sees this. Why don’t you?
Of course a nuclear-armed Iran is also a threat, and the Russians and Chinese are threats all by themselves just as much as they ever have been, and North Korea is still a nuclear-armed rogue nation, but at least they are “nations” to some degree with their own national interests with whom we have some chance of conducting diplomacy.
Al Qaeda is a threat completely unlike any nation. There is no hope of diplomacy with al Qaeda and their ilk. They are committed to our destruction.
Mr. President when one is threatened by a force with whom there is no hope of diplomacy the only remaining course of action is military action.
The world is a dangerous place Mr. President. You wanted the job… now do your damn job and protect America FROM ALL OF THESE THREATS!
Ahem, pardon me. I sort of got carried away a bit there.
As you prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan al Qaeda waits patiently to re-establish their old training bases there and salivates at the opportunity to once again operating with the full cooperation of a country that will once again be controlled by the Taliban.
Seeing Iraq fall under the control of Iran, and Afghanistan return to the control of the Taliban and al Qaeda, it would seem that you have so far been unable to successfully conclude two wars Mr. President, so I suppose it’s no surprise that you have backed down from any further conflict with al Qaeda, let alone Syria.
Not every President has the willingness, determination and skill to conduct war. I understand that. A man has to know his limitations. But here’s something I cannot understand; you publicly state over and over that Conservative Americans and their guns – and Christians in particular – are the problem; that somehow it is American Conservatism and Christianity, and perhaps even American as a nation through our concept of “American Exceptionalism” which you so disdain – which threatens the world, without seeing the danger of the Fundamentalist Jihad. That Mr. President is, in my mind, simple equivocation. It is a logical fallacy. With all due respect Mr. President I believe that such equivocation stems from cowardice.
Mr. President, you and those who believe your false claims that there is no global threat from the Fundamentalist Jihadist movement, and that al Qaeda is “on the path to defeat” – despite your ability to couch that claim in such eloquent, clever, yet specious oratory – are cowards.
While it may not be appropriate or fair that the Unites States is the “World Policeman” if it is not us who will perform that role?
Will we stand by and watch the world burn Mr. President? If Great Britain will not join us will we still not act? If your like-minded cronies in the UN will not stand with us and risk their blood and treasure, will we still not act?
Are you such a coward that you – as President of the greatest nation the world has ever seen, commanding the strongest military in history – will not intervene because you cannot get anyone else to stand with you?
History repeats itself, and the world has been here before. The world sat idly watching the storm clouds gather at the onset of two World Wars, denying the growing threat until it was too late, just as you deny the threat now.
I listened to your recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly, and I was actually momentarily proud of you, although many in my crew were aghast at my appreciation. But I fear my positive assessment of you may be fleeting. I fear you lack the courage to follow through on your expressed doctrine. Time will tell if you are the coward I still believe you to be, or if you truly have reached down into your trousers and found your balls.
Please pardon my crude language Mr. President. After all I’m naught but a humble rum-soaked pirate.
Respectfully,
The Blind Pirate
A concerned scallywag
Aboard me ship, somewhere at sea
(Who am I kidding… the NSA has me grid coordinates)
