A Spread Of Motives

     Karl Schmidt at The Village Hemorrhoid asks an important question:

     Wouldn’t You Think That Other Countries Might Take Heed To What The Muslims / Islam Have Sworn To Endeavor To Accomplish…

     It’s a question that’s been asked many times, including by myself. But it will continue to be asked, for the bizarre phenomenon of Western nations importing their own destroyers continues apace. Indeed, Giorgia Meloni, the nationalist prime minister of Italy, can’t get her own country to stop it.

     But Karl focuses on something else: Western nations’ support of the Islamic terrorists of HAMAS and Hezbollah against Israel’s attempts to expunge them.

     My initial reaction was to recur to the “they don’t really mean it” explanation for such things. Decent persons are susceptible to projecting their own morals, ethics, and attitudes onto others – even others who demonstrable don’t share them. That propensity has caused us plenty of trouble in the past, both with Muslims and with other enemies of Western values and ethics. But the longer I ponder the matter, the more persuaded I am that there’s a spread of motives involved. Those motives vary according to the altitude of the policy maker or policy influencer.

     There are probably a number of tenderhearted idiots who’ve been swayed by the anti-Israel propaganda put forth by the Islamic world. When Islamic terrorists murder Israeli civilians, the mouthpieces proclaim it “an understandable response to oppression.” When Israel retaliates, it’s suddenly “genocide.” And depending on where you get your “facts,” it’s possible to be persuaded in that direction.

     But tenderhearted idiots seldom rise high in governmental hierarchies. Above them sits a layer of persons of greater authority and influence. Many of those persons will parrot what their higher-ups are saying. After all, agreeing with the boss is harmless to one’s career prospects; disagreeing with him is not. There aren’t many bosses who don’t respond favorably to approval and praise of their judgment.

     But what about those bosses? The cabinet secretaries and the ministerial appointees? Their agenda is often covert. Those who’ve shepherded them into power – the media barons and money men – are often less concerned with good and evil than with the bottom line. Their political clients know it, and are understandably reluctant to take positions that would harm their backers’ interests. There’s always an election coming up.

     Finally, some persons at the top level of government in Western states fancy themselves as geopolitical experts. Perhaps they have a moral code, but in practice the dictates of that code are often subordinated to clever (they think) thrusts for international advantage for their nation. Is there a Most Favored Nation trade status at stake? Are extraterritorial holdings vulnerable to an Islamic government? What about the possibility of getting the Muslims to sell oil for francs or deutschmarks instead of dollars alone?

     It’s all in the mix. Separating out the ingredients is challenging – frequently impossible, as the prevalence of duplicity in speech and action can confuse even the best-seasoned and hardest-headed diplomats. They, too, will believe what they prefer to believe unless the evidence against it is irrefutable and overwhelming.

     For further thoughts on this subject, see this Baseline Essay.

5 comments

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    • OnegGuy on October 21, 2024 at 10:10 AM

    England is committing suicide by Islam.  This could not happen without a traitorous government.

      • annon on October 21, 2024 at 1:47 PM

      Muslims say it over and over that their aim is to kill or convert you. Nothing else. They are taught that cradle to grave. A very few do not become brainwashed but are few and far between. A chicken company moved about 100 to our town of 10K and it did not go well for the factory or them settling in. They were nasty and rude to everyone they met. They’ve all left now and went back to MN. I think it was all the collective prayers we offered up.

    • Bill Clinton’s Shorts on October 21, 2024 at 8:34 PM

    A parasitical culture, unable to produce wealth or advance science, filled with envy for all the other cultures which are obviously superior. This hurts their feelings which sets them off on killing sprees.

    Islam delenda est.

    1. Yet there was a period preceding our middle ages when it did generate significant scholarship. It leaves one to wonder what went “wrong” that such was allowed.

      As Fran and I have been at pains to point out, the members of the Western Death Cult are simply less open about, but have far more power for, achieving the same ends as the Islamists. It is my reasoned conjecture that Khomeini and his forces that toppled the Shaw of Iran were significantly enabled by them. May they all rot in Hell.

        • David Davies on October 22, 2024 at 4:29 PM

        I think there were competing schools of theology. The one favoring an immutable stasis won.

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