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| A Hamas mother, who has already begun her child's training |
Sometimes, there is no need to put an idea into your own words. Someone has already said it better. A new weekly feature titled They Said It Better begins today with this suggestion by Yale Professor David Gelernter from the Weekly Standard magazine for President George Bush's 2007 State of Union address. I post it in honor of my elder son, who will soon begin his third deployment in the War Against Jihadism.
Our enemies in this war seem varied but shared one common doctrine…all agrees on death. They believe in and cultivate death; they are the party of death. And we are the party of life—and they hate us for that and hope to destroy us because of it. No war we have ever fought id more fundamental than this.
Obviously, we can’t confer life; can’t even protect and preserve it—not always. But we do our best. Life comes from God, and we hope to be its champions. We told the world so in 1776; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the things we stood for. Those words echoed John Winthrop’s as he sailed to Boston in 1650. He wrote about the city on a hill he hoped this land would become. He was quoting the Bible and finished with another biblical verse: “Choose life and live, you and your children!” On those words he set to work and build this great American community.
We claim no special credit for being the party of life. We invite every person and people in the world to join us. The less exclusive the party, the better. But as champions of life, we have awful responsibilities… [For] our enemies believe in death and have said so plainly. Almost thirty years ago, Shiite fanatics gathered in Teheran to scream hatred at this nation; they weren’t content with “down with America,” they screamed “death to America” and meant it. The secular tyrant Sadaam Hussein tortured and slaughtered his enemies and their little children. His terrorist friends believe in the same doctrine, “murder thy enemy.” The random killing of men, women, and children inspired their supporters to dance in the streets. Fanatic Muslim clergymen preach murder in their holy places. And on 9/11, al-Qaeda accomplished what even Hitler never did: the mass murder of American civilians.
These proud champions of death kill innocent people all over the world, and their own people at home; they have even discovered new ways to kill themselves. Suicide-murderers are in a rush to heaven, which they picture as a discount whorehouse. If that’s not sufficiently depraved, behold the ghoulish spectacle of a mother celebrating the death of her own (terrorist) child –a brand new hero by dint of the misery he inflicted on other mothers and other children. Theirs is the party of death indeed.
We understand our mission. The champions of life must defeat the champions of death.
