Time To Start A New Meme from Grandinite
It’s time to start a new meme, and this time, you put your name into the Internet Anagram Server to see what other words can be arranged out of: 1. The name of your blog. AND 2. Your full name. Then tag as many people as you want. Be s... [Read More]

Tracked on March 11, 2006 5:47 AM

Sand Monkeys and MoonBats Really Are That Dumb! from Cannuckistan Chronicles
Note to MoonBats: As a matter of fact, I am pleased things turned out this way. And, yes, I'm hoping the same fate befalls the others. I don't think these treasonous SOB's should live the same way I don't think serial killers should live. These indi... [Read More]

Tracked on March 11, 2006 11:36 AM

As we remember Tom Fox, let's also remember the views of his fellow CPT members in Iraq:

"Even as we grieve the loss of our beloved colleague, we stand in the light of his strong witness to the power of love and the courage of nonviolence. That light reveals the way out of fear and grief and war.

Through these days of crisis, Christian Peacemaker Teams has been surrounded and upheld by a great outpouring of compassion: messages of support, acts of mercy, prayers, and public actions offered by the most senior religious councils and by school children, by political leaders and by those organizing for justice and human rights, by friends in distant nations and by strangers near at hand. These words and actions sustain us. While one of our teammates is lost to us, the strength of this outpouring is not lost to God’s movement for just peace among all peoples.

At the forefront of that support are strong and courageous actions from Muslim brothers and sisters throughout the world for which we are profoundly grateful. Their graciousness inspires us to continue working for the day when Christians speak up as boldly for the human rights of thousands Iraqis still detained illegally by the United States and United Kingdom."

Indeed, Tom Fox, we'll carry on your mission.

Sorry, I'm just having a hard time understanding this. The Peacemakers, as they like to call themselves, managed to make peace with Saddam Hussein before the 2003 invasion - they did this while Saddam was having living human beings stuffed feet first into woodchippers. If they could be at peace with him, well then surely they could be at peace with anybody? So why aren't they able to make peace with these kidnappers? Are they not all on the same side - wanting to be martyrs?

To be honest, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to politics (aside from about 9/11 to roughly 9/11/02) until a year ago so can't really comment.

However, in another thread it was suggested that those opposing the war get their butts over to Iraq and act as a human sheild if they felt so strongly.

Which Tom Fox did. I may not agree with his politics, but I DO admire him for having the courage to do something constructive about them.

He was a Quaker. Quakers historically have been against violence of any kind under any circumstances. I may not agree, but I do respect that. When one compares him to the Mother that Roars(tm), who graces (using the term loosely) the cover of Vanity Fair laying on her son's unmarked grave, there is no contest.

There were only three comments by the time of your update threatening to shut comments down. The first commenter agreed with you; the third comment was yours. I'm guessing then that is was the second commenter, "Infidel" who drove you to the main page to announce your intention to shut down comments.

Yet all "Infidel" did was quite reasonably point out that the the increasingly sad circumstance of the hostages is not a thumb-of-god moral injustice which needs rectifying and lamentation, but rather a predictable outcome, the risk of which was, as a pointed gesture, universally understood.

Crushed and broken on the virgin soul

The body of Christian Peacemaker Teams activist Tom Fox has been found in Iraq, according to the BBC.

The US State Department says an American who was among four peace activists kidnapped in Iraq last year has been killed. ... Fox, 54, had been working with Iraqi human rights organisations for the past two years. The four men were travelling with Canadian-based international peace group Christian Peacemaker Teams when they were seized by a group calling itself the Swords of Truth.

It is abundantly clear from the Christian Peacemaker Team website that they could hardly have done more to declare their sympathy for the Muslim world, the Palestinian cause or their distaste for America. A less haggard Tom Fox is shown holding up a sign protesting the construction of an Israeli barrier in "Palestine". There's a statement abhorring the publication of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons, which says:

We, the members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, are disturbed by anti-Muslim cartoons from twelve different artists published in September by Denmark's daily paper the Jyllands-Posten. The publisher claims the freedom of speech to publish the cartoons, but we believe they are only spreading hate and bigotry. To those who believe and act as if terrorism is an essential part of the Islamic faith, we say No! Stop! We cannot stand by and remain silent when our gracious Muslim brothers and sisters are being defamed.

Tom Fox wrote a couple of articles setting out his goals. In Why we are here?, Fox said:

As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the operative means of relating to each other. U.S. forces in their quest to hunt down and kill "terrorists" are as a result of this dehumanizing word, not only killing "terrorist", but also killing innocent Iraqis: men, women and children in the various towns and villages.

It seems as if the first step down the road to violence is taken when I dehumanize a person. That violence might stay within my thoughts or find its way into the outer world and become expressed verbally, psychologically, structurally or physically. As soon as I rob a fellow human being of his or her humanity by sticking a dehumanizing label on them, I begin the process that can have, as an end result, torture, injury and death.

"Why are we here?" We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization that exists within us. We are here to stand with those being dehumanized by oppressors and stand firm against that dehumanization. We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God's children, no matter how much they dehumanize their own souls.

Fox was not oblivious to the fact that terrorists in Iraq killed innocent people too. Or that his life was in danger at terrorist hands. He could offer no definite answer to the question he himself posed: "How do you stand firm against a car-bomber or a kidnapper?" But he was sure of one thing: fighting was always the wrong answer.
...
Comments

I knew a man once who rushed to church in tears of gratitude over the fact that he didn't have to kill someone. It was at the height of Ferdinand Marcos' power and his secret agents were taking a tremendous toll of the underground. Two men in this mans' cell had disappeared. The first had taken a Greyhound-type bus to the Cagayan Valley and had never gotten off. Another had gone by outrigger from Luzon to the island of Mindoro, where it was said, he had been killed on a beach upon landing by a .45 pressed to his nape as he walked unsuspectingly on the sand. The suspected betrayer was a small, bucktoothed man with almost childish enthusiasm for basketball, given to hysterical fits of laughter. But he was certainly the informer and had to die before he betrayed a third. As it happened, someone else killed the informer and man whose job it was to shoot him was everlastingly grateful that God had arranged for the cup to pass away. Someone else had done the deed and he could go from out the darkness of the Marcos dictatorship with only sweet memories upon his soul.

The question that always bothered me was whether that person -- or any man -- had any right to expect someone else to do the dirty job for him. Can we ever simultaneously acknowledge the necessity of a deed and the absolute immorality of doing it? That in a nutshell is the Problem of Evil: that evil exists and that by and by we will have to face it.The question Tom Fox should have posed is "how do you stand firm against a car-bomber headed straight for a schoolbus?" And if you say, "shoot to save the children" ask yourself if it ever justified to be glad that God had sent someone else to shoot the bomber and go hell in your stead. Tom Fox stood for his beliefs to the bitter end. And now the men who killed him are out there, waiting to kill again. +
http://www.fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/

reliapundit said...

too bad for his family.

but i refuse to get wroked up over dupes like him and his idiot buddies.

they equate us with the jihadists. and this idiotic and irrational false equivalency is the real reason they went into harm's way.

if they were rational, and if they understood that the jihadists are evil and that we are good, then they would have never gone where they went.

if instead of running interference for the enemy, he supported our efforts he'd be alive.

as it is, he died for idiocy.

what a waste.

From the 'Christian Peacekeepers' site, their self-appointed mandate:
Quote:
Iraq: a Baghdad-based presence since October 2002. Team members accompanied the Iraqi people through the U.S.-led 2003 war and continue during the post-war occupation to expose abusive acts by U.S. Armed Forces and support Iraqis committed to nonviolent resistance.

And, from Margaret Wente: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051206.wxcowent06/BNStory/National/
Quotes: "and its mission is political. It's there to press the U.S. to get out. It also opposed the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the West's intervention to stop ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.

The Christian Peacemakers maintain that using force is always wrong -- but even more wrong if the U.S. does it. They have raised no protest against the bloody war waged by Iraq's insurgents, who have killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians in recent months. They don't even blame the terrorists for these kidnappings. They blame George W. Bush and Tony Blair".

"One of the Canadian hostages, James Loney, was on his third trip to Iraq. According to a friend, he had felt a call from God to act as a human shield for peace. He made his first trip at the end of 2002, when he led a team prepared to act as human shields. They were welcomed by Saddam Hussein as a useful propaganda tool, but they never did carry out their mission. Instead, their vehicle rolled over in a freak road accident that killed one elderly Canadian. A Peacemakers spokesman knows who to blame. "The tires were faulty. They were made in the U.S.," he told me. "So was the car."

Mr. Loney has also worked in the West Bank, where the Peacemakers are allied with the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group. Its volunteers often act as human shields between Palestinians and Israeli troops. Although it calls itself a peace group, the ISM describes suicide bombers as "martyrs," and its officials are on the record as saying that Israel has no right to exist".

Having also witnessed, on CTV, where members of this group (Rachel Corrie and her mother are/were members), were complicit in staging an incident at an IDF checkpoint, I can only suggest that there is a very strong irony factor at play here, and I'm afraid I have no sympathy for those involved.

wretchard said...

Fox differed from the poseurs in that he was willing to pay top dollar for his sense of moral comfort. Grant him this: he was willing to pay for it in full. But I think it is fair to say the same can't be said of the ordinary kumbaya crowd. They've lived in security for so long they really can't believe that the necessary bill for pacifism is the one that Tom Fox signed up for.

To paraphrase Hemingway, "all pacifist stories, carried far enough, end in death, and it is a dishonest storyteller who keeps this fact from you." That's the part they keep back. +
belmont club

The "Christian Peacemakers" have endangered the lives of the soldiers given the task of trying to rescue them and have given the enemy a huge propaganda tool in this war against barbarianism.

Kate, every now and then you surprise me: you step out of the harsh role you've constructed for yourself and reveal a human being. Thanks for this post and for your humanity.

Thank you to Planet X for posting this here and at:

http://wakinguponplanetx.blogspot.com/
+

I am very sorry to hear of Tom's death. In this crazy world there still are people that have the "faith". Their soul purpose in life is to try to help others. He was torched and shot, this alone states why he was there. Trying to make a differnce. There still are others that are being held, we can only hope for their safe release. It is a crazy world out there......

I dont understand the post or comments. "they" surely don't care about left right, pro/anti war, right or wrong. Let's not forget who "we" are.

First post of the day at the old blog takes up the NDP suggestion that Shapiro should extend his ethics investigation to include Belinda Stronach. I suggest that this is a "checkmate scenario" for the Libs, and that they should cooperate to the fullest extent. I even offer Belinda some speech-writing advice for when she confronts the national media on her bad old party hopping days. My bottom line: Belinda explains that she left the Tories because they weren't Man enough for her.

Cum read her remarks at:

http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com/

If people are going to go on the attack on a post intended to bring to light the distressing news of a dead hostage, and what that may or may not mean for the fate of other hostages, and without regard to just WHO might google & find this site (like family) that would be hurt beyond belief by said attacks...

What about the family of soldiers killed because terrorists have been emboldened by the divisive actions of these, so-called, Christians? Do you think they might google?

Tom died for his beliefs and those of his organization. Those that murdered him are guilty of the same insensitive selfish disregard for human life that plague our world everywhere...whether it's Bagdad, Khartoum, Sicily, East St.Louis, downtown Toronto, etc. Tom's beliefs didn't have room for considering such butchers. He and others like him chose to see only the victims left behind.

Although Tom could never do the heroic "dirty work" required to stand up against the World's murderous butchers it seems that he and his partners were reaching out with their hearts. Inspite of his "blindness" to the necessity of fighting back extremism and thuggery for a better world, he too was engaged in a worthy cause of giving care and calling attention to those that get caught in the middle...also helping to make a better world.

Maz2, your e-mail not working?

While I may not agree with Mr. Fox's (RIP) and the CPT's methods, I do admire their courage. Unlike so many other "peace activists", he and the others at least put the money(their lives)where their mouths(through action)are, which is way more than 99% of them do. Even if I may find this action mis-guided through not truly understanding just what evil they are up against, they are trying to help the one's caught in the middle.

Make no mistake- I certainly regret ( and despise ) this fellow getting murdered. If the following ( via LGF, click the "49" for source ) is accurate, the group he belonged to was no friend of mine:

#49

HDrepub  3/10/2006 06:37PM PST

Christian Peacemaker Teams

*
Anti-war NGO with a strong, pro-Palestinian militant, anti-Israel agenda
*
Repeatedly condemns Israeli government policies, while making no mention of the Palestinian terror campaign
*
Maintains a seasonal presence along the Arizona/ Mexico border, where it conducts what it describes as "a campaign to challenge U.S. immigration policies that result in hundreds of migrant deaths in the desert every summer"
*
Maintains a continuous presence in Iraq, protesting the U.S.-led invasion and blaming America for inflicting great suffering on the Iraqi people

Warning: "Going up against dozers doesn't always work out so well. Ask Rachel Corrie..." +
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1594472/posts

Like many, I am saddened that poor deluded Tom Fox had to die at the hands of these crazed Islamofascists. He died not because of his beliefs or his cause, but because of his nationality... how senseless is that?

I only have one hope in this looming conflagration between the 6th & 21st Centuries: some Muslims, or former Muslims are beginning to wake up, and more importantly, to speak out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/11/international/middleeast/11sultan.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1142094935-EUtM99k66BtksLY6hn0n4w

OOOH! OOOH! The Tories did it again. Peter Mackay says that keeping Palestinian women and children homeless will make our foreign policy "More Canadian". I can't freaking believe it! My face hurts from smirking, but it hurts so GOOD!

http://bigcitylib.blogspot

Why do they not call it what it is First degree premeditated murder.

wretchard said...

We read from Reuters that his poor guy was tortured before he died. I thought on all his past pictures, the earnest looks, the hopeful orange uniform ... all the useless accoutrements of pacifism ... and get very, very angry. Those SOBs had no right to kill this man any more than they had a writ to kill a child.

Civilization, if it has any purpose, to protect the silly and the weak in spite of themselves. The kids, retards, old, infirm and the pacifists. None should die before the wolves while civilization stands. We no longer leave grandma on the trail with a bottle of whisky and a razor when she gets too old to walk. From that point of view no innocent man deserves to die. But Tom Fox's killers certainly do. +
belmont club

So Maz2..tell me how do 6 people stand by and watch 4 teens kick and punch a man to death on a bus in edmonton alberta .

ol hoss - yes, those families google and they can usually find a kind word on my site.

As I stated in the post, I don't agree with his politics but I admire his willingness to put his life on the line for his beliefs.

EBD - I've seen threads deteriorate quickly & wanted to avoid that.

I recognize that CPTs create grief for the soldiers and their policies are generally not ones I can agree with. Regardless, as someone else pointed out, if the three remaining hostages are found alive then he will have died for his nationality, not his beliefs. That their beliefs led them to Iraq rather than demonstrating in front of a vet's hospital is worth noting.

I won't post my comments in here because of Candace's stern warning against dissenting opinion (Isn't that just a little lib-leftish of you Candace? Silencing the opinions of others?)

I think what I've written here ( http://nomoresocialism.blogspot.com/2006/03/breaking-news-sand-monkeys-and.html ) is probably a little more appropriate...

What MCKay *really* said bigcitylib:
withCahttp://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=bfe4b3c2-5408-4054-9b2a-7bb754ff05aa&k=59794

NEW YORK -- "Foreign Minister Peter MacKay is signalling the Conservative government's desire to put its own stamp on Canada's foreign policy.

MacKay met with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York yesterday, in his first official visit to UN headquarters as foreign minister.

He later said he has no intention of altering Canada's traditional role within the UN and will strive to build a consensus on controversial issues.

But he added that Canada will be more decisive when necessary on certain issues.

As a sign of this position, Canada voted yesterday against a resolution condemning Israel for its treatment of Palestinian women.

Last year, when the Liberals were in office, Canada abstained from the same resolution.

On another issue, MacKay says Canada will work to alleviate U.S. opposition to a draft of a new Human Rights Council....."

~~~

Bigcity *Fib* perhaps;)

Richard, you may see it as lib-leftish, I see it as common decency. There are a gazillion posts here & elsewhere on the CPT & their policies & the added danger they put soldiers & sometimes civilians in. I don't believe in canonizing someone just because they died, but I also don't agree with vilifying them on the very thread that discusses their death, particularly Jane or Joe Citizen.

Public figures are a different story, Slobodan Milosevic being a case in point.

So in the interests of free speech, I'll open a thread on CPT & their stupidity. Fair enough?

Alright, fair enough. I do have one question though. Would you feel the same way if you were announcing the death of killers Karla H. and Paul B.? Or perhaps the death of your garden variety terrorist? By making themselves enemys of our society, they loose the respect of our society and should be treated as such no?. Tom Fox and his group was/is aiding and abetting terrorists. Keep that in mind.

ol hoss - yes, those families google and they can usually find a kind word on my site.

They must be a little confused when they also find kind words for their enemies.

Karla H & Paul B fall into the public figure category - they put themselves there with their actions so deserve whatever vilification they get. I would happily do the Watusi on their headstones for a press gallery.

Tom & his group may be aiding and abetting terrorists (whether intentionally or not) but IMHO it is the group that deserves vilification for their policies. Tom Fox, while misguided in his selection of organizations to support, put his money where his mouth is so warrants, at least, recognition for the courage of his convictions.

It will be interesting to see if they pull out of Iraq once the fate of the remaining three hostages is determined.

So you're saying that Tom Fox didn't put himself in the position he was in? Did he not make an individual DECISION to join the group and travel to Iraq?

Thanks for the post by the way.

I'll take this discussion up there if you'd like...

see "misguided"

ol hoss - did I canonize him? All I have said is that I respect the fact that he was willing to put his life on the line for his convictions, unlike Cindy & others. How kind is that?

Opposing War has always been unpopular. It was unpopular when German Quakers risked their lives to hide Jews, when Quakers assisted the Palestinian victims of 1947 Israeli ethnic cleansing, and it is unpopular to do so today in opposition to the international war crime Aggression that the US and other countries are involved in Iraq.

In a world where Muslims are becoming the new Jews, Tom Fox had a vision of peace. Unlike the leaders of the US, so many of whom have carefully avoided fighting in the Vietnam War, and their children who are avoiding fighting in the Iraq war – Tom was willing to live and die his convictions. If only more people had the integrity of Tom Fox.

"...while misguided in his selection of organizations to support, put his money where his mouth is so warrants, at least, recognition for the courage of his convictions." Candace

That's what a lot of people also say about 20 year olds who blow themselves up in a crowded market.

Wow, you guys want it both ways. If someone is against the war but demonstrates in places other than where the war takes place, you call them out. When they DO put their life on the line, they become the moral equivalent of a terrorist.

Interesting.

We armchair quarterbacks sure do like to carry on about the relative morality of "their' or "our" actions in the "War on Terrorism". In the end it doesn't matter which side, if either, holds the moral high ground. The only thing that matters is that we are on the winning side, the alternative is a lot less pleasant to contemplate. Great leaders throughout history have always realized "history is written by the victors."
Naive idealists like Tom Fox provide a rather pathetic sideshow to the whole thing, like a group of Don Quixotes flailing earnestly at their perceived windmills of evil. The Islamofascists, and their opposition, us, are neither good nor evil, they are simply the enemy at this moment in history. We have to defeat them by whatever means necessary. If an organization from our side, ie the CPT, wishes to act out their particular fantasy to allegedly make the world a better place, then, under our system, we have to let them have their fun. I've spoken with many conscientious objectors over the years, Jehovahs' Witnesses, Mormons, etc., and I've noticed,as a group, they seem to gravitate to helping the other side in times of conflict. In WW1, C.O.'s were expected to sign up as medics or stretcher bearers, for our side.
This is only fair, they should realize they're helping, in a non-violent way, the guys who preserve their right to object. I get a little bit testy with c.o.'s who won't help our side, and take every opportunity to run us down.
We're in a war, and it won't be won by peacekeepers, peacemakers, pacifists, conscientious objectors, flower children, or any other morally superior bunch, it will be won by soldiers, who risk THEIR lives to do the dirty work.
If CPT or anyone else wants to undermine the efforts of our side in this conflict, well, that's their right under our much denigrated system. Just don't expect any sympathy from us if it blows up in your righteous face.

Edwin,your one-sided transparent arguments are laughable.
You are obviously anti-semetic and hate Americans.
Take off your blinders,muslims want christians running around their countries as much as foriegn soldiers.Their #1 mission is to spread christianity and are all too easy targets in a society such as this.
When muslims stop aiding and abetting terrorists around the world and supporting their call for the extinction of the Jewish state,then maybe,just maybe,we will all have at least a chance for peace.
Until then,you could at least spare attacking those who are dying for your freedom to spout this bullshit!

This must be gut wrenching for the other families involved too. Very sad.

"Muslims are becoming the new Jews"

Oh, please. Jews have not called for the extermination of their enemies. They do not torture and kill civilians. They do not fly planes into buildings. They do not murder thousands of their own citizens. They do not riot in the streets and burn embassies. They do not riot in French streets while burning other peoples property.

They do however, have democratic governments, the rule of law and respect for civil conduct.

When have Muslims been herded into boxcars and marched to the crematoria?

Get real.