The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: dutch508 on November 14, 2015, 07:16:06 AM
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Aerows (35,039 posts) http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027343216
I just do not understand Paris. How can you indiscriminately take lives like that? What motivates people to be so evil against people that never did a mean thing to them?
You see, precious little snow drop, not everyone in the world believes in fairies and unicorns. Some of those people were raised on hate and murder. The only thing they can't understand is why you don't see it.
Aerows (35,039 posts)
5. I'm still broken up about it, though *HOW* can human beings sink that low? I don't even want to regard the people that did this as human beings.
It's heinous.
Destroying the lives of people they have never even met. The only word I can come up with is evil.
Yet, you got no problem with killing unborn babies and selling their body parts. A lot of people think that's evil.
HughBeaumont (21,814 posts)
33. Someone's doing the thinking for them. Fundamentalcases are small in number but loud in action and voice. It's sad for people of faith. Not that I AM one, obviously, but still.
::)
Star Member whathehell (16,227 posts)
14. Nonsense. Tell me bow "all religions" of western democracies slaughter concert goers..Oh that's right, you can't.
Faalse equivalence. It's Radical Islam. Period.
oh- we can't allow that to stand...
rainy (4,623 posts)
20. Western democracies just substitute the word patriotism for religion and kill in the name of that.
:thatsright:
puzzledeagle (47 posts)
11. Certain muslims believe killing "kuffars" earns you instant passage to heaven. You're going to have a very hard time fighting people who believe killing innocent people is a religious duty. This is a very, very ugly world we live in.
Sorry little guy, all muslims are taught that.
JonathanRackham (157 posts)
27. Evil Exist. Not limited to one religious group, one political group, one group..... Evil can exist in the heart and mind of one person with cataclysmic results.
and yet- it sure seems like a lot of the evil is wrapped up in one special group, doesn't it?
mythology (3,646 posts)
34. I think that the people who do this would disagree about the innocence of those harmed. They would argue about violence against Muslims in general and probably about how Muslim immigrants are treated in France. I'm not saying they are right, but they believe themselves to be.
And plenty of little DUmp Monkiez cry out and beat their chests and declare the west guilty.
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Response to KittyWampus (Reply #93)
Sat Nov 14, 2015, 10:42 AM
snooper2 (25,547 posts)
95. Oh, not at all, religious brainwashing three times a day since birth
So the old fundie men can have multiple wives, **** 14 year old brides, and stone people who don't agree with them...
Snooper2 is getting pretty outspoken. May be having pizza shortly.
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Star Member whathehell (16,227 posts)
14. Nonsense. Tell me bow "all religions" of western democracies slaughter concert goers..Oh that's right, you can't.
Faalse equivalence. It's Radical Islam. Period.
Snooper2 is getting pretty outspoken. May be having pizza shortly.
whathehell might be having some as well. Surprised that was allowed to stand.
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puzzledeagle (47 posts)
11. Certain muslims believe killing "kuffars" earns you instant passage to heaven. You're going to have a very hard time fighting people who believe killing innocent people is a religious duty. This is a very, very ugly world we live in.
Sorry little guy, all muslims are taught that.
You see, you've all been protected and coddled all of your miserable lives, precious. By we, the ones ready to do violence on your behalf to keep you safe, in your spaces. The ones you mock, the ones you hate, the ones you want to go away.
The ones you want to die horribly.
Sorry.
(http://sofrep.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/primness.jpg)
We're not going anywhere.
So, .... shut up and stay safely ensconced in your bubble of soothing media psychogarbage, narcissistic twitter feeds and less than worthless political indoctrination.
....and stay out of our way. :bird:
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Snooper2 is getting pretty outspoken. May be having pizza shortly.
Snooper is way too kind; these Mooslem men degraded pieces of filth are allowed to **** any girl at age 9. Moohammed said so. And did it her.
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Aerows primitive should just pet raccoons and other wild critters and leave the heavy lifting to men that are better trained.
And not stupid enough to pet wild animals.
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I just do not understand Paris. How can you indiscriminately take lives like that? What motivates people to be so evil against people that never did a mean thing to them?
France is the ideal DUmmy state.
Ginormous government & social programs
A virtually disarmed populace
Open borders
Exactly what you DUmmys want here.
As a result, its people are essentially cattle - to be slaughtered and exploited by others will bad intent. You primitives (all of you, worldwide) refuse to acknowledge that there are those who will do you harm, and no amount of 'therapy' is going to change it.
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How can you indiscriminately take lives like that?
It wasn't "indiscriminate". It was VERY discriminate!
France's strict gun laws have disarmed much of its people. Thus, a single attack (ala Charlie Hebdo - pilot run?) is unlike;ly to be opposed, and police won't show up for a while. A multi-point assault will be more than local police can handle, resulting in even longer delay in the arrival of opposition.
The assault was on a Friday evening, Part 1: French people, like other free people in reasonably comfortable circumstances like to do recreational things - dine out, concerts, sports events. For terrorists, such gatherings mean lots of victims in a small area.
The assault was on a Friday evening, Part 2: For Muslims, Friday is a holy day. Thus, faithful Muslims would be unlikely to be out and about where the terrorists were going to be attacking. Any Muslims who were are just not sufficiently faithful and their deaths would be no great loss, a warning to other Muslims to be faithful.
France has a fairly large Muslim minority. At a minimum, those Muslims are camouflage among whom the terrorists can appear like ordinary, relatively peaceful (compared to the attacks), Muslims. And among that large minority are some who would be at least somewhat sympathetic. So detection beforehand would be very unlikely, and the effectiveness of the attacks would possibly be augmented.
The Qur'an teaches faithful Muslims to slaughter unbelievers if circumstances allow, and is very, ummmmmm, flexible about when doing so is appropriate. And for those killed in fighting for Allah, there's the 72 virgins. DU-folk and other spouters of the Islamophobia should read the Qur'an (in translation) some time. It should scare them @#$%less for a week or two at least!
So this multi-point assault was far from indiscriminate. In TV crime show terms, the Qur'an provides the motive, and France's laws and culture provided ample opportunity. And that last statement does suggest that it could happen here.
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Aerows (35,039 posts) http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027343216
I just do not understand Paris. How can you indiscriminately take lives like that? What motivates people to be so evil against people that never did a mean thing to them?
It's called the koran.
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France is the ideal DUmmy state.
Ginormous government & social programs
A virtually disarmed populace
Open borders
Exactly what you DUmmys want here.
As a result, its people are essentially cattle - to be slaughtered and exploited by others will bad intent. You primitives (all of you, worldwide) refuse to acknowledge that there are those who will do you harm, and no amount of 'therapy' is going to change it.
You got it.
I have to admit I'm having a hard time drumming up a tear for any of this. You elect a bunch of liberals whose attitudes are "Just be nice to them and they'll be nice back" actually believing that's a strategy? These Islamic militants have telling us for years what their intentions are, and what? You didn't believe them or something?
Now a handful of these libs are acting all tough, like now we have to hit back. Well, what reason do I have to believe you're not just going to punch for a short time and then go back to the way you were before this all happened? You certainly haven't displayed any consistency in the past. And you're a long way from convincing me you're going to abandon your liberal ideology and start thinking like an adult. Once I see you get to the point where you're completely denouncing liberal ideology and correctly blaming yourself for what's happening, then we'll talk.
I'm really developing a hands-off opinion of all this. I definitely don't want anymore USA involvement until we get a Commander-in-Chief who knows what they're doing, and that ain't Dear Leader or Hillary. All the Dems will do is get a bunch of soldiers killed in some half-baked scheme.
The Euros put these left-wing freaks in office, so let them deal with the consequences. We'll have to deal with our own consequences of having our own brand of libs in power, because it's coming this way. I just hope the one's who end up dying aren't conservatives, because we aren't the one's who decided they wanted their gov't to play footsies with terrorists.
.
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I have to admit I'm having a hard time drumming up a tear for any of this. You elect a bunch of liberals whose attitudes are "Just be nice to them and they'll be nice back" actually believing that's a strategy?
Uh huh.
These Islamic militants have telling us for years what their intentions are, and what? You didn't believe them or something?
Uh huh again; apparently the primitives equate Islamic militants with our own Democrats, liberals, and primitives, supposing they're lying all the time.....just like our own Democrats, liberals, and primitives.
Now a handful of these libs are acting all tough, like now we have to hit back. Well, what reason do I have to believe you're not just going to punch for a short time and then go back to the way you were before this all happened? You certainly haven't displayed any consistency in the past. And you're a long way from convincing me you're going to abandon your liberal ideology and start thinking like an adult. Once I see you get to the point where you're completely denouncing liberal ideology and correctly blaming yourself for what's happening, then we'll talk.
Give it up; it's never going to happen. The primitives have a subconscious death wish.....which is usually okay, excepting they want us to die with them.
I'm really developing a hands-off opinion of all this. I definitely don't want anymore USA involvement until we get a Commander-in-Chief who knows what they're doing, and that ain't Dear Leader or Hillary. All the Dems will do is get a bunch of soldiers killed in some half-baked scheme.
Absolutely; speaking as a professional civilian, I'm totally against any sort of action on our part that puts the lives and safety of our military services on the line.....especially for someone who doesn't respect them, and all that they do for us. I'll be damned if someone has to get even a paper-cut for 0bama or Messalina Agrippina or that old guy what'shisname.
The Euros put these left-wing freaks in office, so let them deal with the consequences. We'll have to deal with our own consequences of having our own brand of libs in power, because it's coming this way. I just hope the one's who end up dying aren't conservatives, because we aren't the one's who decided they wanted their gov't to play footsies with terrorists.
Amen. The primitives own this, so the primitives should be first in the firing line.
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What part of "soft target" don't the DUmmies understand. It's much easier to attack a unarmed concert hall than a military compound. Just like here in the U.S. and the gun free zone attacks. :banghead:
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What part of "soft target" don't the DUmmies understand. It's much easier to attack a unarmed concert hall than a military compound. Just like here in the U.S. and the gun free zone attacks. :banghead:
The primitives don't understand a Hell of a lot of things.
Trust me; they don't. They're clueless.
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This fundamental failure to understand is why you can not trust a liberal to defend this country.
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This fundamental failure to understand is why you can not trust a liberal to defend this country.
Right; they have a death wish.
Normally one would say, "okay, fine, go off and die then."
But the problem here is that they expect us to die with them, take us down with them.
<<<would just as soon not.
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You see, you've all been protected and coddled all of your miserable lives, precious. By we, the ones ready to do violence on your behalf to keep you safe, in your spaces. The ones you mock, the ones you hate, the ones you want to go away.
The ones you want to die horribly.
Sorry.
(http://sofrep.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/primness.jpg)
We're not going anywhere.
So, .... shut up and stay safely ensconced in your bubble of soothing media psychogarbage, narcissistic twitter feeds and less than worthless political indoctrination.
....and stay out of our way. :bird:
The protection of people like the DUmmtards, drug addicts, hippies, and 'Activists' was purely an unintended and moderately unpleasant, but necessary, side effect of my service protecting things I really did care about.
In fact their very existence is the unpleasant downside of a free, prosperous, and litigious society in which people are protected from the natural consequences of their own stupidity.
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I watched 60 Minutes last night and Scott Pelley was doing a story on the Paris attacks. He interviewed a man named Alan Bowers who was the former Security Advisor for the French gov't.
Pelley went over the attacks that ISIS had pulled-off lately and then asked this guy what he thought and asked if this is over. Here was Bowers' answer:
"No, it's just the beginning. (pause) I just said it; it's just the beginning. They (the terrorists) are right. We need to listen to them, read them, understand what they say, the way they say it, and what they want. And they say it all the time."
Here's Pelley's reply:
"You take them at their word." (Mr. Bowers answered "Of course. Why not?")
Really?? Really, Scott?? "You take them at their word." They've been doing exactly what they've been saying they're going to do for years and years, and you ask if we are to take them at their word!?!
This is the level of stupidity that we're having to deal with. Liberals are too dumb to understand what's going on. Let them be the victims of their own stupidity.
.
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Aerows:
I just do not understand Paris. How can you indiscriminately take lives like that? What motivates people to be so evil against people that never did a mean thing to them?
GODDAMMIT, you stupid rabid raccoon bitten scrunt! Where the hell was this sentiment when 3500 innocent people OF YOUR OWN DAMN COUNTRY were taken out in the worst terrorist attack ever in this country???? Worrying about what GWB was reading to 7 year olds?
You people have the absolute worst case of either stuffing your head in the sand or futilely wringing your hands and wailing "Oh woe and misery, what should be done?" Things were done and then your effing savior was voted into office and now they've been undone, bitch. And this is the result. If our military had been allowed to continue their mission without 1 and 3/4ths of their hands tied behind their backs, there would be no ISIS or if there was, they'd be a non-factor.
OK, I'm going to stop banging my head on my desk -- people are looking at me oddly.
I'll try a wall instead :banghead:
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Aerows:
GODDAMMIT, you stupid rabid raccoon bitten scrunt! Where the hell was this sentiment when 3500 innocent people OF YOUR OWN DAMN COUNTRY were taken out in the worst terrorist attack ever in this country???? Worrying about what GWB was reading to 7 year olds?
You people have the absolute worst case of either stuffing your head in the sand or futilely wringing your hands and wailing "Oh woe and misery, what should be done?" Things were done and then your effing savior was voted into office and now they've been undone, bitch. And this is the result. If our military had been allowed to continue their mission without 1 and 3/4ths of their hands tied behind their backs, there would be no ISIS or if there was, they'd be a non-factor.
OK, I'm going to stop banging my head on my desk -- people are looking at me oddly.
I'll try a wall instead :banghead:
Next time don`t hold back Sue. :-) :cheersmate:
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Next time don`t hold back Sue. :-) :cheersmate:
I think she's being coy and not saying what she thinks.
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She's like that. Real demure and shy. Prolly learned it from Cindy.
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Leftists and Islamists are the same things.
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The protection of people like the DUmmtards, drug addicts, hippies, and 'Activists' was purely an unintended and moderately unpleasant, but necessary, side effect of my service protecting things I really did care about.
In fact their very existence is the unpleasant downside of a free, prosperous, and litigious society in which people are protected from the natural consequences of their own stupidity.
Oh, completely. They simply benefit from the work and sacrifice of others.
(http://www.quickmeme.com/img/84/848632b019c5638c8944413a00f01ccc01f96f3137065e8aa833d8a5d3ff0bcb.jpg)
As usual.
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It wasn't "indiscriminate". It was VERY discriminate!
France's strict gun laws have disarmed much of its people. Thus, a single attack (ala Charlie Hebdo - pilot run?) is unlike;ly to be opposed, and police won't show up for a while. A multi-point assault will be more than local police can handle, resulting in even longer delay in the arrival of opposition.
The assault was on a Friday evening, Part 1: French people, like other free people in reasonably comfortable circumstances like to do recreational things - dine out, concerts, sports events. For terrorists, such gatherings mean lots of victims in a small area.
The assault was on a Friday evening, Part 2: For Muslims, Friday is a holy day. Thus, faithful Muslims would be unlikely to be out and about where the terrorists were going to be attacking. Any Muslims who were are just not sufficiently faithful and their deaths would be no great loss, a warning to other Muslims to be faithful.
France has a fairly large Muslim minority. At a minimum, those Muslims are camouflage among whom the terrorists can appear like ordinary, relatively peaceful (compared to the attacks), Muslims. And among that large minority are some who would be at least somewhat sympathetic. So detection beforehand would be very unlikely, and the effectiveness of the attacks would possibly be augmented.
The Qur'an teaches faithful Muslims to slaughter unbelievers if circumstances allow, and is very, ummmmmm, flexible about when doing so is appropriate. And for those killed in fighting for Allah, there's the 72 virgins. DU-folk and other spouters of the Islamophobia should read the Qur'an (in translation) some time. It should scare them @#$%less for a week or two at least!
So this multi-point assault was far from indiscriminate. In TV crime show terms, the Qur'an provides the motive, and France's laws and culture provided ample opportunity. And that last statement does suggest that it could happen here.
H5 and a half. Plus, 98ZJUSMC and Dutch. This shit will stop only when Muslims stop it--and the only way they'll stop it is to be eradicated.
I overlooked Sue . . . :o
Sorry, milady! :blowkiss:
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Aerows:
GODDAMMIT, you stupid rabid raccoon bitten scrunt! Where the hell was this sentiment when 3500 innocent people OF YOUR OWN DAMN COUNTRY were taken out in the worst terrorist attack ever in this country???? Worrying about what GWB was reading to 7 year olds?
You people have the absolute worst case of either stuffing your head in the sand or futilely wringing your hands and wailing "Oh woe and misery, what should be done?" Things were done and then your effing savior was voted into office and now they've been undone, bitch. And this is the result. If our military had been allowed to continue their mission without 1 and 3/4ths of their hands tied behind their backs, there would be no ISIS or if there was, they'd be a non-factor.
OK, I'm going to stop banging my head on my desk -- people are looking at me oddly.
I'll try a wall instead :banghead:
The truly indoctrinated kool aid drinkers like Aerows will never accept or admit that it's their Liberalism that causes tragedies like what transpired in Paris.
He/She thinks that if everyone was just as Liberal as she was/is the mean people of the world would be so impressed that they'd stop being mean people.
They blame the military and people that believe in borders and national security for things like the Paris attacks. They will never fathom that had people been more vigilant...if politicians were more frank in their discussions about terrorism and it's root causes these days...Paris might not have happened.
Aerows will never get it the way you and I do. He/she/it will still be trying to fathom why things like this happen right up to the moment a jihadi separates his/her head from his/her body and puts it on a pike outside the house.
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She's like that. Real demure and shy. Prolly learned it from Cindy.
Yes, in fact, I'm going to go Hi5 her. She's the best! Thanks for reminding me!
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I've Hi5'ed everyone on this thread because I'm so pissed off still -- does that even make sense? Anyway, I love you guys!
(Hit everyone up again! :-) )
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Aerows:
GODDAMMIT, you stupid rabid raccoon bitten scrunt! Where the hell was this sentiment when 3500 innocent people OF YOUR OWN DAMN COUNTRY were taken out in the worst terrorist attack ever in this country???? Worrying about what GWB was reading to 7 year olds?
You people have the absolute worst case of either stuffing your head in the sand or futilely wringing your hands and wailing "Oh woe and misery, what should be done?" Things were done and then your effing savior was voted into office and now they've been undone, bitch. And this is the result. If our military had been allowed to continue their mission without 1 and 3/4ths of their hands tied behind their backs, there would be no ISIS or if there was, they'd be a non-factor.
OK, I'm going to stop banging my head on my desk -- people are looking at me oddly.
I'll try a wall instead :banghead:
Righteous rant, Sue, a thing of beauty!
Unlike those against whom you, and all of us, rail. Again, an elegant rant of sheer beauty. I'm like my dude Donald, rude and crude and socially unpalatable to some, but oh so right.
But, you say it better than me. :cheersmate:
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Righteous rant, Sue, a thing of beauty!
Unlike those against whom you, and all of us, rail. Again, an elegant rant of sheer beauty. I'm like my dude Donald, rude and crude and socially unpalatable to some, but oh so right.
But, you say it better than me. :cheersmate:
I don't have any personal experiences of loss. However I was at work on what was a spectacularly beautiful day in Sept and my building was always flown over by planes to Philly. Suddenly there were no planes, nothing. Then my other tech writer called me about tower 1, then she called me about tower 2 and then the plane in PA. We were all in shock and the internet was pretty useless back then.
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I don't have any personal experiences of loss. However I was at work on what was a spectacularly beautiful day in Sept and my building was always flown over by planes to Philly. Suddenly there were no planes, nothing. Then my other tech writer called me about tower 1, then she called me about tower 2 and then the plane in PA. We were all in shock and the internet was pretty useless back then.
I was working at a national pension fund located in downtown Alexandria, about five miles from the Pentagon when the plane hit. My husband ended up being the casualty assistance officer for a gentleman who lost his beloved wife that day. It was pretty personal already when those planes hit the towers, but having it happen right in our backyard...well, let's just say I've no desire to experience it, or have any of my fellow Americans experience such tragic events again.
Close the damn borders, particularly the southern flank, and QUIT inviting jihad into our country, Obola! And damn you to hell for even attempting to conflate these purported refugees with their accompanying religious mandate to kill us all with the peaceful, non-welfare immigrants arriving through Ellis Island early last century.
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The DUmmies might just trip over the idea of a force for good, if they keep talking about evil.
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Hit you all up again because.... well just because!
:blowkiss:
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Hit you all up again because.... well just because!
:blowkiss:
Back at ya.
:cheersmate:
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So it's not hateful rhetoric from Repubicans/Christians/Conservatives or the 2nd Amendment? I've heard both, even in reference to the Paris bombings. At least we're off the hook until it happens here. Because every single time one of the Dems get in front of a microphone they do their whole hand wringing thing whilst blaming us for something that has yet to happen. It won't save them this time because we're not the ones letting the refugees in, but they'll still try. Never occurs to them that the reason Bin Laden attacked us was, according to his own words, when we pulled out of Afghanistan he knew we were a paper tiger. This was during the Clinton administration. You can say a lot about George Bush, but unlike your average leftist, he was willing to stay until the job was done, not pull out because of politics. If refugees, or fake ones like the ones arrested trying to cross the southern border with Greek passports, succeed it will be a cold day in hell before a dem sits in the WH.
Cindie
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So it's not hateful rhetoric from Repubicans/Christians/Conservatives or the 2nd Amendment? I've heard both, even in reference to the Paris bombings. At least we're off the hook until it happens here. Because every single time one of the Dems get in front of a microphone they do their whole hand wringing thing whilst blaming us for something that has yet to happen. It won't save them this time because we're not the ones letting the refugees in, but they'll still try. Never occurs to them that the reason Bin Laden attacked us was, according to his own words, when we pulled out of Afghanistan he knew we were a paper tiger. This was during the Clinton administration. You can say a lot about George Bush, but unlike your average leftist, he was willing to stay until the job was done, not pull out because of politics. If refugees, or fake ones like the ones arrested trying to cross the southern border with Greek passports, succeed it will be a cold day in hell before a dem sits in the WH.
Cindie
Clinton's career nearly collapsed as a result of a refugee "crisis"...
The scene would later remind one witness of the Vietnam War.
“Plumes of smoke billowed high into the illuminated night sky from barracks that had been set afire,†David Maraniss wrote in The Washington Post. “Flames still flickered from a charred guardhouse.
Whoops and fierce cries of defiance echoed across the camp.
Shotgun-toting civilians in pickup trucks loomed a mile or so beyond the gate.
The mood was tense and chaotic.â€
But this wasn’t Vietnam — or Iraq in the wake of an Islamic State attack.
This was Fort Chaffee, a military installation in Arkansas, on June 1, 1980, when refugees from Fidel Castro’s Cuba rioted.
The refugees had been sent there at the behest of President Jimmy Carter over the vociferous objections of an Arkansas governor with quite a political future:
Bill Clinton.
“The White House message seemed to be:
‘Don’t complain, just handle the mess we gave you,'†former Arkansas first lady — and possible future president — Hillary Clinton wrote in her memoir “Living History.â€
“Bill had done just that, but there was a big political price to pay for supporting his President.â€
(https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2015/11/chaffee2.jpg)
As fears of Islamic State militants hiding amid thousands of Syrian refugees were boosted by attacks in Paris last weekend that killed more than 130 people, the decades-old tale of Clinton, Carter and Cubans at Fort Chaffee took on new resonance. The governors of 26 states, almost all of them Republicans, have said Syrian refugees are not welcome — though, as Bill Clinton found out, they likely have no ability to stop refugees from coming should the White House will it.
[Governors rush to slam door on Syrian refugees]
“The governor doesn’t believe the U.S. should accept additional Syrian refugees because security and safety issues cannot be adequately addressed,†Jim Lynch, a spokesman for Ohio governor and Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich said, as The Washington Post’s Abby Phillip reported.
“The governor is writing to the president to ask him to stop, and to ask him to stop resettling them in Ohio.â€
But, in a presidential election, bluff and brag mean a lot, even when it doesn’t amount to anything.
“The Fort Chaffee story is largely forgotten by the general public, but it’s a good bet that some governors haven’t forgotten its political lessons,†David A. Graham wrote at the Atlantic.
(https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2015/11/chafee1.jpg)
Clinton’s refugee problem began in the spring of 1980, when Castro, battling a bad economy, permitted 125,000 Cubans to leave the Communist nation in what became known as the Mariel boatlift.
Chartered vessels carrying Cuban citizens across the water put Carter in tough spot — the United States was supposed to welcome the wretched refuse of any teeming shore.
But what if Cuba’s unwanted, which included criminals and the mentally ill, were a little too wretched?
The president didn’t appear to care.
“We’ll continue to provide an open heart and open arms to refugees seeking freedom from Communist domination and from economic deprivation, brought about primarily by Fidel Castro and his government,†Carter said.
But while the “open arms†line would prove Carter’s most memorable statement on the boatlift, the White House wanted to fold its arms as soon as possible.
“What the President in fact said was that we didn’t ask for this arrival,†Gene Eidenburg, a cabinet official, said in 1981.
“This was not something we wanted.
We had laws for dealing with people who were seeking political asylum and those who were eligible to receive it would receive it and those that weren’t would not receive it — would return to their country.â€
As Carter pondered the gulf between soft rhetoric and hard enforcement of immigration law in Washington, Clinton, in the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, suspected he would get a call he wouldn’t want.
Fort Chaffee had been a relocation center for Vietnamese refugees in the mid-1970s.
Would Carter want to repurpose it for Cuba’s rejects?
Soon enough, Clinton found himself on the phone with Eidenburg, negotiating
— or, really, bowing to
— the White House’s demands.
First, Clinton suggested the refugees be screened on an aircraft carrier off of the Florida coast.
Eidenburg said that didn’t make sense, because there was no place to put those refugees the United States wouldn’t accept.
“Sure there is,†Clinton replied, as recounted in his memoir “My Life.â€
“We still have a base at Guantanamo, don’t we?
And there must be a gate in the fence that divides it from Cuba.
Take them to Guantanamo, open the door, and march them back into Cuba.â€
Perhaps unsurprisingly, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. rejected its future occupant’s Guantanamo plan.
“When the White House dismissed my suggestion out of hand,†Clinton wrote, “I should have known we were in for a long, rough ride.â€
That ride commenced almost immediately.
There were 20,000 Cubans at Fort Chaffee by May 20. Locals’ reactions to their uninvited guests recalls some of the angry rhetoric about Syrian refugees put forth since the Paris attacks.
“To say that they [local residents] are scared is an understatement,†Clinton remembered one sheriff said.
“They are arming themselves to the teeth, and that only makes the situation more volatile.â€
On May 26, “a couple hundred†refugees escaped the fort, running out through an unguarded gate.
Clinton demanded the National Guard act, but was faced with a bit of a Catch-22:
The Cubans weren’t illegal aliens, so they couldn’t be detained against their will — even though they weren’t citizens, and were now walking free among Arkansans, many of whom were hostile.
Clinton called Carter and “demanded that someone be given authority to keep the Cubans on the base,†he wrote.
“I was afraid people in the area were going to start shooting them.
There had been a run on handguns and rifles in every gun store within fifty miles of Chaffee.â€
Carter sent more troops — Clinton wrote he “was able to relax a little.â€
Then: “On the night of June 1, all hell broke loose.â€
A riot erupted at the fort; 1,000 Cubans fled past troops, who did little to stop them.
The Cubans began walking down a highway to the closest town, which was filled with “several hundred angry and armed Arkansans,†as Clinton put it, with state troopers the governor’s only muscle to prevent chaos.
After some of the Cubans started throwing rocks, Clinton feared “a bloodbath that would make the Little Rock Central High crisis look like a Sunday afternoon picnic.â€
Fortunately, the Cubans retreated when troopers fired warning shots.
Sixty-two people were injured and three buildings at Fort Chaffee were destroyed, but no one died.
Conditions at the fort improved, and the screening process was streamlined.
Further, Carter promised no more Cubans would be sent to Arkansas.
Calm returned to the state ahead of a November election in which Clinton would, he hoped, secure a second term as the Natural State’s governor.
A few months later, at a meeting of the National Governors Association, Clinton got a call from the White House.
Though he had fallen out with the president over Fort Chaffee, he expected to be congratulated for remaining faithful to Carter during a tough election.
Instead, Carter was calling to renege on his promise — more Cubans were headed Clinton’s way.
Clinton pleaded for a reprieve.
“Send them to a fort in some warm place out west you’re not going to win in November anyway,†he told Carter.
Carter declined, saying a new facility would cost $10 million.
Clinton: “I said, ‘Mr. President, your word to the people of Arkansas is worth $10 million.’
He disagreed, and we ended the conversation.'â€
The fallout almost ended Clinton’s political career.
Attack ads from his opponent, which included footage of rioting Cubans, pushed the refugee issue.
“We made the argument that Carter had used the state of Arkansas and the governor to literally dump Cubans here because we had very few electoral votes and he knew Clinton would not complain,†said Paula Unruh, the campaign manager of Clinton’s Republican opponent Frank White.
Nor was Carter immune from such tactics.
On the stump, Ronald Reagan called his Cuba policy “inconsistent, insensitive and inefficient.â€
“America has always accepted refugees with open arms, but we should not do it in such a way as to make things worse for both the refugees and the communities in which they are placed,†Reagan said.
At first, Clinton thought the ads so ridiculous that no one would believe them.
He was wrong — the governor, as well as Carter, lost their jobs on the same day.
“I could have satisfied them only by shooting every refugee that left the fort,†Clinton said of some voters. “… I was sinking in the quicksand of Cubans.â€
The now-former governor despaired.
“I was full of self-pity and anger, mostly at myself,†he wrote. “… At that moment, there didn’t seem to be much future for me in politics.â€
Though Clinton, of course, went on to regain the governorship in Arkansas in 1982, he was still licking his wounds from the Fort Chaffee refugee imbroglio during his second term as president.
When he awarded Carter and wife Rosalyn the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999, The Post wrote the gesture eased the “Clinton-Carter rift.â€
These men — both Baptists, Southerners, and former governors who would prove to be the only Democratic occupants of the White House between Lyndon B. Johnson and President Obama — should have gotten along.
The Cubans, however, seemed to spoil it.
“One would have thought, looking at it abstractly, that they would have been the best of pals,†Mary E. King, an American University foreign policy specialist and Carter consultant, said at the time.
Instead: “inexplicable frostiness.â€
The world, meanwhile, was left to contemplate what would become of refugees in the coming decades.
“It is already clear that the 1980s are going to be a period when Americans grapple more closely than they have in 60 years with all the separate aspects of immigration: refugees, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants – the works,†The Post editorialized in 1980.
“A sense is growing that although it is murderously difficult to deal with all the parts at the same time, that is the only way in which the competing values and interests can be fairly balanced.â€
I'm very upset the incident didn't torpedo Clinnochio's future political career.
full article...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/17/the-forgotten-story-of-how-refugees-almost-ended-bill-clintons-career/ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/17/the-forgotten-story-of-how-refugees-almost-ended-bill-clintons-career/)