Happy Valley Jihad!
The Amherst Board of Selectmen, which ranks with the city councils of Berkeley and Cambridge as one of the more earnest and well-intentioned deliberative bodies this side of the Atlantic, has voted to accept two Guantanamo detainees … one Algerian and one Russian convert to Islam … upon their release. This is their jihad! But it was only a 2-1 vote. There’s always one whose thinking isn’t advanced enough. via Boston Herald:
The town’s five-member Select Board voted 2-1 Monday to endorse a warrant article filed on behalf of the two men by the group No More Guantanamos. Two Select Board members were absent.
The resolution also called on Congress to lift a ban on relocating former Guantanamo prisoners — even those cleared of wrongdoing — from resettling in the U.S.
…
Select Board chairwoman Stephanie O’Keeffe voted against the measure, arguing it distracts Town Meeting members who should be more focused on local issues.
“I think that Town Meeting members lack the expertise to make policy recommendations to Washington, D.C.,” O’Keeffe told The Associated Press. “I’m happy to leave domestic and international policy to President Obama.”
I’d call that positively backward thinking. Frightful to contemplate, but what if a Republican gets elected next time? Don’t want to ideologically pre-empt yourself from thinking globally, acting locally. Besides, the Obama administration hasn’t proven quite as progressive as one might have hoped when it comes to policy matters such as waterboarding Dick Cheney.
Hard to get a sense from this article whether O’Keeffe is being over reactionary or not. The AP article sensitively avoids any mention of U.S. military propaganda regarding the circumstances under which the two gentlemen in question, Ahmed Belbacha and Ravil Mingazov, were deprived of their liberty. Nor does it get into potentially prejudicial material such as the irrepressible expressiveness of freed jihadis, who keep popping up, back in the game again, questioning authority in places like Yemen, Algeria and Afghanistan.
I can see why the Russian wouldn’t want to go home to the ex-USSR. Might not be such a warm welcome. Ditto the Algerian. The authorities there take a dim view of jihad, though disappearing into the dustwork probably isn’t that difficult.
As for whether they want to go to Amherst, I assume like most third-worlders, “Anywhere USA” is pretty much at the top of their list, Gitmo sleep-deprivation flashbacks or no. But instead of being exploited as cab drivers or dishwashers in wretched, faceless anonymity, these two can be pretty sure they’d be visiting scholars in Islamic Studies and Bush-Bashing Affairs in no time. And the toast of the town!
They are big-hearted people out there in the Happy Valley of western Massachusetts, which nestles between the bosoms of its gentle hills UMass, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College and … most handwringing, do-gooding, Kumbayah-singing, grade-eschewing, granola-crunching of all … Hampshire College. Plenty to do. Lots of earnest young minds eager to be expanded. Some good bars and pleasant strip joints a couple of towns in either direction, too. “Castaways” and “The Magic Lantern.” Wallah, women dance naked! Don’t miss Bub’s BBQ, next town over in Sunderland. Very haram. Also just two hours’ drive from both New York and Boston, where there is even more for a wide-eyed jihadi, just sprung from eight years in Gitmo, to divert himself with.
My WTKK 96.9 talk radio pal Michael Graham asks, “What’s the difference between an al-Qaeda training camp and UMass Amherst?”
I know, I know! An al-Qaeda training camp is results-oriented and isn’t full of hacks, hippies and drunk teenagers! Howzabout, al-Qaeda trainees know which side they’re on. Howzabout, al-Qaeda wants to tax the dhimmi, and Umass is already taxing the dim. Wait, wait, I know. At UMass they earnestly admire people who want to blow them up, and at al-Qaeda training camps they just earnestly want to blow them up.
OK, here it is. At an al-Qaeda training camp, they want to cut your head off. Fifteen minutes in Amherst, and you’ll wish they had.
Surber, hurtfully: What will she say when they blow up the local Starbucks? I dunno, judging by the latest Taliban kaboom in Pakistan, I’d be checking security at the local Islamic Studies center.
Malkin: One step closer to bringing Gitmo circus to U.S. soil. No, it’s not about the Amherst Board of Selectmen. It’s about the United States Congress. And here’s Malkin re Amherst.
(Care to comment? Use the “contact” link to assure me you are a real human being interested in commenting on the topics at hand. Include your preferred screenname and temporary password. Lefty Kumbayah singers, moderate handwringers, meanspirited rightwingers all welcome. This is a free speech zone as long as you keep it clean and make an effort to be accurate.)
Topics: GWOT, dummkopf!, moronocy
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:42 pm on Tuesday, October 20, 2009
2 Responses to “Happy Valley Jihad!”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
October 21st, 2009 at 8:13 am
[...] news from Massachusetts, Jules Crittenden wrote: “The Amherst Board of Selectmen, which ranks with the city councils of Berkeley and [...]
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
[...] Democrats. Tags: Amherst, Guantanamo, Islamofascism, Lunacy, Massachusetts, Terrorism trackback Want to welcome the poor, oppressed Gitmo detainees. Yeah, that’ll go [...]