Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot
12.26.15
The Muslim world is rampant with cultural pathologies that keep it living largely in the mean and barbaric world of the 7th Century Arab peninsula. Common sense says that Western, civilized nations will look askance at that world, and view them with suspicion, and natural fear, and a sense of self preservation. We do not fear the Muslim world because they look, speak, or believe differently. We do so because they demonstrably generate people who try, often successfully, to kill us because we look, speak, or believe differently. Fearing this is a sensible thing to do. Defending against it is a sensible thing to do.
Rational people begin to question why leaders continue to assure them of things they know to be wrong. They wonder why they tell them not to fear that which they know to be fearful, and trust that which they know to be undependable.
I think one answer may be that Islamists are analogous to abusive men, and their apologists play the role of the battered woman. He didn’t really mean to hit me.
(They don’t really want to blow us up, they love peace.)
It was my fault. I started it. I told him that he needed to get a job and stop drinking.
(It was our fault. I started it. We locked up some of the murderers and noted the fact that such murderers seem, overwhelmingly to issue forth from one group of people. We said stuff they don’t like. Of Course they would want to murder us in return.)
He’s really sorry. He’s being so nice now. I have to forgive him or he’ll get mad again.
(CAIR regrets that people died. Muslims are really worried that we will get made and hurt their feelings.)
All I have to do is figure out how to change so that I never do anything to set him off. . I know if I’m nicer to him, he won’t hit me again.
(All we have to do is do everything exactly like they do, and we won’t set them off.)
Reality check?
Abusive men will beat and assault the women in their lives many times before they report it. They will finally either kill her, unless she finally manages to escape.
The cycle repeats over and over, building tension, violence, contrition and affection. Finally the learned actions no longer work. Avoiding the things that set him off don’t matter: he will still beat her. Giving him what he wants always, being properly submissive no longer works: He will still beat her.
And in dealing with Islamism, they attack and murder over and over. They plan, prepare, attack, then we hear how the big fear is not the attackers murdering us, but the victims over reacting. No matter what the West does, it is not enough, and leads to more attacks. Many try to deny it, or excuse it, but still they beat their victims. (Is it totally coincidental that in Islamist countries women are beaten regularly, legally, and often fatally?)
The abusive man does not cease to abuse because of what his wife or girlfriend does to change him. He stops because either he gets help for his issues, he kills her, she kills him, or he is shot by police.
Or:
She finally manages to overcome her learned helplessness and escapes to a shelter. She finds protection from someone stronger.
For the abusers of Islamism, their victims have limited escape: the West. Most notably, the US.
They can gain safety because the US military, like the police, will react with outrage to atrocious acts. The US, like right thinking people, will defend their victims, and kill murderers until they are unable or unwilling to murder any more.
Unless the US becomes the battered victim.
It is time to remember that we are strong. It is time to stop being the helpless victim, trying desperately to placate the one who beats us at a whim, and at will.
It is time to remember that we are still, for the moment, the biggest dog on the porch. And that biting our tail, or stealing our food, is a terrible mistake.
Free State Patriot 
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