28 thoughts on “Lt. Col. Ralph Peters on Journalists: ‘Kill Them All’ – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. I very much agree with you that Peters is a very dangerous, and quite misinformed man. However, his comment on Gandhi is correct though his language is not quite as clear as it should be. Gandhi’s non-violence movement was in fact quite violent. It did require provoking the British into greater levels of violence to turn public and world opinion against the colonial administration, so it did require that they “play along”. A poor choice of words on Peters part but I did get what he was trying to say.

    Interestingly, non-violence would work quite well in the Occupied Territories precisely because Israel, like England, has become so violent in overreacting to minor provocations. The first Intifada was perhaps the least violent effort by the Palestinians and yet gave them the greatest political edge.

    But, like I said, though I sort of agree with him on the Gandhi point, I much closer align with you on the dangers of men like Peters. The last thing this democracy needs is military leaders who believe that war is mankinds greatest endeavour. Scary as hell.

  2. Great article!

    This blog is getting better and better – this blog needs more exposure.

    One comment.

    The sentence:
    “The neo-pagans who dominate the media serve as lackeys at the terrorists’ bloody altar.”

    The neo-pagans remark show me that the man in question is a rapture, hard core xtian, who views any not like him (not just moslems) as THE enemy.

    It is scary that such frankly sick and immature religious fanatics can reach such high positions in the US military.

  3. I’ve always wondered, when hawks say things like this:

    “They insist, publicly, that their goal is our destruction (or, in their mildest moods, our conversion) in their god’s name.”

    …who are they talking about? Well, it’s not bin Laden, for one. According to his 1998 fatwa, Muslims are to kill Americans and their allies *because* the west has declared war on Islam, and *in order to* “liberate” Muslim countries and holy land. The fatwa says nothing about killing anyone beyond the specific goal of getting the west out of the greater middle east. Nothing about killing infidels just cuz they’re non-believers. Nothing about converting anyone, or making the whole planet Muslim. Check and see:

    http://www.mideastweb.org/osamabinladen2.htm

    So, when a fellow like Peters says that the Islamic terrorists (all of them!) are aimed at killing / converting all the rest of us–are they referring to people even crazier than OBL? (I admit I haven’t read all the terrorist manifestos out there.) Or is it a fiction cut from whole cloth? Or perhaps a projection of the darker aspirations of Christians (so-called) of Peters’ ilk?

  4. TY for posting this. I have put it up on my page as well, with appropriate credits.

    This is not my specialty and heaven knows I am so behind on my writing that I should do that instead, but this, this is a good one. So much fear and hatred in these people.

    So misguided. Sometimes I think, they KNOW what the net can do, how it has backfired on them, how long can we go on? So I figure we just increase our activity and spread the word of as much as we can to as many as we can.

    Yours in sharing, and, smiles. Never surrender. There is no such thing as futile resistance.

  5. You ask where this man gets his thinking from. I just put together a piece the other night.

    ISRAEL A MAD DOG TOO DANGEROUS TO BOTHER WITH
    http://snippits-and-slappits.blogspot.com/2009/05/israel-mad-dog-too-dangerous-to-bother.html

    Meet Israeli Zionist neocon Professor Martin Van Creveld and explore his writings. Terrifying and you will also find the man who is possibly this deluded creature’s mentor.

    This guy really doesn’t get it, does he? He buys into ALL the myths and then builds his own private fantasies around them. IE he believes Pearl Harbour was done without American collaboration, nicely arranged between the US President and the alcoholic Churchill. If he were not in power he would be pathetic.

    1. I have not yet read yr piece & I don’t always agree with Martin Van Creveld, but you are being far too dismissive of him & his views. Google his name here & you’ll find one or two posts I’ve written about some great pieces he’s written for The Forward & others.

  6. Regarding the comparison with characters from the movie Dr. Strangelove, Peters sounds more like Gen. Jack D. Ripper, the one who ordered his bombers to attack the Soviet Union.

  7. RE: “He is the Buck Turgidsen and Dr. Strangelove of early 21st century America.”

    MY COMMENT: A turgid Bucky has no conscience!

  8. RE: “The problem is religion. Our Islamist enemies are inspired by it, while we are terrified even to talk about it.”

    SEE:”Biblical Prophesy and the Iraq War – Bush, God, Iraq and Gog” – By Clive Hamilton, 05/22/09

    (EXCERPT)”…In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France’s President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated…”

    ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.counterpunch.org/hamilton05222009.html

  9. RE: “Last I checked Teddy Roosevelt earned a Nobel Prize for STOPPING the Russo-Japanese War, not for starting it. Ditto, Jimmy Carter and the Camp David Accords in 1979.”

    JOE DUH PLUMMAH SEZ: Nobel Prizes are fer pantywaists!

  10. This is all symptomatic of an underlying malaise, where viewing the situation as one of unremitting degeneration and complexity can render our minds incapable of logical thought. Too often we have approached the subject with anodyne references to vigilance, democracy and altruistic principle instead of what we should have be doing all along; closing in upon the beast, grappling with it more directly and forcing it to our will. Unless we evolve procedures that can deal effectively with these problems and not be confined to a mere tidying-up of their edges, we will have to live with the consequences of our inaction.

    Circumstances change, perceived notions are reinforced and polarisation continues unabated. If we cannot respond in some defined and constant manner to what is happening and may well yet happen, then it must be our lot to continue spitting into the wind.

    And, as I’m sure you’ve all noticed, the wind has this nasty habit of spitting back.

    John Yorke,

    http://yorketowers.blogspot.com

  11. Brian Peck (a commenter above) is not correct when he says that Gandhi’s movement was violent. The use of nonviolent tactics against a military occupier (which is what the British were in India) usually leads to violent repression, which can then trigger spontaneous reactive violence by untrained participants in a nonviolent movement who aren’t following orders. Whenever a nonviolent campaign got out of hand and there was outlier violence, Gandhi called the campaign off. He knew that violence would contaminate the struggle for Indian independence because it would forfeit the legitimacy that a truly mass, representative movement could claim. Having said that, I hasten to add that Ralph Peters is wrong to claim that nonviolent action only worked in India because the British somehow indulged Gandhi. In reality, nonviolent movements have a far higher success rate than violent insurrection. In 50 of 67 transitions from authoritarianism to democracy since 1970, nonviolent civic coalitions were the decisive feature, and “pacted transitions” (i.e. involving negotiations) were the causal process in most of the rest. (http://www.icnl.org/knowledge/ijnl/vol7iss3/special_3.htm) And in a seminal study comparing violent and nonviolent insurrections over a 106-year period, Drs. Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan found that violent insurrections can be said to have been successful in 26% of such cases, while nonviolent insurrection succeeded in 53% of those cases (http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/PDF/IS3301_pp007-044_Stephan_Chenoweth.pdf).

  12. Stop calling him a general. He’s a Lt Col, they are a dime-a-dozen in the military. Most officers that stay in 15 years and are even relatively competent can make that rank…

    The guy has certain points to which I could agree to some level, but by and large he is filled with nonsense. He just said on Fox News that the hopes the Taliban executes Bergdahl (soldier who may have left his post to explore the mountains)?? Is he serious?? Overall the guy is scum, he is living in a fantasy world, who writes the word war but has no idea what it really means.

  13. you ,sir, are an idiot. your statements are completely irresponsible…your statements can be used against our own people, most especially against the unfortunate young american being held right now … crawl back under the rock you slithered from; do us all a favor and stop talking.

  14. Lee, I agree, they are spineless cowards. Ralph Peters is almost always correct. he should be running the country insted of the weakling bigoted America hating group we have currently. happy 911.

  15. you are a coward and you will die a coward, tikun olam has nothing to do with it. all you want is for the enemies of israel to love you thats why your messege is so extrime in liberal views. deep down i am sure you dont believe it but just say it for the these audience. there is no place for jews like yourself in judaism, you should be cut off from the house of israel.

    1. Thank you very much for your strong vote of support. It’s encouragement fr. people like you that keeps me going. If I were a coward I would be cowering in fear from spite & bile like yours. Instead, your hate energizes me and serves as a reminder to my readers of what we are all battling against.

  16. What surprised me is that Ralph Peters wrote an article 3 years ago which completely ripped up the Eurabia myth and exposed it for the bullshit that it really was.

  17. How did this maniac ever last to that rank in the military? His twisted view of Israeli behavior is pathetic. Fox network should by now understand that our blind support of Isaeli atrocities as well as providing ongoing welfare to Israel alienates virtually all the world and is an indirect support of slavery. These neocons like Peters seem intent on getting the US to do Israel’s bidding like we did in Iraq and are gearing up to have us attack Iran next.

  18. this guy is nuts. I can’t say really say much more than he is a sad example of intelligent americans. so disturbing.

  19. Mr. Silverstein, it would probably help a great deal if you actually read the articles you quote, instead of relying on your pet buzzwords and your interpretation of same to get to what you want to believe was written. It would also help considerably if you actually had read and understood enough history to understand how little of it you actually comprehend. Teddy Roosevelt, for example, received a Nobel Prize for his role in the Portsmouth Treaty negotiations–but he simultaneously put the United States on a collision course with Japan, one that bore terrible fruit 40 years later.

    By the left’s own standards, which I will force them to live by (you guys want to play by Alinsky’s Rules, you’re going to get the full monty, like it or not), Teddy Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Prize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    1. You advise others to read the articles I quote you you never even bothered to read it yourself. Take your own advice before dishing out unsolicited words of wisdom to others. Nor do you offer any proof that I haven’t understood the articles I quoted or linked.

      As for Saul Alinsky, this may fit your neat ideological worldview to bring up such non sequiturs, but comment rules here insist comments be ON TOPIC. Comment only on the material posted and don’t drag in your pet prejudices or obsessions.

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