My award for the dumb quote of the year...

...tentatively goes to Oliver Stone (tentative because we have a few months left yet). Folks, I have heard what I consider to be some stupid things come out of the mouths of other people, all too often even out of my own mouth. We all say silly things now and then; but when you are talking about really important issues you really ought to put your brain into gear before opening your trap, otherwise you wind up trapping yourself with your own foolishness. For example, see the below quote, that according to an article: Oliver Stone: 'I'm ashamed for my country' at tis

Get that folks, terrorism can be lived with! I guess if you are talking about the IRA who was out for Irish independence and not to conquer or destroy all of the world, let alone just great Britain - well then maybe it can be lived with for those who survived the violence. I wonder how the families of the dead victims of IRA terror campaigns feel about it though?

He also made reference to Basque separatists. This group of folks has been seeking independence for many years. As I recall they mostly carry out attacks against Spain, but if I remember right they have also attacked France on some occasions. The thing about the Basque terrorists that really sets them apart from most other groups, is that they call in their planned bombings to authorities or the media ahead of time. Now why would that be, do you think? It is most likely because they are out to make the government of Spain look bad, and to show while the Basques mean business they are not necessarily out to kill folks to do so. Still though, I am pretty darned certain that there have been some victims who have not been able to live with some of the bombs they set off; in other words people who died because of them.

I note that Mr. Stone is virtually comparing raisins to watermelons. The terror groups he selected, in order to bolster his claims that terrorism is manageable, and that we can live with terrorism, are groups that were/are relatively very small when compared to Islamic terrorists groups or Islamic terrorism on the whole. Not only were the groups small, but so were their intended targets small or very limited in scope when compared to the target of Muslim terrorists who wish to either conquer the population of the world through conversion, or kill those, all of those, who do not convert to Islam. Besides what I just said, let me give you some factual information that I found at Wikipedia, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_IRA_campaign_1969-1997

According to the Wikipedia article: Provisional IRA campaign 1969 -1997, which cites the CAIN research project, the IRA was responsible for about 1,821 deaths up through the year 2001. This is just over half the number of people who were killed on 9/11/2001. In one day, the Islamic terrorists killed almost double the amount of people that were killed by the IRA in all the years of its existence. As for the Basque separatists, under the guise of the ETA which is their militant or terrorist branch), Wikipedia has an article List of ETA attacks, at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ETA_attacks
that shows the Basques terrorists are believed responsible for a total of about 813 deaths, from their beginnings, through 2003. That is about 1/3 the amount of victims killed in the attacks on 9/11/2001, and the deaths caused by the Basques took place over about 4 decades. I surely don' t think the brand of terrorism practiced by the islamist terrorists compares to that of these other groups, not in magnitude anyhow.

Yet Oliver Stone reportedly says that terrorism is manageable, and that we can live with terrorism, even though the brand of terrorism today is Islamic terrorism, and it is more ruthless and terribly violent than any we have ever seen in our lifetimes, except maybe for that of WWII, yet that while being terrible was not terrorism per se.

Does Mr. Stone forget the atrocities carried out both before and since 9/11/2001? Does he think that all the victims of beheadings in the name of Islam were something that folks can live with? Does he think that those who were killed in the attacks on the USS Cole, the barracks bombing in Lebanon, the US emabassy in Kenya, the night club attacks in Bali, the religious violence in Pakistan, the religious violence in India, the killings by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the riots throughout Europe, the bombings in England, the attacks on Israel, the passenger planes brought down by explosives like the one over Lockerbie, Scotland, the daily killings of Iraqis, and all the other horrible deaths that have been caused by Islamic terrorism is a thing with which we can live. Sure I guess if we are survivors we have lived with it; but what about the thousands of dead victims who died at the hands of these terrorist monsters who hide behind the words and robes of their prophet; and what about all thoe rest of us whom the terrorists still desire to kill?

My question for Mr. Stone is this: Just how long do you think we can live with these terrorists, and with what they want to do to us, if we don't try to deal with them now by defeating them, through full out war against them? He just does not get it, and apparently neither do many of you out there in the world wish to get it! They are out to get us, supposedly by conversion, but to me I have not seen them really try to honestly convert anyone lately, and who says we want to be converted! So my bet is they just really want to kill us. The way to stop them may just be by killing them first, and in that regard terrorism may well be manageable. Then we may be able to live with the results, because the terrorists will be dead. That though is obviously not what Mr. Stone meant, not at all from what I saw. So yes folks, in my opinion, that quote from Mr. Oliver Stone is the dumbest thing I have heard so far in the last year, without a doubt in my mind.


All the best,
Glenn B