See what others have said

Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.

Comments

1. #1
   On January 28th, 2010 at 12:27 pm, verogolfer said:

   Just when you think Obama has set the standard for stupid, other governments trump him.

2. #2
   On January 28th, 2010 at 12:30 pm, John Deaux said:

   I’m pissed off at the government too. Where’s my check?

3. #3
   On January 28th, 2010 at 12:31 pm, Flyoverman said:

   Britain is ready to contribute millions of dollars to a fund to buy off Taliban gunmen who are fighting British troops in southern Afghanistan.

   Otherwiswe known as the “Neville Chamberlin Approach.”

4. #4
   On January 28th, 2010 at 12:31 pm, ThatSamIAm said:

   You can’t fix stupid.

   Now the terrorists will be able to buy more guns and bigger bombs.

5. #5
   On January 28th, 2010 at 12:37 pm, letget said:

   I just read over on HA that the U.S., Japan, and Britain are the countries wanting to pay the rop type to give up killing us. This is just dandy, we are knee deep in debt and now we are going to pay terrorists to lead a kinder and gentle life!
   L

6. #6
   On January 28th, 2010 at 12:37 pm, max said:

   Now we know what Shrillary (it’s not my money!) was doing in London during SOTUS.

7. #7
   On January 28th, 2010 at 12:39 pm, love2rumba said:

   It worked for the Barbary Pirates off North Africa, now didn’t it?../sarc

8. #8
   On January 28th, 2010 at 12:41 pm, b-cat said:

   When will they ever learn? Islamic terrorism is a religious expression, not an economic one.

   We should do as Ann Coulter advised. Kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.

   But alas, the West does not really want to win. Or survive.

9. #9
   On January 28th, 2010 at 12:41 pm, RedDog said:

   At first I thought they were talking about paying off their own Muslim citizens. Oh wait, they already are.

10. #10
    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:42 pm, Hangfire said:

    I thought that they made plenty of money growing poppies!???

11. #11
    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:44 pm, One_American said:

    As Winston Churchill so aptly stated it:

    “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

12. #12
    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:46 pm, zyzzyg said:

    Not a very good idea. What happens when the money runs out? You can’t buy loyalty.

    It runs counter to our western values, but the only true final solution is to give them the choice, life or death, if they continue to want to support terrorism.

13. #13
    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:52 pm, sassy745 said:

    “Stuck on stupid”

14. #14
    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:53 pm, Virginia Patriot said:

    Have they negotiated the price for not shooting women in the head for being educated?

    Or refusing to wear a burkha?

    Oh, sorry, women don’t have rights in the Religion Of Peace.

15. #15
    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:55 pm, granite said:

    Idiots and cowards.
    They’ve surrendered.
    They actually think that if you stop fighting the bully today and give him your lunch money, that he won’t come back tomorrow for more.

16. #16
    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:01 pm, Truesoldier said:

    I hate to tell you all this, but this has actually been going on for some time in Afhganistan. Some of the Taliban fighters have been paid off and are now fighting against their former employers (so to speak). The Afghan government paid them off and they switched sides. It has nothing to do with the poor oppressed mantra that this meeting has mentioned; instead it has everything to do with that is how they tend to operate in many Middle Eastern countries.

    Could this work, perhaps it will at least until someone with deeper pockets comes along and buy them off again.

17. #17
    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:02 pm, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    If it will work I do not know but buying off the Tribes is a time honored tradition there. During the Great Game Russia and Britain tried to control Afghanistan with gifts.

    Both Britain and Russia found that trying to control Afghanistan with troops was not terrible effective. As told to me years ago Afghanistan is Afghanistan only when a foreigner invades-other wise they are the tribes–buy off and the support the tribes who will fight the Taliban and the Arabs. The Taliban was a creation of the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence agency- ISI -and even the Army of Pakistan can’t seem to control them.

    Forget trying to turn the Afghan hills and valleys into Iowa-they are stuck in the 7th century and seem to enjoy it. Keep them fighting each other-it is what they feel born to do.

18. #18
    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:26 pm, Rogue Cheddar said:

    Ah the British Empire reigns again! Exporters of bad teeth and bad bombers!

19. #19
    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:33 pm, Rogue Cheddar said:

    Bribes for Bombers! Are they paying them in Francs?

20. #20
    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:45 pm, Ty85719 said:

    All evidence suggests that bribery does not work, as evidenced by the fact that most of the terrorist masterminds are well-to-do, wealthy, and well-educated (in elite western universities, no less). The lack of response to high monetary bounties also shows that they care little about monetary gain. The Left argues that bullets cannot fight ideas – neither does a monetary bribe.

    Furthermore, this gesture finally exhibits the true motivation, dedication and capacity of our supposed “allies;” it is a traitorous maneuver by cowards

21. #21
    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:48 pm, AlohaGuy said:

    You can’t fix stupid.

    Now the terrorists will be able to buy more guns and bigger bombs.

    That’s why we need to outlaw “assault rifles” stat!

22. #22
    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:58 pm, joeblough said:

    The mohammedans have a name for this sort of thing, “jizya“.

    The following is from:
    Andrew Bostom: “Democrats” For Jihad and Jizya – at JihadWatch
    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2005/12/bostom-democrats-for-jihad-and-jizya.html

    Interviewed by Wall Street Journal reporter Karby Legget (and published in the December 23-26 edition The Wall Street Journal), Hassam El-Masalmeh, who heads the Hamas contingent at the municipal council of Bethlehem, confirmed the organizations plan to re-institute the humiliating  jizya, a blood ransom Qur’anic poll-tax (based on Qur’an sura [chapter] 9, verse 29), levied traditionally on non-Muslims vanquished by jihad, and forced to live under Islamic Law (the Shari’a). Under the Sharia’s regulations, either the non-Muslim infidels must convert to Islam, or they pay the jizya—classically, in a humiliating public ceremony which often involved blows to the head or neck—and their life and belongings are protected. The nature of such “protection” is clarified in this definition of jizya by the seminal Arabic lexicographer, E.W. Lane, based on a careful analysis of the etymology of the term:

    The tax that is taken from the free non-Muslim subjects of a Muslim government whereby they ratify the compact that assures them protection, as though it were compensation for not being slain.

    The “contract of the “jizya”, or “dhimma” encompassed other obligatory and recommended obligations for the conquered non-Muslim “dhimmi” peoples. Collectively, these “obligations” formed the discriminatory system of dhimmitude imposed upon non-Muslims – Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists – subjugated by jihad. Some of the more salient features of dhimmitude include:

    the prohibition of arms for the vanquished non-Muslims (dhimmis); the prohibition of church bells; restrictions concerning the building and restoration of churches, synagogues, and temples; inequality between Muslims and non-Muslims with regard to taxes and penal law; the refusal of dhimmi testimony by Muslim courts; a requirement that Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims, including Zoroastrians and Hindus, wear special clothes; and the overall humiliation and abasement of non-Muslims.

    It is important to note that these regulations and attitudes were institutionalized as permanent features of the sacred Islamic law, or Shari’a. Islam manifests itself as a political ideology, not merely a religion, when its teachings are followed on these and other prominent and enduring features.

    During his Wall Street Journal interview, El-Masalmeh stated explicitly,

    We in Hamas intend to implement this tax (i.e., the jizya) someday. We say it openly – we welcome everyone to Palestine but only if they agree to live under our rules.

    Unfortunately the western public knows NOTHING about these matters. And the western media, to the extent that they actually know anything, is complicit in the cover-up.

    The same is true of our governing elites. What little they actually know, they are hiding.

    (And most of them haven’t bothered to learn a damn thing.)

    This sort of material is always hidden under a thick slimy layer of over-sweet International Brotherhood Week style propaganda, which would have us believe that mohammedanism teaches the same things as the Methodist church.

    Not so.

    I’m not sure that the “harmless as doves” really applies here, but for sure, “Be ye as wise as serpents” certainly does!

    BTW: Do not be deceived for a moment. The people in gov’t and the press will NOT present this as tribute or protection money. BUT THAT IS GUARANTEED TO BE HOW THE OTHER SIDE WILL SEE IT!

    (Yes I just shouted.)

    The other side WILL see this in the terms outlined above.

    Bet on it.

23. #23
    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:59 pm, Lan Astaslem said:

    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:01 pm, Truesoldier said:
    Could this work, perhaps it will at least until someone with deeper pockets comes along and buy them off again.

    Or until some mullah puts a gun to their head, says, “Give me all of those dollars and pounds you got there!”

    Stupidity runs rampant!

24. #24
    On January 28th, 2010 at 2:02 pm, Darwin Akbar said:

    So we will now negotiate with “moderate Taliban”?

25. #25
    On January 28th, 2010 at 2:14 pm, Regulus said:

    IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation,
    To call upon a neighbour and to say:
    “We invaded you last night – we are quite prepared to fight,
    Unless you pay us cash to go away.”

    And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
    And the people who ask it explain
    That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
    And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!

    It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
    To puff and look important and to say:
    “Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
    We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”

    And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
    But we’ve proved it again and again,
    That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
    You never get rid of the Dane.

    It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
    For fear they should succumb and go astray,
    So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
    You will find it better policy to say:

    “We never pay any one Dane-geld,
    No matter how trifling the cost,
    For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
    And the nation that plays it is lost!”

    And the saddest part of that poem? Kipling was a Brit. My, how far they have declined…

26. #26
    On January 28th, 2010 at 2:25 pm, nbarry said:

    The key phrase in the news story is “not ideologically committed” in describing the potential bribees. The question is, who is going to make that determination, a mind reader?

27. #27
    On January 28th, 2010 at 2:31 pm, Truesoldier said:

    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:59 pm, Lan Astaslem said:
    On January 28th, 2010 at 1:01 pm,
    Or until some mullah puts a gun to their head, says, “Give me all of those dollars and pounds you got there!”

    And that is the other half of the problem. There is a saying over there that says you may have the watches, but we have the time. In other words, the locals understand that the Taliban fighters are always nearby while the coalition troops are only around the area on occassion.

    For example, A local radio talk show host (who is a National Guardsman that has boots on the ground experience in Iraq) was relating a story from a friend of his in Afhganistan on the show this morning.

    His friend told him how his group is part of an agricultural group that goes around and tries to help the farmers out. They tell the Afghan farmers they should grow something other than Poppies, but the farmers just laugh and tell them that not only are the Poppies much more profitable that if they do not grow them the Taliban will come and force them to grow them. The told this group you come around once a month to visit the Taliban come by every day.

28. #28
    On January 28th, 2010 at 2:46 pm, Lan Astaslem said:

    Exactly TrueSoldier! They’ll outlast us if nothing else. Anyone who thinks otherwise (Congress? Parliament?) has rocks for brains.

29. #29
    On January 28th, 2010 at 3:12 pm, John Deaux said:

    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:46 pm, zyzzyg said:

    It runs counter to our western values…

    Tell that to Peggy the Moocher.

30. #30
    On January 28th, 2010 at 3:36 pm, Wyatt Earp said:

    The solution is to buy them off with BMWs. BMWs that are loaded with high explosives!

    Just sayin’.

31. #31
    On January 28th, 2010 at 3:45 pm, vinny said:

    On a related note: An employer was told that placing an ad that requested for applicants to be reliable was discriminatory:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246201/Employer-told-advertise-reliable-workers–discriminates-unreliable-applicants.html

32. #32
    On January 28th, 2010 at 4:06 pm, hawkeye54 said:

    Not a very good idea. What happens when the money runs out?

    Well, I expect in a few years, at this rate, Islamists will simply be handed the control of Great Britain by the whimpering government (non)leadership, so the bribe money just becomes tax collection income to continue funding the goals of the ROP.

33. #33
    On January 28th, 2010 at 4:35 pm, JustAThought said:

    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:31 pm, Flyoverman said:

    Britain is ready to contribute millions of dollars to a fund to buy off Taliban gunmen who are fighting British troops in southern Afghanistan.

    Otherwiswe known as the “Neville Chamberlin Approach.”

    Beat me to it.

    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:44 pm, One_American said:
    As Winston Churchill so aptly stated it:

    “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

    Winston Churchill. One of the last REAL men produced in not-so-Great Britain and one of my heroes. Where is the Churchill of our time? The Brits seem to need one, yet again.

    On January 28th, 2010 at 2:14 pm, Regulus said:

    And the saddest part of that poem? Kipling was a Brit. My, how far they have declined…

    Declined? From what or where? This is a Neville Chamberlain moment if there ever was one. History repeating itself.

34. #34
    On January 28th, 2010 at 4:57 pm, graysonret said:

    Give them millions so they can buy more weapons and ammo to kill more Brits. Good thinking!!

35. #35
    On January 28th, 2010 at 5:03 pm, blues said:

    You will pay tribute to your overlords.
    I don’t have run faster than the maneating lion,I just have to run faster than you./sarc
    We need another Thomas Jefferson or Churchill,someone smart enough to understand his emeny’s true motivation.Tha Islamic fundamentalists aren’t interested in bribes,except for how many weapons they can buy to use against us.

36. #36
    On January 28th, 2010 at 5:53 pm, mojoe said:

    Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute!

37. #37
    On January 28th, 2010 at 8:28 pm, swede said:

    Since 2001 there has been a $25 Mil reward offered by the state department just for information leading to Bin Laden. You’d think if these folks wanted money…

38. #38
    On January 28th, 2010 at 9:48 pm, Republicanvet said:

    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:27 pm, verogolfer said:

    Just when you think Obama has set the standard for stupid, other governments trump him.

    How do you know Obama is being trumped? Hillary is over there, and I suspect this is just as much what he would want as the Euro-weenies.

39. #39
    On January 28th, 2010 at 9:49 pm, Republicanvet said:

    On January 28th, 2010 at 12:37 pm, max said:

    Now we know what Shrillary (it’s not my money!) was doing in London during SOTUS.

    Yeah, negotiating the price of our surrender.

40. #40
    On January 29th, 2010 at 2:55 am, Papa Louie said:

    If someone offered me money to give up my cause, I would assume one of the following things:

    1) They think my cause has merit. (why else offer me money to abandon it?)

    2) They’re afraid and getting desperate. (Why offer money that can be used against them unless they’re running out of options?)

41. #41
    On January 29th, 2010 at 1:42 pm, happy2behere said:

    And they think they are merely being pragmatic, but terrorists bite the hand right off.

42. #42
    On January 30th, 2010 at 12:28 pm, Surveyor said:

    I thought that they made plenty of money growing poppies!???

    Yes, but after the CIA gets their take…..