We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake

I was going to write the following comment on a blog article written back in 2005 by a US Muslim political activist who is calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution:

I would like to thank you for writing this article.

Having a Muslim political activist call for American civilians to be disarmed in their own country is just about the best politically supercharged endorsement for civilian gun ownership I can imagine. If the NRA was paying you to write this, it was money well spent (that is just rhetorical of course, I am sure they did not and you probably actually believe what you are saying). Please, keep writing more along this line!

But I decided not to. There is a well known axiom: “Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake”

I hope he is still writing such articles.

8 comments to Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake

  • Billll

    Some survey recently stated that only about 5% of the 2.3 million Moslems in the US support the idea of violent jihad. That means only about 100,000 potential whack-jobs out of 300 million “normal” folk. Divide your city population by 3000 and discover how many reasons there are in your locality alone to get a CCW.

  • llamas

    And, for those of us not-a-million-miles from Dearborn, MI – is there any way I can get another CCW?

    Seriously, tho, it does give one pause. This means that of the 100,000+ first-generation immigrants from the Middle East in Dearborn, about 500 – or every 20th person – is a supporter of violent jihad.

    Hmmm.

    llater,

    llamas

  • Nick M

    llamas,
    If Mid’s thoughts about “metrocosms” have anything to them then I think those stats are way too low. So be afraid.

  • It looks like he stopped blogging last June.

    Any comments, pro or con, probably wouldn’t be approved … I doubt he is even maintaining the blog.

  • Frederick Davies

    Just to be pedantic…

    There is a well known axiom: “Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake”

    That is not an axiom, but a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte.

  • I sometimes delete comments for being pointlessly pedantic on the grounds of obnoxiousness… but if you are going to be pedantic, at least be correct.

    Yes, it is indeed a quote from Napoleon. It is also now widely accepted as a fundamental principle of military command and thus it quite reasonably described as a military axiom (and was described as such by Heinz Guderian, to name but one).

  • Rick

    I wonder how many radical right/white Americans support the idea of the violent overthrow of the federal government?

  • Jack Coupal

    President Woodrow Wilson supposedly said it a little briefer:

    Never murder any man who is committing suicide.”