Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Criminal Vanguard

In response to this morning’s post about the possibility that Hells Angels and football hooligans will act as a vanguard against Islamization, a Danish reader sent us this brief note:

The tale of criminals as the defenders against the Moslem onslaught is not new.

In Dalmatia and Istria, you had the Uskoks acting as anti-Moslem pirates, with occasional raids inland.

In the Slavic mainland Balkans, you had the Hajduks mostly preying on travellers, but joining any anti-Moslem rebellion they could lay their hands on.

In Greece, it was the Klephts — also mostly common robbers — who provided most of the initial manpower in the Greek rebellion in the 1820s.
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Arkan’s Serbian goons in Bosnia and Kosovo are a vastly more controversial example.

Given that it is illegal to use targeted violence against anybody, outlaws have a shorter road to travel before they take up arms.

That doesn’t make them nice people. That does make them a vanguard in a lot of historical cases.

This is quite true, and there are other similar cases. An example with a different enemy, but relying on the same principle, was the use of pirates — “privateers” — by the English crown against the Spanish Main in the 17th century. Some of the greatest English naval heroes began as pirates.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Is there not something to be said about the way people live nowadays in Western Europe, expecting "the state" to take care of them, and of everything.

Individual thought and action isn't exactly encouraged, if what you're trying to achieve is contrary to the received opinion.

But things weren't always like that ...

Unknown said...

That is to say, people weren't always like that ..

Afonso Henriques said...

So much truth in that.

People say the ones we want arround to defend us are either Police officiers or the criminals and mafoisi. It's true.

I just can't stand the English adoration of pirates. If all that they did was to attack Spain (enemy) I wouldn't opose but they usually did more than just that.
I remember entering an English class (with Australian and English teachers) with a picture glorifying "Sir" Francis Drake.

Why can't they just, I don't know, praise allies who did not viciously attack the allied countries they're in. I never heard of Duke Wellington. Ever.
Shame on you Portugal's Cambridge School.