Magua Speaks

The 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans, based on James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel, and directed by Michael Mann, is one of my favorite movies of all time.

It has basically every essential element a thrilling, touching, powerful movie needs: Romance, combat, sacrifice -and even a vaguely distilled conflict between good and evil.

The primary villain of the tale is a Huron warrior named Magua; a ruthless, ambitious individual bent on gaining revenge on the British Colonel Munro, who violently slaughtered a number of Magua's Huron people many years prior. And so, the devilish Huron Magua, twisted by the tortured memories of his slain brethren, has become a vessel of limitless hatred and murder.

In the final epic scene of Mohicans, Magua murders Uncas (the second to last Mohican), who tried in vain to rescue Alice Munro, one of Colonel Munro's two daughters, from certain slavery, rape, and death. Moments after slicing Uncas' throat and releasing his body over the precipice of a steep cliff, Magua turns his head to the distraught Alice Munro, who is shivering with fear.

Magua extends his arm to Alice, and gestures with his fingers toward his body. Trying to assuage her fears, he slowly lowers the knife in his hand, still dripping with the blood of Uncas.

And thus, the murderer attempted one last conciliatory act in order to ensnare his prey.

Magua's act, which proved to be his last, was a crock of sh_t.

This, in turn, brings us to recent statements issued by al Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, which Raymond Ibrahim recounts:

Speaking to the many “under-privileged” of the world in his most recent interview, al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri declares: “That’s why I want blacks in America, people of color, American Indians, Hispanics, and all the weak and oppressed in North and South America, in Africa and Asia, and all over the world, to know that when we wage jihad in Allah’s path, we aren’t waging jihad to lift oppression from Muslims only; we are waging jihad to lift oppression from all mankind, because Allah has ordered us never to accept oppression, whatever it may be…This is why I want every oppressed one on the face of the earth to know that our victory over America and the Crusading West — with Allah’s permission — is a victory for them, because they shall be freed from the most powerful tyrannical force in the history of mankind.”

Zawahiri's words, too, are a crock of sh_t. His thinly veiled attempt to coerce those he perceives to be the weak, underprivileged citizens of the free world, should be seen as nothing less than the false hand of a charlatan, one outstretched hand proffered in peaceful gesture, while the other remains hidden behind his back, clasping a violent instrument of death.

The goal of Zawahiri and al Qaeda, with this recent conciliatory rhetoric, is to coax and placate the vast majority of us, those whom Bill Whittle calls sheep (in the nice sense).

No reasonable person should take this man at his word, but it would not take very many to give him and his sycophants shelter, and allow him a position to strike here at home.

He should not be believed.

With luck, Zawahiri and his "tribe" will meet the same fate as Magua.