If it can happen in Kandahar, it can, and will, happen in Baghdad and beyond.
Posted on 04/03/2003 7:09:25 PM PST by 68skylark
I tried to make a similar point once about a friend of mine, back when the Islam/Christianity debate broke out here on FR and all it earned me was flames. I wish I had worded it more akin to the way that you have here.
I saw that thread a few days after-the-fact, that's why I flagged you. You were right and more than held your own against superior forces in the numerical sense only. :-)
He's a better american than daschole.
Reading this story should be a lesson to them.
I guess the operative word here is "should."
Muslim belivers who have assimilated into modern civilizations and political states ... in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Israel to name a few ... have enjoyed great religious experession, community cohesion and relatively peaceful pursuits of prosperity and well-being. They are vital, lawful and positive members of the communities in which they live. That's the outcome when Islam is practiced in a milieu of modernity. It's all good.
The emotion and passion of the Arab "street" is fickle and easily influenced. Arabs are world class smart and savvy, they'll go along with the best program that feeds their cultural imperative for respect and ritual tribute, but most importantly keeps them alive long enough until Allah wills that they prevail over their oppressors some future day. They go along to get along.
But, they are still primarily creatures of their history. Nomads by geographic necessity. They were Tribal and monarchial as a tool for order and survival. Their resource-free birthplaces have rendered them merchants, brokers, traders and often violent theives by necessity. They don't know production, long term investment and invention. They'll always struggle with democratic institutions and secular tradeoffs. The Western quasi-religion of diversity and enlightened tolerance will never be popular over there. They distrust, verify, then distrust again. They're nature will always be, like the Spainiards said of the Moors, "at your feet or at your throat." So what? As long as they disabuse themselves of any notion or access to kill US, I can live with the Arab Street jibba jabbing insults at us and dancing around cluelessly when summoned. They go right back inside their apartments, grab a Pepsi Cola and box of Ritz Bitz and watch Xena, MTV or Baywatch.
Islam cannot be eradicated by the forceful influence of outside forces. Islamist terrorists, their funding and logistic networks, and those States that sponsor these trans-national ambush murderers can. That's what we're doing.
As you seem incapable of coherent thought, it’s probably unfair to expect you to possess the emotional maturity and self-knowledge necessary to experience shame.
Would a translation of this article from English to Fortune Cookie help you understand it better?
Or do you respond the way you do because you’re hooked up to a machine, like Stephen Hawking, except the communication program you're using is limited to just a few Sound Bites?
I’ll take another “Islam is the enemy” as a yes.
"A person, no matter his nationality, is a human being."
I like this phrase -- it approaches the simple eloquence and decency of some of the words that this country was founded on, like "All men are created equal." Not bad for someone with little training in English!
Mohammed's tale is one of a man who didn't like what he saw when he walked into the Saddam Hospital last Friday.
I like this phrase also. America was founded by individuals who looked at something they didn't like, and who took action to change it.
I'd like to see Mohamed and his family come to the U. S. if that's what he wants -- he's really got the American spirit!
My greatest fears are not that Iraq cannot flourish in freedom, but that it will not be allowed to because such is a grave threat to the fanatical bloodlust of Islamism and despotic regimes remaining in the Middle East.
I also fear that we are in perhaps this nations most dangerous hour, with an insidious corrosion driving the other main party, dividing the people, trashing our founding principles. Senator Kerry's comments and subsequent defense of same --with clintonesque spin and misdirection-- and the democrat party expedient defense of his licklespittle shows the treachery of liberalism in action.
What Kerry said is far more than political rhetoric, it impugns the service of our honorable Soldiers at war under their Commander-in-Chief. By obvious yet ignored association, his comments compare our troops to the Republican Guard serving an evil dictator in his torture and murder of the Iraqi people, a regime in need of changing. That the media is too timid or too blind to see and expose such perfidy is a frightening indictment of their servile posture before Liberalism. And that trend is a mutation of the press, the source for public reflection on our leadership.
Our nation is at risk at home, as it is abroad, from forces set on changing or destroying this land of the free. Moslems wishing to live in peace and tolerance of other religions are no where near the 'threat' to America that the current leadership of the Democrat Party and their servile press pose. We the people had better take note and become active against this threat, or this nation shall not much longer endure under our founding principles.
Iraqi citizens, as their sense of personal safety grows, will not take up arms against the fedayeen and security thugs hiding and taking hostages in their neighborhoods. They will, however, share their educated guesses on the current whereabouts of these butchers with our badass, gun-toting guys.
The killers, rapists and torturers can't hide in mosques, storefronts and tenaments forever. Guys like Muhammed the lawyer are helping us target undercover bad guys this very moment, all over Iraq.
You paint a nice picture -- I hope you're right!
Like you, I suspect and hope that Iraqis aren't stupid -- I hope they'll recognize the source of their pain (Saddam), and the source of their freedom (the United States of America). I hope things will work out well for them in the future -- that will benefit them, and benefit us also.
I personally would like to see this guy get a seven-figure bank account, and a chance to live in any coalition country he chooses. And a medal for heroism from the U. S. military also, if that's possible.
Places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran were thrown together based on rough considerations of language, physical features like rivers and mountains, religious or ethnic commonality ... but mainly, it was divied up by the desires of who could be counted on as a client of the United States and who was going to be a client of the Soviet Union.
OK ... Despots, Communists, shahs, sheiks and military strongmen on your mark, get set ...
The Iraqis will be ok, they're secularized and have a pretty solid infrastructure. The Iranians are educated and many are Westernized, they'll be fine. Pakestanis are 20th century authorized. The Turks and Jordanians are ahead of the game and moving on up. The Palestinian state? Oh oh. They will have a population with less: aggregate education, productive economic skill and experience, enlightened political awareness, beneficial social tools and future success prospects than even that collection of brain-quagmired "Sweathogs" from "Welcome Back Kotter."
Palestinian state? What is going to be their main economic export, suicide bombers? Dead body street parade event planners? That situation is hopeless ... we should send them to Mexico. Nah, Mexicans don't deserve an influx of non-languaged foreign interlopers offering dirt cheap skilless labor and providing the natives nothing but a massive government burden.
If it can happen in Kandahar, it can, and will, happen in Baghdad and beyond.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.