Where Will All That Arab Anger Go?

Business Week ^ | 4-14-03 | By Stanley Reed in Damascus, with Susan Postlewaite in Cairo

[Oldeconomybuyer]

The College of Islamic Law at the University of Damascus is a hotbed of the antiwar movement in Syria. In its cavernous stone entryway, students mill around near a display of cartoons criticizing the conflict in Iraq. In one frame, Uncle Sam grinds the U.N. under his boot. In another, a figure representing Israel drags an empty-headed America into combat with the Iraqis. Looking on, a group of young female students, scarves wrapped around their heads, talk excitedly.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

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[Poohbah]

F*** 'em if they can't take a joke.

[3AngelaD]

Oh, no. Don't tell me the huge Syrian economy is going to turn its back on American goods. Guess that means they'll have to forgo the Internet, too. I'm waiting for that to happen. The pinheaded Assad had better watch his back.

[Sir Gawain]

Whoopty doo.

[3AngelaD]

Forgot to say: This rag, Business Week, is owned by the Washington Post and shares its agenda. I would take anything said here with a huge grain of salt.

[dark_lord]

Fortunately for us, if we are going to have a group mad at us, it is the arabs. Let's see their list of accomplishments in the last century or so.

Created a great new system of government? Nope.
Developed flourishing economic systems? Nope.
Great military power? Nope.
Produced great scientists, artists, authors? Nope.
Great medical discoveries for mankind? Nope.
Leading the human race in human rights? Nope.

Well, what the heck have they done? Answer -- zip. Nada. Nothing.

Now that we have noticed them (thanks to 9/11) I don't think they can do too much to harm us without putting their societies into extinction. (Of course, like other immigrant groups, most of the best ones have already immigrated over here and are Americans. Heh.)

[bert]

Anger is energy. Energy is useful and can be the directed to the machines of growth. If there is a glimmer of a future, the hope can be used to channel the energy.

That is the plan, the roadmap, the future.

[curmudgeonII]

They hated our guts before the war.
Where's the change?

[dighton]

This time they're really really REALLY mad.

[Kiss Me Hardy]

Business Week isn't owned by the Washington Post -- you're thinking of Newsweek. Business Week is part of the McGraw-Hill stable.

[Maceman]

Unless the U.S. finds a way to win over Arab hearts and minds, the legacy of the war may be greater anti-Americanism

They may continue to hate us, but at least they're learning better than to screw with us anymore.

Doing nothing just encourages them, as we saw throughout the 90s and on 9/11. LIberally kicking their butts at least has the advantage of letting them know they are doomed if they continue to act out their murderous delusions.

[T'wit]

>> "All the fundamentalist movements in the Arab world have been strengthened."

Oh, I don't know about that. Before, the fundamentalists attributed the success of their cowardly little ambushes to Allah being on their side. Now that they have been utterly routed in battle -- in Afghanistan, too -- it comes back to haunt them. They just learned that, at the least, their thinking was wrong and that Allah is not blessing their cause.

[KeyWest]

Arab moderates blame the U.S. for sowing turmoil in the aftermath of September 11. "The U.S. has caused instability in the region," says Abdel Moneim Said Aly, chairman of the Al-Ahram Center. "All the fundamentalist movements in the Arab world have been strengthened."

So let me get this straight. We respond to a direct attack on the US by muslim fanatics and we are wrong because we strengthen them.

So we should have pulled a Clinton and apologized for erecting buildings that were representative as an affont to muslims and let them keep attacking us so they would not be strengthened. I guess, if you are a muslim, that makes sense.

But it seems that the opposite has taken hold. We destroy a bunch of inflamed Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq and they seem to be more interested in explaining to each other why they are inflamed. Plus no attacks against the US since 9/11 from all those inflamed Muslims. Works for me.

[Poohbah]

Let them hate us all they wish, so long as they fear us more.

[3AngelaD]

You're right. Why did I think that? Could it be that sometimes the writers jump from back and forth?

[TomServo]

F*** 'em if they can't take a joke.

LOL! Agree - and thanks for your Service, Poobah.

[dogbyte12]

Ok... unemployed college students with no disposable income to speak of in Syria are going to boycott american products?

I am saddened... deeply saddened.

Ya see while the poor masses on the streets were boycotting american products that they couldn't buy anyways... there heroes like Uday Hussein and Tariq Azizz were spending their boatloads of money on american foods, movies, books, etc.

They are sheep. When will they ever see it?

[Publius6961]

Make that half a millenium!

And add:
Made advances in medicine.
Landed on the moon.
Advanced knowledge of the earth's distance past.
Created marvels of flying transportation.
Fed half the world...

This is too easy.
Susan Pterodon will accuse us of "piling on"! Horrors!