Where Will All That Arab Anger Go?

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

[Media Insurgent]

"The question now is whether the Arab world's anger against America will gradually dissipate -- or be channeled against their own regimes."

I suspect that this "anger" like so much else to come out of the Arab world, is a lot of hot air without much action to back it up. The vaunted "Arab Street" reminds me of a bullying braggart that you might encounter in a bar- a big talker until someone actually challenges him to show how tough he is. At that point he meekly makes some lame excuse about why he can't and then shuts up.

As far as I can tell, the only way that angry Arabs have successfully vented their anger are through surprise attacks unarmed civilians. They have yet to show they can accomplish anything against a vigilant, well-armed foe.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

the antiwar movement in Syria

The sheer absurdity of calling this an 'antiwar movement' makes me giggle.

[edsheppa]

Don't worry, they've always got the wife and kids as an outlet.

[Poohbah]

Don't worry, they've always got the wife and kids as an outlet.

And the family cat.

[Helms]

"Where Will All That Arab Anger Go?"

In otherwords..

" Now That the French, Germans and Saudi Elites Have Successfully Turned the Mideast into South Central, How Can They be Told They Have Been Duped?... Ask the Democrats!

[joesnuffy]

The Syrian leadership can only stay in power with the goods they leeched off Iraq

When that well runs dry the Sryian leadership has nothing with which to hold power of its own people..

Shut off the pumps and Syria will have to go begging somewhere else OR
Flush its Baath Party members

Hopefully the people will rise up against them as they did in Iraq when given the choice..

Syria without Iraqi handouts is finished and its leadership is panic stricken..

Trying to stir its brainwashed youth into picking up weapons...aka committing suicide...

Syria needs to rise up knowing that what has happened in Iraq can happen for them as well...
They can rid themselves of their evil dictator and the thugs who opress them and the other arab nations

[martianagent]

Where Will All That Arab Anger Go?

Need some sort of an outlet for it you say? How about S&M? If we could sell them enough whips, paddles, spurs, riding crops etc. etc., maybe they could take it out on eachother, and there might actually be money in it...

[headsonpikes]

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

Exactly. I guess they haven't got the memo: 'Arab Street Closed for Renovations'.

[MoodyBlu]

I have a serious question for anyone to answer. Can someone please explain to me why the farmer in Iraq, or the student in Syria, or the street sweeper in Pakistan gives a damn about the "Palestinians"? I have never been able to understand why it's always written and said that peace can never come to the Middle East until the Israeli/Palestinian problem is addressed.

What is the connection between the people mentioned above and the Palestinians? Does the average, poor person in some sh!t hole of a Middle eastern country really give a damn about the Palestinians?

[Billthedrill]

It is a mistake to portray these people as being neutral until our activities in Iraq turned them against us. They are nothing of the kind. These are the ones convinced of their own self-righteousness who dance in the streets when Americans are killed. They are not our friends. And they are not open to friendship - it would threaten their entire worldview.

I might be wrong, of course, and we'll see. Because if a democratic Iraq doesn't turn their opinions around - and I hold that it will not - then not much else will.

[xJones]

A brother of one student and a cousin of another have traveled to Iraq to fight the coalition forces. "Lots of young people are willing to give their lives," says one young woman.

What a pity for them, they stand a good chance of being shot by Iraqis.

[Poohbah]

The Palestinians are used as a whipping boy to get the people to ignore how their own despots are brutally mistreating them.

[prairiebreeze]

Does the average, poor person in some sh!t hole of a Middle eastern country really give a damn about the Palestinians?

My personal opinion is not really. The Palestinian/Israli situation is a convenient excuse for being angry at America. Arabs utilize a LOT of "convenient thinking" in justification of their viewpoints.

"It seems to me a certainty that the fatalistic teachings of Mohammed and the utter degredation of the Arab women are the outstanding causes for the arrested development of the Arab. He is exactly as he was around the year 700, while we have been developing." ---Gen. George S. Patton

Prairie

[MissAmericanPie]

Is someone critizing us? Fold the tents quick, lest anyone talk bad about us. When you recognize evil, and stand for good, you can expect a great deal of howling from the morally void that calls our stand, "primitive moralizing".

The world needs a good dose of primitive moralizing and like with everything else, the U.S. must lead the way. The U.N. won't like it, the E.U. won't like it, Russia and China won't like it, but then, they profit from evil and are themselves evil, so where is the suprise in their stance?

I hope our elected leaders have the moral fortitude to face down evil where ever it is found, in the Middle East or in the Palestinian Authority in Israel.

[b4its2late]

This whole thing is a bunch of crap. Like they didn't hate us before the war in Iraq?

At least now they know that someone will hold them responsible for the hate they brought to our soil on September 11, 2001 and for any future acts. Just like the Japanese, they woke up a sleeping giant.....

[browardchad]

The sheer absurdity of calling this an 'antiwar movement' makes me giggle.

This article seems to be written for the ignorant, or someone who's just woken up from a long-term coma. Calling virulent anti-Americanism in a terrorist-supporting state "the anti-war movement" is only one of the sops in this article. Here's a few more:

Islamic militancy.

The correct term is "Islamism," from the people who brought us 9/11.

a swelling of the ranks of militant Islamic groups that make use of the Internet to recruit. That's happening even in secular Syria.

Laughable, considering that Syria has been encouraging and harboring terrorists up close and personal for years -- they don't need the internet. As far as being "secular," so was the Iraqi regime.

Already, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the largest group representing the Shiite majority, is uneasy about U.S. postwar plans. "The Shiites are not going to accept a military government forever," warns Bayan Jabor, SCIRI's representative for Syria and Lebanon.

Citing this group as somehow legitimate, without noting that it is harbored and fostered by the hostile regimes of Syria and Iran, is ludicrous. We know how well the "Islamic Revolution" is working in Iran.

Assad could be frozen out of the region's new order

As if anyone in the U.S. contemplated the Baathist Assad as an ally in reconstruction.

[sheik yerbouty]

'Turban Renewal'

[headsonpikes]

"Turban Renewal"

Don't be insultan. Let Chiraq give the umma a humma.

I'm calling the bailiff for the caliph.

[geedee]

Is there such a thing as a non-angry or, Allah forbid, a happy Arab?

[sheik yerbouty]

You will offend the effendis and impotentates!