Posted by kid_A on October 13, 2001, at 18:14:54
In reply to Re: A Poem for Everyone? -, posted by Maisy on October 12, 2001, at 21:40:08
I thought this discussion was over and done with, but okay I'll bite...
> First off the guy who masterminded the attacks on U.S. wears a turban therefore it is not a generalization of a people, merely a description of the culprit, re: his turban too tight.
But why focus on the tuban at all, other than to make light of it, to us the turban is seen as laughable, hence the racist term, towelhead... We focus on what someone looks like not what they did... Im sure the author did not mean to be racist, I dont think that was the intent of the work, but you have to focus on weather the same sort of language would be used lightheartedly in Afghanistan, and I don't think it would be.
>If anyone has been watching the numerous documentaries, the reason the U.S. was attacked is the fact that they are WESTERNERS, and their mere existance is in direct opposition to the extremists' warped sense of the Islamic religion.
I'm very sory to say this so bluntly, but you are just wrong. It takes a lot more than watching recent documentaries, it takes a firm grasp on the history of the US involvement in the middle east to appreciate exactly what the situation is there, and why we are so disliked...
Here is a brief excerpt from "The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many" by Noam Chomsky, detailing the US involvement in Israel:
Barsamian: What's Israel's record in compliance with the move than twenty Security Council resolutions condemning its policies?
Chomsky: It's in a class by itself.
Barsamian: No sanctions, no enforcement?
Chomksy: None. Just to pick one at random-- Security Council Resolution 425. March 1978. It called on Israel to withdraw immediately and unconditionally from Lebanon. Israel is still there., even thought the request was renewed by the government of Lebanon in February 1991, when everyone was going at Iraq.
The United States will block any attempt to change things. Many of the large number of Security Council resolutions vetoed by the US have to do with Israeli aggression or atrocities.
~~~~
>It is NOT about anything else. They want to destroy ALL of western civilization, period.
I'm sure they would like to destroy western civilization, but their motives for doing so aren't just because they hate us for some abstract and unknown reason. You are oversimplifying here to a point of ignoring the past 52 years of history...
>Bringing in Palestine as a contributing factor to the terror attacks simply makes it more palatable to those who resent the U.S. .
But Palestine is a contributing factor, If you look at up until now, and I think we are finally doing something to reverse our previous policies, if you look at history you will see a serious unilateral stance from the US as concerns the middle east...
>Also, Shelli is correct in saying that Bin Laden never spoke on behalf of the Palestinians until just recently.
It really doesnt matter if he ever had interests in Palestine or not, Palestine is simply against Israeli occupation of land they feel is theirs, Israel want's to rid itself of the Palestinians completely in any way they can, in fact to do this they started schools in the hopes that educated Palestinians would want to get out of Israel, and it worked for a little while... You can't just simply discredit Palestine as an influence simply because Osama Bin Laden was not ever acting directly on their behalf...
>His original beef was that U.S. used bases in Saudi Arabia during Gulf War and he considered it a crime to have "Infidels" on Holy soil.
Here's a blurb about the formation and intent of Al Qaeda, which is not far from your description...
"Established by Osama Bin Laden in the late 1980s to bring together Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet invasion. Helped finance, recruit, transport, and train Sunni Islamic extremists for the Afghan resistance. Current goal is to establish a pan-Islamic Caliphate throughout the world by working with allied Islamic extremist groups to overthrow regimes it deems "non-Islamic" and expelling Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim countries. Issued statement under banner of "the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders" in February 1998, saying it was the duty of all Muslims to kill US citizens--civilian or military--and their allies everywhere"
There is a very long history of bloodshed and suffering as concerns the middle east in general, and I think that kind of destruction and desperation naturally breeds these types of extremeists who seek to segregate themselves from people they deem threatening to their way of life and safety... And unfortunately they will attempt to do this by any means possible...
>The Saudi's kicked him out. He's the David Koresh/Jim Jones of Islam.
Yes, he is a discrace to the Saudi family, he is a discrace to his own family, he is an extremist and yes, you can infer that it is cultlike in its opperation... I think that the extremists have very different goals than the more moderate Islamic peoples... The extremists want a totally Islamic regime free of US involvement and the Israeli people... The moderates just want to have access to their holy lands and support so that they can live their lives in peace and so that they can have food to eat and grow as a country safe in their own belief systems.... They want to feel that their interests are being looked at fairly and not unilateraly in favour of Israel...
poster:kid_A
thread:12252
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20011006/msgs/12488.html