Posted on 01/30/2005 4:57:04 AM PST by FlyLow
Edited on 01/30/2005 5:06:10 AM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]
(NOTE: this eMail is from a friend who served with me in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot and who now lives in Indonesia. These are his observations. I think you will find them enlightening in regards to the moslem mind.)
Indonesian Muslims aren't really making a big deal one way or the other about the tsunami relief offered them. What's noticeable is what's *not* been said.
For example, soon after the US pledged its $350 million and a few days after the carrier Abe Lincoln was flying balls to the wall missions, a taxi driver struck up a conversation with my wife. I wasn't there. Jeane reported that after the usual small talk about the grave situation in Aceh province, where it happened, the driver mentioned something about the USA not giving much money until after the USA had been called out on their "small" initial pledge. This was the theme of that Scandinavian UN employee who said we were "stingy". Remember, the driver couldn't have known Jeane's husband was a Westerner, let alone an American.
My wife gently but firmly reminded the taxi driver about the US Navy who was, at the time, the only real relief workers on site there. A few NGOs had sent survey teams to see what was going on and the Australians had some people coming in a few days, but the US was the only nation actually working - giving away (their own) food and water and ferrying international supplies that had arrived. As my wife told the driver, ". . . all that flying and the big ships cost money. We must be grateful for any help received. After all, the 'hand that receives must be lower than the hand that gives'". That shut the driver up, but only in the sense that my wife signaled to him that she wasn't anti-Western.
The significant thing about what the driver said about the small initial US pledge could have come from only two possible sources. First, it could have been a local newspaper. Taxi drivers sometimes read them while waiting for new fares. However, mostly those newspapers' stories are simple and I don't know but one major newspaper here that is "observablely" [sic] - if not "noticeably" - anti-American. During those first days I didn't hear any TV news reports about what that UN employee said. Therefore the only other place that driver could have grasped the American pledge well enough to make a general comment on it is -- a goddamned mosque.
That some ignorant f___ in a mosque (or a newspaper or anywhere) would echo the comment made by that UN employee is indicative of how fast Muslims are moving to paint the West in a bad light. The speed at which that bad PR was spread about the aid pledge is impressive to me. Too bad that Americans understand virtually nothing about what Islam wants and where it is going.
More importantly is that nothing was said about the virtually non-existent aid - money or on site support - from any of Indonesia's Muslim "brothers" in the Middle East. NO ONE at all ever commented on this. In fact after the first week or so of one TV channel's film clip used to introduce the nightly news showing aid being given, mostly the US helicopters flying and dropping foodstuffs, the film clip was hastily re-edited. The new version had a few seconds of some Arabs in their headdresses shaking hands with an Indonesian in front of an Arab airliner - one of only a few that landed here with paltry Arab aid. That TV station is owned by an Achenese and I bet it galled him that he had no footage of Arab aid to use until two weeks after the disaster.
Americans still don't realize that "the only antidote to dangerous ideas is strong alternatives vigorously advocated". That's why we never won the "hearts and minds" in Vietnam. And I've got a bad feeling we're going to lose them again with moderate Muslims.
As for the people in Aceh, you could see from their faces what they thought of the US Navy helicopter crewman who delivered supplies to them each day after the disaster. They thought the Americans looked pretty "gaga" and were lifesavers. I know of a grown woman in Jakarta with kids who jokingly remarked about how good-looking those American servicemen (helicopter people!) were. This woman saw some navy crewmen carrying women in their arms to their aircraft for a medevac. She joked to Jeane that if she were there, she might fake feeling faint just to get carried by one of those guys . As I watched a few TV news films of those CH-46s and the UH-60s dropping supplies and their crewmen walking around, I couldn't help but have a mini-flashback of what we must've looked like. It felt good. In fact, I think we were probably even cooler looking than the current crop of flingwing birdmen .
I bet one reason the politicians wanted the "American military forces out of Aceh quickly" is because those Americans were going about their jobs so well and so quietly that it was destroying all the negative talk about the West that the people had heard for years in their mosques. Remember, Aceh is traditionally the most rabidly-religious Muslims in Indonesia. On the nightly news several times I watched the faces of groups of young Indonesian kids watching those American airmen going about their jobs, and I could tell some of those youngsters will never forget what it looked like. I have a strong feeling that those Americans probably became subtle role models of a sort for those children when they get older. Score one for the good guys .
In 1995 I met a Honduran security supervisor at my place of work.
He is a former Marine who served in Desert Storm.
He told me a story of how when he was a kid after an earthquake, American helicopters were the first on the scene with relief.
From that day all he wanted was to become an American soldier.............
and he got his wish.
Well, if cab drivers like the rag head in that e-mail want America out, it reinforces my earlier view that Indonesia and any other Muslim country that got flooded can drink saltwater.
I have an expanding list of friends around the world and I am finding that there are a lot of people who think America is "wonderful".
Good story. I do a lot of international travel, and I do not find that the average person anywhere is really anti-American. It is abroad as it is here -- the media and universities are hotbeds of anti-Americanism. In third world countries, my experience has been the vast majority could not care less if you are from the US or from Mars. If anything, they seem to admire us for our power and wealth. But even in officially "hostile" countries -- like France (or even Syria) -- the everyday person is fine and interacts normally. It is the opinion-makers who hate us. On a person-to-person level, I have found very little anti-Americanism.
"In fact, I think we were probably even cooler looking than the current crop of flingwing birdmen."
Of course! I've been telling my little brother that for years.
Good post with good insights from the area.
Well said Speedy.
I'm reminded of a saying:
"What other people think of me is none of my business. "
I worked in Jakarta last year, just myself and an office full of Indonesian government employees. They were nice enough folks, no strident anti-Americanism (although I did encounter some paranoia about America from a few upper-level bureaucrats who are notorious troublemakers).
Also I was surprised that women in hijabs can be proactively flirtatious.
"Remember, Aceh is traditionally the most rabidly-religious Muslims in Indonesia"
Yeah, and the Indonesian govt.(if you want to call it that) is one of the most corrupt in the world.
I don't give a rats behind what they think of us. The average Iraqi will revere us soon, methinks.
Better yet, what does America think of Indonesia? Not much.
Thank you, ac!!
I know what you mean, angkor -- I lived in Kuwait for several years. Under those hijabs were some rather pert women.
One day these countries will learn that what is important is not what they think of us, but what we think of them.
Finding the UN as the source of jihadi rhetoric is no surprise; they've been so before, as have Ted "Drunken Manslaughter" Kennedy, John "Backstabbing Brother" Kerry, Michael aka "Micky D" Moore, Jimmy "The Traitor President" Carter, and the New York Times.
I believe that men like Abdurahman Wahid, and his Nahdlatul Ulama party, are more reflective of the belief system embraced by most Indonesians than the reactionary, deranged, sectarian radicals you will find joining groups like the Islamic Defenders Front and JI.
The people living in Aceh are in the distinct minority, as it concerns the most widely practiced way of observing the critical tenets of Islam.
However, this does not exculpate most Indonesians from an irrational, seething anti-Americanism, which will not be ameliorated by the efforts of even the most secular political party.
I think that a lot of people conflate the concepts of Islamic radicalism and virulent anti-Americanism, simply because both pernicious values overlap in certain volatile regions of the world, e.g. Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, etc., etc...
The truth is, for the most part, these are two entirely distinct phenomena-which, if we are ever to defeat either-will need completely different approaches by the U.S. government.
Agreed!
"Of course! I've been telling my little brother that for years."
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