The “Ugly American” and the Arab Without a Nose

Asharq Al-Awsat ^ | 10/4/05 | Mona Eltahawy

[IronJack]

America cannot hide its ugliness.

Islam, on the other hand, is known for its beauty.

Its arrogance and actions carried out without thought to consequence have made it ... unattractive

While Arabs the world over are held in highest esteem, and are on everybody's "A" list. The Taliban, for example, are the life of the party. And those wacky, lovable Shiites? What celebration would be complete without a few beheadings or a traumatic amputation or two?

Yep, America is the ugly one.

[One Proud Dad]

Arabs = camel dung

[bboop]

Always a high honor to be hated by your enemies, imho.

[yoe]

And those wacky, lovable Shiites? What celebration would be complete without a few beheadings or a traumatic amputation or two?

Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant."--------- --Omas Ahmad, Cofounder of

[Pan_Yans Wife]

The Americans have not even bothered to count how many Iraqis have died since the invasion.

Counting and publishing the numbers are two different things.

[Jeff Chandler]

What the Arab world forgets is that those guns can just as easily be turned against the rest of us, just as the suicide bombings that were once used against Israel only are now being used against everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim.

"Murdering others is hunky dory, but the problem is they might kill us, too."

Am I understanding theis correctly?

[azhenfud]

"And maybe the Arab will stop cutting off his nose when he realizes that his interests and those of America can actually intersect and that being anti-American for the sake of it is ridiculous and ultimately hurts him more than anyone else."

I'd often wondered why this hasn't worked before but hadn't the verbal articulation to express it.

The culprit? It's the givers of hate messages being "preached" in islamite masques.

[Jeff Chandler]

It is also useful when he or she looks a bit more like us and can make that cultural connection in the way Dina Habib Powell did.

No universality in the Arab mindset, only tribalism.

[Valin]

Iraqi police Casualties
http://icasualties.org/oif/IraqiDeaths.aspx

[Valin]

Murdering others is hunky dory, but the problem is they might kill us, too."

Am I understanding theis correctly?



No. What she's saying (IMO) is the same people(?) who are killing Americans are killing Arabs. And she's right.

[wizardoz]

We need to take out Syria. The problem is not American aggression, it's American restraint.

[Lorianne]

Muslim terrorists slaughter fellow Muslims in Iraq but the Arab world – from where many of these terrorists come from -issues weak and meaningless condemnations because it is mostly Shia who are dying.

Many of the terrorists in Iraq come from the Arab world? Many? How many?

[manic4organic]

Don't forget to count the Egyptian terrorists in Iraq. Think they left that part out of the article.

[Valin]

Straight Vermonter, do you have anything on this question?


Lorianne, The terrorist in Iraq can be broken down into a number of groups (in no particular order)
1 Foreigners
2 Former Baathists
3 Some Sunnis allied with the Baathists
4 Some Shia allied with Iran
5 Criminals, remember Saddam released 1,00s from prisons right befor the invations.

[Lorianne]

And how many of those were from the non-Muslim world?

My point is she seems to be implying that at least SOME of the terrorists are from non-Arab (actually the correct term would be non-Muslim) world?

[Valin]

Muslim terrorists slaughter fellow Muslims in Iraq but the Arab world – from where many of these terrorists come from -issues weak and meaningless condemnations because it is mostly Shia who are dying.

That's not what I get from this. What I get is Muslims are killing Muslims.

[yooling]

One could easily sub "liberal democrat" for Arab throughout the piece. Good post.

[MNJohnnie]

Whaaa, the Americans are killing off our Jihadist faster then we can breed them. Whaaa. Evolve or Die Muslims. Time to give up your self-important delusions of grander and join at least the 18th Century since the 21st seems so far beyond your limited mental abilities. That fact that we are in Iraq is caused by YOUR failure to govern yourselves. We would be more then happy to leave you alone in your little sandboxes if you would of had the decency to do the same. On 9-11 you decided on Jihad. So be it. Problem for you Muslims is Americans do "Jihad" better then anyone. Just ask people of a certain generation about
Berlin, Desden, Tokyo, or Hiroshimia. Be careful we do not hate you back Muslims. You would not survive the experience.

[An Old Marine]

America and the Arab world need each other.

Therein lies the mistake. This war will only end when the Arabs are interested in ending the war on the terms that we offer them. This has been true for the entire history of man.