Somebody should start the rumor that those 70 virgins they're supposed to get will all look like this.
(Allah chooses virgins for their "inner beauty".)
Poof!
End of holy war.
Posted on 09/24/2001 2:59:36 PM PDT by Billthedrill
Nearly two days after the horrific suicide attacks on civilian workers in New York and Washington, it has become painfully clear that most Americans simply don't get it. From the president to passersby on the streets, the message seems to be the same: this is an inexplicable assault on freedom and democracy, which must be answered with overwhelming force - just as soon as someone can construct a credible account of who was actually responsible.
Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent. Perhaps it is too much to hope that, as rescue workers struggle to pull firefighters from the rubble, any but a small minority might make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world.
But make that connection they must, if such tragedies are not to be repeated, potentially with even more devastating consequences. US political leaders are doing their people no favours by reinforcing popular ignorance with self-referential rhetoric. And the echoing chorus of Tony Blair, whose determination to bind Britain ever closer to US foreign policy ratchets up the threat to our own cities, will only fuel anti-western sentiment. So will calls for the defence of "civilisation", with its overtones of Samuel Huntington's poisonous theories of post-cold war confrontation between the west and Islam, heightening perceptions of racism and hypocrisy.
As Mahatma Gandhi famously remarked when asked his opinion of western civilisation, it would be a good idea. Since George Bush's father inaugurated his new world order a decade ago, the US, supported by its British ally, bestrides the world like a colossus. Unconstrained by any superpower rival or system of global governance, the US giant has rewritten the global financial and trading system in its own interest; ripped up a string of treaties it finds inconvenient; sent troops to every corner of the globe; bombed Afghanistan, Sudan, Yugoslavia and Iraq without troubling the United Nations; maintained a string of murderous embargos against recalcitrant regimes; and recklessly thrown its weight behind Israel's 34-year illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinian intifada rages.
If, as yesterday's Wall Street Journal insisted, the east coast carnage was the fruit of the Clinton administration's Munich-like appeasement of the Palestinians, the mind boggles as to what US Republicans imagine to be a Churchillian response.
It is this record of unabashed national egotism and arrogance that drives anti-Americanism among swaths of the world's population, for whom there is little democracy in the current distribution of global wealth and power. If it turns out that Tuesday's attacks were the work of Osama bin Laden's supporters, the sense that the Americans are once again reaping a dragons' teeth harvest they themselves sowed will be overwhelming.
It was the Americans, after all, who poured resources into the 1980s war against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul, at a time when girls could go to school and women to work. Bin Laden and his mojahedin were armed and trained by the CIA and MI6, as Afghanistan was turned into a wasteland and its communist leader Najibullah left hanging from a Kabul lamp post with his genitals stuffed in his mouth.
But by then Bin Laden had turned against his American sponsors, while US-sponsored Pakistani intelligence had spawned the grotesque Taliban now protecting him. To punish its wayward Afghan offspring, the US subsequently forced through a sanctions regime which has helped push 4m to the brink of starvation, according to the latest UN figures, while Afghan refugees fan out across the world.
All this must doubtless seem remote to Americans desperately searching the debris of what is expected to be the largest-ever massacre on US soil - as must the killings of yet more Palestinians in the West Bank yesterday, or even the 2m estimated to have died in Congo's wars since the overthrow of the US-backed Mobutu regime. "What could some political thing have to do with blowing up office buildings during working hours?" one bewildered New Yorker asked yesterday.
Already, the Bush administration is assembling an international coalition for an Israeli-style war against terrorism, as if such counter-productive acts of outrage had an existence separate from the social conditions out of which they arise. But for every "terror network" that is rooted out, another will emerge - until the injustices and inequalities that produce them are addressed.
One concept is the "ugly american syndrom." This is the one that the author tries to paint. This lack of cultural sensitivity and US power has been being a guilt trip of the weak for many generations. The other concept, and one I think has some validity is the US culture as an agent of change in world culture.
Specifically, the French feel that the US culture and language are corrupting their culture. They even try to stop the use of uniquely American english words from being used in their culture, whether we are talking about e-mail or Mickey Mouse. Similarly, our neighbor, Canada goes nuts about US culture dominating their country. The same is true about national Canadian magazines with real live Canadian content. Some of the harshest NFATA negotiations were over the ability to preseve Canadian culture.
If France and Canada have such a problem with the overwhelming US culture, what must other countries that we have less in common with us feel like? Remember some of the stories from the cold war of russian youth listening to bootleg US rock and roll and listening to radio free europe and Voice of America to hear the music and news. They were starved for what we took for granted. Remember in the China student riots how they built a "statue of liberty?"
That to me is part of the key issue. The ultra conservative or orthodox Muslim groups, that believe in theology as a government, must realize how pervasive American culture is. Everyone wants to have a McDonalds or Burgerking stand in their country. Almost everyone in the world wants to hear our pop-music, see our Hollywood films, watch our TV shows, visit Disneyland, sell in our markets, invest in our companies, and experience our freedoms. Anyone who has traveled knows that Coca Cola, Pepsi, Nike are known around the world. There are kids wearing Tee-shirts in countries sporting US pro-sport or college team names who have absolutely no concept of where or what the thing on their Tee-Shirt says or means.
Obviously, the US culture is an agent of change and some may not want change. This is no reasons to kill thousands of innocent people. It may be a reason to put one's finger in the dike of cultural change in an information age, even though it will likely have little impact on slowing the change in world culture. That must scare the hell out of those who want to live life as it was in the middle ages.
So from one who "get's it" as to part of why we are hated so much, I have a suggestion. Maybe as part of our revenge for the Pentagon and WTC we should drop off in all of the middle east terrorist countries portable radios capable of shortwave reception and revitalize the Voice of America broadcast system. Maybe as part of a rebuilding of the infrastructure of the countries we destroy we can provide libraries with internet access. Maybe we can hand out NY Yankee baseball caps and see if they are more popular than turbans with the young people. And as far as humanitarian food aid, how about we send over boxes of Alpian Way pizza kits or Cambel's Condensed soup cans instead of rice or bulgar wheat. Let's really show they what culture change is about!
I think that you are on the right track with your comments both at to our culture being what scares the heck out of them and us conservatives who will need to fight them so the liberal culture can be sold in their countries.
It's sort of like a terrorist organization that wants to see the destruction of China springing out of our society because China is occupying our Pacific Northwest. I could see a lot of freepers joining an American terrorist organization that would be going after Chinese targets in much the same way the Islamic terrorist have gone after us based on some of the bloodthirsty calls for vengence that I've seen since 9/11.
While we may hate the Chinese communists and their suppression of freedom, we don't want to see their people killed, but if they had a complacent and ignorant populace that either didn't know or care that China was occupying part of the United States, I'm sure many Americans wouldn't mind if American terrorists took out 1000's of their civilians if the goal was to free us from their presence.
Somebody should start the rumor that those 70 virgins they're supposed to get will all look like this.
(Allah chooses virgins for their "inner beauty".)
Poof!
End of holy war.
Just imagine spending eternity with seventy of these!
...Or maybe this!!!
(Don't mind the bumps...)
Recently I dated a Turk. (Okay, nobody get mad at me...he was really cute!!! Also from the northern region so he looked very European). Yes, he was wildly attracted to my American womanliness. I don't get the feeling that he hated America. In fact, he was AMAZED at the freedom we have! Everything was a big deal to him! Like going to the fair. To me, it was a bunch of fat people eating corn dogs (which obviously he did not partake in) and drinking beer. To him, it blew his mind that thousands of people were going on rides and pigging out, and doing it all PEACEFULLY. I am telling you, the most mundane things were the ones he lapped up like a starved puppy. He was also fascinated by the American work ethic. He freely explained to me how LAZY the people are in Turkey (he said it, not me). He was SHOCKED to see 70 and 80-year old Americans driving around in cars! He said that where he's from, when you hit 60, you don't even leave the house. HIS HONEST OBSERVATIONS! I dumped him when he told me that he wanted to have a "friendship" with me that included an "intimate" aspect. But just friends. No dating. That way, "no one gets hurt". I told him that didn't appeal to me. He told me that no one really waits until marriage where he's from. I guess Turkey is pretty liberal. Either that, OR these holier-than-thou Muslims ain't so pure after all!! LAST COMMENT: He did vent at a restaurant to me one night about how the liberals in Turkey are trying to pull the government into being more "modern". He said that some colleges would not accept fundamentalist Muslim women who wear the "wrappings" (whatever you call them), and that made him mad. It almost sounded like a parallel to American liberals who punish and make fun of traditional Christians. This is my personal experience in dating a Muslim Turk (they actually call the country "Turk-ia", as in Macedon-ia) for about a month this summer. Obviously, Turkey is a lot different from other Msulim nations. OH! ONE MORE THING: He and his Turk friends couldn't stand Somalis! He agreed with me that they are most likely NOT assimilable into American culture. He also heartily laughed his butt off at my mockery of Ebonics. He's say, "Talk Black, girl!" He was bewildered as to why so many in the American population could barely speak recognizable English. Oh, and also he was so proud of the Ottoman Empire. (Like, how long ago was that?)
There's truth to this. But Hollywood and liberalism thrive here because we have a form of government that allows for freedom of expression and thought. Thus we produce a Larry Flynt and a Billy Graham.
Did you learn any of the language?I've noticed many of them have the same words.Turkey is the most liberal,from what I know,which is not enough at this point.(some of them are really cute)!!But I can't hang long enough,to learn much.They are major horn dogs and I can't go it.
I like those tall lanky American Men.Well,I like the husky ones too!!
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