Posted on 04/01/2003 6:41:16 AM PST by Brian Allen
I hope to witness the annihilation of any participating Arab forces in such a demonic purpose.
LOL!! That's a new one.
LOL! Amazing! I never would have figured that out! {sarc}
No they are not doing it for the money. Men facing immediate and certain death are dealing with an absolute, and fleeting worldly motives have little to do with their acts. Only motivations as simple as death can matter to them. Hatred, or shame, or despair, or fanaticism. Not "a check".
It is not exactly news that people who blow themselves into small pieces on purpose are not very intelligent, or very rational. Expecting calculation from suicides is absurd on its face.
Why do the Arabs rage especially against Americans and Brits who are their only possible benefactors? Obviously, they are ashamed of their impotence. They resent needing our forbearance. The more that is forthcoming, the more deeply some among them resent it.
To be oppressed by powerful enemies can be the lot of honorable men. But to be petted and pitied by just overlords even when you revile and hate them, is a sign of abject impotence. It is power they long for, not justice. Even a state they want merely as a power, and a means to further acts of power.
Rational men see a need for some measure of power to protect themselves and to serve various concrete ends. It is instrumental. When one has it, one focuses not on its possession but on its use. The natural question is then what to do with it, what is good or just. Not with these.
They are seeking the secret of power's existence or possession, not of its use. They do not understand, fundamentally, where it comes from. But in their superstitious cynicism, they imagine it comes from a willingness to do evil, from a base sort of cunning.
Look at what they accuse others of. It will tell you where they think the power of others comes from. Then watch their actions. You will plainly see they are emulating what they project or guess is the source of power of those others. They are wrong in both, but consistent. Which shows it is a failure of understanding.
Of course that failure to understand things like cooperation and justice has a moral failing behind it. You have to be corrupt already to be so cynical. Behind the cynicism, though, it is fundamentally a matter of a superstitious belief in the power of evil.
They think evil is stronger than goodness, that goodness is weakness. They think their whole civilization is too weak because it is too scrupulous, insufficiently barbaric and violent.
Point out to them how completely backward this is, how successful countries are based on exactly the opposite, and their eyes twinkle and their cynicism overflows. How simple of us westerners not to notice that our governments are the most bloodthirsty and cruel on earth. What hypocrites we are, to ascribe our power to our goodness, when obviously it is purely a matter of superior military prowess wielded ruthlessly in pursuit of naked self interest.
Listen to what they accuse us of. Manipulating world wide and home grown opinion to launch wars of aggression to seize oil fields. Now, hear that not as condemnation but as admiration, even envy. That is what they would do if they had our power. In an instant. So naturally they think it is what we are doing.
The only counter that occurs to them is to be more ruthless and bloodthirsty than they imagine or pretend we are. Since that is largely in their imagination, they set themselves the task of being more bloodthirsty than they can imagine anyone else to be. Pretty soon they set out to deliberately do the worst thing they can imagine.
They were routed because they have a pathological need to bring down the walls around them, as in Jordan (1970), Lebanon (1976--82), Kuwait (1990).
BTW, I have known some Palestinians in this country. They ARE very successful as you say.
They seem to do better outside of Israel.
But, they better not try that cr** in MY country.
You are a very good writer.
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