| CRADLE OF HATE By RALPH PETERS |
Posted on 09/15/2006 3:18:53 AM PDT by rdb3
|
September 15, 2006 -- ISLAMIST terror is a deadly threat we have barely begun to address. Yet religion-fueled fanaticism in the Middle East shouldn't surprise us: The tradition pre-dates the Prophet's birth by thousands of years.
Terrorists just have better tools these days.
What should amaze us isn't the terrorists' strength, which has limits, but the comprehensive failure of Middle Eastern civilization. Given all the wealth that's poured into the region, its vast human resources and all of its opportunities for change, the mess the Middle East has made of itself is stunning.
Beyond Israel, the region hasn't produced a single first-rate government, army, economy, university or industry. It hasn't even produced convincing second-raters.
Culturally, the region is utterly noncompetitive. Societies stagnate as populations seethe. To the extent it exists, development benefits the wealthy and powerful. The common people are either ignored or miserably oppressed - and not just the women.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
CRADLE OF HATE, is the democRats in the US Congress, and their bud's in the MSM.
"In exile, the Judeo-Christian civilization grew up on the global mean streets. MiddleEastern Islam suffered from easy wealth, luxury and a narcotic regional heritage.
We changed, they froze. An Assyrian tyrant, such as the murderous Ashurbanipal - who reigned over 1,200 years before Mohammed's birth -would understand the governments, societies and disciplinarian religion of today's Middle East. The West would baffle him.
Since the Renaissance, the West fixed its gaze on the future. Islamic civilization sought to freeze time, to cling to a dream of a lost paradise, part Islamic Baghdad, part Babylon. "
Here's the 'logical flaw' that leads Col. Peters to his rather surprising 'nothing to worry about' conclusion.
While this may have been a valid description of Western Culture in the past, it surely isn't now -- the forces of decadence and creeping socialist totalitarianism have weakened Western Culture to the point that it is entirely possible - increasingly probable - that this 'backward' culture may, indeed, drag us back to their level.
Col. Peters completely ignores the fact that we are fighting a two-front war, here.
I assumed it would be about some Ivy league university....
Another attempt by Peters to defend Islam. Is he a recent convert or something? The way he keeps referring to "the Prophet" makes me wonder.
There's nothing wrong with the Middle East in itself - it was called the Cradle of Civilization because it was. The societies of the area were extremely advanced. All one has to do is look at their architecture, their scientific discoveries, what is left of their obviously rich poetic and musical traditions, etc. to confirm this. By the late ancient age many were in decline and there was no single unifying power until the arrival of Rome, which dominated the area for some time. After the collapse of Rome, however, the various countries continued as important trading and cultural centers, some of them Christian and some of them pagan, with Jews being an important group in all of them. The least productive and "civilized" group were the warlike nomadic Arabs, the group that produced Mohammed.
This article is so full of errors and bias that it's hard to know where to begin. Peters is trying to protect Islam by claiming that there's something fundamentally, practically genetically wrong with all Middle Easterners. Sorry, this is not true. Without Islam, they're just fine; interestingly, in countries where a Christian population still remains (such as Lebanon), it is this population that produces the merchants and the educated and productive class. This is one of the reasons they are so resented by the Muslim population, who seem unable to put two and two together and understand the reason for this.
Some good points! Having lived in Turkey for 6 years, I can tell you that the work ethic never caught on there. The men take breaks all day long, lord it over women working in the fields...treating them like slaves, then the men watch TV, play backgammon and drink all night long. They sleep all afternoon, as well. Work on anything constructive goes YEARS over the to-be-finished time line and there is no effort to have a quality item, as that is not how it's done there. Everything starts falling apart before it's finished!
Everyone does deals there to get one another in their debt. So many items are never "paid for" with fiat, but by cutting the seller a deal on something else. Much of the monies collected go under the table for black market trading, etc. It's a mess.
Baloney. If they were just 200 B.C. camel jockeys treating their women badly, he would be right. But they have infiltrated our nations, acquired modern weaponry, created a 100 million-man army of international terrorists, and seek nuclear arms.
The writer doesn't have any truck with that History stuff. The good people in Pakistan etc, are Moslems. Their rulers are Moslems, even if the state was formed and developed (well...continued, anyway) as a secular state. Islam was still the main influence on attitudes and was,is used by the governments to control the population. The Christians and Jews in the Middle East and North Africa were actually doing pretty well until the depredations of the paynim trashed their farms and their cities. The kind of destruction wrought by the Saracens and the dhimmitization of the conquered populations put a heavy damper on the culture that the rulers tightened down continually.
That's an excellent article.
Sounds like Me-hi-co.
progressive Democrats and McCainiacs?
Hmmm. I like the article, but I don't think it is entirely true. Ancient Persia and Egypt were both "first rate" in terms of government, army, economy, university, and / or industry. Heck, the Persians regularly beat the Romans - if that isn't a sign of a "first rate" military, I don't know what is!
At the very least, Islam compounds their problems.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
also Keywords 2006israelwar or WOT [War on Terror]
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Yes...you're quite right!
You cannot escape Islam from blame... a truly peaceful and caring religion aids the escape from pre-history.... it does not encourage the continued following of failed philosophies.....
If Islam were a truly great religion the Islamic world would not look like it does today... for 800 years or more this religion has dominated these parts of the world... and other than foreign money coming in for Oil, not a damned thing has changed there... nor will it in the next 800 years.... until the west finally stops making excuses for it and does what needs to be done, which unfortunately will require force to accomplish.
"the forces of decadence and creeping socialist totalitarianism have weakened Western Culture to the point that it is entirely possible - increasingly probable - that this 'backward' culture may, indeed, drag us back to their level."
What the West must do (the US) is produce more oil, and quit feeding the arabs our money. Produce enough to sell to Eruope and watch what happens.
ping
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