'I had no idea that madness in the Islamic world had gone so far' - Naipaul

times (UK) ^ | Times

[Billy_bob_bob]

Build a PLANE? They can't even build a CAR! There are hundreds of auto manufacturers in the world today, more brands and nameplates than you could imagine. Name one car designed and built in an Islamic country. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they don't even have a bicycle that is designed and built there. They totally missed out on the industrial revolution, and now the technological revolution is going to leave them behind as well.

That whole region of the planet is going to remain in a tenth century time warp forever, unless it is forcibly changed from the outside.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[xJones]

And then I realized that they can't even comprehend. I mean, what are they going to do if they kill all of the Israelis? Why are they dependent on the Israelis for an economy? Because they're too dumb to do it themselves.

And we can reference Mark Twain's and other comments as to the condition and population of what was called Palestine in the 1880s. Take out the Jews, and see what happens. The leechers, suckers and parasitical Palestinians trying to find another vein to suck on, because they have never learned any skills of their own. The funny part is that the Palis need the Jews. They just want the Jews to sit there and take their terrorism and complaining the whole time why Israelis are checking their ID cards. It's time to start taking a little personal responsibity and stop blaming the rest of the world for their failures.

The Saudi Arabian government, with all their vast oil wealth, have done nothing for their own people, they just keep financing those Wahabbi maddrassas and are so stupid that they don't realize it will crash down around their own heads, led by the fanatics they trained. The sons of Ismael...

[Utah Girl]

Ping

[Revolting cat!]

"One needs time to think about everything."

Funny, we have come to expect the politicians and the media personalities to tell us the truth, when it's been writers, more often than not, fiction writers who have been struggling to uncover and present it throughout history. Why, even our enlightened, Volvo driving liberal bourgeoisie choose to hear what they like to believe is the truth from their celebrated Mayas, Tonis, Normans, Rabbits, Joyce Carols and from their vagina monologists. They get their easy-to-swallow baby food instead, of course. Having said that, I can't think of any current American writers other than Mark Helprin and in another way Bob Dylan who make attempts at getting at the truth in their works. (Please, we're not talking about bestselling drugstore novels and the celebrity hacks who churn them out!)

[Redcloak]

"Does this semtex make me look fat?"

[babble-on]

There's some car cos. in muslim Malaysia or Indonesia I'm pretty sure.

[babble-on]

"We will fight until the last doughnut!!"

[xJones]

You know, those guys Moe, Larry and Curly in your photo post #13 look really serious. Yessir, they all look like they know what those funny looking things strapped around their waists aren't and just can't wait to get out of this farce. They'd surrender to a National Enquirer reporter this time, instead of Life magazine photographers as in the Gulf War.

About the most serious of Saddam's photo opts was the time when he had Iraquis dressed up as Babylonians, marching along into the rebuilding of Babylon and one of them had this great big pair of Nikis on instead of sandals.

[Bush2000]

“Your biggest enemy is your great ally — Saudi Arabia — and the foot-soldiers of the terror come from your other ally — Pakistan.”

This is perhaps one reason that the war on terrorism is not completely winnable. We aren't willing to do what it takes to win. We know this intuitively but no one wants to talk about it because we think that, if we just soldier on, something will change. That's a sentiment that gets men killed. It's the same sentiment that led us to a decade of fighting in Vietnam. It's simple: Neutralize the sources of wealth in the middle east and you take away the capacity for terror. And we should be very cautious about propping up Pakistan. The situation there reminds me greatly of that of the Shah of Iran. You can only hold onto the oligarchy for a short time before people revolt. And sentiment there is decidely anti-western. Very volatile situation. They are al-quaeda.

[swarthyguy]

>>“Your biggest enemy is your great ally — Saudi Arabia — and the foot-soldiers of the terror come from your other ally — Pakistan.”

Who says the western mind is incapable of holding contradictory, paradoxical thoughts simultaneously? ;)

[swarthyguy]

That's right. Hindu fanatics have been blowing up jews, christians, buildings, planes and the pentagon.

[agrace]

That's the line I intended to pull out. What an insightful statement. Thanks for the ping, dennisw.

[tictoc]

I wholeheartedly recommend Naipaul's writings, although you have to be an adult to appreciate them. No sugarcoated nonsense there.

(How come the left has so many novelists who can write well -- Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, ... -- but conservatives have only Naipaul and a handful of others, and worse yet, most conservatives spend their money on no-talent hacks like Tom Clancy?)

[Hammerhead]

Hey Billy_bob,

Why on earth would you want to usher in those crazies to the 21st century.

Keep em in the dark where they belong!

[Kermit]

"Though he approved of the recent war in Afghanistan, he is keenly aware of the inherent absurdity of the current war on terrorism: “Your biggest enemy is your great ally — Saudi Arabia — and the foot-soldiers of the terror come from your other ally — Pakistan.”"

Just yesterday, the Bush Administration is covering it's eyes and ears by claiming that the Saudis are cooperating fully in the war on terrorism. Someone agreed, but asked 'On whose side?'

[TopQuark]

Yup. Why is this so hard for the media to get? I suspect it's because they cannot understand religious belief in general. They simply cannot believe that other people take their faith seriously, since they don't themselves. Very insighful obsdervation. Lately, Europeans began to refer to themselves with pride as "post-Christian." The name is of a recent origin, but the process has begun in XIX century. I strongly believe that the vacuum created by teh retreat of Chritianity has allowed, and was filled by, socialism.

By now, the post-Christian West cannot even recognize the ability to die for one's beliefs, whether religios or any other.

Therefore they must logically ascribe the motivations of religious believers to other things, like class struggle, economic factors, psychological conditions, etc. The class strugle is particularly comforting psychologically because it fits with the rest of the presently fashionable social-engineering view of the world: if we only give them more aid, if only we educate their children...

This mentality is the very root of the why-do-they-hate-us bewilderment that decended on a huge portion of our own country after the Sep 11.

[The KG9 Kid]

I thought these people were miserable and starving from dreadful US sanctions?

[Billy_bob_bob]

I think one could make the argument that by bringing them into the 21st century we could put them into a position of having something to lose, hence they just might decide to start behaving themselves.

When your world consists of nightly bull sessions around a camel dung fire, looking up at the jet planes and satellites crossing over in the night sky overhead, it is not hard to see where the compulsion to smash things might come from. If they could have a piece of the modern world that has so far proven so elusive to them, perhaps they might decide they don't want to smash it after all.