Your opinions are, of course, yours and not necessarily representative of everybody else's opinions.
While it was initially true that Americans believed they were going to have their hands full in Afghanistan, the media, apparently at the behest of the government, did indeed propagate news that Americans would be home for good for X'mas 2001 and Al-Qaeda would be history. Even folks on SI, especially on the Gold Price Monitor, waxed confident at the "imminent" capture and humiliation of Osama by about the second or third week of December. Then, all of a sudden, we all heard Rumsfeld announce that the war was far from over...............
The blacks that you mentioned as being widely accepted by Americans happened to be sports and TV and entertainment stars. No wonder they are accepted. As we all know, sports and entertainment are big business and very popular in America. These fellas represent but a very small segment of the colored population. As for Jesse Jackson, he happened to be a very articulate black guy acceptable to the US administration which under Clinton was doing its best to get the full support of the blacks. It was acceptance for political reasons, not really outright spontaneous acceptance. Ditto for winning the Hispanics over. Remember Bush's antics in the last election?
I don't think backstabbing is the right word because the extremist Moslems have always been forthright in their pronouncements against Israel and the US. Don't forget the US are still dealing with supposedly moderate Moslems in the Middle East and count on their support. You make the same mistake as so many others by making a sweeping generalization that all Moslems are baddies. Don't forget that the US and some European powers are in the ME because of OIL and OIL has been a root of evil in the ME. Really, one should also blame the British and French colonial masters for having mischievously carved up, rather arbitrarily, tracts of land in the Middle East.
The Arabs attacked Israel for many reasons that the media do not let us on. Not knowing all the facts, I am not prepared to say they are justified in attacking Israel. But from diverse sources of information, I get the notion they want to be treated fairly and respect and to maintain their sovereignty or so they say.
In case you are unaware, the perception worldwide that the US has been favoring Israel and Zionism has eroded considerably the sympathy and support that America has enjoyed in the aftermath of 9/11. And that was why Bush has had a hard time selling his plan for a united attack on Iraq. Many feel that the US is favoring Israel just in order to have an excuse to be in the ME. Why? Simply because of oil and perhaps its obligations to some rich and mighty "kingmakers" (of Zionist persuasion???) at home.
Meanwhile the Arabs make the excuse they are fighting for their sovereignty and for a whole bunch of religious reasons. As for Moslems teaching hatred against Jews etc, that is quite understandable under existing conditions. In history, various racial groups had at one time or another propagated prejudice and hatred against other racial groups. Nothing new here. And even modern day Americans are guilty of the same thing. Of course, no one wants to admit it. Most folks want to be regarded as civilized, educated and broadminded!!! But actually many of them are just full of shit!!!
I don't agree that Americans tend to judge others by their action, not by their origin and color. Certainly not according to my observation and that of my friends and many others. Enough said!
It is unfortunate many Americans don't know enough history today because the schools don't teach enough of it or at all. Americans tend to rely on the news media to feed them all the information which they tend to swallow unquestioningly as the gospel truth. But as we all know, the media has been notorious for skewing and slanting information. BTW, do you know who own and control the news and information media???
What is certain and scary is that it just takes a relatively few extremists to kill many Americans and others from a safe distance. Indeed, we are living in very dangerous times! However, no harm is done by looking at things in a balanced perspective. |
