>Z, you may be right but I think that's a small part of it. At times it must look like the Palestinians are more into bombs than anything else but like most feuds, I think land disputes and economics was more at the root of this one.
Ummm... most of the continent of Africa and a large portion of South and Central America is poorer than the Palestinians, yet none of them are committing suicide bombings.
What those areas of the world have in common with the poor of Palestine is that life is not dear. Have you read any of the UN reports on Africa......the atrocities of torture, rape and abuse that are inflicted on each of the warring parties' civilians? Its no secret that the police in most Central American countries are corrupt and dispose of people by taking them to stadium or the backwoods, and shooting them.
I see no difference in the level of violence between the poor of Palestine and other countries. The only difference is that the Palestinians bring the war to their enemy through the suicide bombers. And if you think these atrocities are limited to third world countries, think again. Have you read what has gone on in N. Ireland the past 50 years? A favorite tactic of the IRA, besides terrorist's bombs, is to hobble men by shooting nails at their kneecap, or capturing their victims and bludgeoning their kneecaps with a hammer with the intent of crippling them premanently. I can't remember the number of relatively young men [its in the thousands] who have been effectively crippled in N. Ireland through these tactics.
So, please, don't tell me how bad the Palestinians/Arabs/Muslims are vis a vis other cultures....their badness is not singular in this world by any stretch of the imagination.
There have been two cultures that have produced suicide bombers that I can think of. The first is WWII era Japan, and they were imperialists, and not languishing in poverty.
The second is the Arab world of the last twenty years, much of which is in fact poor. Of course, the leaders, who are not poor, condone, encourage, and fund these operations. I read the Koran a couple of months ago. The whole 72 virgins thing for dying in Allah's cause is in there often, and there are tons of horrible anti-Christian, anti-Jewish statements in there. These people are ingrained with these anti-western values. They do not value the same things we do. Both the WWII Japanese and modern Arab world havehad/ certain bad ideas infused by culture. We beat it out of the Japanese- They're pretty cool now. It's time to do the same with the Arabs.
First, I see no relationship between the kamakaze pilots and suicide bombers. The pilots were fed a steady diet of drugs [I think amphetamines] so that they were hyped and ready to do anything if they got into trouble.
As for the Koran, I have not read it. However, others have claimed that the Moslem religion is neither a violent nor hateful one. Now you come along and say that is not true. Are their passages you can cite that support your view so I can look at them?
In any case, let me say this.......I think exterminating a people to get a rid of a perceived problem is the ultimate hate crime. I hope that you were exaggerating your feelings on the subject in your comments above........frankly, one holocaust every 100 years is more than enough.
ted |
