Hi NightOwl; Re: "Lower Manhattan may have been blowing up every quarter for the past 100 years, but if so it was at the hands of your demented brethren and your lovely sistereen. Never was it on the target lists of Vietnamese terrorists or any other foreign civilians prior to AQ."
This is untrue. It was foreign anarchists that were responsible for the terror bombings of the late 19th and early 20th century. To the typical (white, Protestant, Anglo) American at that time, the dusky, Catholic, Italians were as foreign civilians as the ranks of AQ is nowadays. From the point of view of the state, there was no difference, it's just that nowadays, as opposed to the late 19th century, south and east Europeans are considered "white". Hell, the Irish weren't considered a cvilized people during most of the 19th century.
Re: "We have had some remarkable foreign enemies since 1791. We've contested numerous foreign wars, and imposed our economic and cultural power in places The Great Khan never knew existed. Yet in all that time not one NY structure was struck or bombed by any of their agents, saboteurs, spies, enemy aliens, messengers of god or soccer hooligans."
The WTC wasn't bombed by any agents, spies, enemy aliens, messengers of God, or soccer hooligans, so what's your point. As before, it was bombed by private individuals, and they certainly didn't have any connection with God.
Re: "It isn't your presence in their countries that puts the Islamist on the road to terrorism. It is your dominant existence period."
The strife with the Islamists is driven not by religion, but by ethnic competition. As such, it is identical to every other religious conflict on this planet. The primary drive behind the conflict is ethnic competition, religion is just an excuse, a technique of dividing the human population into an "us vs them". It is possible to use ethnic differences themselves, but when the ethnic differences are minimal, other than the religious difference, (as in the case of the Catholics vs Protestants in Ireland), religion is used as a rallying point.
Re: "It is self-delusion to think that OBL's enemies are totalitarian Arab regimes at home."
You're being silly here. Various Arab countries (Iraq under Saddam, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, etc.) have executed far more Islamic fundamentalists then we ever will. Their success is due to the undeniable fact that their police forces are far more effective than ours at infiltration.
Re: "But when you tire of playing "law and order" and decide to put an end to these exclusionary religionists... the bond fires and dumb bombs will be there waiting."
Already the American heart grows weary of dealing with Iraq. The alternative is not the wishy-washy stumbling of Kerry, whose plans are nothing but Bush lite, but the America-First thinking of the true conservatives like Pat Buchanan.
-- Carl |
