Lorne, I did not mean to imply that you held any particular religious belief.
There are sick individuals and organizations in all religions. I also pointed out Koresh and Jones, who both used religion to sway their followers to evil. Add to that the Skinheads or KKK. I'd be willing to bet there are Christian anti muslim groups brewing about.
If you want to defeat your enemy you have to understand the enemy's motivation. If you do not understand that, you are probably going to waste energy in trying to disuede him from attacking you.
Now every farmer knows that you can only plant seed in a fertile field. OBL planted seeds...it was all he had. But he found fertile minds to plant them in. Can you answer the question as to how these folks were easily convinced to do evil?
You need only look at the history of western influence in the middle east to answer that question. Western interests have been coming to the ME for the last century. They have exploited the resources of the countries, and shared little of that wealth. The tables were turned, and ME governments took back control in many cases. Iraq, Iran and many others. The Saudi Royals were bought off. The balance of power in the middle east has always been influenced by the west, money and greed.
Couple that with the struggle of the Palestinians and you have very fertile ground for hatred of the west, in particular the US. But even Russia is despised by Middle Easterners for their domination and subjegation of the indigenous peoples.
I find many parallels between the Christians and the Muslims. Both religions have beliefs that say women are inferior. That their wishes should be subjegated to that of the men. But the modern world has steadily eroded that belief in both Christian and Muslim countries. But here in this country there are still many that believe that women are second class citizens. Koresh believed that women were to serve him. In Muslim countries they see their way of life threatened by the west. They want to keep their women in burkas (or in western terms...barefoot and pregnant) making sons for them.
They see what the west is bringing to them. Drugs, alcohol and pornography. They are upset that these evils are being thrust upon them. That the west will change their tribal customs and ways. That we will take their power away. That we will subjegate them as we have for the past 100 years. If you can understand this...then you understand why OBL has had no problems in recruiting men willing to die to stop it.
Middle Easterners have not come to the US to take advantage of our resources, nor to foist their cultures on us, have they? Do you begin to see the root of the cause for the "terrorists" (freedom fighters to them).
When we stop trying to dominate them, stop taking their resources, stop exporting our values and culture, then they will stop wanting to kill us. If respect and kindness takes the place of these behaviors then there is opportunity for peace.
But the fertile fields are already there...fertilized by 100 years of dominance. And now we have upped the ante by bombing Iraq. OBL has already used this war as additional proof that the west wants to conquer them.
The west may say that they are bringing democracy...but this is code for more governments like the Saudis, or other institutions that will be more friendly to the west...and will continue to sell out the interests of Muslims. When you have to resort to force to bring democracy...it's going to be a hard sell in the ME, since they have seen it before, in Palestine, Iran and other oil rich states. The Saudi royals are a curious anomaly. They have done the bidding of the west...so they remain in power. And they are very close to the Bushies. This no doubt has fanned fears of Arabs...and plays into the hands of OBL.
I'm simply laying out the "field" here. I don't have a silver bullet answer like Rumsfeld sold us. But I think the bottom line comes down to fair play and respect. Things that have been absent for too long. How do we begin to turn the tide?
By dealing respectfully with all peoples in the world. Bombing and wars must only be used when the US is threatened. This was not the case in the Iraq war. The case for war was only a straw man. We have set ourselves back by using the military option at that juncture. The road to sanity is harder and harder to find when you keep lumping death and destruction upon the land.
Orca |
