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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scoobah who wrote (531)	11/23/2001 8:39:05 PM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

Top 15 contradictions and hypocrisies of the current situation in the Middle East and Afghanistan. (drum roll please...) 1) If Syria or Iran wanted to join the "Coalition Against Terror", they would be welcomed with open arms. If Israel wanted to participate they would be told "don't let the door hit you on the way out". 2) The US wants Bin Laden dead or alive, preferably the latter, no "judicial review" required. Israel is castigated for preemptive elimination of terrorists actively involved in terror against its citizens. 3) Yassir Arafat is more sought after as a partner in the "Coalition Against Terror" than Ariel Sharon. Perhaps it is because of his expertise in the subject matter. After all, sometimes it takes a thief to catch a thief. 4) Pakistan, a country whose military overthrew a democratically elected government, is a member in the coalition to bring democracy to Afghanistan. 5) According to the principle that "a friend of a terrorist is a terrorist", instead of including Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in our "Coalition", we should be bombing them. 6) Britain and her loyalists threatens to scuttle the "Good Friday" accord because the IRA refuses to disarm in a manner the British deem acceptable. Yet Tony Blair calls on Israel to negotiate with the militant, murderous and illegally armed PA, that has violated every obligation it undertook as part of the Oslo agreement. 7) Our key coalition partners, the Saudis and Kuwaitis, expect us to defend them from Sadaam and the non-royal Islamic fundamentalist types that threaten to overthrow their corrupt little family affair. Yet they won't allow us to use their facilities to defend ourselves. 8) The Saudis have millions to rebuild New York City, but no money or space to absorb and resettle their Palestinian brethren, who they claim to be the core of the problem in the Middle East. 9) The Saudis expelled all Palestinians because they initially supported Sadaam Hussein in the Gulf War. What would the Saudi reaction have been to Palestinians cheering SCUDS falling on Riyadh? Israel's Arab population and the Palestinians cheered each SCUD as it flew over their heads without fear of expulsion or retribution. 10) If Atzmi Bishara lived in Egypt and denounced Hosni Mubarak in public or private, or under a Palestinian State and denounced Yassir Arafat, he would stand a very good chance of being shot on sight, or first tortured and then shot. Israel is the only place that defends his right to denounce, from the podium of the Knesset no less, the Prime Minister and vilify the very State that safeguards that right for him. 11) The freedom of religion is a fundamental right and principle that our soldiers protect with their lives. Yet we protect the very nations that violently oppose freedom of religion and imprison and torture those who practice a non-sanctioned faith, including other versions of Islam. Come to think of it, when was the last time you saw a Chanukah Menorah or Xmas tree in Saudi Arabia? 12) Yassir Arafat, the person with more Jewish and American blood on his hands than anyone this side of Bin Laden, who's goal is the ultimate expulsion of every Jew from Israel and who exhorts his people to Jihad, is welcomed by governments around the world as a hero and statesman. Yet the Israeli Ambassador to Norway who is threatened with arrest because of his interrogations of Palestinians in order to uncover potential terrorist plots against Israeli citizens. [You're thinking of Denmark, not Norway, and there was an amazing survey from there on the radio yesterday that says that a majority of Danes now support the use of moderate torture in interrogating suspected terrorists, but I have not seen it in print yet so I have not posted it. C.S.]. 13) The CIA and European governments condone torture in the investigation and prevention of terrorism and the apprehension of "approved" terrorists like Bin Laden. (To say nothing of the brutal torture practiced by the Arab regimes.) Yet the State Department scolds Israel for employing similar methods to discover and preempt terrorist acts against its citizens. 14) No protest from the International Community when that "all around nice guy and compassionate leader", Hafez Assad, turned the town of Hama into a Park and Ride and used its citizens as land fill. Yet Israel is excoriated by the International Community for entering Palestinian towns to arrest known terrorists, a responsibility that the PA is obligated to by signed agreement, but refuses to do so. 15) Picture the Looney Tunes of our youth, Bugs Bunny is attacking Elmer Fudd and when poor Elmer finally gets the chance to strike back, Bugs puts on a pair of spectacles and says "you wouldn't hit someone wearing glasses, would you?". The Taliban and the Arabs use attacks during Ramadan as an excuse to scuttle the "Coalition" under the pretense that we would offend Moslem religious sensibilities and prove that in the end this was a Christian Crusade against Islam. Egypt and Syria, and its other Arab allies had no such reservations about attacking Israel on its most solemn day, Yom Kippur, in 1973. Oh by the way, in 1973 they also had no qualms about fighting during the month of Ramadan. Josh Rapps