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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (94400)	2/5/2002 2:28:22 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

YZ, In the past, I have often said that Norman Mailer and William F. Buckley were two guys who were wrong such a high percentage of the time that you could just say "he's wrong" without reading them. But, when they're right, they make some good points, and both are entertaining writers, so I read them, anyway. I think he made some errors and some good points in the article. First, the idea that Allah is a foreign concept to Americans. There are many Muslim Americans, many of whom are prominent. For example, some of our high profile movies recently have been about Ali and Malcolm X. Also, I believe that Allah is a translation of the Hebrew Yahweh and the translation, Jehovah, both names of which are well known to Americans. Now, it is certainly possible that all three are foreign to Norman. <g> I don't think the US is at war with Islam, especially the 4% of our military that are Muslims. On repeating "evil" so often, I tend to agree that Bush is jingo-izing a serious situation. As usual, American politicians don't trust the US public to understand issues that are not totally black and white. Evil certainly does apply. As does angry, dangerous, intelligent, ruthless, insane, and, the most important, terminally envious. By emphasizing "evil," Bush de-humanizes the enemy. Which is fine until you come face to face with him and he is a human being. A wrong-headed, evil, dangerous human being who must be stopped. But not Satan in a ZZ Top beard. And he thinks he is right and is trying to wipe out sin from the world. And many are in so-called Christian Militias as well as fundamentalist Islamic organizations. It wasn't Muslims who blew up the building in Oklahoma City. I don't like comparisons with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We were in a declared war and there is absolutely no question that the Atomic bombs saved the lives of thousands of allied troops by forcing a quick halt to hostilities. I don't see any moral difference in killing someone with a broadsword or with a bomb. Russia lost many more soldiers and civilians by not having the bomb, which they could have used at Leningrad and Stalingrad. And by having a nutburger in charge of the country. The terrorists attacked civilians and made no bones about it. As far as I know, WTC was not a major military base. He has a point that we don't know against whom we are fighting. Terrorists don't wear uniforms and borders are no challenge to them. We still have to fight them. Like Mailer and many others, I worry about an encroachment on Civil Rights. The character of many members of the admistration makes me even more nervous. For example, Ashcroft hiding the statue of blind lady Justice. O.K., she was nekkid. But it is an awfully bad metaphor. Good read.