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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (15948)	5/31/2002 3:59:34 AM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 27666

What you wrote sounds reasonable but it was also much too simplistic! The US did a number of reprehensible things that were not reported to Americans. Like, for example, the US reneged on its promise to pull out of Saudi Arabia. This caused Osama to be angry at the infidel Americans being still around and thereby defile the sanctity of the holy places in Arabia. The US is also seen to be favoring Israel to the tune of $3 billion per year thus enabling Israel to be powerful enough to humiliate the Arabs where firepower is concerned. Imagine what if the US also gives the Arabs, especially the Palestinians, $3 billion annually in aid and armaments. But that is not happening. Nor is that going to happen any time soon. Also Israel is perceived by the Moslems to be sly, sneaky, untrustworthy, treacherous and predatory, and the Moslems are hurt no end that the US is favoring Israel. Furthermore, throughout history, the West had defeated the Muslims many times whereas the Moslems were on top only once and that was during the Ottoman Empire of the Turks. As if to add insult to injury, the West (Britain) arbitrarily carved up the Middle East into various kingdoms. For example, presentday Kuwait was formerly a part of Iraq but it was created by the British. The French created Syria and Lebanon. Why? All because the West wants to exploit the oil-rich Middle-East and they are still doing that today. If it were not for oil, the West would have left the Middle East alone a long time ago. From this one can see that the anger and the humiliation experienced by the Arabs run very deep. I am, therefore, not surprised they want to get even. Unfortunately for them, none of the Arab countries is a power to reckon with. Yet the West fear them. As I pointed out there are several ways of looking at the same issue. For example, what you call mindless suicide bombing is to the convinced Arab fighter an act of supreme sacrifice of himself. And for him it is this sacrifice of himself that takes precedence over everything else. Saddam Hussein once said that the Palestinians resort to suicide bombing simply because they lack armaments to match the firepower of the Israelis. Many folks say their willingness to sacrifice themselves underscores their sense of desperation. To me, it is a desperate cry for help. But no one is responding to that cry, at least not yet. Mind you, not all Palestinians think like the suicide bombers do. They think that suicide bombing is wrong but unfortunately they have no alternatives to offer. As regards Sept 11th, it is now made known the US actually had ample knowledge of the imminent attacks. But the US inexplicably failed to act in time to prevent the attacks. I won't go into the reasons here as it will certainly open a can of worms. While it is true that the Moslem attacks killed many innocent lives (a few under 3,000), it should also be realized that US sanctions on Iraq has also killed many innocent men, children and women (close to 100,000), too, and also made life very miserable for the people of Libya. of course, the US is not going to advertise how many Arabs died as a result of its foreign policy. To be sure, the West has never been perfect. In the last 300 years the West used its superior military power to conquer, subjugate and colonize and bully foreign people. What I have seen so far is that each side insists it is right and the other side is stupid and dead wrong. This is human nature and it is very understandable: "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." As for the Koran inciting Moslems to kill the infidels, I understand that in the context of a Jihad --- a religious war. Moslems normally do not kill non-Moselms in peace time. So 9/11 should be seen in the context of Moslems carrying out their Jihad --- a holy war. Of course, both sides have their propaganda machine. So what we hear these days should be seen from the perspective of the propaganda from each side. Unfortunately, most people are biased and insist what they think is absolutely right and their enemies are stupid and wrong. BTW, I've lots of gold too, and so we can afford to sit around bugging each other no end. <ggg> You said your business is down these days. Is it because of the economic slowdown or because you and your farmheads nowadays just want to keep the lambs for yourselves? <gggg> Lil'ritchie