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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Fred Levine who wrote (67688)2/7/2003 11:15:37 AM
From: Sun Tzu  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 70976
 
Fred, I am sorry you took that statement as me calling you anti-arab. I do not think you to be as such and was merely listing various anger reasons. I am glad that you took the time to write back and I'd like to go over your points.

we are living in a hostile world with people determined to destroy as many of us as they can. They are not constrained by our morality or even personal consequences.

I am sorry you feel that way Fred, but I assure you that it is not so. Currently I cannot think of any country whose people have more reason to hate US than Iraq. And yet when you listen to the reports of American journalists in Iraq, they describe an amazingly hospitable and kind people. If you take the time to study their culture, you will see that "morality or even personal consequences" have a much deeper root in the Middle East than in the West. Sometimes it is different, but it is never incompatible with ours. In the interest of greater cultural understanding, I'll be happy to provide background info if you wish.

BTW, I have been through rough neighborhoods, two wars, one revolution, more smugglers and armed rebels than I care to mention. I am fully familiar with the mentality on both sides of the coin. And yet I have always managed to find a peaceful solution to each situation without either getting my butt ripped or compromising too much.

You quoted Noam Chomsky whom I rate as a first class dope.

So be it. I am not discussing a person, only the points they make. And in case of Chomsky, I stated up front that I do not agree with everything he says.

We differ in our perception of threat.

Quite true. You seem to think that things just happen out of the blue or due to madness of a few. I'd like to dig in a little deeper and see our policies as self destructive and highly dangerous. Apparently so does a good chunk of America and a great majority in the rest of the world.

But even assuming that the invasion of Iraq is about Bin Laden's attack, something that even Bush administration has not argued (the most they said was that after invasion of Afghanistan an Al-Qaida camp was set up in northern Iraq), tell me how invasion of Iraq destroys Bin Laden's network instead of increasing his recruits?

I have prominent Arab friends who tell me that elimination of Saddam by force would be more welcome

I agree with this. But since when are we in the business of making Arabs happy at great financial and political cost to us and lives of innocent Iraqies? This is not a good reason for war.

Perhaps by living in NY I am more aware of the immense and fruitless damage.

You are forgetting that my brother very narrowly escaped serious injury in 9/11, that I lost people that I knew, and that I was involved in helping the victims. So I am fully aware of the damage. Not only I do not see my personal disdain for Bin Laden and his kind as reasons to invade Iraq, I see it as reason to look at the roots of the issue and bring about a lasting solution. Current policies will only make it worse and add to his network.

If you think that reason will prevail, your arguments fit into place.

Nope! I do not. The point that is missing from you statement here, is that just as you don't have to be insane to cure a schizophrenic, your opposition does not have to be logical for you to use logic in your own actions. Again, I am not here debating the reasonability or humanity of Saddam. I am questioning the logic of this invasion. What is it?

If you are wrong, we can kiss many European and American butts goodbye.

And if I am right, we are going down a very tragic and bloody path just to fill the coffers of big oil and we will pay for it over time with blood of many innocents.

Sun Tzu