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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (101150)	6/11/2003 3:46:32 PM
From: michael97123	Respond to of 281500

"If an American or even worse, an Israeli, pushes one Arab around, they care more about it than 100,000 Arabs dead at the hands of a fellow Arab. " Lets say hundreds of thousands and call him saddam and nary a word about it. Hell, they were Kurds or they were shiites or saddam was good for arab self esteem and so on. mike

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (101150)	6/11/2003 4:00:13 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Muslims react bitterly to any outsider killing a fellow Muslim. They react at least as bitterly to Christians killing Muslims as they do to Jews killing Muslims. Probably more, since they are afraid of Crusaders. They believe, rightly or wrongly, that Israel is kicking their ass using American weapons. Take America out of the picture and the story would have a different ending. It really pisses them off, too. Every Muslim I know is pissed off about it. No matter how much they like Americans in general, the preference shown to Israel mortifies them.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (101150)	6/11/2003 6:25:08 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

If an American or even worse, an Israeli, pushes one Arab around, they care more about it than 100,000 Arabs dead at the hands of a fellow Arab. This is the kind of "Arab Mind" remark that I would normally dismiss, if I hadn't seen several talk shows during the war where Arabs from surrounding countries were face to face with Iraqi expats. It was really pretty shocking to hear an Egyptian telling an Iraqi who'd gotten out of the country to escape death at the hands of the Baathist regime how he was rooting for Saddam against the USA. Kind of like French communists like Sarte telling a gulag escapee how great Communism was under Stalin. At the same time, I would not waste effort getting in the Arab Street's face over this; several articles have already been posted with Arabs questioning why someone like Saddam was ever supported. The real purpose of the war was never WMD imho, it was, among other things, to send a clear message, and I'd say it was received. On the WMD issue, it's actually a little late now to be asking whether Americans would have tolerated the loss of life of our soldiers just for ridding the region of Saddam, freeing Iraqi citizens, and a more reliable flow of oil. It's a done deal, and now the issue will be settled one way or another by the time honored method of Political Scandal.