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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (34958)	3/16/2004 9:06:53 PM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793917

Quote of the day "The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority; it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind; it is the appeaser's intellectual abdication that invites them to take over. When a culture's dominant trend is geared to irrationality, the thugs win over the appeasers. When intellectual leaders fail to foster the best in the mixed, unformed, vacillating character of people at large, the thugs are sure to bring out the worst. When the ablest men turn into cowards, the average men turn into brutes." --- Ayn Rand, The Objectivist, "Altruism as Appeasement," January 1966. silentrunning.tv

To: Dayuhan who wrote (34958)	3/16/2004 9:09:43 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793917

Resentment is so strong that majorities in three Muslim countries surveyed - Jordan, Pakistan and Morocco - feel that suicide bombings against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq are justifiable. I question the entire interpretation of this question. Who thinks that suicide bombings are caused by or approved of due to resentment? Was that the question? "Do you resent the West so much that you approve of suicide bombings?" I highly doubt it. No, the question was closer to "Do you approve of suicide bombings?" - the resentment motive is editorializing by the journalist. This ascribed "resentment" motive (as with the "desperation" motive ascribed to the Palestinians) ignores one of the great themes of Islamism - that martyrdom is glorious, that death is to be wished for, that through the Muslim love of death, the West will be defeated and Islam will re-emerge triumphant. For these true believers, the suicide in the suicide bombings is the central, glorious act. And these true believers are heard by millions every Friday in places like Morocco, Jordan and Pakistan. Most journalists seem to believe that Islamism isn't a real belief system, that it's just some sort of local coloration lent to 'the real motives,' which they ascribe to "resentment" or "desperation". This is an act of projection, of putting themselves into the bomber's place. They themselves would never chose to blow themselves up and kill a hundred innocents unless they were truly desperate, so they figure the bombers must be too. They don't seem to understand that for a believing Islamist, blowing yourself up and killing a hundred infidels is the whole point of the exercise. In this way, reporters don't give Islamism credit for being a real ideology. If the bombers were Nazis, the reporters wouldn't make this mistake. They understand that Nazism is a real ideology that can drive behavior that otherwise seems crazy. They don't belive it for Islamism. So they ask the wrong questions and misinterpret the answers.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (34958)	3/16/2004 9:33:24 PM
From: frankw1900	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793917

here is the actual Pew site story and further connections to the questionnaire and analysis: people-press.org I don't have time right now to report on it. I have to go out.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (34958)	3/16/2004 10:41:16 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793917

More than half the Pakistanis polled now believe that "suicide bombings against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq are justifiable". 65% have a positive opinion of Osama bin Laden I fully expect it. Osama is Robin Hood, now. The real question is, "how many will pick up a bomb and try to kill us?" and "how much organization is devoted to doing it?" Very few, and none, in Pakistan. We can never make a Muslim love us. Not unless we want to become one.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (34958)	3/17/2004 12:23:27 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 793917

"I mean sure, we can always just kill 'em all, but just think what it will cost..." No, just kill enough of them to dissuade a vast majority of them that they will pay a high price if they wish to continue. And with Bush continuing his policy in the war on terrorism, the countries that harbor vast numbers of suicide idiots will face serious consequences that will affect the entire population of those countries. Besides, I doubt that 65% of those folks are going to strap on a bomb & go willingly off to their 72 Virginians. Now if we go with Kerry's return to making acts of terrorism a police matter, then this is going to be a long & bloody conflict..... mostly our blood though.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (34958)	3/17/2004 3:45:31 AM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Respond to of 793917

I'm very glad that the removal of Saddam has made the world safer. I just don't feel very safe. Nearly everyone felt "very safe" before 9/11, out if sight, out of mind. The only difference now is that it's out in the open, but the underlying hatred of the US (and other minorities perceived as unjustly controlling everything in this or that region in the world) was there all along and due to come out regardless. I'm rather unmoved by worldwide diplomatic discontent over Saddam Hussein's regime being toppled in Iraq. Everyone prefers to leave stable though inhuman dictatorships solidly in place. It's better for business you know. Morals have nothing to do with it.