Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (40376)	3/24/2004 10:31:36 AM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 89467

Baloney...Clark is pure sour grapes...pumping his book...just like O'Neil...

To: lurqer who wrote (40376)	3/24/2004 10:39:45 AM
From: lurqer	Respond to of 89467

It's hard for people in a country only a little more than two centuries old to realize how significant history is to some people. There's a reason why OBL's tapes refer to the west in general and the US in particular as "Crusader". It's a very inflammatory word. How do you think this plays in Pakistan? Powell Slips, 'Crusade' Re-Enters US Lexicon on War Two-and-a- half years after assuaging Muslim anger over US President George W. Bush's use of the word "crusade" to describe anti-terror efforts, Secretary of State Colin Powell slipped and allowed the term to re-enter the lexicon. Powell repeated the word as he described US efforts to bring Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on board to topple Afghanistan's Taliban militia and dismantle Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network after the September 11, 2001 attacks. "We gave them 24, 48 hours to consider it and then I called President Musharraf and said: 'We need your answer now. We need you as part of this campaign, this crusade'," Powell recalled in testimony before a commission investigating the attacks. Bush's original "crusade" comment -- made after the attacks as Washington tried to build a coalition to fight al-Qaeda -- drew winces from Middle East watchers and diplomats who regarded it as impolitic. It also offended Muslims, many of whom are still riled by the memory of the campaigns by medieval Christian Europe to capture and hold Jerusalem. The president's remark forced US officials onto the defensive as they sought to convince the Muslim and Arab world that the war on terrorism was not directed at Islam. Officials were then instructed not to use the term. Asked about Powell's repetition of the word on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher moved to head off any suggestion that the secretary had used the term intentionally or in reference to Islam. "It doesn't always have its historical meaning attached to it," he told reporters. "It's a word that's in general use in English. "But there is absolutely no effort directed at Arabs and Muslims," Boucher said. "This is an effort that we and many Arab and Muslim governments and countries have directed against terrorists who have tried to undermine not only our society, but theirs as well," he said. commondreams.org lurqer