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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (187357)	4/30/2004 8:00:27 AM
From: zonder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572749

just from what you know about human nature, for a people to be more concerned about the cause of "their brothers" than they are about their own desperate circumstances? Surely, people are concerned more about their own safety & welfare than others, even those they feel affinity with. The issue here is whether or not the anti-American sentiment in Iraq and the rest of the Muslim world is affected, if not to a large degree caused, by the Palestinian situation. The answer to the above is Yes. And people's concern with their own fortunes coming first has little to do with this. When we take Iraqis in particular "US is evil because it sides with Israel in oppressing our Muslim brothers" translates easily to "US is evil AND is/will be doing us evil". Underlying the ease of making this parallel is the tribal mentality and way of life they are accustomed to. You cannot possibly understand how powerful this mentality is - membership to a tribe, protection of the welfare of the clan, etc is everything. The "clan" can be your extended family (30 or so), or it can be the "umma", the totality of all Muslims everywhere. [This affinity, incidentally, is the reason why you see Saudi Muslims going off to fight in Chechnya against the Russians or Pakistani Muslims flocking to Bosnia to fight on their side] I LOVE* tejek. I would not want to see anything happen to him. But if it comes down to his freedom or mine, I'm getting mine first* That is because he is not your family. For your son, you would probably give your life. The cause of the Palestinians is totally secondary to the desire for Arabs to get some dignity on their own behalves They have no dignity, and to get some, Arabs (as a whole) are attacking Americans??? I heard of weirder theories than this, but not many, I must admit. Again: You are parroting Fox TV. That is no different than uneducated Arabs parroting Al Jazeera. It is human nature. Or perhaps animal instinct Or perhaps it is a dumb theory. And perhaps "human instinct" is more about preservation of one's own life and not about creating elaborate causes and going off risking one's life to "get some dignity". You can lay it all on the US and Israel from now on US has a role in this conflict. It is not a figment of the collective Arab imagination. You have to accept this before you can understand the problem. It is a fact that Arab states use their oil riches to suppress their people It is not just the money. It is also political support and military power, which, for the most part, is supplied by the US to the likes of Saudi Arabia. But once Iraq is freed You still have not answered my question: What is going to happen when, in the first democratic elections, Iraq elects a religious fundamentalist? Do you think US will again "free" Iraq from its democratically elected government?