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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scoobah who wrote (9518)	7/16/2005 12:01:13 AM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 32591

I am a centrist. not a moveon.org type. You're new around here but I was one of the biggest detractors of Howard Dean for president, a defender of Kerry when they caleld him "Bush lite", and I have often stated it was Ralph Nader more than Jeb Bush cheating in Florida, that first put Bush in the White House. Nader's leftist lie (reminiscient of 1968) that there is no difference between the major parties cost is 8 years of rightwing rule. The only good news here is that the rightrwing have such unpopular programs and are so corrupt (especially the Bushie Texas gang) that they will disqualify themselves from ever being trusted in power again for 20-40 years. But in the meantime, they will have gouged and stolen something in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars for their industrial special interests and got us mired in another Vietnam-type counter-productive war with no end.

To: Scoobah who wrote (9518)	7/16/2005 7:58:52 AM
From: lorne	Respond to of 32591

Fear Factor By Ralph Kinney Bennett 07/14/05 techcentralstation.com Concerning the "paralysis of modern Muslims" in the face of Muslim extremist terror, which fellow TCSer Arnold Kling wrote on recently, I would suggest that a big reason for Muslim silence is, simply, terror. Steven Schwartz in a recent TCS article points to a type of spiritual renewal and reinforcement of traditional Muslim principles sans the "bloody stain" cast upon them by the Islamic terrorists. But the state of fear in which many Muslims find themselves is a formidable barrier to such a transformation. Americans and Britons have mainly shown anger and contempt for the Islamofascist terrorists. The Spanish? Well, their government proved a bit wobbly, but a lot of individual Spaniards were not intimidated and were indignant at their new government's swift knuckle-under to the murderous fanatics. The sad reality is that Muslims, who are bearing the brunt of the terror, are also the ones most disposed -- by a shared religious/cultural experience -- to be terrorized. While it is true that fewer Muslims now openly cheer for the terrorists, many may still do so secretly, and many more appear to condone them with silence -- a silence born of fear. It may have taken the Western public a while to really believe the blood vengeance of Islamic radicals against "infidels" and "apostates" (we couldn't quite bring ourselves to believe all that stuff about the fatwa that sent Salman Rushdie into hiding, for instance), but the Muslim faithful have known it all along. They have reason to believe the threats of the terrorists are not idle. They have been exposed constantly in their communities and often in their schools to the blood-drenched rhetoric of jihadists. Having been too familiar with incidents like, say, the humiliation and harassment of those women who do not wear the veil, they have an uneasy sense that the sliding scale from mere humiliation of a teenage girl to histrionic decapitation of a young Iraqi policeman slides upward very quickly. We are not talking, after all, about an Amish congregation "shunning" someone who has drifted from the faith, or a "good Catholic" girl being harassed at the dinner table for dating a protestant. We are talking death and destruction. Many Muslim clerics are vociferous aiders and abettors of the terrorists. But many more, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, are compliantly silent lest they be killed. Just last Saturday, in Afghanistan's Paktia province, a cleric who had been supportive of the new Afghan government, was murdered in his home along with his wife by Taliban terrorists. Recently I wrote about the power of hatred -- hatred of the West, hatred of the "crusaders," hatred of democracy or progress -- which spurs Osama bin Ladin and various others like his gangster ganymede Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. That hatred holds real power because of the atmosphere of many Muslim communities -- an atmosphere of isolation from the world in which a subtle and not-so-subtle coercion to conformity is an everyday reality. Monday's Wall Street Journal carried a report on how "political Islam" is preaching intolerance in France. Its message in the burgeoning Franco Muslim ghettoes: "People who are different are held in contempt. Mingling with mainstream society is frowned upon. Society should be founded on one religion: Islam." Imagine yourself as a decent, law-abiding Muslim citizen of Iraq. Do you dare speak out against the bombings or tip off the police or the American troops to the whereabouts of terrorists? Many have, bravely. But it seems that many more have "thought twice" and chosen not to risk death to themselves or their family. And while Muslim clerics of any stature have been among the most mealy-mouthed or silent, they know that they are in a position very like front-line officers vis-à-vis snipers. It is easy for us to call for greater courage on the part of moderate Muslims, but if we have not lived in the fear-drenched atmosphere in which many Muslims find themselves, we cannot understand how they may see their silence as a proper and even logical element of simple survival. As Iranian expatriate and Islamic terrorism expert Amir Teheri wrote recently, these "ordinary" Muslims, whether devout, moderate or "nominal." are dealing with fanatics who "cannot be talked into reason through anger management or round-table discussions." While moderate Muslims might like to simply be left alone to live their lives and interact with other humans, the fanatic, notes Teheri, wants "to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make around the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it is his divine duty to kill you."

To: Scoobah who wrote (9518)	7/16/2005 8:38:11 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 32591

Sun 17 Jul 2005 Israeli troops arrest 26 'militants' in raids DERRY KIERNAN ISRAELI soldiers raided towns across the West Bank early yesterday, arresting 26 suspected Palestinian militants a day after mounting violence left a five-month-old truce in tatters. Each side blamed the other for the increase in attacks. Israel said it was acting to protect itself from an unceasing barrage of rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza. The Palestinians accused Israel of raising tensions by killing six militants in airstrikes that appeared to signal Israel had resumed its policy of targeted killings. The violence threatened to intensify as Israeli troops massed at two makeshift camps outside Gaza, and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told army commanders late on Friday to plan for a ground operation in northern Gaza, though a raid would be delayed to give the Palestinians time to take action themselves. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said he feared the army was planning to create a buffer zone in Gaza ahead of Israel's planned pullout from the volatile coastal strip next month. "The Israeli tanks around Gaza are very, very dangerous. I am afraid that this will create serious problems," he said. This article: scotsman.com Middle East conflict: news.scotsman.com

To: Scoobah who wrote (9518)	7/16/2005 8:49:54 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

I find nothing the American Spirit has ever posted of value. If you want my permission to ban the most banned poster and possibly the most ignored poster on SI, you have it. I occasionally stray off topic, and you have shown patience with me. I do however attempt to address the topic more often than being off topic. AS has shown a much greater propensity to post off topic than on. Anyone who has ever posted to American Spirit for any length of time will understand why he ended up banned on yet another subject. You will not be judged badly for it.