Hezbollah's motto -"The worse the better!"
Capt. Fogg, or as I like to say, Foggy, stole my blog topic today. It's a typical story after Kofi Annon claimed Israel "deliberately" attacked a U.N. post. Turns out that from the grave one of the U.N. observers killed is speaking through his emails and he wrote, "We've got Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions, taking our positions here and then using us for shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence Forces)." I should have posted earlier but I wanted to give the slackers who didn't read me yesterday to have a chance this morning to read the pearls I strung together twenty-four hours ago. No matter. I'll just plagarize from Thomas L. Freidman again and then throw in the latest flip-flop by the Republicans who have only one principle - do anything to get re-elected to cling to power.
"There is nothing that you can't do to someone in the Middle East today...We've seen Sunni Muslims in Iraq suicide-bomb a Shiite mosque on Ramadan; we've seen Shiite militiamen torture Sunnis in Iraq by drilling holes in their heads with power tools; we've seen Jordanian Islamist parliamentarians mourning the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, even though he once blew up a Jordanian wedding; we've seen hundreds of Palestinian suicide bombings of Israeli cafes and buses; and we've seen Israel retaliating by, at times, leveling whole buildings, with the guilty and innocent inside. Now we've seen the Hezbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, take all of Lebanon into a devastating, unprovoked war with Israel, just to improve his political standing and take pressure off Iran."
"When will the Arab-Muslim world stop getting its "pride" from fighting Israel and start getting it from constructing a society that others would envy, an ecomony others would respect, and inventions and medical breakthroughs from which others would benefit?"
"There will be no new Middle East...as long as Old Middle Easterners, like Nasrallah, use all their wits and resources to start a new Arab-Israeli war rather than build a new Arab university...Without that we are wasting our time and the Arab world is wasting its future."
Couldn't have said it better myself so I didn't even try. Too bad the New York Times has put Freidman behind a subscription firewall. His columns should be available to everyone everywhere. At least I am.
BONUS POST: The Republicans in their latest desperate attempt to cling to power and prevent any investigation into high crimes (including stupid crimes) and misdemeanors have added to their flip-flop list and after being against an increase in the minimum wage are now for it. They still can't help themselves are are trying to attach another gift to wealthy contributors to the wage increase bill. November and escorting these power mad Republicans out the door can't come soon enough.
"There is nothing that you can't do to someone in the Middle East today...We've seen Sunni Muslims in Iraq suicide-bomb a Shiite mosque on Ramadan; we've seen Shiite militiamen torture Sunnis in Iraq by drilling holes in their heads with power tools; we've seen Jordanian Islamist parliamentarians mourning the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, even though he once blew up a Jordanian wedding; we've seen hundreds of Palestinian suicide bombings of Israeli cafes and buses; and we've seen Israel retaliating by, at times, leveling whole buildings, with the guilty and innocent inside. Now we've seen the Hezbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, take all of Lebanon into a devastating, unprovoked war with Israel, just to improve his political standing and take pressure off Iran."
"When will the Arab-Muslim world stop getting its "pride" from fighting Israel and start getting it from constructing a society that others would envy, an ecomony others would respect, and inventions and medical breakthroughs from which others would benefit?"
"There will be no new Middle East...as long as Old Middle Easterners, like Nasrallah, use all their wits and resources to start a new Arab-Israeli war rather than build a new Arab university...Without that we are wasting our time and the Arab world is wasting its future."
Couldn't have said it better myself so I didn't even try. Too bad the New York Times has put Freidman behind a subscription firewall. His columns should be available to everyone everywhere. At least I am.
BONUS POST: The Republicans in their latest desperate attempt to cling to power and prevent any investigation into high crimes (including stupid crimes) and misdemeanors have added to their flip-flop list and after being against an increase in the minimum wage are now for it. They still can't help themselves are are trying to attach another gift to wealthy contributors to the wage increase bill. November and escorting these power mad Republicans out the door can't come soon enough.
posted by Crankyboy at 11:48 AM
12 Comments:
We are dealing with two religious traditions that welcome the end of the world. What a surprise that people work so hard at making it happen.
Ann Coulter can shriek about Godless religions, but it's the godbastards and the godmongers and the godwarriors who are destroying the world.
Amen Brother Fog.
"When will the Arab-Muslim world stop getting its "pride" from fighting Israel and start getting it from constructing a society that others would envy, an ecomony others would respect, and inventions and medical breakthroughs from which others would benefit?"
When the US stops supporting murderous tyrants like the Saud Family and Mubarak of Egypt.
When Muslims support someelse than Bin Laden, Nasrallah, zarqawi and other butchers who offer death and oppression to their followers and those inprisoned in their world on a scale far larger than pikers like Mubarak. If the Arabs would produce a Thomas Jefferson to lead (heck even a George Jefferson) just someone who doesn't think beheading people is a virtue and resume leader then we wouldn't have to support tyrants.
Are you serious? Now you are just making up nonsense.
Arabs support those guys because they are the only ones who fight the corrupt governments under which they suffer. Hamas is the perfect example. The Palestinians had to choose between the PLO, a group of thieves who stuffed their Swiss bank accounts with the aid money earmarked for the people. All the while, Hamas was on the ground providing social services to a suffering community. When those are the only two options available, it is obvious who will be chosen.
Egypt is in that position now. Mubarak is one of the most sickeningly corrupt leaders in the region, who loots the country, steals from the people, oppresses them and then jails the most popular opposition leader in decades - Ayman Noor. All with barely a peep about "democracy" from Condi.
With Ayman Noor out of the picture, the only opposition to Mubarak are the religious nuts and it's only a matter of time when people choose them because they are sick and tired of Mubarak and his corrupt son who is being groomed to be the next puppet tyrant leader.
If you just hate Arabs and can never consider them as human beings, then please say so. We can end these discussions.
I don't hate Arabs at all. I hate what Suadi Arabia teaches its children - that Jews and Christians are monkeys and dogs. I hate that children are taught to blew themselves up as a way to a better life. And they don't do this because of poverty as the 9/11 hijackers were middle class university educated students. Poverty doesn't cause terrorism, terrorism causes poverty. That's why you don't see China or India teaching their people to hate and destroy. They teach them math and engineering. I hate that the Arab Muslim world hasn't taken a single bit of responsibility for their situation. It's always the Jews, or Israel or America. How is it that Eastern Europe threw off the shackles of dictatorship and replaced it with democracy but no such thing happens in the Middle East? It's the culture of death and glorifying martyrdom that I hate. It's no different argument than Thomas Freidman made today and I doubt anyone would call him someone who hates Arabs. It's about raising a standard of living rather than lowering life expectancy. In 1999 Jordan exported $13 million to the U.S. in goods. That year they signed a free trade agreement with us. In 2004 they exported $1 billion to the U.S. Jordan also changed who could become a preacher of Islam. Before it was the those who failed exams to go to college now becoming a preacher of Islam requires it to only be studied in graduateschool. That's a change that Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt etc won't do. that has nothing to do with Israel or anything else. It has to do with governing responsibility. None of which exists in the Arab Muslim world. That's not Arab hate. That's reality.
I don't disagree with a word you said. You just missed the part about hating the US support for a lot of those freaks.
A few months ago, I went to a dinner at a family friends' house, and everyone there was Arab. The conversation over dinner turned to the usual "Jews run the media, Jews run Congress" bullshit. After listening to it for a while I chimed in - "you know, if everything you say is true and Jews really do run the media, run the Congress, run the world and really do prevent Arabs from getting anywhere, then I think it's fair to conclude that that they really are the chosen people." I went on, "perhaps it is time to admit that God likes them WAY more than he likes Muslims and convert. Otherwise, get some dignity, stuff a sock in it and learn from them. They must be doing something right."
Funny thing was, it was the Palestinians in the room who agreed with me the most.
Thinking about what happened to Sadat after signing a peace treaty with Israel, I wonder. What would happen if Mubarak disappeared? what kind of movement would take over and what kind of Egypt would result?
I have chastized the US for supporting tyrants for many decades, and of course i still do, but I'm not a believer that knocking over tyrants results in good government - the idea that has been sold to us over and over again by the Bush administration. Whatever the root causes of religious extremism may be, it does not fade away easily if in fact it ever does. It proliferates like roaches and it's always there to take advantage of the darkness.
If we somehow got rid of the ibn Saud mafia, would we see something like what happened in Iran?
And then there's oil. Is there really an uncorrupted producer of oil in any quantity? The world has more of an interest in anything that keeps the oil flowing than in peace or justice or democracy or anything else.
Frankly, I'm not an optimist. I don't think the future holds anything much better than what we're seeing today.
About Egypt, the Christian community is small, but wields a fair amount of political power. Ayman Noor is secular and is quite popular and would stand a very good chance of beating Mubarak in a fair election - which is why Mubarak jailed him.
But I agree there is no reason to be optimistic. Arab and Islamic cultures, unfortunately, have not just stagnated, but devolved. An Egyptian guy I know constantly laughs in frustration about us being from the only culture that exists today that is moving backwards. He is right for all the reasons Cranky laid out in the latest comment.
See, this is what a reasonable exchange of ideas looks like. I wish there were more like you Intellectual Insurgent. Until the Arab/Muslim world looks to better themselves rather than bring down others it will keep devolving.
From Freidman's book The World is Flat - He tells a story about India versus Pakistan. How much differnet they are. How there are for example no Indians in al Qaeda. How Muslims hold high offices and are on the Supreme COurt there. Etc. its a great read. He says the difference is summed up in that an Indian in India looks at the rich man on the hill with a mansion and says "one day I'm going to be just like that man" whereas in Pakistan a Pakistani looking at a rich man on a hill in a mansion says, "one day I'm going to kill that man." That's the difference and having a smaller Israel or no Israel or Americans out of Iraq won't change that ever.
There are more Arabs like me. Unfortunately, their voices have been drowned out by the overabundance of crazies our community has such a knack for producing. They are the Ayman Noors who end up in jail while the religious nuts go wild.
Friedman was 100% correct in his comparison of India and Pakistan. I am about to babble, so I am going to turn it into a blog post.
Thanks for the fun debate!
This was a fantastic read.
I dont really have much to add...but I felt I should chime in with that compliment at the very least. :)
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