[Bordermarch] Re: Fahrenheit 9/11 a rebuttal

[Samuel E Orton]

        Hmmm.... this debate kinda caught me by surprise. But I have a
few things I'd like to throw into the mix.

        1. People with a history of being on the wrong end of oppression
cannot be expected to behave rationally. The Jews were on that wrong end
for millennia, and only began escaping it in the last half century. The
Muslims have been there for over a century, first at the hands of
British/French/Dutch imperialism, and later at the hands of blundering US
Cold War "We'll support anyone, no matter how despotic, as long as he's
anti-communist" policy. Of course many of them have attitude problems
concerning "Western Civilization". What would you expect?
        I believe it is made much worse by two factors: First, the
comparatively low literacy rate, which means many people have to be told
what the Qu'ran says, instead of being able to read it for themselves and
make their own decisions. This concentrates power in the hands of a
comparative few Muslim clerics, so of course the extremists have a power
out of proportion to their numbers. 
        Second, both Jews and Muslims the world over have a tendency to
think of themselves as exiled or transplanted Israelis or Arabs. While
that may be a *little bit* of an exaggeration, it is true that both
groups have religious pressure to stick their noses into the problems of
complete strangers half a world away. Because of that, we have
fundraising organizations to funnel money to the Middle East (both
sides), political pressure groups, lobbyists, and terrorist sleeper
cells.
        If enough of the American people insist on making the problems of
the Middle East their business, the President really doesn't have the
option of simply ignoring it, especially when the backlash costs lives.
He's stuck in the middle, without any truly *good* choices, trying to
muddle through as best he can.

        2. Islam, as a religion, espouses peace. So does Christianity,
but that doesn't stop those who bomb abortion clinics, nor those who kill
others because "God told them to." I guess the bottom line for me is that
it is never safe to judge ANY group by the actions of those few members
who end up on the front page.

        3. Do I *like* Bush's decisions? Well... for a lot of them, no.
Not really. But when I look at the alternatives, I don't gripe. It's
better than being at the mercy of those who did nothing for over a decade
(and thought nothing should be done this time either), who put Saddam
Hussein's Iraqi government in charge of the Committee on Human Rights and
Muammar Ghadafi's Libyan government in charge of the Committee on
Terrorism. That's who Bush's detractors seem to think we should listen
to, the good old UN.
        The same UN that wanted to block action this time because it
threatened France, Russia and Germany's sweetheart deals for Iraqi oil.
Remember the phrase "No blood for oil"? Seems like the UN doesn't mind,
as long as it's OUR blood for THEIR oil. The same UN that has *for
decades* steadfastly ignored the pleas of many, many groups all over the
world petitioning for political autonomy and self-government, and has
paid attention and given credence to only ONE of those groups: The PLO.
Which just happens to be the only one of those groups that has conducted
terrorist attacks against one of the UN's member nations. Can you say,
"Sending a message"?

        4. No one in their right mind wants a war, LEAST of all a front
line military man. Being shot at is pretty rough. I know from experience.
But it's nowhere near as hard as trying to stand at perfect attention,
completely expressionless, while your best friend goes by in a box with a
flag draped over it. Again, I know from experience.
        Do those men and women *want* to be there? Of course not, they
are basically sane people. And yet, they are all volunteers, they all
chose willingly to answer that call. So why did they go? Simple. The same
reason a man will risk being run over, rushing out into a busy street to
save a stranger's child who wandered into the roadway. Just because they
don't want to be shot at, don't want to see their friends die, doesn't
mean they don't think what they are doing is worth the price. But just
because it's worth it doesn't make it easy, nor does it make them immune
to depression when they see a planeload of caskets leaving the airstrip
week after week.

        5. Given #4 above, knowing that for every person that blesses
their presence there is another who curses it, for every person who would
bring them food and flowers, and introduce their children, their is
another who would capture them, torture them and behead them if they got
the chance.... given that, what keeps them going? Pride. Pride in knowing
that, maybe they aren't perfect, but they are the best there is by a good
long way. There is no such thing as a war in which only the bad guys die,
with no casualties on your side, no innocent civilians caught in the meat
grinder. And yet, every line trooper I've ever known has had inside him
an attitude I thought was best expressed by Robert Heinlein in the book
'Starship Troopers' (very little relation to the movie):
        "We are the guys who make war as personal as a punch in the nose.
We've never been told to go into a certain area and capture or kill all
left handed redheads, while leaving everyone else alone. But if we ever
are told to do so, we can. We will."

                                                                         
      In Joyful Service,

                                                                         
                      Iain MacCrimmon

Banish to silence the four letter words, whose meaning is never unsure.
The Angles and Saxons, those hardy old souls, were vulgar, obscene and
impure.
But cherish forever the weaseling phrase that never quite says what you
mean.
You'd rather be known for your hypocrite ways than as vulgar, impure and
obscene.
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