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The observations and opinions of a person who has no discernible insights or ideas.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
"A fine Mahoke to you all"
An acquaintance of mine recently reiterated one of the common themes from Doonesbury in the last few years, which is that the Bush camp has suffered from its loyalty-above-all attitude. In general, I concur with that, but the post has got me thinking about a few things.
One lesson that can be learned form Iraq is that many Muslims will stop at nothing to stop the US. My first thought was that this is because they are not civilized enough to follow the golden rule (granted, a Christian term) of combat which is that you do not act in any way that you would not be willing to have the enemy act. As I think about it, I realize that the real problem is that they know that no matter what they do, the US will always respond in a civilized, restrained manner (except perhaps after we have insurgents in prison, but that's another story). Not only will the US not respond in kind, but if the US responds with an appropriate, measured, accurate show of force, they will complain to anyone who will listen, including our own reporters, that they have been brutalized.
It would seem that the Arab world is not ready to play nice with the rest of the world. For that matter, they're not really ready to play nice with each other, unless it's to unite against a common enemy. A lot of Americans are no more ready to accept that there are people who are not ready for democracy some Muslims are ready to accept that there are people who are not ready to accept Allah. It takes time to change from a totalitarian government to one where everyone is considered a full citizen.
In the meantime, we're crippled by our own decency and our own national schizophrenia (seriously, where did this red/blue state thing come from?). At least our commander in chief has a clear, unified vision, even as his newly regrouped opponents can't decide what to do to thwart it (answer: whatever will help them the most in the polls).
Rhetorical question: Which is better, a person who is fully committed to his/her own view of the world or a person who's decisions are all made to follow the fickle whims of millions of uninformed people? Discuss.
One lesson that can be learned form Iraq is that many Muslims will stop at nothing to stop the US. My first thought was that this is because they are not civilized enough to follow the golden rule (granted, a Christian term) of combat which is that you do not act in any way that you would not be willing to have the enemy act. As I think about it, I realize that the real problem is that they know that no matter what they do, the US will always respond in a civilized, restrained manner (except perhaps after we have insurgents in prison, but that's another story). Not only will the US not respond in kind, but if the US responds with an appropriate, measured, accurate show of force, they will complain to anyone who will listen, including our own reporters, that they have been brutalized.
It would seem that the Arab world is not ready to play nice with the rest of the world. For that matter, they're not really ready to play nice with each other, unless it's to unite against a common enemy. A lot of Americans are no more ready to accept that there are people who are not ready for democracy some Muslims are ready to accept that there are people who are not ready to accept Allah. It takes time to change from a totalitarian government to one where everyone is considered a full citizen.
In the meantime, we're crippled by our own decency and our own national schizophrenia (seriously, where did this red/blue state thing come from?). At least our commander in chief has a clear, unified vision, even as his newly regrouped opponents can't decide what to do to thwart it (answer: whatever will help them the most in the polls).
Rhetorical question: Which is better, a person who is fully committed to his/her own view of the world or a person who's decisions are all made to follow the fickle whims of millions of uninformed people? Discuss.
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