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Originally Posted by pgardn
Israel had a Prime Minister killed by a fanatical right wing member. Nobody ever said Israel or the US was absolutely clean of homegrown terrorists. Timothy McVea...
But honestly. By bringing up abberations in order to try and make a fair comparison between the State of Israel and Hezbollah is regrettable and disingenuous. Does Hezbollah let Jewish members of its "government" shout down an act during a "Knisset" (sp?) meeting?
Get real. There is no comparison on the whole. Anyone can pick individual events and use them to represent the whole. It is a very easy trick, but it is not helpful in searching for what really is happening.
What scares me is when a large group starts to proclaim that it is under seige and then perpetuates violent acts TARGETING TOTALLY INNOCENT PEOPLE claiming that God is on its side. And the moderate members of the so called down-trodden groups stop speaking because they are scared they will meet a similar fate or because they start believing. This my good friends of the board reminds me of a little party that got started in the 1930's in Germany and spread like wildfire. The movement of radical Islamic groups that has continue to rise and the MODERATE ISLAMIC LEADERS start backing down is very much like facist movements that we have seen in the past.
1. We got screwed
2. God is on our side (cant argue with that)
3. Kill in the name of God, sacrifice yourself to kill infidels
4. The majority of sane members of this group step aside and join.
This is a very scary trend that took total destruction of said group in the past. Total destruction. Not little incursions and constantly backing off because the problem is too big. This is very very frightening and any sane minded individuals should recognize this as a recipe for disaster.
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Well, you do hold the majority viewpoint. But, disingenous or regretable as it may seem to you, I think a lot of people feel there is way more to it.
Those MODERATE ISLAMIC LEADERS you refer to have now lived their adult lives seeing the well spoken tones of reasonable people approach as flawed, failed and fruitless.
When the UN issues a resolution condemning some Israeli action (whatever it may be), it always, always, gets voted 13-1. The U.S. always "rejects" the resolution. No questions asked. The Arab street does not differentiate between Israel and the U.S., which while not disingenuous or regretable, sure as heck is lamentable.
So, yeah, that along with the Palestinian issue has the moderate Arabs, leaders or otherwise, having very good reason to hold the West in distrust and this is where the appeal of the edgier and worse (you call it what you want, that's ok) Islamic factions gain traction.
You could likely go on at length about how none of this rationalizes terrroists or behavior that supports terrorist groups and you'd be right. That does not, however, change the game. The game gets changed by starting to understand and appreciate how and why adversaries act as they do.
The U.S. now is seen by Arabs as so strongly Pro-Israeli / Anti-Arab that there is not a chance in hell that America CAN be a mediating leader in the region.
pgardn, you told me to get real, so I will. Do you know how the Iraqis refer to U.S. soldiers? They refer to them as The Jews. I don't care for the connotation but I don't think that's the effect we were going for. That's as real as I can get.
I agree with you that this is indeed very, very serious.
regards,
-s2s