Quote:
Originally Posted by ptownrob
The Taliban- which is the Mujahadeem that WE supported with guns, missiles and armaments is a ruthless group of religious/political despots. While they are clearly our enemy for a "protecting the enemy" (Al Queda), it becomes simplistic to say - "Oh, they're responsible for 9/11." No, they harbor terrorists and want to destroy not just the West, but anyone and anything that opposes their own bizarre fundamentalist interprestation of their holy scripture- just like Christian fundamentalists here and in Europe have done throughout the centuries. But as our president correctly says, "This is our time." It's no longer important that more than 5 milllion Europeans from all sides were killed during the Inquisition/Reformation/Counter-reformation.
Ancient history.
This is our time.
Radical Islamists- the Taliban and others want to, and have killed, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists- you name it. And we simplify this all down into whether a video shows one U.S. soldier being treated well by them, or them being abused and tortured American-style.
Yes, I am being sarcastic. Video and propaganda are such powerful forces that they will trump the "Yeah, Bring 'em on!" red-meat idiots every time. We alienated ourselves from the rest of the world, when we could have but didn't, and now hopefully ARE, uniting, to cast extremists as dangerous.
We will not stop the Taliban and those others from their holy war with military force or our former "cowboy diplomacy." Sadly, that brave soldier will most probably be murdered- but the Taliban will have scored much, much more than simply killing one American G.I. They will have shown the world that since the U.S. violated international law, there is no obligation to for them to adhere to it either.
WE are the very force that told them they are not subject to international law! Well, duh. The chickens, once again, ad nauseum, come home to roost.
It seems to me that pointing out the oblvious (That there are large groups of people out to destroy us) does not leas to a simple or single solution. It seems to me a bigger part of the SOLUTION is to encourage the rest of the world, including 2 billion Muslims, to realize that radical Islamic movements are the enemy to all cultures and societies, and the world would be better "siding" with us not out of military necessity, but out of its own desire to survive.
Unfortunately, as long as the U.S. and its allies support whatever dictator or regime suits us for the short-term, with no regard for longer-term interests, we will end up getting - sorry- kicked in the *&*%. And the only real winners are the religious fanatics (even including some radical American fundamentalists) who seek to destroy anything that challenges the twisted theocratic view of what God/Allah commmands the "culture" to be.
It's much more than simply us v. them.
|
Yep. You support today those who are willing to support you today, even if it is a dictator, monarch or popularly-elected poo-bah. Why? Because that's the current lawful and internationally-recognized government for that country. If the government changes due to revolution, sale-of-the-century, bad gamble by some local, or a peaceful election, then you see if you can find a meeting-of-the-minds with the new leader(s).
First rule of business and government - you don't have to like them to work a deal with them.
All of this rationalization of the Taliban - whose history of barbarism to those opposing them is immense - strikes me strange? Where is all of the uproar about
China (Socialist, brutal to Falun Gong, Tibet; atrocious human rights practices ongoing),
Vietnam (Socialist, brutal to mountain tribal folk; still practices forms of torture upon those who backed the South from 1954-1975),
Zimbabwe (the list of unspeakable acts is too long to type),
Venezuela (Human Rights Watch just
loves Chavez), and
Russia (what's happening now in Chechnya is appalling). Are these countries and/or their leaders left-wing darlings, despite what they do, and dealing with them is okay because, well, just because?
Those however-many Muslims there are in other countries already realize what the radicals of that faith are doing all over the world. THEY KNOW! THEY REALIZE! What CNN and NBC hasn't told them, Al Jazeera has. The "silent majority" includes them. They choose not to oppose overtly and covertly for a multitude of reasons, but none of those reasons have anything do to with a few guys getting embarrassed or waterboarded. They are the same folk who watch the televised and photo'd torching and mutilation of bodies - before and after execution by a bullet to the head, or a sword on a neck, or by hanging, or by ambush-by-bomb - and consider it all as "just they way it is." And all of those things have been happening for over 30 years.
Radicals and extremists win when the "silent majority" sits on its collective cans and doesn't deal with the problem forcefully and thoroughly. The radicals and extremists never completely go away, or are eradicated - they just go underground if dealt with forcefully, and remain underground until conditions which keep them from employing their fanaticism deteriorate. Fanatics just don't "go away" and can fester for decades, and it's the responsibility of the majority to insure fanatics don't wreak mayhem and murder on the general public. It's not pretty, but it is what it is.