Marble Composition

On The Bombings In London

What a horrific day for our friends in England. As Americans, we all send our condolences, and our thoughts are with the victims, their family, and their friends. We also know that the British are a tough lot, Londoners especially, and we encourage them to be strong and hold their heads high.

I'll grant Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly his wish and not discuss what the political fallout of these attacks may or may not be on either side of the Atlantic, but I will address some of the issues that surround the root causes of such inhumane acts.

A few months ago I quoted from Sam Harris' book The End of Faith, and this one graf forced its way back in as I read about the attacks today:

"While moderation in religion may seem a reasonable position to stake out, in light of all we have (and have not) learned about the universe, it offers no bulwark against religious extremism and religious violence. From the perspective of those seeking to live by the letter of the texts, the religious moderate is nothing more than a failed fundamentalist. He is, in all likelihood, going to wind up in hell with the rest of the unbelievers. The problem that religious moderation poses for all of us is that it does not permit anything very critical to be said about religious literalism."

I agree that moderation really doesn't provide any kind of real barrier, but that doesn't keep me from thinking that it's at least worth a try. That means that moderate imams and clerics from around the world need to step forward, and in the strongest terms possible, denounce these acts as a barbaric perversion of Islam and it's teachings. Moderates in the Islamic world should be pressing for the complete eradication of Wahhabism and it's fervent advocation of violence, and should immediately identify and close all of the maddrassas that push this virulent strain. The whole world should be asking the most influential Islamic leaders a few questions: Are you prepared to sit idly by while homicidal militants kill innocent people of all races, and say nothing? Do you oppose these acts of senseless violence, and, if so, how strongly are you willing to condemn them? And, given your sphere of influence, what actions will you take to curb this murderous behavior? We'd all like some fucking answers before we get dragged collectively back into the 7th century.

Despite all the saber-rattling towards Syria coming from the Defense Department and op-ed jack-offs like Charles Krauthammer, former CIA agent Robert Baer points out in his book Sleeping with The Devil that leaders like Hafiz Al-Assad had seen just about enough of this shit from the Muslim Brotherhood and ordered the destruction of an entire city: The Hama Massacre. The number of casualties in that flattening ranged from 10,000 to 20,000. Morally intolerable? Extreme police state activity? Sure. Ridding his counrty of a sick scourge that challenged his power? Absolutely. Ruthless as he was and his security forces may have been, he wasn't about to let a bunch of religious freaks run around his country dictating poilcy. (Let's not forget, all politics all local, even when you're nasty dictator.)

I stop by to read Juan Cole and his blog Informed Comment, being the shiftless Lefty that I am, and I have immense amounts of respect for him. He's the expert on Middle East affairs, and has made numerous appearances on national television. Let's get a quote (here he's describing a MSNBC appearence by Michael Scheuer, former Osama bin Laden hunter and author of Imperial Hubris:

He said that "chickens were coming home to roost" for US and UK politicians who had obscured the nature of the al-Qaeda struggle by maintaining that the organization attacks the West because "they hate our values."

Scheuer believes that al-Qaeda is an insurgent ideology focused on destroying the United States and its allies, because its members believe that the US is trying to destroy them. Al-Qaeda members see the Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinians, backed by the US; US support for military regimes like those of Pakistan and Egypt; and US military occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq as evidence of a US onslaught on Islam and Muslims aimed at reducing them to neo-colonial slavery. That is, specific Western policies are the focus of al-Qaeda response, not a generalized "hatred" of "values."

Horseshit Juan. Cute that Scheuer references Malcolm X's "chickens" comment about JFK's assassination. So, the argument, according to the statement above, goes like this: they're trying to destroy us because they believe we're trying to destroy them. Oh what a fucking crime, we're the ones who live in a civilized society that trusts the rule of law, and they're the teetering freaks that will kill anyone to advance their backward ideological agenda. Why should we, as thinking, breathing humans, give a fuck about what Al-Qadea thinks? By the way, given this logic, shouldn't all the terrorist attacks be directed at Russia? They've had their share no doubt, but they're the ones who invaded Afghanistan and fucked it all up in the first place.

Yes, the U.S. backs Israel, probably way too much. And if we dare to look back, we might conclude that the U.N. and the rest of the world's powers made a big mistake handing over Palestine to the Jews. That big historical guilt trip in no way excuses the treatment of displaced Palestinians in Muslim countries. Interested in how to treat people like shit? Read about how Palestinians are shown the way in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The bottom line is you are all a bunch of fucking assholes. You've completely lost any idea of how to treat your fellow man and woman. So the big, mighty U.S. is supposed to solve your problems? Solve them on your own you fucking jerks. Work it out. Hammer out a solution. Kill each other wholesale. You've allowed the right-wing of both parties to grab all the power. You know, the ones with all the guns, the missiles, and all the dirty money to replenish them.

I'm a moderate, and we're the ones that come at these things with ideas of compromise, and dare I say it, solitions that work, but here's a fucking warning: the Right Wing has total control of American poilicy and government, and those folks are never interested in compromise. And they can launch Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles anytime they want. Wise up you fucking dipshits...

These events bring out two of the worst: Anger and Fear. There's plenty of the former above, where we all stand on the latter, well, you decide....

posted by FuzzFinger @ 7/07/2005 05:54:00 PM