Well, so much for blaming religious fanaticism.

Post #45,301 by marlowe 7/12/02 1:17:32 PM 7/12/02 1:28:39 PM Reply	Well, so much for blaming religious fanaticism. I've always maintained that it was merely a symptom, not a root cause. Brutal dictators are another manifestation. The root cause is the traditional attitudes that prevail in that part of the world. The grievance fixation, the contempt for logic and facts, the xenophobia, and the amoral familism. But why shouldn't be aligned with the terror groups that use the religious rhetoric? Hatred makes strange bedfellows, after all. Why, look at all the Western leftists championing their cause. Kind of puts the lie to all those protestations of liberal ideals, doesn't it? [link\|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html\|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html] Everything's a mystery until you figure out how it works. If competence is considered "hubris" then may I and my country always be as "arrogant" as we can possibly manage. Edited by marlowe July 12, 2002, 01:28:39 PM EDT Well, so much for blaming religious fanatacism. I've always maintained that it was merely a symptom, not a root cause. Brutal dictators are another manifestation. The root cause is the traditional attitudes that prevail in that part of the world. The grievance fixation, the contempt for logic and facts, and the xenophobia. But why shouldn't be aligned with the terror groups that use the religious rhetoric? Hatred makes strange bedfellows, after all. Why, look at all the Western leftists championing their cause. http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html Everything's a mystery until you figure out how it works. If competence is considered "hubris" then may I and my country always be as "arrogant" as we can possibly manage. Collapse All History
Post #45,314 by orion 7/12/02 3:27:14 PM Reply	Don't forget that Saddam has promised $25,000USD to any suicide bomber's family. That is a lot of money over in that area. Sure, people here say Saddam is a nice guy and Saddam and Iraq didn't do anything to us. Such a nice guy, maybe they should invite him to their child's next birthday party? US Intelligence reports say otherwise, that he is a lying sack of sht building up NBC weapons and funding terrorism. I am free now, to choose my own destiny.*
Post #45,337 by Brandioch 7/12/02 4:45:07 PM Reply	And so the fantasy is continued. Don't forget that Saddam has promised $25,000USD to any suicide bomber's family. That is a lot of money over in that area. Yet you are unable to identify ANY Iraqi terrorists. Yet Saddam is offering A LOT of money for people to become one. But you can't name any Iraqi terrorists. But Saddam is offering A LOT of money for people to become one. But you can't name any Iraqi terrorists. Saddam is a "BAD MAN". He is offering A LOT of money for people to become terrorists. But you can't name any Iraqi terrorists. We KNOW he's a "BAD MAN" because our government tells us so. We all trust our government, don't we? Our government wouldn't LIE to us, would it?
Post #45,346 by mhuber 7/12/02 5:21:06 PM Reply	Never said Saddam was a nice guy Just that he isn't an appropriate target if what we are doing is a war on terrorism. He's yer basic conventional military threat. You know, with armies and stuff. Yer basic brutal dictator who slaughters his own people. When he attacks, he uses his own planes, soldiers in uniform, all the standard stuff. I'll shed no tears for him when (not if) he dies violently (probably as part of a coup, killed by someone near and dear to him). But he isn't an international terrorist, unless you extend the meaning of the term so far that every country that has participated in military activities that result in death outside that country's borders (which includes most countries, and by definition all the good guys in WWII) is also. He's a dictator, a military threat, a war criminal (gassing inconvenient populations qualifies), an all-around bad guy. But we are supposedly in a war at this point, and invading Iraq diverts resources from that war. Unless it isn't really a war or terrorism, but a war on all the stuff GWB doesn't like. ---- United we stand Divided we dominate the planet without really trying
Post #45,315 by Ashton 7/12/02 3:29:19 PM Reply	There's said to be a cure for your xenophobia You know: the part where you elide the "familial fanaticism" here, amongst the Dynasties who vie for rule of the consumers; the "contempt for logic and facts" of our constant pursuit of a larger and larger share of the world's [oil] and the $$/power which attends its use - via the force of arms and econ. As to hatred: the very first ploy of the hate-filled ever is the creation of Us/Them - your constant mantra. Evidently too, your 'knowledge' of Them derives from cant-filled screeds, second- and third- hand regurgitations from fellow xenophobes. You have no direct experience of any Thems in their own milieu: you just read and do Boolean logic and conclude from across the pond - Yup, We be Different from Them so, They aren't exactly like Us: so screw 'em. Oh the cure? Get off digital academic ass and go meet some of Them. (Yes, there's a risk of your being strangled just for obviously being a smug jingoistic twit ... but - them's the breaks.)

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