dragging out the scapegoats

[Terrance]

Nabeela Sheikh wrote:
> 
> speaking of paranoia:
> 
> excerpted:
> <<last night, on Charley Rose, the ex-CIA station head in Pakistan
> <<ominously warned that (I paraphrase): "we need to be careful about how we
> <<retailiate because there are 7 million Muslims, 3 million of them Arab,
> <<right here in the US - we don't want problems with them..."




> <<
> <<Finally, in a poll published today in USA Today,:
> <<%49 of respondents felt that Arabs in the US, including citizens, should
> <<be made to carry a special ID card and;
> <<%58 of respondents felt that Arabs in the US, including citizens, should
> <<be made to undergo special and more intensive security checks in American
> <<airports.

This will never happen here. ANd shame on USA Today for
conducting this poll. 
It's a disgrace. Of course many of our citizens, most in
fact, particularly those that have few if any Muslims in
their communities or even in their states (most Muslims live
in and around Washington DC, in NY, in Michigan, California,
many are African American) don't know anything about Islam
or the Middle East or Muslim communities in the USA, so
asking people this sorts of questions after recent events is
a disgrace. However, I must applaud the efforts of our
leaders, even Bush who used the word "Crusade" in one of his
comic book press appearances, for their efforts to educate
people here and to 
prevent backlash. It's a difficult task. The Tube and the
Hollywood Industry, even in our cartoons for children,  our
school books, have filled the nation with hate for "Arabs."
This  happened here, to Jews, to Irish, to Chinese, to
Japanese, to Germans, to Mexicans, to Indians, to Africans,
so on and on, and this problem is not unknown to the rest of
the world.  we often find all sorts of double standards and
hypocrisies as the world turns and different nations find or
lose favor with other nations. 

Bin Laden has learned to play this game well too. 
He's quite a propagandist, at least he has managed to
convince some that they should  interpret what happened
through the context of the  sufferings of the poor and
underprivileged. But after fighting off the "godless"
Russians with big business American capital and arms he has
managed to convince a few people that he is the hero of a
morality
play that pits the poor Muslims in the world against the
rich American devils. But of course Bin Laden is the wealthy
son of Saudi construction capitalists. And many of the men
responsible for these recent attacks  were also privileged
sons. The fact that they tried to profit from their deeds,
selling short the American markets before they committed
their crimes is evidence of the hypocritical fanaticism that
drives these men. Now, it may make sense to a few  poor
Palestinians, to the oppressed and forgotten in some
corners, but not to most, certainly not to most Afghans. 
This fanaticism had nothing to do with the battle of the
poor against the rich.