"But the world isn't like that"

[jbor]

Otto wrote:

> I did not do that. Just watch the news, look at those mass demonstrations
> against the USA, the burning flags and puppets even in moderate Arab
> nations. 

Yes, there are protesters in Islamic countries just like there are
protesters in the US, Germany etc. But it does not mean they are
representative of the whole population. Far from it, in fact.

I don't think it is fair or accurate to identify all or most Muslims as
hating the West, just as it's not accurate to say that all or most
Westerners oppose the US govt and the UN. It simply isn't true.

> Where do the suicide bombers Bin Laden, Hamas (and others) molest
> come from? Why is it so easy for them to make young people die willingly for
> their sinister purposes? What those terrorist organizations are doing
> reminds me a lot of what the nazis did to the German youth before and in WW
> II. To break them we must take the concerns of those young muslims
> seriously. They consider suicide bombers as heroes, we must convince them
> that the ones who are sending them into death are cowards.

Seeing as you've made the Nazi comparison, which isn't really apt in this
case at all, I'll add that what history (and GR) shows is the way that the
Allies ignored the threat posed by Hitler for way too long, and the way they
didn't know or didn't want to know about the mass exterminations going on in
the German death camps. Saddam's extermination campaigns against the Kurds
and Assyrians in northern and western Iraq, his imprisonment and murder of
political opponents, and his persecution of Chaldean and other Christian
communities, are components of a despotic and genocidal regime every bit as
deplorable as that of the Nazis. But perhaps the deaths and torture of
Kurdish and Assyrian people don't matter.

> No, I didn't misunderstood it -- but the question of distribution does
> matter, domestically and worldwide

Yes, you did misunderstand my statement. The English language construction
which I used: "x ... no matter ... y" , does not imply that x and y don't
matter. I wrote: "The American economy and standard of living still
exceed those of anywhere else on the planet by truckloads, no matter how
badly that wealth is distributed domestically." As I've said, I agree with
you that both these things do matter. My point was that just because the
wealth is distributed inequitably doesn't mean it's not there.

My only points in this argument are that the fight against terrorism is and
should be the number one priority, and that while there is a suspicion that
Saddam or any other national government or authority is actively aiding and
abetting terrorist activities, or planning to launch terrorist-style attacks
itself, then the full pressure of international law should be brought to
bear upon them.

Stop terrorism!

best