Two amazing posts by Xoff and folkbum (who does ramble and rant, but he can be forgiven considering the topic) about the deceit of Patrick McIlheran. Shame on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for continuing to provide space for this bald-faced liar.
Meanwhile, kudos to Rick Esenberg for a well written piece about 9-11 and five years later. One thing: Rick does go on about radical Islam and its rage somewhat. This is somewhat simplistic. I believe and history supports: Western civilization must take a huge portion of the blame for Islamic rage. Our deceit was instrumental in arousing Arab anger to a fever pitch.
And let us please not call all of the peoples of the Middle East radical Islamics. Just as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and the rest of their ilk do not represent true Christianity in America, nor does al-Qaeda and the other radical groups represent true Islam.
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I'm aware of that history, too, dad. It's not unlike the periodic urges that western civilization has burped up over the centuries, i.e. the Hapsburg effort to achieve hegemony, Napoleon's and Htiler's marches across Europe, etc, etc.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I refer to the late 1800s and up to and past WWII. European colonization with no regard to the wishes of the indigenous peoples, lies regarding proposed autonomy, practiced condescension ... all of these and more have contributed to a distrust and, yes, even hatred of things western.
None of which excuse the indiscriminate killing of innocents, but we have been good teachers in that regard.
Oh, prior to Jews being resettled in the Holy Land, Islam was historically tolerant of other faiths within their midst, especially those of the Book. It wasn't until after WWI and the West's favoring of Jewish settlements at the expense of Arab interests did that sort of tolerance fade away.
So you think the British Empire is the bad-guy since, roughly, 1850 or so.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Zionists.
OK. I can live with that.
By the way, consider the Cult of Materialism as another significant contributor...
I would agree with you. You liked this line from me some time back (expanded a bit):
ReplyDeleteWe are living in a chameleon culture, moving at the speed of fad.
I confess, there are probably values that you and I can actually agree on.