Thursday, August 26, 2010

Amen to the Imam

When the imam behind the proposed Ground Zero mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, said that the US has more innocent blood on its hands than Al-Qaeda it created great controversy. He's also absolutely right.

4 comments:

  1. Am I alone in thinking we asked for 9/11? I mean, they even hit military (USS Cole) and political (US Embassies in Africa) targets before attacking civilians.

    Yeah yeah, it's wrong people died, blah blah blah... but in all honesty, it's not easy getting America's attention. I know sometimes I feel driven to kill 3000 people just to get attention.

    But seriously... if we had nothing to do with Israel, Al Qaeda would have nothing to do with us (besides using the weapons and equipment Reagan gave them in the 80's).

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  2. [I bet by after the morning rush, there will be at least two less following the blog. Finally, my OCD can relax if the number is divisible by 5...]

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  3. I never knew that moral superiority was based on a body count.

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  4. I don't think morality is part of the equation.

    Think of it like this. People in America have complaints. We have an outlet for airing these complaints, and yet there are still people who feel voiceless, and perhaps many of us are. So what do we do when no one is listening to us?

    We talk about "revolution" and "secession." We threaten action, either hoping those words will be heard and our concerns heeded, or perhaps we've been pushed over the edge and we just don't even care who hears us anymore, we want radical action to bring about change.

    Was Al Qaeda successful? Hardly, because Bush did a great job of convincing America "the terrorists hate our freedom," which distracted us from their legitimate concerns. And frankly, people were so upset, most Americans probably didn't care or have any sympathy for Al Qaeda or anyone in the Middle East in general.

    Humans don't do what works, we do what we think will work, and boy are we stupid and inherently violent. We are not socially wise unless we take the time to learn how to be so, and one of the first impulses of human beings who feel powerless is to lash out when we feel threatened and cornered. It's a natural reaction all living things have, and it's why a cornered animal will fight, even if it is confronted with unwinnable odds.

    Do people in the Middle East have legitimate problems with abuses at the hands of Americans? Hell yes they do. Does that mean America is to blame for 9/11? I wouldn't say we're to blame, but we brought it upon ourselves, like a bully who keeps picking on someone until one day the bully gets kicked in the balls, punched in the face, and has his two front teeth knocked out when the person they're picking on can't take it anymore.

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