[jdm61]

Originally posted by speeder
Where, oh where did you get this deep understanding of half the people in the world? At a NASCAR race tailgate party??

The root of the problem is ignorance and greed, on both sides. Ignorance on the part of the Muslim world where people are not allowed a balanced look at the world and freedoms that we take for granted, and the beligerent, proud ignorance of most Americans who think that they "know" the history of conflicts in the ME by listening to anecdotal BS analysis like the above. I do not mean to single you out here, your simplistic and uninformed beliefs are extremely common.

I do not have a background in near eastern studies, but I know people who do and I can assure you that they would shake their heads at your "summary" of ME tensions. Even the conservative experts, if they are truly experts. C. Rice is an expert. You paint a picture of a huge slice of the current human population as being blood-thirsty would-be murderers, who would cook you and your children on the BBQ grille if they could just find their way to suburban Chicago and your house, (or where ever it is that you reside).

While gross generalizations are to be avoided with large #s of people, I think that it is safe to say that the overwhelming majority of people on the planet desire to live in peace w/o poverty and worship or not worship as they choose. I do not buy the premise that the average person in South Asia, or anywhere else, gives 2 schits what you are doing in Illinois as long as it does not impact their daily life. The problem is that nations do things that adversely affect peoples' daily life in far away places that you will never learn about at the auto parts store, or where ever in the world people get their kooky ideas about people from other cultures. Maybe FOX News, I don't know. I'm not a consumer of any of that type of media.

The best thing that any of us average people can do, IMO, is educate ourselves as thoroughly as possible about other cultures and regions, knowledge is power in a democratic society and it is the only defense against leaders who will sell whatever self-serving actions or policies they need to advance at the time to an absolutely helpless and hapless electorate who can be sold simplistic crap like "nuke the ME".

Which "regular" folks in South Asia are we talking about? Are we talking about all of the nutbags that have poured out of the Islamic schools in Pakistan? The people who riot because the logo on Bata sneakers vaguely resembles some Arabic symbol that is insulting or sacreligous? Or the Imam that issued a fatwah calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie for writing a novel? Or maybe the president of Iran who believes that the end of the world is nigh and he has no problem expediting it? Or maybe the following of the late Mr. Al Zaquawi, who thought it was ok to kill Shi'ites because they didn't agree exactly with his theology? Much of MY information on the ME conflict comes from watching the comments of the average Arab on television. I remember Palestinians celebrating on the street on Septemeber 12, 2001. Was that an islolated incident?