So we started another insanely expensive shooting war. Pundits say it will go on for years.
There is one clear winner already obvious:
So we started another insanely expensive shooting war. Pundits say it will go on for years.
There is one clear winner already obvious:
So disappointed. I look forward to your blog entries. I like your relatively clear thinking. Most of the time critical thinking. However, your head seems to be firmly under ground regarding radical Islam. Whether its a national cult or a religious one, when the perpetrators are saying they want to kill you, then kill you, then continue to kill you…kinda clear to me. Your metaphor about a squealing bunch of kids is nice, but oh so naive. When bullies in your neighborhood start shooting at you with guns they stole from you, do you call them crazy zealots and wish them away?. Do you admit you made a mistake leaving them out in the yard, then, bow your head out of guilt or shame and let them hack away? Probably not.
Dudes that are Islamic, Japanese, German, American of whatever religious, nationalistic, or other death cults that creates victims then kills them, and promises to continue the butchery both within and outside their “neighborhood”
are probably not groovy. If the nihilistic ideologies of the last 100 years aren’t clear, well gee.
I’m sure a number of private corporations during WWII made big bucks. You know what, critical thinking tells me that survival under Obama-Halliburton is superior thank you to Hitler-whomever or Russia-whomever or even al-qaeda-whomever.
War was declared by radical Islam well before 9-11. History is very clear to illustrate when countries and their leaders make mistakes. The U.S. is well chronicled in this area. However, history is also very clear that when a a war cult says they will kill you, then enters your country and terminates how ever many thousands of people died in those towers and might have died in D.C.only apathy, weariness, or blind ideology says oops we made some mistakes, please your just crazy religious zealots, go back home, wreak havoc in your own country and don’t come back.
Now, the psychologist in me notices that CNN appears to be a brain bashing despot. packaging and repackaging various horrors over and over. Turn CNN off, do the difficult work of resourcing the best info and commentators out there and live your life. And be thankful that for the moment most of us are spared the insults of tribal savagery most of the time.
By the way, self serving ideologies abound in the middle east, Russia, Europe and the U.S. that are profoundly fail the tenets of critical thinking. In my opinion. Please be cautious when referencing commentators that support your political narrative. Some of them, Alastair Stephens comes to mine, have singular narratives that seldom deviate from their core ideology. In Stephens case, he is an untiring “worker” for one or more socialist parties both inside and outside Russia. Here is an example:
“The following statement of the Russian Socialist Movement is an example of how socialists oppose the imperial ambitions of their own ruling class – one the Left in Britain should emulate”-Alastair Stephens -March 4, 2014-Counterfire.org.
-Imperialism Today
“The present conflict brewing in the Ukraine is a product of inter-imperialist rivalries.
The US and the European powers have been pushing expansion of the Nato and EU into the former Easter Bloc, and increasingly up to borders of Russia.
This is neither in the interests of the peoples of those countries, or ordinary people anywhere else. The consequences of previous “colour revolutions” have not been happy.
Furthermore successful imperialist intervention in Eastern Europe will only act to encourage such action elsewhere in the world, with the Middle East the top of that target list.”
I am quoting at length because this is the same language, the same logic, the same themes that were peddled on the streets of Berkeley in the early 70’s. I was as counterculture as they come, still I could recognize ideology not rational analysis. Apparently, not much has changed.
Thanks for the extensive response to this. Didn’t expect such fervor, but appreciate it. Can I post this as a guest entry? Will do so after your permission.
One cannot, in one blog entry or thought, take on all of radical Islam, and the immensity and complexity of the problem. I usually have issues when we label one “movement” like radical Islam, and act like it is a human thinker that makes some decision and then pursues it. The thinkers come and go. The despots come and go. Sometimes they leave legacies that extend beyond their lives. Then they get dangerous. Examples are Jesus (if he existed), Muhammad, you get the idea. But radical Islam is driven by different people today than it was 20 years ago when it was bin Laden, among others. Those whose daddies we will today are the leaders tomorrow.
Sam Harris, in End of Faith (http://norberthaupt.com/2009/05/25/the-end-of-faith-%e2%80%93-by-sam-harris/) expounds on radical Islam and strongly suggests that it’s a dangerous religion, like you seem to state.
I have strong opinions on the subject, but unfortunately I have to be careful, because I really, honestly, know no Muslim at all. I am sure I sound ignorant to them.
I simply try to place one simple thought in front of the other to make a single, isolated point. Sometimes that works – sometimes apparently it does not. Thanks for your insight.
Sure. Post as you wish. Sam Harris is and has been one of my main dudes for wisdom and information!
Just read your response. Will respond directly later. Earlier, as I walked the beach I pondered that perhaps your narrative was at least as “correct” as mine. I tried it on for awhile. Then I imagined there were a dozen or dozens more narratives that might approximate a more or less reasonable if not correct perspective of a multi-headed beast of a “problem.”
Then my attention went in a different direction. I realized that I was contemplating the continuing, daily life and death game of survival that is a reality for many. I was so secure in my safety on the beach that I allowed the beautiful sensory environment to fade. Whether delusional or not, in that moment I allowed myself the freedom to leave the world of survival concerns.
At some point I became aware of “danger” behind me. Of course there was no one and no thing at all. In particular no axe. Huh.
Finally I became extremely greatful for my relative safety. Pretty, pretty nice. But I do not live in a “real” bubble of safety. No one alive does. So is my concern of safety for my self, my friends, family, nation, earth a condition of what news station I watch? The web sites I frequent? The selective filter of world history I favor? Do I trust the words and actions of Haliburton more than the current missionary of death from “over there” who is increasingly over here?
So, back to the original question. The Middle East. America. Europe. Do we get to “choose” a more or less reasonable narrative? Is the “real story” thrust upon us. Is there a boogie man? Whose door is he behind? Or, horror of horrors, are we the dread we dread the most?
Whoa, I would be a poor warrior indeed.