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Originally posted by Macavenger:
**Grr... I had a lengthy discourse on this subject, and it got lost in their "routine maintenance"...
Anyway, it went something like this:
First, I've been kinda waffling around emotionally and on what to do about this whole thing. I was at a peak when posting last night. I'd just been reading through stuff on B&B;, remembering the scenes and stuff, and I was really mad right then. Anyone who expects me to have a rational viewpoint then should give me their location, so I can look up a map and give you directions to the nearest place to get your head fixed. I've backed well off nuking the Palestinians even if we could now. However, the shots of them dancing in the streets, firing guns, and tossing candy is probably the most despicable thing I've ever seen - which includes a many hours long, highly detailed slide show on the holocaust. I am certain that I will never have any sympathy for them when Israel kicks their ass in response to terrorism.
There's also no proof yet that bin Laden did this, but a mountain of circumstantial evidence is beginning to assemble. He denies being involved, yet praises the attack. Doesn't surprise me, yet points out his evil.
I also have no problem with Bush going to war on Afghanistan to get bin laden if it turns out to be him. They've has been harboring him, for crying out loud! The Taliban needs to be removed from power if not killed on general principles anyway. Their human rights record looks sorta like China's from a decade or so ago. I don't know if you know any of what they've done, and I doubt I know all of it, and don't want to.
There have been a few minute positives out of this whole thing though. The US Congressmen all coming together at that Press Conference and singing "God Bless America" is probably the most moving thing I've seen. I sincerely hope it was spontaneous, not planned, though we'll never know for sure.
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Mac-thank you for returning to sanity.
I apologize if this is the wrong forum for such a discussion, but I think that we should find somewhere to talk about it-perhaps if one of you has a forum for this discussion, plz refer me to it.
Personally, though I deplore the attack; I am an American citizen, currently living in Utah, I don't think that bombing would have much effect. If we bomb Afghanistan, for instance, what would we accomplish? We would merely succeed in killing thousands of innocent civillians who have had no part in planning or executing the attack. Indeed, haven't we already done enough to destroy the Afghan people? The US supported the rebels in Afghanistan for as long as the Soviet Union was attempting to invade, but quickly withdrew their support when the Soviets withdrew, allowing an oppresive government, the Taliban, to come to power with US training and US weaponry, and then we deny any responsibility for the Taliban and condemn it in every way possible. Don't get me wrong-I feel that the Taliban is an oppressive government and has completely misinterpreted all of the basis of Islam. For instance, the Taliban seems to believe that women are inferior to men and cannot be involved in business or any such thing and indeed should meekly cover themselves and stay at home! The Prophet Mohammed's (sp?) wife was the businessperson in the family! Without her, Mohammed wouldn't have been able to preach what the Angel Jibril (Gabriel) spoke to him, because he would have starved to death, and nobody would have listened to him anyways.
Now I realize that most of you-from what I have seen, you especially, Lyra-do not blame all Muslims for this attack, but there are many people out there who do. To do so would be like saying that because Timothy McVeigh (sp?) bombed the Oklahoma City building every white Christian is a terrorist, which is simply not true.
Moving on to Bush's policy of attacking those who harbor terrorists, while I think that this may be a good policy to some extent, I feel that to blindly bomb/attack/murder people because they live in a nation that harbored terrorists would be wrong-it's not the civillian's fault that their government did that. Indeed, if we did declare war on a country as a whole rather than just on the terrorists/the small part of the government that harbored/aided the terrorists, I think that the US would then become hypocritical. If we discover that the terrorist organization was based in the US, what will we do? We will merely target those individuals who were involved in the conspiracy. The same is true if the organization was based in Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates (which is looking rather likely), or any other US ally. However, if the terrorist organization is based in a country that the US is not allied with, then I have no doubt that the American public will make an enormous push to attack that country, rather than just the terrorist organization. Perhaps the US military will be able to constrain that-I have heard some members of the military on the news saying that we must take our time and be very careful in who we attack, but i still feel that there is a danger that we must watch out for.
Sorry for writing such a long rant, but as you can see, I feel rather strongly about these issues, especially as a Muslim myself.
Shade-is there anything you need me to do before BFS III starts?
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Thank you for your time,
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