You know - I think sometimes I'm an unorthodox type of person. I am not overly concerned with what people think of me on a personal level. I do silly things that tend to get the raised eyebrow, like sing in the grocery store or, if the guy in front of me tells the cashier a joke, I am improper enough to laugh, rather than pretend I didn't hear it.
I do, however, go out of my way to avoid certain conversations as a whole. I rarely bring up politics or religion, because when it comes to religion, I agree with very few people. And politics, well - that's just a fight waiting to happen. I'm generally a pacifist I think - trusting, value life, and yes, I'm optimistic enough to wish that war wasn't necessary. Now that's not to say I'm ignorant enough to believe it isn't. War, unfortunately, is in some twisted way, a necessary product of human nature.
Of course, I do think that there are times that it's a necessary evil. Do I believe that we were justified in 'retaliating' for the 9/11 attacks? Of course I do. Thousands of innocent people were killed for no reason other than the religious fanatacism of a small group of (crazy ass mother fuckers) Muslims. However, in my opinion, the answer was - as we originally did - find that group of people, the ones who believe the way those people do. Find Osama bin Laden and fry him and his followers. Amen. I wouldn't have a problem with finding them, taking them to the top of the Empire State Building, setting their little robes and turbins on fire and tossing them off the roof. Hell, let's cheer as their flaming bodies cartwheel through space and dance around their charred and splattered bodies after they land.
But do I hate all Muslims? Hell no. Do I think they all deserve to die? No. Do I believe that we should, as recently suggested, bomb Mecca? no. Hell no. There are hundreds of thousands of peace loving Muslims who disagree with the extremist terrorist Muslims, and you'll find them en mass in Mecca, praying and living a peaceful life and meaning no harm to anyone. To target Mecca would be no better than what the suicide bombers did on 9/11. Equally as extreme and violent. Equally wrong, because we, with the belief that our religions are more right than theirs, would kill any and all who disagreed - rather than targeting the guilty parties.
It's revenge, not justice. It's no different than the KKK or the Nazi's. It's small minded and ignorant to believe it would accomplish anything other than to perpetuate more violence, to make the crazy extremists feel justified in further attacks.
Now I'm not living behind rose colored glasses. I'm not saying "can't we all just get along" I'm saying that we're a proud country with a world wide reputation to uphold, and I sincerely hope that the reputation isn't one of bigotry. I sincerely hope that being fair minded and fair in our practices is a part of what we hope to show the world. Yes, strength and pride too, of course - but not hatred and fear, which are the only ideas that can truthfully be attributed as the reasons behind feeling justified in knowingly killing innocent civilians.
Tonight I stumbled into a site, another blog - simply intrigued by its name. How could I possibly resist a name like "Anti-Idiotarian" anything?! I mean, I hate fucking idiots, that's no big secret. Stupid people piss me off. But when I got there and realized that this was the discussion there - the support of bombing Mecca as a military tactic against terrorism... I was floored. Amazed by the amount of support the post was getting, blown away by the pure vehemence of the support. These were people seething with hatred - not well thought out intelligent arguments as to why it should or should not be considered a successful military move...
So, at the (finally!) end of this I have a few last comments to make. To say we should bomb Mecca - or any other religious center because "they do it" doesn't accomplish anything at all. The terrorist Muslims don't give a damn about the peace loving Muslims any more than they care about us. The fact that the peaceful Muslims don't follow their insane beliefs makes them jusy as disposable as they consider us. The only thing that bombing Mecca will do is give them a supposed excuse to retaliate.
And let's be honest "Mom, they started it!!!" just doesn't sound like sound military planning to me.
We are not at war with Islam - we're at war with terrorists.
Amen, E. Unfortunately, I think America likes to think of itself as the land of the free and home of the brave and perhaps we once were, but I see us more now as egomaniacal powermongers who have lost sight of what's really important and I think that is probably a very flattering impression compared to what everyone else thinks of us. *sigh* And please don't mistake that for anti-Patriotism. I value my freedom, don't get me wrong. I just think our political system is and has always been corrupt, as is the nature of politics. That's not some obscure and shocking accusation. It's like saying the sky is blue.
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