I read this article in the wake of the 911 anniversary, and although it mainly pertains to Americans and American foreign policy, I think it's something that anyone living in 'the West' should read and think on.
I think that when the man who was in charge of the hunt for Osama comes out and says things like this, it's important people take note.
What I'd like to ask is for you to read the article and tell me if you agree with Scheuer's opinions on American foreign policy and the hunt for Osama, or if you think they are too prescriptive.
I think the overall American policy is vindictive and has led to unnecessary bloodshed. This all could have been avoided if the United States negotiated and cooperated with the various nations of the Middle East instead of outright invading them with the policy of, "your either WIT uz, or ageenst UZ!"
It would have been much more stable an option, and perhaps with high amounts of covert operations and information warfare rather then the costly, and bloody asymmetric warfare the United States is now involved in, would have been far more effective then the rampage the United States seemed to taken.
I'm all for seeing justice done to a bunch of ruthless men who would kill thousands out of spiteful hate, but people must remember not to become their own enemy. The fact is men like Osama Bin Laden and his associates are seen as heretic in their religion.
Why?
They commit suicide for one thing. That's a big rule breaker in traditional Islamic law.
Secondly, they kill innocents and use violence for their own personal gain. Islam is not exactly a peaceful religion, but it only permits violence when defending your faith, family or self.
Not to mention they killed countless Muslims of multiple sectors of that religion.
In what context is it said that they cannot kill themselves? Is it absolute? ...like along the lines of "you may in no way for any reason kill yourself?"
before get into this we should know that there are different types of groups and religions in islam. Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are a branch in Wahabi. The wahabis kills shias and other muslims. as you can trace it, all suicide attacks happend in Iraq, are done by wahabis who try to kill shias. In islam, suicide and killing the other people (no matter their religion) is forbidden, but wahabis change the rules and do whatever they want and call it Islam. (you can easily google these words and check the truth for yourselves: "Wahabi,sunni,shiite" )
In what context is it said that they cannot kill themselves? Is it absolute? ...like along the lines of "you may in no way for any reason kill yourself?
Yeah, it is absolute.
Also, Western Islamophobia is around. What's worse is Western misinformation about anything.
Ron Paul got booed for telling Americans that the reason anything is going down at all is because of our actions abroad, not because terrorists just simply sit around in the middle of Afghanistan thinking 'Oh, We hate America's freedom'. Sadly, I don't think many people realize that.
The wahabis kills shias and other muslims.
Wahabbism is a nasty sect of Islam that pretty much is only able to read one half of the book. These people are pretty much the reason for the failure of Islamic empires following the Ottoman, and they are also major culprits behind terrorism. I'm still rather sure they don't go out and actively kill Sunnis, though. They do attack Shias, but they see themselves as 'Very good Sunnis'. They are still quite a minority, if they just went out to kill people they'd be gone rather fast.
I don't know, I feel as if some people aren't scared of the religion itself -- they know that its peaceful. I think that it brings up that possibility. Imagine if you live in Germany in the 1950's. You might be suspicious of a German. Not because he is/has to be/was indoctrinated to be evil, but because he can be and you've seen first hand what he could do if he were to be evil.
but because he can be and you've seen first hand what he could do if he were to be evil.
We might as well be scared of humanity itself.
It's natural for a populous to fear, show disdain, or outright hate the enemy of their country, and generalizations tend to follow all three outcomes. It happens everywhere, and chances are if you're at war, be it with whoever, you're going to not like who it is whether they're soldiers or not. They hate us, we hate them. It's what creates a cycle, and neither side is willing to back down because of pride and bravado. Every war in history follows this pattern, until there is absolute victory or absolute defeat.
It's the way things are. I don't think it's Islamophobia, I think it's a culture responding to a war against another culture, which happens to be radical Islam. If or when we win or lose this battle, it'll be fifteen years for us to think Muslims are just another group of people. However, it's a lot harder to kill ideas than it is to kill countries, and neither the West nor the radicals are capable of either. It's my opinion it'll still be my grandchildren dying over there.
One thing, isn't it convenient for justifying military expenditure, that Islam rises as the new idealogical threat, while communism seems to be a busted flush.
Of course, China will subvert the west by economic, rather than military means and Russia still have their hands on crippling amount of energy supplies.
