No problem at all MT. Yours was actually a nicely executed, clinical dissection of amani’s comments.
I did want to address your noted double standards as it applies to the killing of Afghani’s. Where the U.S. and coalition forces operate under rules of engagement that place our soldiers at risk with the explicit intention of protecting civilians, the Talibum holy warriors™ operate under the express rule that life as it existed on the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century is still a viable model. It appears to be hopeless to expect any introspection and accountability for most muslims.
In the ethically and sensibly retarded moral equivalence/"cycle of violence" game played by Arabs/Muslims and their prescription for jihad, there is actually genuine causation and parity between the deliberate murder of a civilian noncombatant and the targeted killing of those who plan and commit such vicious crimes.
It seems that most would rather see Afghanistan in ruins than rebuilt along the precepts of rule of law. The worst offenders of this ideology are the hypocrites who have ensconced themselves in their Western life styles, enjoying the fruits of freedom they enjoy while condemning the rest of their brotherhood to misery and poverty under the strictures of a 7th century legal apparatus of rumor and speculation.
This is why I feel a sense of hopelessness about the prospects for democracy in today's Middle East, which is dominated either by the oil drunk kleptocrats of the tribal Arab or by the greedy and equally brutal Arab autocrat. I was pretty optimistic at first for a place like Afghanistan because it simply makes sense that any people, if presented with the opportunity, would fight tooth and nail for freedom and the manifold benefits that come with freedom. My optimism has been tempered by the undeniable reality of the ancient Arab/muslim social order of revulsion for the non-muslim and the unholy insensate rage of jihad.
Your views are yours in the ending my friend but the jihad for freedom has two sides to it always now one says that those in afganistan would be free if the were liberated however what does liberation mean? does it mean freed from the taliban and enslaved by western ideals?
Just as the west fears the ideals of islam (though not fully understanding them) as such is the feelings of islam itself being stamped out or watered down by the ideals of the west...there is an great deal of diffrence between the two and a balance can be found and that is what i would hope for...
but the war in afganistan is not one of ideals as far as the goverment of US is concerned...if it was the the only way to spread democracy would be through the use of democratic discussion..instead we have all out war? on the basis of one man being in that country?
Let us not pretend that the coalition forces are there of there own free will of course not they have been ordered there by there countries correct?
Therefore there personal aim is not to do good but to follow orders?
The decsion and true reason behind the war is known by those who give the orders and they are the bush adminstration...
Looking at the adminstration and there history and there motives not many would state that they are there to help the people of afganistan!?
There motive was at first as they stated Osama? then it changed to democracy? the story may change but the truth remains...
A land is being torn apart a people are being displaced lives are being ruined...
This is not how you spread democracy...no one asked to be saved...no one needed democracy...there was no tyrant...
As for cause for killing the innocent...it is a well known fact that civilian casualties are accepted in US military action & whilst stating that these casualties are kept at a minimumn they often are over the estimated amount.
If in a democratic country they accept civilian casualties why is it suprising that a non-democratic country would do anything diffrent? less education, less chance of a moral thinking? it is not the fault of that country and its people that they do not have the economic statis to educate more people so indeed a lack of understanding is to be expected...
Also if looking at the quran it clearly states that the innocent should not be harmed and the taliban fear that which is the law of allah, this so called war for democracy is a shambles...and follows what laws? the attack on afganistan has no basis? they did not attack USA nor did they ask for democracy?
What hypocrisy is it to attack a country and force democracy upon them??
Why do majoriity of the afgans support the taliban? wether they like the taliban or not, they realise this is not a war of freedom but one of ideals...a democratic country is not what afganistan will become more so a western controlled land with western ideals and western ways...
you want to see the future of afganistan with western control then look at turkey after world war 2 and look at what happend to the democracy that has been laid down there...and tell me...what muslims are those that reside within that land?
The west will do what it must and islam will do what it must.....as for opinions...they are but grains of sand in the wind...here for one to see and gone for another...never the same...
