Cartoons
pissed off Islamic fundamentalists to the point where they felt compelled to
kill people for drawing satirical jokes. There’s no explaining the minds of
people caught up in zealotry, whether it be religious, nationalistic, and/or
sycophantic worship. Humans have been getting brainwashed forever. None of us
are any different. Most of us have pledged allegiance to a flag, made the sign
of the cross, or performed some other religious ritual. We’ve taken Boy Scout and
Girl Scout oaths. Some have joined sororities and fraternities. Mostly, it’s
harmless stuff, but not always.
It
appears that most of the young recruits being sucked into the jihadist movement
are disenfranchised, and/or oppressed. Maybe. How they conduct their raids/attacks on those they target is both cowardly and devastating, but our history isn’t so different. The
British army wasn’t too thrilled with our revolutionary army. “Whatever their limitations in formal
military discipline, most American militiamen thrived in the guerilla warfare
of the backcountry: they ambushed their
opponents, wore hunting shirts instead of uniforms, and were fairly
undisciplined.”
Jihadists
appear to find a purpose for a holy war that makes little, if any, sense. Die a
martyr and visit paradise where 72 virgins await.
And
I thought parting the Red Sea was a crock of shit.
As for which religion is doing more harm to the other ... it's not all as one-sided as FOX News likes to portray.
I
don’t know that the Muslim faith is any more harmful than any other faith, or
nationalistic pledge, for that matter. I’m not a proponent of any form of
zealotry, to include the absurdity of blood oaths like omerta. The leaders of any movement desire absolute loyalty,
usually for their own purposes, but those interests are much easier to
disguise, as regards a genuine motive that seeks power, when wrapped in a flag
and/or a God. It is a shame that SOME young Muslims have been brainwashed to have
zero regard for life. Obviously not all Muslims, young or old, desire paradise
and/or the 72 virgins. Whether they have faith or not, they aren’t flocking to
the lines where suicide vests are being distributed.
Both
were terrible crimes against humanity and neither can be excused as “collateral
damage.” Whether the method of war being fought is a declared war, deemed a
police action, labeled guerilla warfare, and/or terrorism, it is killing, and therefore it is
wrong. What causes some to accept the dogma they are fed by those seeking to
control them probably has more to do with the socio-economic conditions of
living under oligarchs and/or foreign occupation than any genuine need to
sacrifice themselves for the sake of some mystical being.
Yes,
“Je Suis Charlie” … of course, and Je Suis the victims at that Muslim wedding
as well, because (how’s this for irony), “there but for the grace of God …”
Those
engaging in surprise attacks to kill anyone expressing their opinions, no matter how foul those opinions may be (and no
matter how fearless the attackers are of death), are still cowards. How hard is it to
pull off what these murderers did in Paris? How hard would it be to do the same
pretty much anywhere? All one would need is a disregard for human life. Nobody
is expecting to be gunned down for showing up to work. (See Timothy McVeigh andthe Oklahoma bombing of a federal building there … 168 people didn’t expect todie the morning McVeigh’s bomb went off).
The
so-called martyrs in Paris may have been willing to die, but apparently only
after a surprise attack they believe will afford them some sense of victory (and
their leadership a new recruitment tool). Shooting people at their place of work
isn’t an act of heroism. Shooting people who’ve shown up to work is not so
different than shooting a deer from a hunting blind, except most of the time
the deer are killed for a rational reason (like food).
I
don’t agree with Bill Maher’s take on this tragedy (i.e., “That is mainstream in the Muslim world. When you make fun of the
Prophet, all bets are off. You get what’s coming to you. It’s also mainstream
that if you leave the religion, you get what’s coming to you—which is death.
Not in every Muslim country… but this is the problem in the world that we have
to stand up to.”)
I
can’t believe for a second that there are 100 million people so gullible they
desire killing and/or dying for the sake of some fantasy. I believe what is
happening today is what happened during our wind-up toward a war with Iraq. Not
that we’re looking to take on the entire Muslim world, but the same techniques
are being fostered by the media to generate fear that quickly turns to hate,
and ultimately a desire to kill. Once we buy into the fear, we react without
regard for a war that will ultimately lead to another vengeance-seeking generation
of disenfranchised people.
I
was a victim of the propaganda after 9-11. Like most Americans, I believed the
bombings deserved a military response that would end the threat of terrorism
against America, and I willingly supported a second unnecessary war
with a country that had nothing to do with 9-11 (not that Afghanistan had
anything to do with 9-11), mostly because my blood was still boiling from New
York City being hit. I worked across the street from the Twin Towers the
morning they were attacked. It took me a few years to realize what a fool I’d been
for dancing to those war drums. What a total tragedy both wars have been. Are we
any safer? Are native Afghanis any safer? Iraqis? Has terrorism decreased
anywhere in the world?
After
those military fiascos benefitted defense contractors and friends of those
in high places, and because I ignored the comparisons being made to our Vietnam
debacle, I am now forced to question EVERYTHING my government tells me. I’ve
also come to realize how those we went to war with, especially survivors of those
we regarded as collateral damage, could not possibly want to understand our
why’s and how’s. Why should our national interest be a concern of those we kill
by mistake or purposely? Imagine coming home to find your entire family and
home has been wiped out by a bomb dropped with the wrong coordinates?
Imagine
being a family member of one of those killed in Paris this week?
As
much as I support Israel’s right to exist, if I were born a Palestinian,
there’s a very good chance I’d passionately want to harm Israel. Likewise, if I
were born in Israel, there’s a very good chance I’d want to hammer Palestine
with the same amount of passion. The point being, so long as we blindly cling to nationalism and/or religion, who we support or denounce
will always depend on which ox is gored and which side of the fence we happen
to be standing on at the time of the goring. America has played both sides of so
many fences for so long, it’s become comical to hear so-called patriotic conservatives
decry attempts to settle things without the military. Our support of brutal
dictators for our own self-interest couldn’t possibly win us fans in Iraq
and/or Iran (we supported Hussein against Khomeini, after Khomeini deposed our
puppet, Pahlavi … and so on, and so on).
So
long as nationalism and/or religious fanaticism remains some kind of moral aphrodisiac,
we’ll be dealing with this never-ending cycle of irrational violence.
What
happened in Paris was horrific. If the goal of the murderers was to intimidate,
they failed. They failed miserably. Charlie Hebdo will print 1,000,000 copies of their next issue next week, as opposed to their regular 60,000 printing.
Booyah!
The key for the world now is to handle
these types of tragedies as depicted in the pictures above and below. The last
thing France should do now is to follow our lead into another war that will
accomplish nothing more than perpetuate desires to kill.
Back to book and movie reviews next week.
—Knucks
