And christianity is scary What did you people expect? WE INVADED THEIR COUNTRY!!!!! Of course they are going to try and protect what is theirs. And run the “infidels” out.
I tend to agree....I don't know if it was initially a war against the Muslim religion...but it has definitely turned into one. Its not like the Muslims (and Im not tlaking about extremist) are trying to pacify anything or anyone. Did anyone see the news from London how the police seized enough fertilizer to blow up 1/2 of london from some extremists? Supposedly the muslim community in the Uk had an issue with how it was handled and were rallying by buring the UK flag and chanting a bunch of crap about how life isnt fair.
Wow, dadakota, you really exhibit a complex understanding of the arab mind. I'm sure its based on years of study, hands on experience or at the very least a thorough background in current events, and rivals your nuanced understanding of geopolitics. Must be hard having a white man's burden like you do. You know, shills like basso and bamaslammer at the very least realize what they are, but your ignorant self righteousness and downright, apparently genuine, stupidity really might be the most disturbing attitude that I see expressed around here.
You are no better than the terrorists, you both are filled with ethnocentric-blinded hate and until we (Western AND Arab) learn TOLERANCE, war and death will continue on, just like it has with Christian vs Muslim wars for centuries
just heard on fox news the military's reason for bombing the mosque... it used to be the former location of the Chinese embassy and a Red Cross Children's hospital.
Sadly, this thread is a great glimpse into the simple minds that fill the Bush administration and explains why we keep making bad decision after bad decision over there. I can't believe anyone would make statements like "they only understand force" after everything we've seen.
The manipulation of Islam for poltical power is making Islam appear to be the target of America's aggression. The forced implementation of a rigid ritualized religeon upon a society has always been about maintaining control . Sunni and Shiite clerics know it is much easier to close political ranks by deamonizing an outside enemy. They are in a bold faced race to position themselves for power in a post-american Iraq , volience and hardship for the Iraqi people be damned. Any man of God that calls for vengence reveals himself to be a false prophet. They are war lords the same as any other a only worse in that they expose the only facility of hope in a hopeless situation to violence. The American soldiers in Iraq cannot allow Mosques to become a safe haven for the instigators to hide behind while they incite people to civil war. The anti-american propaganaist will of course exploit this as the ulitimate taboo, an attack on religion, but religion should be about higher principles than earthly power. Are there no Islamic clerics that can express their religion through peace and cooperation? Cannot one be found who pro-american propagandist can promote to lead the Iraqi people to democracy? If not by June 30, there is very little hope that a secularist can counter religious frenzy. We might as well do what ever it takes to nuetralize as many of these radical, violent clerics as possible before we rollback our prescence. It could be promoted as bringing them to justice though it could hardly hurt our image more anyway and it could reduce the severity of the inevitable Iraqi civil war.
The problem with bombing mosques is not the (awkward choice of words) inflammation of terrorists and fundamentalist clerics. Those people are probably (I hold out just a little hope for a miracle) too far gone into their hate and extremism to be saved. Death or imprisonment is the only option for containing the danger that they pose. However, there are many Muslims who are not consumed by extremism. These people (like people everywhere in the world) want food, shelter, security and some modicum of personal contentment/happiness. These people are the ones the U.S. needs to "court" because if the U.S. proves (to them, not to the U.S. citizens) that we pose no threat to their human needs, they will not sacrifice their security for the fanatical philosphies of the extremists. When people are content on earth, they will not send their sons to die in hopes of reaching some religious "paradise." However, in order to win these people's trust, we must respect those things that are important to them. We cannot raid their houses in the middle of the night without explanation. We cannot allow our soldiers to bully them on the street (even though these bullies are a tiny minority, all people - Western and Middle Eastern - tend to remember the bad apples more than they remember the good). Most importantly, we cannot show disrespect toward those things that they revere. Bombing a mosque, even if it contains bad men, is exactly the kind of disrespect that causes the good people to either join the terrorists, or (in the best case scenario) look the other way (thus granting tacit approval). I realize that we're at war, and that there will be many ugly moments (the burned bodies of the civilian contractors was atrocious and the perpetrators must be "removed" one way or another). But in order to win the hearts and minds of the Iraquis, we must make the extra effort to show respect. If that means surrounding the mosque until the wanted men surrender, so be it. Bombing a mosque will only hurt our cause.
Your hypocrisy, brutality, and completely warped view of the world are obscene. When I consider that people such as yourself, are in power, and are responsible for putting our soldiers in harms way, as well visiting incredible destruction on Iraq, I truly want to weep for our country.
We had a similar situation in Vietnam, where we declared certain zones of Hanoi off-limits from our bombing. Guess where the North Vietnamese hid their SAM stockpiles? Guess where AAA clusters were thicker than liberal posts praising a Krugman column? If you said the off-limit zones, give yourself a pat on the back. If there are weapons in the mosque, blow it to holy hell. Let it be known- provide comfort and shelter to the enemy and your mosque will be reduced to rubble.
That's pretty damned funny, actually. Hard to believe, but I agree with bama here to an extent. Iraqis aren't stupid. They see the armed militia hiding away in a mosque, and if they're decent Iraqis, they know who to blame for the rubble after the fact: the idiot yahoo extremists. I know it's not that simple, but you simply cannot tell these extremists "yeah, okay, well that's your safe zone, and you come out and shoot us when you're ready." This isn't a backyard game of tag. I think the time of greatest resolve is now, unless we just want to leave the country to a new armed warlord.
NJRocket, I concur. Mosques are notorious to be hideouts for paramilitary Islamic jihadists. Not only that, but it is in the mosque that the Muslims are encouraged to butcher in the name of Allah. Why are people so blind to the fact that these radical Muslims hate democracy and Christianity? They want to dominate the world with an Islamic theocracy and stamp out every other religion, especially Judaism and Christianity, with terror.
What in Hell are you talking about? (incidently the only place I have any power is here at my computer)
Sam, sorry, but what would you do? seriously. You and I agree that we should not be in Iraq in the first place. But now that we're there, now that we've created incredible instability, etc... What would you with the armed nutjobs who want to take over the country by force (I don't mean Rummy and crew, but I mean the hata-clerics and those folx)? You would call all holy buildings safe havens and wait out the bad guys? It seems like that's going to make every mosque a den of violence. The problem will multiply, if that's possible.
If there are weapons in the mosque, blow it to holy hell. Or, you go in, take the weapons and show the world what they were doing in the Mosque. Plus, you preserve the Mosque for the Iraqis, showing goodwill to them. Everyone wins. Or, you go with the simple "just blow it up" mode and create more bad guys and make our job that much more difficult. The different between Iraq and Vietnam is we weren't occupying that country - we couldn't just wander anywhere we wanted.
