Big Think

Khaled Bashour on October 15, 2008, 11:42 AM

It’s strange that Mr. McCain is “sure that we may have had something to do with it by some action of ours,” and yet doesn’t seem to be interested in elaborating on that. Instead he goes on a rant about how fundamentalists are evil and want to “destroy everything that we stand for and believe in.” Words that painfully remind us of almost every one of Bush’s foreign policy speeches.

Clearly Mr. McCain is less interested in solving the problem, and more interested in redefining it so that it fits the solution he’s offering.

James York on October 15, 2008, 2:08 PM

Look below the obvious: the military-industrial-congressional (MIC) guys have been framing these things for a long time. This is standard framing of good-evil. We are the good guys and the enemy is the bad guys. They want to destroy our entire way-of-life – as though a handful of people could do that… considering Wall Street’s capacity to do it without their help.

This is for the hard-right to have something to “explain” it. It is a diversion: we are have been destroying their way-of-life in far more insidious ways for a much longer period of time.

This framing of things is for the very simple minded.

Ariel Sand on October 19, 2008, 1:03 AM

You make a good point, Khaled. He glosses over the most crucial piece of the puzzle, the piece that is, coincidently, most often ignored in mass media debates. We need to examine more closely the past involvements of our government in the Middle East, and the consequences of our international actions.

I was particularly troubled with McCain’s call to use radio and television the “way we did in the Cold War.” It’s no secret that propaganda was aimed at American population through these mediums during this time, promoting all things American. What makes us think that these mediums are not being used, more insidiously of course, for the same purposes today?

Matt Pidlysny on October 21, 2008, 3:36 PM

I don’t think Al Quaeda is wrong, though I believe the Taliban may be taking a more extreme approach. You see, for them this is fighting in the name of God, who told their leaders at whatever point in history “Fight for me, because it is just,”. This is called manipulating the future, and were it not for this, we would not be in an ideological struggle today.

We are pawns, moving up the board. But how many will be sacrificed instead of becoming Queens? Is the opportunity of becoming a Queen the point of this struggle in the first place? More importantly, how can you know for certain, not knowing everything?

Norma Fares on November 5, 2008, 8:22 AM

Hatred is a trend that flourishes in Arab World.
My long-understanding for the roots of mass hatred makes me search for its reasons not at people but at regimes that create an insane environment and circumstances for a human being/citizen/civic society to hate: Poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and hatred spread through Media, religious-extremists- clerics, education and culture.
Hatred atmosphere in Arab World (the area in which I was born and raised) is not a theory. It’s a fact, unfortunately.

It does not take too much reason to hate here. Your name could be enough to act so: Usually, Ali goes for Muslim Shia. Mohamed for Muslim Sunni, George for Christians and Isaac for Jews.

In most of Arab-Sunni-Regimes none of other faith or sects is living well. You must be wealthy, owner of renowned companies to elevate your living to the regimes-set-criteria for their [Sunni] citizens to live well. If you are not Sunni and your not wealthy, you will conducting an inferior- permanent-living what ever who really you are (Good or bad person) and whatever you do (kind of job) or how do you do it (professional or not).

Being Sunni is the only acceptable passport to live in Arab World. Being non-Sunni-Arabic-speaking is a destiny-passport that would attract rejection, hatred and disrespect towards you before or without doing anything.

Before that fact, what is the best way to deal with hatred? Some chooses dialogue. Some chooses military actions.

And some other said: %u201CThe problem is not anymore about literacy or illiteracy but about people who are not able to learn.%u201D

In the Arab World live good people, with no doubt. How would I explain my directory that is full of my lovely and respectful Muslim friends and acquaintances? How would I explain the kindness of simple people that you meet or talk to in the streets?
Before the Arab-regime-World -that is all about- one solution: To learn what respect consists of first so that they can teach it. Creating slogans —i.e. %u201CThe respect of the other%u201D stated by King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia at several occasions or fake statements i.e. %u201Cwe are offering the Egyptian people security%u201D, Mubarak said at the inauguration of the 5th congress for —are those slogans/statements are all useless unless they don%u2019t come up with actual facts or programs that could resolve hatred problem and people%u2019s economic, social and human rights problems that shake the majority of Arab countries.

When dialogue fails in dealing with hatred; when military aggressions fail too in dealing with Arab-Regimes who are asked for immediate reform; the world-loving-peace won’t be responsible of any action that it would be taking in the future.

I love Good people. To live well, rightly and in dignity is my right as well as others%u2019. I have a long-understanding to peoples’ pain and queries. Speaking with ignorant peoples “who are not able to learn” is depressing, more over, it makes coexistence not possible in their eyes before ours. I do not want to leave the region. And I want to live in dignity.
What to do in a hatred era and place i.e. Extremist Arab World?

Jane Draper on December 23, 2008, 11:05 PM

I’m saddened by the idiocy of this question.
Why do the terrorist hate us?

Well, what terriosts are we talking about?

From McCain’s answer I would assume Al-Queada. But why is Al-Queada synomenous with terror? they are not be all, end all of terrorists. Al-Queada is not even the only threatening terrorist group in the middle east. From the Sunni and shia militia in Iraq, to hamas in Palestine, there are plenty of other organizations wich carry out terroist attacks in the region.

Asking why “the terrorist hate us” is as childish and ridiculous as asking “why do the bad guys hate us?”

McCain’s answer is even stupider. It is simply a repetition of the “they hate our freedom” claptrap that Bush been pedling for the past 7 years. This sentiment has done nothing but intesify the hatred of the U.S. abroad and promote dislike of the West in the middle east.

Perhaps, we fall back on hopelessy vague quaundries because we’re afraid to ask the big questions about the so called “war on terror”. Questions about western intervention in the region, poverty, the dogmatic nature of religion in general,the socital implications of economies centered on a single export (oil), acess to education,the effects of the war in Iraq and the atrocities of Gitmo in galvanizing anti-american sentiment, and governing underdeveloped and remote regions (like Pakistan tribal areas), to name a few.

Shame on you big thinker. Shame on you John McCain.