[aclug-L] Re: Richard Reid

[Lars von dem Ast <prenzl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nate Bargmann wrote:

>This quote comes from:
>
>http://europe.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/30/shoebomber.sentencing/
>
>[Reid] believed bombing the plane was necessary to "prevent the destruction 
>of Islam." In court he described himself as a "soldier."
>
>Young responded, "You are not a soldier in any war -- you are a
>terrorist."
>
>Calling the sentence Reid will face "a fair and just sentence, a
>righteous sentence," Young said, "We do not sign documents with
>terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice. ...
>You're big, but you're not that big. You are no warrior. I know
>warriors. You are a terrorist.
>
>"You hate our freedom -- our individual freedom to live as we choose, to
>come and go as we choose, and to believe or not believe as we
>individually choose. ... See that flag, Mr. Reid? That is the flag of
>the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this
>is forgotten. And it still stands for freedom."
>
>- Nate >>
>
>  
>
After reading this for a while, I thought I'd attempt to say something.

My sister married an Iranian back in the early '80s. I got to know 
Mohammed very well over the next 13 years. (They later divorced.) He was 
a Shiite Fundamentalist Khomeni supporter--the full 9-yards. We talked 
and talked over that space of time. What he said, coupled with my own 7 
years experiences in Europe and my military intelligence experiences 
(ASA), gave me a very complete but uncomfortable picture of my homeland.

Make no mistake about it, we, the U.S. of A, are running an empire. And 
in case you slept through your history lessons, empires rise, dominate, 
then fall due to a build-up of fanatical hatred of them, exhausted, 
sucked-dry clients, and internal decay and collapse. The Roman empire 
fell hard. So will we probably--not like the 19th century European 
empires who snuck out the back doors and went home. And many, many 
millions will celebrate. You can tell yourself pretty lies like "You 
hate our freedom" when describing our enemies, but at some point our 
domination will end just like all fat, greasy, obnoxious empires end. 
We're now somewhere between Jim Jones and Captain Ahab.

What! You may scream. The U.S. is a mean old empire just like Rome? Oh 
yes! Sure, I would also call the terrorists just a bunch of lunatics. 
But I guarantee you there are many millions of young men throughout the 
world who envy the "heroics" of those terrorists. The actual terrorists 
are just the tip of a huge pyramid of anti-American sentiment. That's 
why this is so significant. The fact that you only see radical Muslims 
attacking us is that only the wildest hatred spills over into such 
action, while the vast sea of hatred towards us isn't translated into 
such actions, and the cooler, more rational heads who would make good 
dialog with us are pushed aside, unheard. This only fuels the fire....

The vast majority of anti-Americanism I have encountered in my life 
abroad came from decent, level-headed sincere people. Most of these 
people understood that a certain amount of "pushiness" on our part 
simply comes with the superpower territory. The world by and large has 
been very tolerant of us. But we're a machine. We're a mindless growth 
machine pushing our global economic agenda to every corner of the world, 
always trying to dress it up as "aid" or "development" or "stability" or 
"progress". And now we've got enemies like you've never heard of before. 
Just like Rome. Of course a Frenchman turning up his nose at an American 
tourist putting ketchup on an omlette is different from a terrorist, but 
there is a huge sea of negativity towards us--and now it's coming at us.

Once my brother-in-law was confronted by some typical American who 
shouted at him, "Why you hate us? Why you call us 'the Great Satan.?" 
Mohammed said God works through the spirit and Satan through the 
material. So what place on earth is the most materialistic? What place 
pushes materialism on the rest of the world?

When the 9/11 attack happened there was a very big soccer match just 
beginning in Iran, their version of the Super Bowl. At the Teheran 
stadium they asked for a minute of silence in the memory of the WTC 
victims, likewise, on the TV broadcast of the game. Dead silence. Do you 
think some tragedy in Iran would have had our Super Bowl audience silent 
for 60 seconds? What would those slobs have done but cheered for dead 
Iranians? For a brief moment, even those who hated us the most 
sympathized with us. For once, I totally agree with the Mennonites peace 
and reconcilliation approach. Can you imagine where we'd be today had 
Bush taken the Mennonite approach? The world's collective jaw would have 
dropped and a great reconcilliation would have begun. But I know very 
well why he didn't. Because the world would TELL us what they didn't 
like about us. Bush and his handlers know already and don't want to 
hear. That's why we follow the insanity of total revenge.

Mark my words, Bush is taking us down the road to ruin. Historically we 
can be compared to Rome right about when they sacked Jerusalem ca. 60 
AD. i.e., big and powerful...and beginning to have to use that power 
more and more. We're on our way out with Bush....

Beating up pathetic wannabes like this Reid character might feel good, 
but the huge sea of anti-Americanism out there won't go away just 
because we do self-righteous "feel-good" Perry Mason theater and lock 
him up forever.

One parting thought: Let's look at 1930's Germany. The Germans were 
blustery and jingoistic and nationalistic and talked about how wounded 
they were and how they weren't gunna take it anymore and had a big 
military and a loud-talking leader--lots of anxieties fueled even more 
by a weak economy. Sound familiar?

Lb

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