On Mon, 28 Jan 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > As for the 1967 war, it may have been wrong, but I can't see why anyone > > expects the Arabs to view such things as anything but responding to a > > prior evil. > > > Specifics aside, there are rules of war; they involve some level reciprocol respect >for religous observances not of your own religion
In general, I agree. Again, though, the problem of perspective intrudes. Rules only have meaning where all parties agree to them. I'm guessing the Arabs who attacked on Yom Kippur figured that violating a Jewish holy day was roughly reciprocal with the West's decision to violate the Muslim holy land by planting a state(*) there in a unilateral manner. I'm not saying that excuses anything -- just that, outrage aside, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that such a thing happened. As long you haven't changed your enemy's mind, you can expect your enemy to try one thing after another until one of you is destroyed. I guess I'm saying it's kind of futile to curse and curse someone when the context of the curse is something they just don't give a damn about. Kind of like some fundamentalist mullah (or Baptist preacher, maybe) cursing the evils of the West -- he can't do anything about it, not really, so who over here really gives a damn? We care about whether or not we get bombed, but we don't really give a damn about his reasons for bombing us as long as we can find a way to make him stop. We can't really expect the Arabs who hate us to give a damn about our reasons for resisting them unless we can find a way to trump that hate with something they care more about than what they think they'll receive as the prize for destroying Israel or the West. And since carpet bombing the entire Middle East doesn't seem to be an option, maybe we need to try to look at something other than the "reciprocal violence until both sides agree to peace talks which break down when more violence starts" strategy. (I'll admit right here that it's very easy to be an armchair political critic, and much harder to be in the hotseat of the situation itself. I just can't help but feel that we're stuck at the kind of impasse that's characterized by attempting the same failed strategy over and over again, hoping that *this* time it'll work.) (*) When I say "planting a state" I don't mean just a Jewish state. I suspect that if in 1948 the UN had recognized a state devoted to pygmies or Cherokee or Mongolians or Vikings, the Arabs would be just as outraged and just as determined to get rid of it. The difference is that in any of the latter cases they wouldn't have centuries of well-worn European anti-Semitic screeds to plagiarize for their propaganda. Marvin Long Austin, Texas
