-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/
}}}>Begin
townhall.com
Jonah Goldberg (back to story)
November 12, 2001
U.S. shouldn't stop bombing during Ramadan
In a little over a week, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins.
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf announced Thursday that the
U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan should be halted during Ramadan or
else "it will definitely have negative effects around the Islamic
world." Here at home, self-proclaimed Muslim spokesmen have been
fretting for weeks about the possibility that the United States might
bomb during Ramadan, which celebrates the month the prophet Mohammed
spent in a cave (not a Ramada Inn) while Allah revealed the Koran to
him.
Ibrahim Hooper, of the less-than-moderate Council on American-Islamic
Relations, says: "It's a period of heightened spirituality, and of
course people's sensibilities are more acute at those times, so it
could have consequences if it is still going on at that time."
University of Richmond law professor Azizah al-Hibri explained to USA
Today, "We need to keep in mind the sensitivities of the Muslim
world. If (Bush) fights during Ramadan, that will give bin Laden one
more tool to argue
to the Muslim world that the United States is disrespectful of their religion."
And you can be sure that non-Muslim opponents of American military action -- Noam
Chomsky, Susan Sontag, Jesse Jackson, Rep. Cynthia McKinney et al. -- will surely
chime in when the bombing continues.
Before we get into the interesting issues of what bombing or not bombing during
Ramadan would really mean, let's get one inconvenient fact out of the way: Muslims
have been killing each other, and other people, during Ram
adan for centuries. Mohammed himself opened a clay urn of whup-ass on tribes outside
Mecca during Ramadan in 624 A.D.
Iraqis and Iranians killed each other over Ramadan with great aplomb during their war.
(Saddam Hussein did offer a Ramadanian respite in 1981 -- largely because he was
losing the war, which, in turn, was why Iran refused
to accept the offer.)
Anwar Sadat of Egypt launched the Yom Kippur war on Israel during Ramadan, with little
respect to his own religion and even less for Israel's.
And recently, in 1995, Islamic rebels in Algeria called for increased hostilities
during Ramadan.
Now this certainly doesn't mean that Muslim nations respect their holy days less than
we in the West do. George Washington smacked around the Hessians on Christmas Eve.
And, come to think of it, so did General Patton 168
years later.
Of course, the last time we decided to respect somebody else's holiday truce, we were
sorry. The North Vietnamese launched a massive attack on the South during the holiday
truce of Tet. The offensive was a disaster milita
rily for the Viet Cong but a disaster for us in terms of public relations. And,
indeed, public relations are important. Proponents of halting the ban are making a PR
argument -- and a simple one at that. They say that Mu
slims will be angry because we are inconsiderately bombing Muslims during their holy
days.
You've got to have some sympathy for President Musharref on this score. He's got a
bunch of rabidly pro-Taliban Islamic radicals looking to overthrow his government.
But, the fact is, they want to overthrow his governmen
t no matter what.
Sure, they would use bombing during Ramadan as an excuse to protest Musharaff, but
they would also use the fact that Rachel on "Friends" is pregnant as an excuse if they
could. At best, Islamic radicals complaining about
bombing during Ramadan is convenient. And the idea that these radicals would stop
complaining if the United States stopped bombing during Ramadan is absurd.
Besides, as Tod Lindberg recently argued in The Weekly Standard, if we stopped bombing
during Ramadan, that would actually be the real public relations gaffe. To stop a war
out of deference to a Muslim holiday would send
the signal that America is in fact at war with Muslims rather than terrorists. By
bombing during a Muslim holiday, however, we are underscoring the fact that Islam has
nothing to do with this.
If anything, Muslims should be ticked off at the Taliban. They're the ones using
mosques for shelter because they know the United States is reluctant to bomb them.
Inviting attacks on mosques by turning them into legitima
te targets doesn't seem too respectful of Islam to me.
There are also military factors for the United States to consider. Halting bombing for
a month is tantamount to having never bombed at all. The Taliban would be free to move
about its country, attack Northern Alliance for
ces and generally plan anti-American attacks.
Wars are ugly, and it would be pathologically stupid to expect the Taliban or al-Qaida
to wage a civilized war. After all, al-Qaida planned to kill the Pope, which seems
awfully disrespectful to people of the Catholic fai
th.
Nobody would say the FBI shouldn't chase down a terrorist cell of Klu
Klux Klansmen on Christmas out of sensitivity to the Klan's allegedly
deeply held Christianity. Why is al-Qaida or the Taliban any
different?
The best thing for Muslims and non-Muslims alike is quick victory for
the United States. Until then, people are going to complain about the
war no matter what. When it comes to the bombing, we're going to be
Ramadamned if we do and Ramadamned if we don't. So it's best that we
stick to our guns -- and our bombs.
Jonah Goldberg is editor of National Review Online, a TownHall.com
member group. Contact Jonah Goldberg
�2001 Tribune Media Services
townhall.com
End<{{{
>>>One thaing that real' gets me is when these arm-chair worriers get
into this habit of using "we" when "we" ain't doin' nuttin' but
fondling their little army men at their computer stations. "We"
isn't flying all around the world, "we" isn't getting shot at, "we"
isn't risking not a whole lot when it comes to various things that
happen to the military members (or even the firefighter and police
persons, if you've noticed from the Veterans' Day promotion of our
paramilitary Homeland Security Forces). "We" is inconvenienced by
the watiing time at the restaurant.
Of course, Jonah can claim to be taxpayer and therefore an honorary
participant in the "War On Terrorism (WOT)", but then there was the
mafioso who, when called before some Congressional committee on
organised crime publically and proudly announced that he had paid his
taxes! A<>E<>R <<<
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