"Dear" Islamic Militants

[ravan]

If you really want the US to leave Iraq, you need to help rebuild your country, your infrastructure, and your government, not threaten and kill foreigners. Really, the more you threaten, kidnap, blackmail, sabotage, destroy, and kill, the longer we will feel that we have to stay - our pride demands it. The more violence you put forward, the more ticked off we will get, and the more troops will come in, the more homes will be destroyed, the more visceral retaliation we will engage in. You want us to leave? Be nice and peaceful, part of the international community, and no one will be able to justify keeping troops there. It's simple, really.

Realize you would have many more people sympathizing with you if you weren't so quick to shed random blood. If you act like all you understand is vicious violence, that is all you will get. If you wanted to get our attention, you got it, but it will not be the kind that benefits you. Martyrdom is a dead end, and the way to gain allies is not to kill their friends and countrymen. Quit giving Bush and the neo-cons excuses to impose more "pax americana". Sheesh.

Comments

[dubhain.livejournal.com]

Er...actually they've tried that, or something similar already. Many years ago.

During WWI, T.E. Lawrence promised the Arab leaders independence from the British Empire if they'd fight with Britain in The War to End All Wars.

Once the war ended, the Arabs and the British met. The Arabs stated their case, sat back, and waited for the British to see the logic of their position. (IOW, they tried being reasonable.)

The British himmed, hawed, and harrumphed. Then they announced that they were sorry, but it simply wasn't feasible to grant Arab independence just at the time. Perhaps another time would be better.

The Arab world hasn't trusted Britian since. And one must understand that the Arab world does not see a significant difference between Great Britain and the United States. So far as they're concerned, we're pretty-much the same.

The primary reason the Iraqi militants don't follow what we'd consider a 'sensible' course of action is that they don't consider us to be reasonable people. They've long memories, and to them WWI wasn't that long ago. Their experience of us is that we're neither reasonable nor trustworthy.

So far as they're concerned, the only thing we understand is force. And given our hypocritical insistence on 'human rights&trade', while committing all manner of abuses against our military detainees, one imagines the rest of the world's taking a similar view of us as well.

In short, they're responding to terror with terror. I'm not endorsing it, nor do I approve of it, but I do (believe I) understand it. They're not looking for sympathy. They don't want to beg. They want to frighten, shock and horrify. Of that, they're doing an extremely effective job, it seems.

I could go on, in depth and at length, but I'll spare you.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Whilst your history is true, I rather suspect that America's similar, but rather more recent, actions might just be the cause.

After all, they are pissed at the USA, not Britain, and it's not because they can't tell the differance, because they can. British troops got welcomed, and for awhile at least, were having a slightly easier time of it.

Face it, America screwed up during the late 80's and 90's, on the diplomatic front. We're all paying for it now. [I remember remarking at the time, when the Taliban kicked the Russians out that I doubted it would stop there.]

[dubhain.livejournal.com]

I may've been unclear.

I don't dispute that the recent actions by the US are the direct cause. Of course they are.

Similarly, they can tell the difference between Britain and the US, but they don't see much difference, culturally, between the two.

My intended point was that there is a cultural history of (i.e. 'predisposition toward') distrusting the English-speaking folk, dating back to WWI. Recent actions on the US's part feed into that prejudicial distrust, and serve only to reinforce and intensify it. Provide fuel to smoldering embers, and - voila! Flame.

As to the US's miserable history when it comes to foreign policy: You're preaching to the choir. I've alternated between wincing and ranting for years about it. We've been on the wrong track at least</> since Regan, and I could make a case for us starting to go off the rails as early as Kennedy.

[redsonja.livejournal.com]

You will notice, as will anyone intelligent enough to wade through the bullshit and look at historical facts, that Bush and Bin Laden have a history of working together.

The very sick and fucked up fact of life is that THEY STILL ARE, it's just on a new and improved level of mutual stupidity previously unexplored by most life forms since Adolf Hitler.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

You see, you're assuming that what they state they want, is actually what they want.

The reality is, the people who are doing this are out to get more power for themselves, either in a genuine belief that they can then use this to impose a fundimental Islamic rule, or as a cynical, personal power-grab.

To this end, chaos, bloodshed and death [provided it's someone else's blood and death.] serves their ends, and not peace and order.

So far, they're getting what they want.