Not shallow, just cynical. Deeply cynical...
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The following is part of a reply by an Arab “man”, with an alias name of Amjad, posted on an Arab forum.
The interesting part is that which pertains to the new debate in the western media, in the aftermath of the September 11th attack on America, about the reasons “why they hate us?”
Although I do not agree with several points “he” raises, I certainly found his sincere approach to answer this question worth posting herein.
Note that profane language has been cut and alias names were abbreviated.
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Chaos. The natural state of things, and people. Order must constantly be imposed. Improvements and repairs forever made to our environment, our streets, our cars, our homes, else the very world we live in would fall apart.
Now, while you ponder and wonder whether what you just read was a profoundness of Aristotelian proportions, or the biggest load of crap ever scribbled on a forum, lets address your points:
"Actually, I have had some help "dreaming that up." Today I read a piece in Time magazine about the issue of hatred of the U.S. in the ME."
Hmmm...let me consider. There are several avenues I could take in refuting the above, all of which would tax my considerable skills at BSing, to their utmost limits. So instead, I'll just say what I know.
Yes, America in this part of the world (Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon) is looked upon with a less than loving attitude. Jordan's most popular cartoonist has even been drawing some pro-Taliban cartoons lately, and he isn’t at all sympathetic to the USA. Such cartoonists definitely reflect the mood of the general populace a lot more accurately than Arafat giving his blood for the camera's benefit. You'll never see Arab soccer supporters holding up American flags at the local games, or moments of silence being observed without a fair about of cynicism.
But America has never in its 50-year history of involvement in the region, ever dealt with the general populace. Its dealings have always been with less than popular regimes and dictatorships, almost always to the exclusion of the best interests of the people they rule. So, since the regimes are safely in America's pockets, then hey, what are you worried about? Pissing off 250 million Arabs never seemed to be a problem before. Why are you and Time magazine all of a sudden so concerned about their "hatred"?
After all, you can "bomb those rag heads" to dust if you so chose. You've always had that power. There is no doubt that you are the mightiest, richest, most powerful country that ever existed on this planet, and no one can possibly stand up to you if you turned your anger towards them.
But, no, even that isn’t enough for you. You feel hurt because you’re "hated". Because people you will never know, will never meet, who you haven’t the slightest inkling of how to locate on a map, "hate" you. The whole world knows where America is, who its president is, what it looks like on a map. Tell me, how many of the gun-ho **** here (J. d. and the other assorted ***) could even locate Afghanistan on a map prior to September 11th?
And yet within two weeks you’ve all become such experts on how to deal with those "rag heads". You all seem to know oh so much about what fuels so and so's anger.
You're all so world wise now that you come to Arab forums, sharing your not so educated half guesses as to why the world seems to be in the situation it is now.
Because, "n.A.w.", R., et al, had you even spent a week in this region, you would know that there are Arabs, who's biggest fear, every day and night, is that these Islamists might come to power in the communities they live in. But what's the alternative? To continue to pray for the survival of oppressive, brutal regimes who's only good points are that they left us the freedom to patronize bars and visit brothels?
Yes, I want to see Bin Laden and every Bin Laden wannabe hang. I'd also like to see not a few secular SOBs hang with him. But if your country is going to target terrorism that only affects its own citizens, at the cost of propping up regimes that everyday practice a worse terrorism, an intellectual, emotional, spiritual terrorism, on its own people, MY people, then frankly, I for one don’t have any stake in this "war of the 21st century". If the price of Bin Laden's defeat is the strengthening of what I consider to be the more immediate evil of brutal secular dictatorships, then, in the words of Shakespeare, "a plague on both your houses".
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