@blatham,
blatham wrote:
Quote:national policy must be based on reality. By and large, and for whatever reason, those IS people actually believe that stuff and history says that isn't likely to change.
Two things here. Yes, clearly Islamic extremists do believe what they say. And, yes, they are seriously ugly in those beliefs and actions. But it's not the whole faith nor anything but a small minority.
That is demonstrably false. Islam, whether of the Shia or Sunni variety, has not yet made the historical transition to independent secular government. They exoerienced nothing comparable to the Reformation and the Enlightenment throught which Western civilization passed. The truth of this assertion is visible in the politics of nearly every Muslim country in the world. Religious control, intolerance of other faiths or the absence of Faith, the oppression nof women and rule by a corrupt self-serving elite are the norm from Algeria to Malaysia
blatham wrote:
Yet a deep facet of the American right is its hunger for a apocalyptic enemy. The loss of the Soviet Union in this role made for a problem. Temporary solutions were found in gays, liberals, university professors and activist judges. Saddam provided another nice temporary target of wrath and punishment (and there were "targets" there as Rumsfeld put it) with the ancillary benefit of big profits to the war machine. Muslim extremists look to be a rather more agreeable hunger-satiating apocalyptic enemy for the American myth stories and for long-term warfare. It checks a bunch of boxes.
From what journalistic screed did you get that little tidbit? It is merely very abstract but pithy nonsense that flies in the face of the historical facts. The evils perpetuated by Soviet style communism from Russia to China and the Captive former republics of Eastern Europe are all well documented. They were real events that claimed tens of millions of victims, and they were indeed a very serious threat to Western civiliczation - even in Canada where you live. The dysfunction of the governments of the Islamist world following the collapse of thre Ottoman Empite (largely at the hands of the British & Russian Empires) is a fact that is quite independent of American politics.
This crap is very illustrative of your very abstract, but shallow and uninformed view of history and events in the real world. You appear to see no difference between the journalistic reporting of something and actually knowing or understanding anything about the reality of it. Unburdened by facts or reality you are free to fabricate these vague abstract "theories" which you appear to see as real intellectual achievement and insight. The truth is they are laughable absurdities.
It appears tha Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany has, after some difficulty reached a different conclusion from yours after the experience of admitting hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants who appear to have little interest in Western culture, values or political norms.
