The Bush administration is encountering resistance to a new U.N. Security Council resolution to encourage additional countries to send troops to Iraq, officials said Monday. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday the United Nations could not send a peacekeeping force to Iraq but added that he could not exclude a council decision "to transform the operation into a U.N.-mandated multinational force operating on the ground with other governments coming in."
Powell has made clear that Washington won't cede any of its decision-making powers in Iraq.
Someone else who agrees that the battle against terrorism in Iraq is the "The big one" and he's not easy on Bush.
P-ED COLUMNIST
Fighting 'The Big One'
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
n the wake of the bombing of the U.N. office in Baghdad, some "terrorism experts" (By the way, how do you get to be a terrorism expert? Can you get a B.A. in terrorism or do you just have to appear on Fox News?) have argued that the U.S. invasion of Iraq is a failure because all it's doing is attracting terrorists to Iraq and generating more hatred toward America.
I have no doubt that the U.S. presence in Iraq is attracting all sorts of terrorists and Islamists to oppose the U.S. I also have no doubt that politicians and intellectuals in the nearby Arab states are rooting against America in Iraq because they want Arabs and the world to believe that the corrupt autocracies that have so long dominated Arab life, and failed to deliver for their people, are the best anyone can hope for.
But I totally disagree that this is a sign that everything is going wrong in Iraq. The truth is exactly the opposite.
We are attracting all these opponents to Iraq because they understand this war is The Big One. They don't believe their own propaganda. They know this is not a war for oil. They know this is a war over ideas and values and governance. They know this war is about Western powers, helped by the U.N., coming into the heart of their world to promote more decent, open, tolerant, women-friendly, pluralistic governments by starting with Iraq ?- a country that contains all the main strands of the region: Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
You'd think from listening to America's European and Arab critics that we'd upset some bucolic native culture and natural harmony in Iraq, as if the Baath Party were some colorful local tribe out of National Geographic. Alas, our opponents in Iraq, and their fellow travelers, know otherwise. They know they represent various forms of clan and gang rule, and various forms of religious and secular totalitarianism ?- from Talibanism to Baathism. And they know that they need external enemies to thrive and justify imposing their demented visions.
In short, America's opponents know just what's at stake in the postwar struggle for Iraq, which is why they flock there: beat America's ideas in Iraq and you beat them out of the whole region; lose to America there, lose everywhere.
One of the most interesting conversations I had in Baghdad was with Muhammed A. al-Da'mi, a literature professor at Baghdad University and author of "Arabian Mirrors and Western Soothsayers." He has spent a lifetime studying the interactions between East and West.
"Cultures can't be closed on themselves for long without paying a price," he explained. "But ours has been a vestigial and closed culture for many years now. The West needed us in the past and now we need it. This is the circle of history. Essentially [what you are seeing here] is a cultural collision. . . . I am optimistic insofar as I believe that my country ?- and I am a pan-Arab nationalist ?- is going to benefit from this encounter with the more advanced society, and we are going pay at the same time. . . . Your experience in Iraq is going to create two reactions: one is hypersensitivity, led by the Islamists, and the other is welcoming, led by the secularists. [But you have to understand] that what you are doing is a penetration of one culture into another. If you succeed here, Iraq could change the habits and customs of the people in the whole area."
So, the terrorists get it. Iraqi liberals get it. The Bush team talks as if it gets it, but it doesn't act like it. The Bush team tells us, rightly, that this nation-building project is the equivalent of Germany in 1945, and yet, so far, it has approached the postwar in Iraq as if it's Grenada in 1982.
We may fail, but not because we have attracted terrorists who understand what's at stake in Iraq. We may fail because of the utter incompetence with which the Pentagon leadership has handled the postwar. (We don't even have enough translators there, let alone M.P.'s, and the media network we've set up there to talk to Iraqis is so bad we'd be better off buying ads on Al Jazeera.) We may fail because the Bush team thinks it can fight The Big One in the Middle East ?- while cutting taxes at home, shrinking the U.S. Army, changing the tax code to encourage Americans to buy gas-guzzling cars that make us more dependent on Mideast oil and by gratuitously alienating allies.
We may fail because to win The Big One, we need an American public, and allies, ready to pay any price and bear any burden, but we have a president unable or unwilling to summon either.
Quote:We may fail because to win The Big One, we need an American public, and allies, ready to pay any price and bear any burden, but we have a president unable or unwilling to summon either.
Just perhaps had the Bush been honest from the gitgo he would have the support of the public. Way too many lies and distortions sour the pot.
If your memories can manage it think about the wailing during the war----one day we were bogged down and everything was going wrong----the next day the buzz was----damn what a brilliant plan
Stop baiting each other, please.
Damn sumac, you're good, and you're hired
Next job - Israel/Palestinian referee - please
Sumac
This is absolutely civil compared to yesterday and the day before and......................................
Please feel invited to join in and I promise you will receive only encouragement from me but I would not dare to speak for the others especially those flying around on brooms.
Bogged down, are you kidding? We have them right where they want us!
Go USA, Sig HEil, etc...
A Dear John to a marine in Afghanistan. c.i.
*************************************
A Marine stationed in Afghanistan recently received a "Dear John" letter from his girlfriend back home. It read as follows:
Dear Ricky, I can no longer continue our relationship. The distance betweenus is just too great. I must admit that I have cheated on you twice, since you've been gone, and it's not fair to either of us. I'm sorry. Please return the picture of me that I sent to you.
Love,
Becky
The Marine, with hurt feelings, asked his fellow Marines for any snapshots they could spare of their girlfriends, sisters, ex-girlfriends, aunts,
cousins etc. In addition to the picture of Becky, Ricky included all the other pictures of the pretty gals he had collected from his buddies.
There were 57 photos in that envelope....along with this note:
Dear Becky, I'm so sorry, but I can't quite remember who you are. Please take your picture from the pile, and send the rest back to me.
Take care.
Ricky
Lest we forget. c.i.
*******************
Good reading for every one of us! I sat in my seat of the Boeing 767 waiting for everyone to hurry and stow their carry on and grab a seat so we could start what I was sure to be a long and uneventful flight home. With the huge capacity andslow moving people taking their time to stuff luggage far too big for the overhead and never paying muchattention to holding up the growing line behind them, I simply shook my head knowing that this flight was not starting out very well and although I had a great bunch of meetings while conducting business on this trip, it was quickly becoming tarnished with these delays in my getting home to my loved one whom I had not seen in several days.
The meetings although fruitful were long and I had not slept well, not to mention those blasted new dress shoes that rubbed a blister on my heel. I was pretty focused on "my" issues and just felt like standing up and yelling for some of these clowns to get their act together and focus on taking their seats. Knowing I couldn't say anything that would really help,
I just thumbed thru the sky mall widget magazine from the seat pocket in front of me. You know it's really getting rough when you resort to the over priced and mostly useless sky mall crap to break the monotony and
inconvenience of the trouble "I" was going thru. With everyone finally on board and seated, we just sat there with the cabin door open and seemingly no one in any hurry to get us going even though we were well past our scheduled take off time. The paper work had not yet come in to the flight deck, the attendants just stood around talking.
No wonder the airline industry is in trouble I told myself. Don't they realize we have some place we are supposed to be? We should be treated with more importance, after all we are the customers, right? Just
then, the attendant came on the intercom to inform us all "that we were being delayed"...as she paused, the entire plane let out a collective groan.
She resumed her announcement, 'we are holding the aircraft for some very special people who are on their way to the plane and that the delay should not be more than five more minutes. Their connecting flight had traveled a long way and we would get underway just as soon as possible."
Now, I have had this happen to me before and more often than not, I had to catch the next flight or even go to another carrier to get to my destination. Still,I was grateful for the times when they waited for me, so I thought that I would go back to my sky mall pages and try to forget
just how much "I" was being inconvenienced.
As the word came from a scrambling attendant down theconnecting tunnel to the main cabin door I thought that maybe she had some information that would let us know why we had been sitting there for over 30 minutes!! Had someone finally given word that after waiting six times as long as we were first promised that "I" was finally going to be on my way home? Why the hoopla over when these folks? Just get their butts in a seat and lets hit the gas, I thought to myself.
After a few minutes we were all "locked on" when the attendant came back on the speaker, semi expecting some celebrity or sport figure to be announced as the reason the aircraft was delayed so long. I thought who cares, let's go! She announced in a loud and excited voice that we were being joined by several United States Marines returning home from Iraq!!!!
Just as they walked onboard the entire plane erupted into applause. The Men were a bit taken by the surprise of the 340+ people cheering for them as they searched for their seats. It didn't stop, they were having their hands shook and touched by almost everyone who was within an arm's distance of them as they tried to push thru the aisles. Whistles, cheering, an occasional"oorrahh", one elderly woman kissed the hand of one of the Marines as he passed by her, and the applause didn't stop for a long time as they continued toward the back of the aircraft.
When we finally got air born I am sure I was not the only civilian checking his conscious as to the "delays" in me getting home from my "hard business meetings", finding my easy chair and remote, a cold beverage, and tending to my blister". In fact I felt pretty stupid as I am sure many did.
After what these Men had done for all of us, and I had been complaining silently about "me" and "my issues"?
It sure made me realize that as much as I told myself that I didn't take for granted some of the everyday freedoms I enjoy and the conveniences of the American way of life and that it sometimes seems like a personal attack on one of us when things don't go exactly right...I was doing exactly that. I was taking it for granted. I took it for granted when others who had really paid the price for my ability to moan and complain (even if it was just to myself)...let alone a few minutes delay to me so that those HEROES could go home to their loved ones.
I attempted to get my selfish outlook back in order and minutes before we landed I suggested to the attendant she announced over the speaker a request for everyone to remain in their seats until our Hero's were allowed to gather their things and be first off the plane. The cheers and applause cntinued until the last Marine stepped off and we all rose to go about our too often taken for granted everyday freedoms....I felt Proud of Them.
I felt it an Honor and a privilege to be among the first to welcome them home and say Thank You for a job well done.
I vowed that I will never forget that flight nor the lesson learned.
I have said it before but I can't say it enough, THANK YOU to those VETERANS and ACTIVE SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN who may read this, and I prayer everyday for those who cannot because they are no longer with us.
Good for You C.I.----very relevant to this thread. We all need a bit of cheer these days -----thanks
This is the first installment of passages from the book"Hatreds Kingdom" dealing with the formation and advancement of Wahhabism (which spawned bin Laden and most modern day terrorists) by the ruling family of Saudi Arabia. It is a particularly cruel and intollerant sect of Islam that seeks the conversion or destruction of all who don't subscribe to it's puritanical version of the word of the Prophet. You will see that it's hatred is aimed at not only Christians and Jews but also at Muslims who do not share the teachings of Wahhab.
My hope is that you all will see these passages as relevant to this thread because of the terrorism that is being unleashed on Iraq today
In the mid-1700s, Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, a religious zealot, formed a branch of Islam that would be called Wahhabism. After quarreling with his father and the Emir of his tribe, Wahhab was expelled and he sought a new protector. In the end, Muhammad ibn Saud, the ruler of Diriyah, near Riyadh, gave him shelter. The two men struck an Alliance in 1744 and thus began the conquest of Islam by Wahhabism. At that time,what is now Saudi Arabia was merely a homeland for many Arab Tribes, one of which was the Sauds of Diriyah near what is now Riyadh.
Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab thus formed a covenant, under which ibn Saud established the first Saudi state and ibn Abdul Wahhab determined its official creed. In the West the new puritanical doctrine was named Wahhabism and its adherants were called Wahhabis.
With this political-religious alliance, tribal raiding could now be carried on as a religious cause. Ibn Abdul Wahhab legitimized jihad against fellow Muslims for the first time and thanks to his military Alliance with ibn Saud, he could duplicate the Muslim conquests of the seventh century. This allowed him to spread Wahhabism by the sword. Their enemies were offered a choice: embracing Wahhabism or death.
This was a departure from mainstream Islam.
In his Book of Tawbid, Wahhab advanced an extremely anti-Christian and anti-Jewish agenda, describing the followers of both religions as sorcerers who believed in devil worship and declared that the punishment for sorcerers is "that he be struck with the sword". This analysis and interpretation made Wahhabism far more INTOLLERANT of Christianity and Judaism and is a departure from mainstream Islam.
During the next 50 or so years Wahhabism conquered all of what is now Saudi Arabia and even made forays into southern Iraq. ( Continued)
perc, Keep em coming. Reading with interest. c.i.
Tomorrow---bed time for this old man.
Read Karen Armstrong's account of Wahabbism in "The Battle for God." She compares various forms of fundamentalism, Jewish, Christian and Muslim. the underlying theme is the rejection of "modernity" by groups that think of themselves as oppressed. Wahabbism (a branch of Sunni Islam) and its link to what was a minor family in the Ottoman Empire was a marriage of convenience. The control of the Hijaz by the Ottoman Sultanate was always weak, the Bedouin were not good subjects for rule (
), and the struggle between ruling family groups was often quite violent. The al-Saud house, by the virtue of its control of Mecca, was among the stronger of the competing groups. A alliance with a new strain of Islam could only improve its hold on those who owed the clan fealty.
Of particular interest is the way the house of Saud played the British, French, Germans, Russians,and Ottomans off of each other through the 19th century. Similarly, during WWI the al-Sauds kept a running game of duplicity going with the Ottoman and Allied forces,and during WWII with both the allies and axis powers. Like any ruling family, the house of al-Saud has as its primary objective the maintenance of its power.
The danger lies in seeing the political aspirations of a ruling dynasty as more or less than they are. Similarly, to ascribe more importance in world affairs to one sect of radical religion is naive. Wahabbism grows becasue it has Saudi money behind it. The al-Saud support Wahhabism becasue it is a usefull tool for social control at home. In addition, they support activities aoutside the Arabian penninsula in order to present the image of benevolent guardian of Islam to the world community.
perception wrote:
. Ibn Abdul Wahhab legitimized jihad against fellow Muslims for the first time and thanks to his military Alliance with ibn Saud, he could duplicate the Muslim conquests of the seventh century. This allowed him to spread Wahhabism by the sword. Their enemies were offered a choice: embracing Wahhabism or death.
This was a departure from mainstream Islam.
In his Book of Tawbid, Wahhab advanced an extremely anti-Christian and anti-Jewish agenda, describing the followers of both religions as sorcerers who believed in devil worship and declared that the punishment for sorcerers is "that he be struck with the sword". This analysis and interpretation made Wahhabism far more INTOLLERANT of Christianity and Judaism and is a departure from mainstream Islam.
The important phrase mentioned above, and frequently overlooked in the current tenor of anti-Islamic propoganda, is "This was a departure from mainstream Islam." The majority of Muslims in the world are NOT Wahabbi. Judgening and condmning an entire religion on the basis of the actions of a minor sect is ridiculous. It is like condemning all of Christianity for the actions and teachings of the lonies who spawned McVeigh.
