Do "the People" in Arab Countries Really Want Peace?

[jordan179]

We are often told that, whatever tyrants and terrorist leaders may want, "the people" of the Arab countries really want peace with Israel. Michael I. Krause, in "What Do Muslim Nations Think About Terrorists," American Thinker (http://www. ( Read more... )

Comments

[bdunbar]

I know, in only the poor and halting way that I can, a few people from that part of the world, and I've traveled a bit. And this is hardly the place to tout our various credentials about who has lived where and knows more of this kind of people or that. And besides - dick-measuring contests are tawdry, don't you think?

Every assumption about me that you outlined above is incorrect. So hurray for assumptions!

I didn't call you racist. Racism by definition means that you accept a common humanity, but place yourself above others, by virtue of your race. What you wrote that I objected to was ..

They're not much different than a pact of feral dogs.

Which implies a belief that millions of people - women, men, children, the innocent and the fell alike - are animals. Sub-human. This is an interesting attitude to hold - one I might have expected to find on the frontier of Texas in the 19th century, the frontier in Kentucky earlier in our history .. or anywhere one finds two cultures bumping against each other in violent conflict.

But not one that is common in early 21st century America. Bombings and regrettable massacres aside - and being honest these are rare in America - unless one travels abroad in the military one is unlikely to see many barbarians slaughtering families, firing up homesteads or kidnapping the wimmin folk.

Which is to say that, at a guess, only about 10% of us - at the most - have been put in a position to have a visceral, personal reason to feel that millions of people are no better than feral dogs.

It's curious that most people - statistically - will hold this opinion because of something they watch on TV.

[jordan179]

I hold the opinion that modern Muslim countries are, on the average, much less civilized and more aggressive than are modern Western countries, based upon what I have read, watched, and otherwise absorbed through every means I have available. I do not believe that this is because they are "sub-human" ... sadly, their behavior is well within human norms, and is not even the worst possible human behavior (Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Red China, Khmer Rouge Cambodia, and some other countries hold that unenviable distinction). It's not racial, it's cultural.