and again and again. I get this sinking feeling in my gut every time I see that another terrorist has blown him/herself up. When will this culture of people stop worshiping death? Certainly not when they "get what they want" - because what they want is impossible, a dream that does not exist, a mythical Palestine in the past with no Jews and where the grass grows green and the fruits ripen on the trees. It's not REAL what they want. There is no CAUSE, there is no REASON, NONE. Or if there ever was one, it no longer exists. All they do now is worship death. There is no negotiation that will touch these people, there is nothing that will work. They are beyond the pale.
It makes me feel sick, helpless.
Even with the chaos of the bombing, Israel still went ahead with the Hezbollah prisoner-transfer scheduled to take place.
Posted by sheilaPertinent to another recent thread, the problem is that it's become a religious war for these people. I think the ultimate solution will have to involve us stopping our support of the corrupt, totalitarian, "friendly" regimes which have been the prime offenders vigorously fanning the flames of militant Islam so as to divert attention from their own abject failures. We took an important first step in dealing with Saddam, but the real question is whether we will have the will and the courage to deal with the Saudis.
Once the religious fervor calms somewhat and the violence decreases, then you must take immediate steps to get the Palestinian economy moving. The only viable long-term solution is to develop their economy to the point where they're no longer willing to risk to loss of their earthly life and property in hopes of gaining some imagined heavenly reward.
A solution to the conflict is possible, but I'm not sure it can happen so long as we're propping up the very corrupt regimes who've sponsored so much of the violence.
"Once the religious fervor calms..."
Perhaps it is my own lack of imagination - I am sure that that is the case - but I can't picture that happening, without an entire revolution within Islam.
I do believe that that can happen ... but I'm not sure I will live to see the day.
Posted by: red at January 29, 2004 11:41 AMI don't I will live to see it, you might as I have a twenty or so year head start on you, but then I never thought I'd live to see the dismantingling of the Berlin Wall and the Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
Steve -
True. True. Some things only seem to be set in stone, because we cannot think our way out, we can't see our way out.
God. I can only hope.
Posted by: red at January 29, 2004 12:35 PMThe one thing in our favor is that this suicide-bombing hyper-militant strain of Islam is a relatively recent phenomenon (last 50 years or so). It was struck upon by the Saudis and other Middle East regimes as a way to prevent the masses from scrutinizing their misdeeds too closely. That doesn't really get us any closer to a solution, but at least it does mean that while there is a centuries-old tradition of ethnic hatred, this hyper-fundamentalist suicide bombing stuff is not anywhere near that old. So, at least we're not working against centuries of historical inertia on that specific score...
Posted by: MikeR at January 29, 2004 2:41 PMMike R -
I do hope so. Every religion has its time in history when it goes off the rails.
Posted by: red at January 29, 2004 2:53 PM