Again, there is a huge disconnect, always has been, between the news reports in the Wall Street Journal, which rank as among the best American journalism from any paper, and the WSJ Editorial page which is right-wing, plutocracy forever, let's privatize everything and sell it-focal. Horrific nonsense, most of the time, treasonous garbage and lies the rest of the time. Here is one example of an urban fairy tale about how popular John McCain is among the "Iraqi people" in the form of four stooges sent on a US junket, presumably by the Defense Department or State Department in order to gin up support for perpetual war/perpetual occupation.
For those who have not followed the current "Status of Force Agreement" discussions between the US and Iraq (which BushCo is trying to shove through without letting Congress know anything about this secret treaty) in short, things are not going so well. The US side is keeping its secrets, but the Iraqis have started to publicly explain what they see as wrong about the treaty. Their complaints? The agreement is open-ended, in that it has no end date. US troops would not be subject to Iraqi law or control. The US could construct and maintain as many as 50 permanent military bases in Iraq. But hey! there would be just huge buckets of "respect" for Iraqi sovereignty! You betcha! Heaps! We loves them rag heads! And by Gad, the WSJ Editorial page assures us, they loves us! Was this war worth it, or what? Almost makes yuh wanta go out and start another, so we can have more success like this, doesn't it? Heck, one more? why not ten more? If one is good, wouldn't ten be better? Then EVERYONE will love us as much as these four (carefully selected) Iraqis do! Heck, let's invade France, so they can start to love us too! We'll MAKE those silly fromage-eaters love us, whether they like it or not!
On the other hand, for those of you who might have some commie-pinko ideas about that world peace thingie, here are some interesting statistics about who the Muslims of the world really are, and why it has been so terminally stupid of the Bush administration to rave about "Islamo-fascists". By doing so they served to insult the entire Muslim world of roughly 1.5 Billion people.
The most common misconception is that all Muslims are Arabs. Guess what? It turns out that only 17% of Muslims in the world are Arab. About 270 million of them. So who are the rest? Africa is about 27%. Asia (if you subtract the Middle East, which is technically part of Asia) 52% Where are they? Indonesia 200 million, Pakistan 150 million, India 140 million, Bangadesh 130 million. By comparison, let's look at Lebanon which has a Muslim population of, want to guess? 2.3 million. A little over 2 million? While Bangladesh has 130 million Muslims, but we never hear about it? How can that be? And if we combine the Muslim populations of India and Bangladesh they total 270 million, as large as the entire Arab population in the Middle East, but have you ever heard anything about the Muslims in Bangalore causing a ruckus? There have been outbursts of sectarian strife in India, but it pales by comparison to the strife in the Middle East. And it largely consists of those peaceful Hindus killing Muslims.
I guess the point I am trying to make is that there are very real problems in the Middle East, and yes, they involve Muslim populations, and yes it calls for our attention. But the attention it warrants is intelligent attention, not the ravings of a born-again drunk preppie. Nor, I would suggest, the bright ideas of a former navy pilot who seems to have trouble telling a Shia (10% of the Muslim population of the world) from Sunnis (the other 90%, though a minority in Iraq).
Arthur
On the other hand, for those of you who might have some commie-pinko ideas about that world peace thingie, here are some interesting statistics about who the Muslims of the world really are, and why it has been so terminally stupid of the Bush administration to rave about "Islamo-fascists". By doing so they served to insult the entire Muslim world of roughly 1.5 Billion people.
The most common misconception is that all Muslims are Arabs. Guess what? It turns out that only 17% of Muslims in the world are Arab. About 270 million of them. So who are the rest? Africa is about 27%. Asia (if you subtract the Middle East, which is technically part of Asia) 52% Where are they? Indonesia 200 million, Pakistan 150 million, India 140 million, Bangadesh 130 million. By comparison, let's look at Lebanon which has a Muslim population of, want to guess? 2.3 million. A little over 2 million? While Bangladesh has 130 million Muslims, but we never hear about it? How can that be? And if we combine the Muslim populations of India and Bangladesh they total 270 million, as large as the entire Arab population in the Middle East, but have you ever heard anything about the Muslims in Bangalore causing a ruckus? There have been outbursts of sectarian strife in India, but it pales by comparison to the strife in the Middle East. And it largely consists of those peaceful Hindus killing Muslims.
I guess the point I am trying to make is that there are very real problems in the Middle East, and yes, they involve Muslim populations, and yes it calls for our attention. But the attention it warrants is intelligent attention, not the ravings of a born-again drunk preppie. Nor, I would suggest, the bright ideas of a former navy pilot who seems to have trouble telling a Shia (10% of the Muslim population of the world) from Sunnis (the other 90%, though a minority in Iraq).
Arthur
2 comments:
"but have you ever heard anything about the Muslims in Bangalore causing a ruckus? There have been outbursts of sectarian strife in India, but it pales by comparison to the strife in the Middle East. And it largely consists of those peaceful Hindus killing Muslims."
Arthur, I address you by name this time, for emphasis on your omissions. Boy did you open up a can of worms. By the way how did Islam make it clear to Indonesia since 700 AD? Military conquest. Ever heard of Al-Andalus? That's what the Moors (Muslims from N. Africa) called the Iberian Penninsula where pogroms against the Jews occurred in the 1100's. We call it Spain today. The military conquest by the 600 year old Muslim Ottoman Empire, well that's a story for another day.
Let me introduce you to a country in eastern Africa called Sudan. The population is 70% Muslim and estimated at 39 million plus. The United Nations estimate of the deaths, since 2003, in this failed state is 400,000. I must add that this is just the most recent of a myriad of religious civil wars and ethnic cleansings over time by the Muslim folk there. Enter the Janjaweed (Devil on Horseback) Black Muslims or Afro-Arabs. The Janjaweed are armed partisans drawn from Darfurian and Arabic-speaking tribes that became notorious for alleged massacre, rape , forced displacement and torture in 1990 and from 2001-2005 and primary perpetrators of the genocide of non-Muslim Africans in Sudan and Chad. The Sudanese Government says taint so, but we know better, don't we. There is so many more examples of same. Peaceful religion, indeed.
Thanks for equal time.
Arthur says:
"While Bangladesh has 130 million Muslims, but we never hear about it? How can that be?"
Well, I guess it's because we didn't pay attention.
Don't miss this key phrase, below, in this short history of a Muslim Bengali event 'Operation Searchlight' (massacred throughout the war range from three hundred thousand to 3 million.) Mostly Hindu I might add.
Bangladesh became one of the youngest major nation states following a pair of twentieth century secessions from India (1947) and Pakistan (1971). During the twentieth century, its resilient inhabitants seem to have suffered one trauma after another. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Mujib) led the nation to independence in 1971, but he and his successor Ziaur Rahman (Zia) were both assassinated only in a span of six years.
In 1970, a massive cyclone devastated the coast of East Pakistan, and the central government responded poorly. The Bengali population's anger was compounded when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose Awami League won a majority in Parliament in the 1970 elections, was blocked from taking office. After staging compromise talks with Mujib, President Yahya Khan (A Shia Muslim) arrested him on the early hours of March 26, 1971, and launched Operation Searchlight, a sustained military assault on East Pakistan. Yahya's methods were extremely bloody, and the violence of the war resulted in many civilian deaths. Chief targets included intellectuals and Hindus, and about ten million refugees fled to neighbouring India. Estimates of those massacred throughout the war range from three hundred thousand to 3 million.
Peaceful folks, those Muslim leaders, huh?
References:
Mascarenhas, Anthony. Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1986.
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