In article <010520071124377343%rps@null.void>, RPS wrote:
>Mike Hunt wrote:
>
>: His statement didn't limit terrorism to Islamic terrorism.
>
>I hesitate to add to an OT debate that almost hijacked my thread, but
>this is from a post above:
>
>"...proximity to Middle East, growth of Jihadi cells, as well as the
>likelihood of bigger mess in Iraq and a US attack on Iran..."
>
>Seems reasonable to assume he is worrying about Islamic terrorism.
>
>OK, let's get back to other travel issues. :)
Italy could be the center of a tit-for-tat if our president and vice
president decide to attack Iran. It's the wrong way to characterize
the worry as one about Islamic terrorism. One might choose to seize
the moment to show his or her courage. For others, it's about being
wise enough to avoid getting caught between a fight. If we attacked
another country without their planes, ships or soldiers coming near
our soil, then we'd be picking a fight. We'd be committing terrorism
against the Iranian people; so therefore don't think that they would
not retaliate against our terrorism tit-for-tat. It doesn't matter if
you're white and European-looking and therefore can't be distinguished
from many Italians of European descent. The retaliation the victim of
our attack can imagine will somehow connect the fact that Italians are
a bunch of Christians and Americans are also a bunch of Christians.
Is it an ideological thing? It could be. When people are desperate,
they can see thing that non-desperate don't. To see why it is even
possible, we need only remember that many Americans have supported our
unprovoked attack of Iraq because they are persuaded that the Iraqis,
being overwhelmingly Muslims, are somehow connected to bin Laden, and
therefore to terrorism. It's a two-way street. If we kill others by
association, religiously speaking, it's just fair that others also
might want to take revenge based on association, religiously speaking,
when we try to harm them.
In fact, poor Italy will be caught in the middle of a fight. When I
visited Italy in the early 1990s, I went in, did my business in one
day and got out the next, which included traveling from Rome to Naples
to Capri and back. I spent less than 3 days altogether. Today, the
world under Bush and Cheney is not normal. I wouldn't be so brave as
to travel to Europe, knowing that Bush and Cheney are the kind of men
who are sufficiently unstable to just launch another war, despite the
costs, the unpopularity, the gruesomeness, and the inhumanity. They
would use any excuse, an excuse du jour that would happen to strike
their fancy.
lo yeeOn
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