Quote from ZZZzzzzzzz:
There is very much a danger when you pit one religion against another religion, which is exactly what is happening.
I agree completely. However this is not a case of one religion against another, it is a conflict of idealogies. The idealogy of fundemental Islam against the idealogy that the western world has developed and embraced.
In the Middle East religion and politics are one in the same. In the west there is a seperation between politics and the church. Over time the seperation has grown and contracted and is different for each state.
In the western world a good many of our values and priniciples have some background in religion but they are not drven solely by religion nor does the western populations rely upon a strict intrepretation of the Bible for making public policy.
Instead the Western world reliees upon a constitution (varying by state) for the basis of their political institutions and a loose interpretation of Religious texts for social institutions. Contrast this with the Middle East where a strict intrepretation of the Koran is the fundemental basis for their political systems and social institutions.
Bush's crusading attitude simply fuels the fire of extremism....
By demonizing the enemy, by polarizing a situation into only 2 possibilities, i.e. you are either us, or you are with the terrorists...there is automatically an extremist situation.
They are bad, and in a black and white world, that would mean that we are automatically good and justified in all that we do.
Very dangerous thinking, which leads to rationalization of actions that are themselves not really good actions....
If anything Bush is painting a rosier picture than perhaps he should. The European populations and a good part of the US population has become too comfortable and pussified and therfore unwiling to see that this truly is a war of idealogies. Fundemental Islam is not compatible with the moral and value systems of the western world. Just like Christianity, if practiced in the manner and with the conventions in the Old Testament, would not be compatible with the current Western moral and value systems.
The far lefts blind hatred for Bush prevents many of them from seeing the true nature of the dissagreement. One way or another we are going to face this clash of civilizations. Whether it be now, as we are doing althorugh not on a large enough scale, or in 10-20 years will determine how hard the West will have to fight for the continuation of its idealogy. Even if we stopped needing Middle Eastern oil (a big reason for the push for democratic stability in the Middle East) we would only delay the inevitable.
