(no subject)
Jun. 9th, 2006 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vianegativaAbu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead as of yesterday, killed by an unrelenting explosion to the place he was hiding. News outlets have of course carried this story to the ends of the earth, and already it seems people have begun to eye the media with suspicion claiming that his death is being celebrated, in a blood-soaked vindication of Bush's war in Iraq.
To which I say: Don't be idiots.
First, pictures of his corpse are being circulated to prove to the rather conspiracy happy Arabic world that yes, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is quite, quite dead. This is most likely a tactic to prevent rumors of his escape from fostering, but is honestly more of a direct statement to al-Qaida that we can and will locate the monsters you refer to as Sheikhs and eliminate them.
Does this make me happy? No, but it is a necessary barbarity. We are not in conflict with a group of people who are anything remotely like us; the level of moral outrage some of us may feel over this is a luxury we are afforded by the society we live in. This man and his cohorts were monsters, and only understand a message underscored in blood. These are not Christians, they are not Americans. The are not Muslims in the true sense of the word and are most certainly not patriots to Iraq in any sane sense. Our frame of reference is useless when analyzing their actions. They are monsters whose currency is the unapologetic wholesale slaughter of anyone who opposes their viewpoint.
Let's also be very clear on this: Zarqwai was a monster. If you don't believe that you can ask Nicholas Berg's relatives how measured and civil a response they felt it was when Zarqwai posted footage of Nicholas Berg's head being sawed off to the internet. Perhaps you can discuss with Jordanian officials how in in late April 2004 Zarqwai was named the mastermind of a foiled plot to kill 80,000 people with a chemical attack. Let us not forget the endless wave of suicide bombers in Iraq that had no discretion in regards to the presence of innocents. I have a great personal satisfaction from hearing about this man's death because in truth it means many, many others will live. His karma was served roughly, but fairly.
Mention has been made of his family being killed, but let's not mince words: as a terrorist for over 15 years, Zarqwai knew well enough that his presence was a danger to civilian innocents. Unless of course, you were hoping they'd make effective human sheilds. Please don't allow your comfortable moralities to blind you to the fact that if you can plot the deaths of 80,000 innocent people you wouldn't hide behind your wife's skirts.
So a monster is dead; good. Al-Qaida will continue and has in fact already named a successor. The business of slaughter will continue soon in Iraq I'm sure.
For a few days though? People will be spared.
For the record:
I oppose the war in Iraq, politically, ethically and logistically.
I think George W. Bush is the worst president since Harding and the naked greed of the Teapot Dome scandal.
I will not use this to condemn the president, however. These people are monsters and our ethics, standards and morals are hard pressed when facing a foe who would exterminate you for creed or sexual preference.
Applying comfortable American morality to this is a mistake.
To which I say: Don't be idiots.
First, pictures of his corpse are being circulated to prove to the rather conspiracy happy Arabic world that yes, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is quite, quite dead. This is most likely a tactic to prevent rumors of his escape from fostering, but is honestly more of a direct statement to al-Qaida that we can and will locate the monsters you refer to as Sheikhs and eliminate them.
Does this make me happy? No, but it is a necessary barbarity. We are not in conflict with a group of people who are anything remotely like us; the level of moral outrage some of us may feel over this is a luxury we are afforded by the society we live in. This man and his cohorts were monsters, and only understand a message underscored in blood. These are not Christians, they are not Americans. The are not Muslims in the true sense of the word and are most certainly not patriots to Iraq in any sane sense. Our frame of reference is useless when analyzing their actions. They are monsters whose currency is the unapologetic wholesale slaughter of anyone who opposes their viewpoint.
Let's also be very clear on this: Zarqwai was a monster. If you don't believe that you can ask Nicholas Berg's relatives how measured and civil a response they felt it was when Zarqwai posted footage of Nicholas Berg's head being sawed off to the internet. Perhaps you can discuss with Jordanian officials how in in late April 2004 Zarqwai was named the mastermind of a foiled plot to kill 80,000 people with a chemical attack. Let us not forget the endless wave of suicide bombers in Iraq that had no discretion in regards to the presence of innocents. I have a great personal satisfaction from hearing about this man's death because in truth it means many, many others will live. His karma was served roughly, but fairly.
Mention has been made of his family being killed, but let's not mince words: as a terrorist for over 15 years, Zarqwai knew well enough that his presence was a danger to civilian innocents. Unless of course, you were hoping they'd make effective human sheilds. Please don't allow your comfortable moralities to blind you to the fact that if you can plot the deaths of 80,000 innocent people you wouldn't hide behind your wife's skirts.
So a monster is dead; good. Al-Qaida will continue and has in fact already named a successor. The business of slaughter will continue soon in Iraq I'm sure.
For a few days though? People will be spared.
For the record:
I oppose the war in Iraq, politically, ethically and logistically.
I think George W. Bush is the worst president since Harding and the naked greed of the Teapot Dome scandal.
I will not use this to condemn the president, however. These people are monsters and our ethics, standards and morals are hard pressed when facing a foe who would exterminate you for creed or sexual preference.
Applying comfortable American morality to this is a mistake.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-09 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-09 09:44 pm (UTC)I feel guilty for snickering.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-09 11:45 pm (UTC)Please read this interview (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/08/berg.interview/index.html) and reconsider dragging Mr. Berg's family into this rant.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-10 01:24 am (UTC)That being said, I use the case of Nicholas Berg as an example of Zaeqwai's utter lack of disregard for life and record of atrocities. I stand by my earlier statement; I'm absolutely sure that Michael Berg would agree that his son's death at the hands of Zarqwai was not a "measured and civil" response.
Also, I included Nicholas Berg as a reference point, not as a rallying cry for revenge. This has nothing to do with revenge; Zarqawi engineered the deaths of thousands in Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. He was a criminal and a murderer. Civil disobedience were not his tools of political protest; bombs and beheadings were.
Be sure to know that the good chap Zarqawi was killing people WELL before the invasion of Iraq by America; he was active in the early 90's and even attempted to assassinate the the monarch of Jordan, who is incidentally a descendent of Mohammed. This man was not an activist, but rather a murderer who found a new venue in the Iraq War in which to ply his craft.
Are we in Iraq for the wrong reasons? Almost certainly. Please don't assume that Zarqawi was merely resisting Imperial America; he was killing civilians long before that.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-11 02:57 am (UTC)I've been trying to think of the best way to reply to this comment without making this sound personal, but all I've been able to come up with is "the following is not personal, Matt."
You just don't get the Middle East. I lived there for six years. You seem to trot out the words "measured and civil" a lot. Michael Berg doesn't talk about a "measured and civil" response, because fundamentantally, Michael Berg understands the culture in that part of the world. In Saudi Arabia, where my father worked and our family lived for a not-insubstantial amount of time, we learned that "measured and civil" are simply not concepts which apply to Arab culture.
In Saudi Arabia, homosexuals and prostitutes are still stoned to death. Adultery is also punishable by death... if you're a woman.
In Saudi Arabia, "The Will Of Allah" is a legitimate court defense. You can kill your daughter because you suspect she's been sleeping around, and when your day in court comes, you can plead that it was "The Will Of Allah" because of her loose virtues, regardless of any actual evidence. This defense isn't 100% effective, but if you're a male muslim, it's often effective.
In Saudi Arabia, women who go out in public with uncovered arms and legs are beaten with sticks/clubs by the mattawa (religious police) and their exposed limbs are spraypainted.
In Saudi Arabia, theft is punishable by amputation.
I could go on and on like this for hours. You just don't have any idea what that part of the world is like. You point to Al-Zarqawi as if he's some kind of deviation from the norm. True, he was responsible for a disproportionate number of muslim deaths, even by mujahideen standards, but his behavior was not that abnormal. There's already a throng of people lined up to carry on his "good fight."
When this war began and I told people that I opposed it, they assumed I was some kind of bleeding heart kitten-hugger who didn't want to see people die. I keep trying to explain the situation to people, but most Americans think of Canada as a distant and exotic land and can barely accept socialized healthcare, let alone a country where democracy really isn't all that important to people — adherence to shariah is a far higher priority to Joe Arab.
You are trying to project your Western mindset into a world that you don't understand, and that's really why America at large is screwing up big time in the Middle East. Iraq was a contained, secular problem prior to the war. Now it is an uncontained, radical Islamic problem. Al-Zarqawi is a product of the environment. The environment is not a product of Al-Zarqawi.
Killing him was futile and counterproductive. He's not the queen termite in a large colony. The other mujahideen will not only survive without him, but also use the graphic images on CNN as further proof that the Big Bad Americans are out to occupy Iraq indefinitely for its oil... which is not that far from the truth, really.
Michael Berg understands the psyche which led to his son's death. That's why he's gone out of his way to say that he holds no malice toward his son's murderer — and yes, Al-Zarqawi is a murderer — because he gets how people like Al-Zarqawi conceptualize world politics. To the Arab world, America is a nation of oil-hungry murderers, and whatever it takes to drive out their oppressors is completely justified. If you find it impossible to understand that, imagine your reaction if you were a resident of Haditha (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12838343/).
(Con't. due to length constraints.)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-11 02:57 am (UTC)(Con't.)
I'm sorry if this is coming across as somewhat personal, Matt, but I am surrounded by people whose ethnocentrism about this war is driving me insane. The Middle East is not the West. They just do not share the same system of values that you and I do, although if the Christian Right continues on its current course, you'll get a rapid, first-hand education as to what it's like to live in a theocracy.
The U.S. government would love to hold up Al-Zarqawi as some sort of anomaly that's been quashed, but he's honestly not that far from the norm. There's a lot of chest-thumping and flag-waving going on about how Al-Zarqawi's death is a major victory, but it's really just a propaganda tool for a government mired in an unwinnable, unpopular war.