Jack, I think your point of posting this was very good and the main point you were trying to drive home is something that only someone who is not born in this country can and I commend you. There are only a handful of members on this board who could truly have that point of view as they were not born here in the US and have spent time living outside the US in europe and asia. I only have 2nd hand knowledge and research to go on. My sources are very good and being that war history is one of my few hobbies aside from cars guess what I study.
You have the unique perspective of living life far removed from everyday American life and for that again I value your insight.
For someone who is now living here but was not coddled in America to post this holds much more weight then just some flag waving red neck. I don’t think most people realize that you are a foreign born and probably grew up during the Cold War under a Communist regime where life was indeed harsh to say the least.
I agree with much of the facts and POV posted in that essay, for one, Hitler indeed killed many many HUMANS. Not just Jews. Hitler was speculated jewish born, raised Christian and turned a Nation to Paganism. When Hitler marched with Austria through eastern Europe and the Balkans he hated and killed hundreds of thousands of Russian Orthodox Christians and Serbian Orthodox Christians. He desimated the Balkans. On top of that some of the feuding ethnic groups like Turkey and what was the Persian Empire (modern day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon etc, anything between the Tigris and the Euphredis) supported Hitler and was supported by him because they shared a common goal. Complete Ethnic Cleansing of the Jews and Orthodox Christians. Hitler made the Grand Mufti his honorary Muslim SS. He could not of course be SS as he was not german however he recruited many muslim nations to join Hitler in exterminating the Masses and so they did. Very Very disturbing,
After WWII and when Israel was formed The Bath (saddams party) was formed in Syria which based their fascist muslim think tank philosphies heavily on Hitlers teachings and the Nazi Regime. This is only a sliver in the thousands of years of blood shed and hatred that spans back millenia.
We have a very very naive outlook on the world and a unique ability to NOT understand just how these conflicts started, continue and just how PROUD the people are and how much HATRED boils in their veins for which ever group they are against (I am speaking of many groups not just muslims, ex. Serbs and Albanians, Serbs and Muslim Bosnians, Muslims and Jews) No group is ever innocent. Jews have committed as much acts of terrorism in the eyes of muslims as muslims have in the eyes of the Jews. Same with the Balkans.
We as Americans and America have only been around 231 years. Being isolated from the “old world” have forgotten just what it is like to have countries that are hundreds and even thousands of years old with people who pass on their blood feuds. You grow up every day seeing the kinds of things that as Americans have not seen the likes of. You cannot imagine the atrocities that I hear of from friends and families.
The world is getting smaller by the day, communication is bringing the horror right into your face. Yet to understand a problem you must first recognize it as a problem then investigate the root cause. Some of these fights you will never truly understand unless you see it and live it first hand.
I have a very unique perspective for understanding as my girlfriend is not only a refugee from Kosovo who moved here in 99 when the Serbs were murdering her families. She is also ethnic Albanian, and Muslim. My sister is also dating an Albanian American who also is Muslim. I am Catholic. I get all sides. Ones from the front where the fighting is, one from the perspective of living as an American Muslim. I can tell you this, they are some of the best people I have ever met. To sit and to LISTEN to what others have to say about their background, their experiences, and their peoples view of the US especially when they are not from this country is the best way to truly understand the problem.
We are in some serious shit. To deep to back out now. We didn’t start it, We can’t end it. We were drug in but we also have fanned the flames with poor foriegn policy that has exploited the middle east and it’s people for soo long and supported enemies on both sides of conflicts. It’s Karma and it will come back and get you. We are only beginning to see the backlash of it now.
In parts of the world like Israel/Palestine, The Balkans, Iraq with it’s tribes, Africa with their tribes that have become mechanized. It is kill or be killed everyone is fighting for that scrap that last morsel of freedom and it is a policy of complete assimilation and extermination that is only understood there. It has been going on long before the US was a hope in our fore fathers eyes.
This is the world we live in. Our best bet is to start saying were sorry, looking at the problem and do our best to mend things.
This will not happen. The US will not do this and I understand that. Our governments job is to protect us and sustain our way of life. I know I can honestly say that knowing what I know I would not want to live like post cold war Russia or Kosovo. So if it is a survival of the fittest (as is the nature of life) I can only hope we come out on top because it is dog eat dog. At this point in time we are either aware of this situation and prepared to support it or we will eventually collapse under it as a nation and people and our American way of life as we know it will cease to exist and we will learn what it is like to have to truly survive.