Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Survey sheds new light on Arab views of West

irateplatypus · 02-06-2005, 09:49 AM

gah... these kinds of discussions frustrate me.

it seems that people take arab frustration with American policy and automatically translate that into something WE'VE done. i think it would do a lot of good to detail...

1. why you think such opinions are justified by citing specific cases of American policy. while doing so, not forgetting that there used to be a thing called the Soviet Union.

2. when such errors are present, please demonstrate that there could have been a better alternative.

i'm not saying we're squeaky clean over there. we certainly did lie with the dogs during the cold war, you won't find me denying we didn't pick up fleas. however, if i were to grow up reading arab newspapers, watching arab tv, and going to a gradeschool funded by hezbollah... i'm sure i'd think the same thing that many of them do. these people do not have a free press. they are not protected by the first amendment. all they know and hear is filtered by those who are in power and have an interest in staying there. why do we put so much stock in their opinion? what hope do we have of changing it while the institutions of information suppression remain?

02-06-2005, 09:49 AM	#4 (permalink)
irateplatypus can't help but laugh Location: dar al-harb	gah... these kinds of discussions frustrate me. it seems that people take arab frustration with American policy and automatically translate that into something WE'VE done. i think it would do a lot of good to detail... 1. why you think such opinions are justified by citing specific cases of American policy. while doing so, not forgetting that there used to be a thing called the Soviet Union. 2. when such errors are present, please demonstrate that there could have been a better alternative. i'm not saying we're squeaky clean over there. we certainly did lie with the dogs during the cold war, you won't find me denying we didn't pick up fleas. however, if i were to grow up reading arab newspapers, watching arab tv, and going to a gradeschool funded by hezbollah... i'm sure i'd think the same thing that many of them do. these people do not have a free press. they are not protected by the first amendment. all they know and hear is filtered by those who are in power and have an interest in staying there. why do we put so much stock in their opinion? what hope do we have of changing it while the institutions of information suppression remain? __________________ If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. ~ Winston Churchill Last edited by irateplatypus; 02-06-2005 at 09:52 AM..