The Thanks America Gets
Tuesday, May 8, 2007It seems the FBI foiled an Islamist plot to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey when the potential terrorist masterminds took a tape of themselves firing assault weapons and yelling “Allahu Akbar” to the local video store for dubbing onto DVD format. The quick-thinking clerk called the cops, who called the FBI, who arrested the men and averted the attack.
The really interesting thing to me here is that, according to the story, four of the perpetrators were born in the former Yugoslavia. Being Muslims, that most likely means they’re either Bosnian or Kosovar Albanians, both of which were populations that the United States protected from Serbian violence through direct military action. Even today, the U.S. maintains a military presence in the area to keep ethnic conflict from flaring up again.
The Muslim world today is awash in anti-American sentiment. Yet if there’s any group of people that the West could expect to offer a counterweight to the jihadist hate, it would seem to be the two Muslim populations that NATO intervened militarily to protect less than ten years ago. Yet even after the U.S. and European militaries essentially act as the Bosnian Muslim / Kosovar air force and save scores of lives, Muslims from this community are still pissed enough to attempt a direct attack on the United States. We’re hardly talking about a parallel to the Iraq War in those conflicts; the impacted populations actually did “greet us as liberators”, or at least as forceful protectors.
I doubt that I’m alone in this sentiment, but after this, what more can the U.S. even hope to do to convince the Muslim world that we aren’t out to get them?
I hate to say it, but I suppose this doesn’t bode well for the dividends of intervention in Iraq or Afghanistan, even should things turn out relatively okay in either country. (Meaning relative to other similarly situated countries, not Sweden or whatever.)
Uh, maybe we could stop treating all Muslims like like terrorists. I don’t think that most thinking people believe that all of Islam is full of terrorists, but I’ll tell you right now that VAST majority of America does.
And yes, I know I just used Muslim and Islam interchangeably. No they aren’t the same. Stop the next person you see on the street and ask them to describe the difference. Repeat until you get a correct answer. Bring food, you’re going to need it.
Another happy little fact is that a large percentage of the muslim population that was granted asylum to get out of Bosnia and Kosovo was originally housed at Fort Dix.
1) We can’t make the “muslim street” happy.
2) We should care less about that and more about taking care of U.S. strategic interests.
3) I’m not sure if that means being seen to care about muslims. But on the flip side I’m pretty sure it doesn’t mean being an apologist for the Israelis.
With all the racist undertones that are in this country, muslims are now what blacks were pre 1960’s. Its never going away unfortunatly. I heard more people recently sprut racist crap about the De la Hoya Mayweather fight than I ever thought I would. I live in a very red part of the country and someone to hate is always on some of these cats minds. Muslims and Mexicans are high on that list. Its bruatlly sad cause racism is a human quality, if everyone stopped being racist or prefudice tomorrow, it would go away.
Brice,
I will admit it. I don’t know how Muslim is different from Islam, except that I understand Muslim to be to Islam as Christian is to Christianity. Aren’t people whose religion is “Islam” “Muslims?” Do you mean Islam in the sense of Christendom?
Brice: You’re right, those ignorant mofos in the vast majority surely deserve what they get.
I’m with David here … what’s the difference, other than that a Muslim is a follower of Islam? You lost me.