Mood: A really sore throat. Call me sick.
Music: This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Two Of Us, Siouxsie and the Banshees
Game: World of Warcraft, CoD2, EVE Online
Book: The Hacker Crackdown, Bruce Sterling.
Muffin: Blueberry-Cranberry...yum.
The news for the last few weeks is really starting to get to me.
France is rioting. Not just a few kids running wild...they're set to enforce curfews, deport violators. They've destroyed thousands of vehicles and millions in property...and it's all over Paris and Lyon, with sympathetic riots (how's THAT for an ironic twist of English) all over the rest of the country. It is largely Muslims rioting over the "accidental deaths" of two teenaged boys.
Apparently "The unrest broke out following the October 27 deaths of two young men of North African descent, who were electrocuted when they hid from police in an electricity sub-station in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois." I have no idea what they were doing to be hiding from the police, exactly...because talk like that in NYC in the 80s when the victims were grafitti artists really meant "The police were doing a Rodney King on them out of sight of the cameras."
I DO know that all the Arab-sympathetic talk that France was doing prior to the US invasion of Iraq doesn't seem to be helping them with public relations. Although, on the FOURTEENTH day of rioting, only 482 vehicles were destroyed, as opposed to 617 the night before. So I suppose things are getting better. Then again, if all you had to drive were freakin' Peugeots, you'd probably want to burn all those little fuckers, too.
It appears that all the preaching and posturing that France does in regards to Arabs is just that. "France has no affirmative action; an official French study found that youths with Arab-sounding names have their job applications rejected up to five times as often as those with traditional French names." and "[Prime Minister] De Villepin said the rioting was the result of France's failure to provide hope to thousands of youths, most French citizens and the children of Muslim immigrants from northern Africa." Lovely. So he acknowledges that France basically has institutionalized discrimination against Arabs. You think this is going to have some effect on world opinion when France comes to the defense of Iraq next time? Yeah, thought so.
Also in the news recently, there have been accusations that the US used white phosphorous on enemy positions and troops in Fallujah. "Willie Pete" was a big fan favorite of the US in Vietnam. Basically, it burns at 5000 degrees fahrenheit...liquifies flesh and bone, melts steel in a split second...oh, and it vaporizes, so that if inhaled, it'll burn a person apart from the inside out. Charming.
If you look around, you can find supposed photos of victims of these events. I'm not certain I believe the photos and such...after all, if these corpses were burnt at 5000 degrees, what would be left to photograph? Couple that with the fact that all these photos seem to be showing up on "Occupied Iraq" sites, it's hard to believe there's a lack of bias. But I will say this: I believe that the military was in a difficult "Vietnam-like" situation in Fallujah...and used a Vietnam-like solution. I don't doubt whether or not the military used WP...I simply doubt the veracity of the evidence.
Lastly, today, Qaeda "operatives", "terrorists", or "marytrs" (depending on your news source) managed to blow up a mess of hotels in Jordan. Now, me? I'm thinking that it'd be as simple as quoting Malcolm X when he made his infamous Chickens Come Home to Roost speech.
Isn't it funny how all these Arabic nations who were quietly glad that there were a bunch of radical fundamentalists out there to make their countries look practically humane and liberal in their persecution of their own populaces, all of a sudden, they're shocked that Muslims are bombing and killing their own people in their own countries? Reap what you sow, baby. Make kids and teenagers believe that it's glamorous and honorable to kill yourself for something you believe in...and all of a sudden, you've got a revolution when they don't agree with your politics. Instead of teaching them nonviolent dissent, you taught them that real change comes from the barrel of a gun...or from killing yourself and taking a mess of people with you.
Congratulations. They learned real, real well. I'm sure Mao and Arafat are thrilled.
Common thread? Fundamentalist Muslims are pretty pissed off at the rest of the world...and they're not afraid to kill every last one of themselves to prove it.
But you'll forgive me for a moment...what do these people WANT? I hear lots of vehement anti-American speech...hell, I've been known to be vehemently anti-American myself sometimes. But simply saying "We will not rest until America is destroyed" isn't exactly asking for something.
You want us to leave you alone? I get that. You want us to stop sending our movies, music, and culture over there? Hell, I definitely understand THAT. You want to kill every last man, woman, and child in the US? I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop you right there. Sorry...it's my whole breathing addiction. I'm really fond of it. Maybe if I understood what the whole picture was...I mean, aren't people simply reacting to the means at this point? These people are trying to accomplish something, right? I just can't figure out what that is.
Probably makes me a typical American.
Posted by Glenn at November 10, 2005 09:46 AM