- Joined
- Feb 6, 2010
- Messages
- 3,779
- Reaction score
- 1,079
- Location
- California
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Moderate
This is directed mainly at people who feel either that the War on Terror is a good or positive thing, or that our military actions in the Middle East make us safer.
This idea flies totally in the face of logic. For a moment, put yourself in the shoes of an Iraqi or Afghani civilian. Take those pictures of neighborhoods being blown up, of houses destroyed, of civilians killed. Imagine those are your neighbors, your home, your street. Wouldn't that make you want to pick up a gun and fight back?
Additionally, these military actions create (rightly or wrongly) a great deal of anger at the United States. It radicalizes people because you take away ammunition from the rational arguments. A person trying to be moderate and point out that the US presence in the Middle East has been an overall benefit cant point to anything beyond a handful of feel-good stories and Saddam himself. Meanwhile the arguments that radicals present start looking better to someone else.
People get angry because their house was blown up or their son was shot and the people that want to talk that person out of falling in with the radical side dont have any reasonings to give him.
We are creating the problem we are ostensibly trying to combat, it's a feedback loop.
On top of that, we feed into this problem by supporting the notion that this kind of action is somehow helping us and by denouncing people who try to actually show everyone else what the true costs and consequences of this conflict are. It's more ammunition for the radicals to recruit with. "Look at these Americans. They come in here, take over, lie to us, kill journalists, shoot us, bomb our cities. And their people support it, watch their news, listen to their media."
This idea flies totally in the face of logic. For a moment, put yourself in the shoes of an Iraqi or Afghani civilian. Take those pictures of neighborhoods being blown up, of houses destroyed, of civilians killed. Imagine those are your neighbors, your home, your street. Wouldn't that make you want to pick up a gun and fight back?
Additionally, these military actions create (rightly or wrongly) a great deal of anger at the United States. It radicalizes people because you take away ammunition from the rational arguments. A person trying to be moderate and point out that the US presence in the Middle East has been an overall benefit cant point to anything beyond a handful of feel-good stories and Saddam himself. Meanwhile the arguments that radicals present start looking better to someone else.
People get angry because their house was blown up or their son was shot and the people that want to talk that person out of falling in with the radical side dont have any reasonings to give him.
We are creating the problem we are ostensibly trying to combat, it's a feedback loop.
On top of that, we feed into this problem by supporting the notion that this kind of action is somehow helping us and by denouncing people who try to actually show everyone else what the true costs and consequences of this conflict are. It's more ammunition for the radicals to recruit with. "Look at these Americans. They come in here, take over, lie to us, kill journalists, shoot us, bomb our cities. And their people support it, watch their news, listen to their media."
Last edited: