Michel's Commentary by Michel Dresser

12/24/2001  888WebToday  Michel Dresser

However limited may be the goals of the Bush Administration, in fighting the war against Osama and his allies, it was inevitable that this conflict should boil over into a cultural war.

The Al Qaida hate America.  Why?  Some suggest that it is because we are rich and powerful, whereas the Muslim world is poor and backward.  That may be powerful.  There are many other poor and backward cultures all over the world - who do not exhibit the same hatred for the United States.

Granted that there are very few Muslims, even in Afghanistan, who hate us so much that they are willing to throw their own lives in the way just to kill some of us.  The course of the fighting in the hills of Tora Bora proves this point.  When cornered, the enemies of the United States surrendered and laid down their arms.  There were no mass suicide charges, like the Japanese in WWII.  When given the chance to escape, our enemies will do so - they will not lunge blindly towards us with live grenades in their mouths. This indicates that even the typical Taliban warrior is not as fanatical as the small number of men who flew their hijacked planes right into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

It only takes such a small number of men, however, as that to make an enormous impact on the world - as September 11th proves.  Besides, it does appear that there are millions of Muslims throughout this planet who hate us strongly enough to applaud and support the suicidal fanatics themselves.

Nor is there any doubt that the willingness of some Muslims to die for what they perceive as a sacred cause has impressed others.  For every Muslim, that may have been impressed by the September 11 attacks, let us say, for the sake of argument, that there may have been three Muslims repelled by them.  Still, as Adolph Hitler said, it is not the neutrals or the lukewarm who make history.  The three who would be repelled would not be among those who would join in the struggle one way or another.  The one would be impressed, could very definitely end up a recruit for Osama.  Terrorism "works."

Let's face it  -- it works because it appeals to the darker side of man's religious nature; and religion is at the heart of culture.  Which is why there is inevitably something of a cultural war going on between the extremely conservative Muslims of the Al Qaida sort and secular progressive America.  At bottom, we are hated because we are hated because we are "Infidels."  Our success at clobbering the Taliban, and the fear that America will now linger in Afghanistan to "liberate" that Muslim country from ways we see as backward, can only reinforce the hatred  --- and heat up the cultural war.  A recent parody to an old German Christmas Carol expresses the fear that fuels the cultural war:
O! Taliban O! Taliban
What happened to your daughters?
They do not have their Buurqas on
They're reading Cosmopolitan
O! Taliban O' Taliban!
What happened to your daughters?

And those are my thoughts..................
 

Send your comments to:  info@micheltalk.com
Web site: www.micheltalk.com

Permission granted to publish or broadcast this column in whole or part with attribution to  WebToday.
http://www.888webtoday