Mader Blog

Comments: It's Our War

Mader,

I wish I could believe that it is indeed freedom for which we (the West, I guess) are fighting for. While freedom is most definitly a part of the reasoning for this conflict, I can't get past all of the other, more insidious, reasons that seem to be a big part of why this conflict started and why it persists.

Posted by Jesse Gainer at September 12, 2006 04:07 PM

Jesse,

This 'conflict' has been going on forever, and 'The West', or the free world, is not to blame. Just as The Delhi sultans did nothing to anger Zahir-ud-din Mohammad Babur who would go on to found the Islamic Mughal Dynasty, over a majority non-Muslim population, we are not responsible for a warrior culture that has sought conflict since its inception.

The conflict was brought to us by technology that allowed what used to be remote wars between remote peoples to come crashing down on us. I can't wrap my head around what possible "insidious reasons" we could possibly have for being in Afghanistan. We should be there to prevent another would be Sher Shah Suri or Osama from gathering enough momentum to cause others harm, and to police and maintain enough civility so that innocent locals can have a chance at a secure life.

Posted by CharlesB at September 13, 2006 03:59 AM

CharlesB,

You clearly have no understanding of the history involved in the situation, as proven by your blanket "the west is not to blame" comment.

Now, to be clear, this is not a "blame the west" post. Nor is it intended to imply justifications for either side. Rather, it's to point out some simple facts from history that you seem to have overlooked. This is important because your line of reasoning cuts of all debate on the subject, which in this case can never lead to a true understanding of the situation.

A few facts:
- The West invaded and occupied large swaths of the middle east throughout the past several centuries.
- The West drew national borders to create sovereign countries in the region that had no consideration for the demographics of the region.
- The West annexed a large portion of what has now become Israel from Arab peoples. This is not intended to be a controversial statement. No matter how justified anyone might think doing this was as a measure of payback to the Jews, the actual facts of how it happened are well documented. It's obvious that it would have a side effect of making a segment of the Arab population very angry.
- The West has secretly overthrown governments in the region for the express purpose of enabling pro-Western replacement governments.

Now, given those facts (check a reference like Wikipedia if you don't believe any), can any reasonable individual think that a random person from that region would not be at least mildly ticked off at "the west"? Again, I'm not at all implying any of those facts are a justification for current actions. My point is just that by ignoring the facts leading to a real understanding of the situation, you're not ever going to come to a solution. No progress will ever be made with a "we're 100% right and they're 100% wrong" stance.

Posted by Neil Thier at September 14, 2006 11:46 PM

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