just the way it is
Reader comment on item: [Kofi Annan and] Eliminating Israel Politely

Submitted by sully (United States), Dec 16, 2005 at 16:17

These recent explicit threats by the Iranian President against Israel (and against the US, although that seems to have been forgotten) are simply what one can expect when fanatics take over a nation under the pall of a fanatical religion. And the inaction of Kofi Annan is also what one can expect from a bureaucrat whose greatest interest is in prolonging his highly paid position and the patronage he can bestow on his friends and relatives and contributors.

But there is another thing that should be remembered. President Bush has actually taken the middle ground in tactics thus far in fighting terror and trying to rationalize Iraq and thereby the middle east.

I'm reminded that the wife and I had 9 family and friends over for dinner a few days after 9/11. At that dinner a mild mannered woman friend proposed that the right response to 9/11 would be to "nuke Mecca" at the height of the Haj. To my surprise 2 others at the table, also mild mannered reasonable folks, agreed with her forcefully even after I pointed out that, even putting aside the moral issue, such an act would surely initiate a total world war to the death with a billion muslims. 3 out of 11 ordinary (and even moderate) Americans called for a reprisal strike to kill a couple of million people in response to an attack that killed 3,000 people.

It is common currency in the media (and at the UN) that we should fear the "Arab street." To the contrary, I think it is Islam which should fear the US (and Israeli) street, given the quantity of weapons and the technical superiority that both countries possess. The broad run of the people of Islam are playing with fire in allowing the Islamist crazies to set policy for them.

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