Playing the "race" card - and knowing when to fold

Submitted by Yonason (United States), Mar 25, 2003 at 19:47

I just read a news report, which states:

"BRITISH AND American commanders had expressed hope that Shiites in the south, resentful of long years of repressive rule by Saddam Hussein’s minority Sunni Muslim regime, would seize the opportunity presented by the coalition invasion and rise against the regime’s forces."

We have no trouble acknowledging and exploiting existing racial tensions in foreign lands.

But at home we do not want to exacerbate those tensions to the point of violence. Dealing with a few sociopaths, on a case-by-case basis, may just be more manageable, and a lot less destructive, than trying to quell large scale civil unrest.

Perhaps our leaders think that pretending there is no problem is the best way to avoid one? Maybe they're right?

Of course, that’s just a theory.

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