Quote:
Originally Posted by Livia
I'm referring to the idea that we've brought this all on ourselves. I'm referring to the constant accusation that the West is responsible for the murderous terrorist actions of ISIL. Isn't that what men who beat their wives say? You made me do it. Isn't that what the people who behead journalists say? You made me do it. All the while 17 people lay dead and countless other grieve all because a group of people who want to drag us back to the dark ages took exception to a drawing.
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Come on Livia, in all seriousness, do you actually believe that the attack on Charlie Hebdo had anything to do with anyone taking an exception to a drawing? In all seriousness? Do you think when they sat down and discussed the "why" of what they were about to do (because it seems to have been exceptionally well planned), they said "because they drew Mohammad!!"?
Even if you do hypothetically take this event as nothing more than random extremist action... no one
actually thinks it was about the cartoons themselves. An attack on the very idea of the free press itself - maybe. To send a message. But it's not because these terrorists saw the drawings and took offense. It's just... not.
Again removing any idea of defense or blame from the scenario: the west is not responsible for the actions of these individuals. The west however is (demonstrably) responsible for creating the chaotic environment of war that has allowed these groups to thrive and grow into a very real threat. Even if that was never the intention - even if the intention was to stamp them out and truly restore democracy to these regions - that is not what happened... it all went horribly wrong and the reach of these organisations grew exponentially. Your "secret and diplomatic services" didn't manage so well there, did they? Or am I wrong? Are you going to tell me that, actually, these wars successfully achieved exactly what they set out to achieve? Because if so, the news channels I'm watching must be being broadcast from some sort of horrible alternate reality...
Pointing this out is not a witch hunt. It's not saying "BLAME THE WEST!!" for the sake of someone to blame, or to be an "apologist" for terrorists. Hell... if it WAS possible to round every last one of them into one little patch of desert and nuke the living **** out of it, I'd say why not! Go for it! I don't really care - I'm not a particularly "nice" person. At least the problem would actually be solved.
No. Trying desperately to point out that raging and shouting and bombing is not the way to go isn't for the sake of the "poor little Muslims". It's because I wholeheartedly believe that these angry actions will have exactly the same effect as they did post-911. We'll "shock and awe" at them for a bit, send in some more troops for several years, realize "oh ****, this isn't really working, we'd better get our arses out of here" and leave behind an even bigger melting pot in which ever increasing numbers of Islamic extremists will spawn. We WILL NOT wipe them out. We will make more. It's inevitable. It'll continue in this cycle until they figure out how to build dirty bombs and eventually aquire warheads and then we'll all die. Meh. At least in the meantime, we can TRY not to be a part of the problem.