I was out of town on Memorial Day this year, as I usually am. And even if I wasn't, I tend not to get too worked up by nationalistic and patriotic holidays, for reasons that I would hope that anyone who knows me or who has read one or more of my posts here might begin to fathom. Some people find that a bit incongruous, because I was at one time in the service -- during Desert Storm, as a matter of fact. And at that time, I was indeed pretty gung ho. Mind you, I was no marine, but I was pretty damn proud of being an American and all that.
But then, over the ensuing years, I changed. A little here, a little there. And now, I find myself recognizing that our form of democracy is the best system available. But it saddens me all the time to see just how flawed even this best system of goverment is.
So, when a friend of mine told me about an address that was given at the annual Memorial Day observance in town, and that it was given by a man who was as close to a real-life flesh and blood hero as I ever had, I was disappointed that I had missed it. As luck would have it though, it was recorded and published to the Internet for downloading. Which I did.
And I have been struggling with mixed feelings ever since. So, I apologize that this will not seem as cohesive as other posts I have made. In truth, I am still processing the speech, but I felt the need to share some of that processing with the world.
I should mention at this point that the speech in question was given by a man who is a retired Major General of the Marine Corps, and my former high school wrestling coach. So he has a slight prejudice that might or might not make sense, given his background.
The general premise of his speech was the following:
- like it or not, we're at war
- our fighting men and women are giving their lives to defend our right to go to the mall and forget that there is a war going on
- we are at war because we were attacked by Muslim extremists - it all started in 1979 when our Iranian embassy was taken over and 400 Americans were held hostage
- there is an increasing population of muslims in the world
- muslims in general support the use of terrorist activities to punish "infidels"
- muslims will continue to attack us because we are infidels
- an infidel is anyone who is not a muslim
- we cannot pull out. our only option in this war is victory, or they will follow us here and attack us in our homes
- peace is not an option
I didn't take notes as I listened, and I only listened to it once, so I may be misremembering a point or two, and I may have left a few salient points out.
I felt like crying when I listened to this. I was angry at the fact that my position on the war was being categorized as "disingenuous." I was saddened that there was so much hate rhetoric in a speech given by a man who, once-upon-a-time, I would have followed into the bowels of hell and back. And I was fearful at the implication that was made, although never actually stated, that we are in a position of "kill or be killed." In other words, if we don't annihilate every last living muslim, then we can assume that "they" will hunt us down, merely because we are not muslims.
Sounded like a call for a new holocaust to me.
And the center of my brain that performs calculations of logic has been screaming at me ever since... How is this possibly true?
A few thoughts. His assertion that (all?) muslims want to kill infidels because they are not muslim was backed up by a report written by a woman who was raised as a Christian in a muslim nation. And while I am not intending to presume that NO Christians were ever persecuted by ANY Muslims by virtue of the fact that they were not Muslims, I do wonder whether the woman's background might make her somewhat more predisposed to be prejudiced against Muslims. In college, I knew a young woman who was Jewish who told me under no uncertain terms that she would never set foot in Germany, and automatically disliked anyone if she found out that they were of German descent. I categorize this sort of reaction as irrational, but I understand the emotional ratioanale well enough to wonder if something similar might not be at work in this case as well.
His other assertion that x% of muslims polled stated that terrorist actions were justified lacked context. Given the right conditions, I would support the use of a nuclear weapon, but that doesn't mean that I can imagine a situation where we would allow ourselves to get in a position where those conditions existed. What were the questions that were asked? What were the actual responses? Would I have reached the same conclusions as he did were I able to view the source data?
In other words, I guess that I don't buy the idea that the majority of muslims are extremists. And that we are in constant 24/7 position of threat. In fact, originally the Muslims were the prototypes for religious tolerance. What was important, in the century or two after Mohommad was not that you were a muslim, but that you were a good and wise person. But I will allow that I don't have all the facts there, in this day and age. And maybe liberal Hollywood has addled my thinking. Or maybe I'm just naive.
But I do take exception to the assertion that the tensions in the middle east began with the Iranian hostage crisis. It seems to me that the muslim nations of the world have been subjected to outside forces coming in and messing with them for centuries, starting with the crusades, and ending with the forced formation of the state of Israel following WWII. Couple that with the fact that the land now has economic as well as religious significance, and you have a supersaturated solution of tensions, waiting for a flashpoint.
And it seems to me that the more we mess with the situation, the more we try to manipulate the muslim nations into being in our image, to complying with what is in our best interests, the more likely it is that someone is going to resent us. And resist. And fight back. So, like it or not, we're at war, but this could have been avoided if we had just left the middle east alone.
I know. We can't undo what has been done. We can't just let it alone. We have a tiger by the tail. We can't hold on. We can't let go. "Kill or be killed."
Well forgive me if I won't particpate in a holocaust. And forgive me if I choose to reject the notion of "kill or be killed." And forgive me for holding out hope for a peaceful resolution that will allow both sides to stop worrying about annihilation.
