05-03-2011, 07:08 AM
(05-02-2011, 05:58 PM)kandrathe Wrote: Obama, and Bush before him, has stated that the the US is not at war with Islam, but is Islam at war with the West?
I don't think Islam is at war with the US (or the west). I think Islam is used by people in the general arabic area to unit people that are angry because of being less wealthy than the west, and at the same time see so much influence of the west in their countries, mainly because of the oil.
Already 1500 years ago people changed religion now and then, after their countries got invaded again, but basically their everyday life didn't change so much.
Every honest person see that western christianity is much more similar to Islam then for example western christianity and atheism are. And the last two groups are living in more or less state of peace without many big issues.
But it is not very difficult to let a whole population hate another group of people living on the other side of the world based on some information they see on TV. So if this whole Islam versus the west thing is over, we will find some other reason to hate strangers.
As you rightfully say, on the basis of all of this are overconsumption in one part of the world and poverty in another part.
(05-02-2011, 05:58 PM)kandrathe Wrote: What happens when the US runs out of credit with Asia, and the propping up of psuedo-Western regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan collapse?
I think in our every day life we wouldn't notice so much from regime changes in those countries. The people living there however will be noticing it.....probably for the worse, but who knows. Iraq used to be a more or less secular society with a relatively high education level among the people (men and women).....when the west pulls out chances are of course that the fundamentalists will come to power, making people wish back to the Saddam times.