Who'll We Invade This Time?

Thomas Friedman has an article in the New York Times today. In it he states that "when Salman Rushdie wrote a controversial novel involving the prophet Muhammad, he was sentenced to death by the leader of Iran. To this day - to this day - no major Muslim cleric or religious body has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden."

Mr. Friedman makes an important point. Right-wing fanatics, under a banner of religion, are waging this war of terror against Western politics and values.

And why have Muslim leaders not condemned it? Because they share the terrorist's fears that, given free reign, the United States will turn their cultures and societies into clones of ours and they don't want it.

Who can blame them? American corporate culture has turned all of us into servants of the dollar. Thanks to our culture of entertainment bred by television, lack of meaningful work and bankrupt social values in which we are mostly focused upon consuming, tens of millions of us are hooked on one addiction or another, whether it's alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, television or shopping.

It is not our real freedoms that they despise. It's our petty vices.

One of those vices was the arrogance of pursuing revenge and shooting up Iraq.

We have a decades long road to travel now to try and get back to sanity.

To get the Arab world to condemn these bombings; to have all major Muslim leaders declare a fatwa condeming Osama Bin Laden, Al Quaeda and terrorism, it is time for us to admit our vices.

It is time to admit we were wrong to invade Iraq.

It is time to admit that corporate America has been itching to get its hands on Middle-Eastern markets and turn them into clones of the U.S. model.

Just because the Arabs are paranoid doesn't mean no one wants to take them over and kill their cultures.

If we are going to have peace, we need to get honest about motives.

And we need to back off.

We need to stop this arrogance of thinking our way is so much "better."

Arabs brought civilization to a primitive and Medieval Europe - our ancestors - centuries ago. Baghdad was the cradle of Civilization. Yet we act as though the Middle-East is some back water that needs us.

It doesn't need us or our way of life. It's complete arrogance to think we have any right to impose our ways on those cultures - especially in terms of turning Muslims into Christians.

American firepower obviously cannot cure this or it would have.

It's time for honesty and walking a higher path.

It's past time trying to prove we're "right."

It's time we accepted that Muslim cultures are as valid as ours and said that OUT LOUD.

And 9/11? Why doesn't Bush take a lesson from the families of the victims? Most of them are focusing on forgiveness and working for peace.

Our arrogance is our Achilles heel. Hanging onto it isn't working and if we want a blanket condemnation of terrorists by Muslim clerics, it's time we got over thinking we're superior and banging the 9/11 drum.