@ETpro – you have the motivations all wrong.

Consider that during the Bush years, and now in the Obama years, the pro-israel lobby has been exceedingly powerful, both on the media and in various political positions. You don’t need to do much research to identify the neo-Cons who were ( and are) pushing American policy in the middle east to israel’s advantage.

And if that meant invading a couple of Arab countries… well, too damn bad….

Is this an ironic question?

@elbanditoroso And here I thought it was just that the Muslims in the Middle East are unlucky enough to have all our oil inconveniently located under their sand. But yeah, aside from that, pro Israel sentiment adds to the need to invade visit our Middle Eastern friends.

@tups Now what do you think? :-)

I can’t help but wonder who these muslim friends might be.

I don’t know if Iraq will survive our goodwill mission. It is showing signs of falling apart at the seams. We have been in Afghanistan so long that we have forgotten the reasons why we went there but I’m sure it is much improved. We will fight a defensive war with Iran just as soon as we find a reason. Secular Muslims shouldn’t be alarmed. We are invading your countries for your benefit and after causing chaos we will leave.

I have but two words to say…dirka dirka! Okay, one word said twice then :)

I’ve been puzzled by why @ETpro posed this rhetorical question… Sometimes I don’t understand your humor, I guess.
America attacking Muslims around the world is a major part of the justification for violent radical Islamism, no?

@ucme: I always thought it was spelled durka! Ya know, kind of like burka.

@bookish1 Dirka

@ucme: Right, I forgot to use urbandictionary’s spell checker! :-p

Don’t know. How many are there?

Sometimes you just have to give in and jump off the train.

This is a very ‘tongue-in-cheek’ question. All we are accomplishing is setting the Muslims firmly against the Christians & we are creating ‘fanatical Muslims’ with every Drone strike. The reality of our constant warfare is only enriching the Military Industrial Complex & it is succeeding in our failing to try to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure (which has been well illustrated during the past couple of weeks). Sometimes, Reality Really Bites!

Clearly America’s expressions of love and brotherhood extended as an olive branch of enduring friendship has been tragically misunderstood.

America efforts to raise up the backward and fractious Muslim countries by sharing the blessings of the American way of life have created a faulty impression.

The three faiths that trace their origins to Abraham share a mutual love and respect that forms the basis for a lasting peace.

America the great Christian nation acknowledges the link between Jesus and the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We see this illustrated in the selfless love and protection of Israel that America has long demonstrated. When the Jewish people of Europe were under threat of total annihilation by Hitler starting in the mid-1930’s, America rushed to protect them once Japan attacked Hawaii in 1947.

The Muslim countries with their rich resources of oil still lack the blessing of the American way of life that allows every person to share in the wealth and opportunity derived from the logical extension of their Christian faith, namely Capitalism and Democracy the pillars of American Life that best express their Christian faith.

America’s benevolent interventions in Muslim countries has clealy been motivated by fervent zeal to share the great benefits America has derived from the worship of democracy and capitalism. Clearly the wealth and power of America demonstrates that their worship and dedication to the proper values accounts for why G_d has blessed America with such great wealth and power.

America’s dedication to share their way of life and its benefits with those Muslim countries whose people are their brothers and sisters through their common ancestry.

It is a true tragedy that cultural differences have created confusion in the Muslim’s understanding of America’s desire to bring these backward countries into the 20th century. The America zeal has been misunderstood as aggression and interference. America’s support of Israel is based on the same set of motivations and has been accepted and appreciated. The rejection of America’s loving efforts to elevate life in Muslim countries so that all citizen of those countries could equally share in their countries endowment of natural resources which can only really occur where Freedom and Equality form the basis for national governments. The apparent ill will suggested by the US media toward Islam is based on feelings of deep hurt Americans developed when their loving efforts to share their ideal way of life was rejected and when attacks on American soil antagonized the peace-loving Christians whose only desire was to help their Muslim brothers and sisters.

Future American interventions must emphasize their loving intentions when they seek to overthrow harmful, dangerous governments that continue to block Muslim countries from progressing towards a way of life consistent with that enjoyed by all who live in America. American has a sacred mission to extend its way of life around the world. They need to better explain the great love and generosity that underlies they efforts to enable Muslim countries to fully share in the great benefits with which G_d has clearly blessed America.

In the future missions America’s loving zeal to bless these countries must be better communicated so the Muslim people will see that their faith and customs wil be respected once they are governed by a regime that America can trust and support, confident that the righteous American values will form the basis for day to day life in these newly liberated Muslim lands.

Yes, ET, I don’t understand it either. Are they really so jealous of our wealth and rational lifestyles that they want to destroy us? I mean, goodness gracious, we’ve done everything for them except drop money from helicopters.

Sounds like the old sailor saying The beatings will continue until morale improves . Attacking people and or countries doesn’t always produce the desired result… unless that result is hate.

@Jaxk I see you get irony at least as well as @tups does… Well, perhaps not quite as well. At least @tups has suspicions. :-)

@flutherother At least you get the logic of pure, unadulterated illogic. Thanks. Great answer.

@bookish1 At least you do know it’s a tongue-in-cheek question. And as to @ucme‘s “dirka dirka” it’s also sometimes spelled “durka durka” or “derka derka” and is a made-up word mocking the accent of Muslims in India, as best as I can determine.

@rojo Great answer. I’m sure the Neocons behind all this have no clue. They are just working their way down a long list.

@Plucky Great answer. How true.

@Linda_Owl Indeed. You nailed the real rationale behind it all, further enriching the military industrial complex. I am quite certain that the neocons pushing for ever more military adventures in the Middle East are either paid stooges or ideologically programmed robots put out to help funnel ever more public money to the military industrial complex.

@Dr_Lawrence Awesome answer. You have a very finely developed sense of irony. Thanks for the laughs. I’ll be back shortly, after having a good cry.

@Espiritus_Corvus Really. What a bunch of ingrates.

@talljasperman Ha! Perfect.

Japan attacked Hawaii in 1941

@woodcutter Indeed. December 7th, 1941. It was almost 1942, but that does little to take away from the absolutely cogent point being made.

@ETPRO thanks for the correction and the acknowledgement that the country stood by while million of my people were shipped to extermination camps such was their compassion.

@Dr_Lawrence We not only stood by. We actively denied docking rights to many ocean liners full of refugees, with the end result that many of those ships were turned back to Europe and the entire passenger list ended up in extermination camps. Quibbling about the dates involved is trivializing a great evil.

@ETpro It’s made up…no, you don’t say?
As far as how it’s spelt, genuinely who gives a fuck?

Irony huh? You’ll forgive me if it sounds like just another ‘Blame America First’ rant. The Muslim countries seem to have two goals in mind. Disrupt the global economy by manipulating the oil supply and exporting terrorism. Whether we get involved or not. I am a little surprised that you didn’t go all the back to the Crusades but I guess that is a little tougher to blame on America. I’m not saying you can’t, just that it is a little tougher.

@ETpro ”Quibbling about the dates involved is trivializing a great evil.”

Unless it is you who would do it, right? Dates matter. If you don’t get those right when in the middle of something how can it be taken seriously?

The premise is wrong.
We do not love them, nor do we unequivocally mean them no harm.
We can not make them love us.
We should not care if they love us.
We think they are irrational, and impossible to interact with by post Enlightenment standards.
And some of them have provided evidence that they want to kill all of us, mo matter what we say or do.
That leaves us with few good choices.
Endure their insanity and wait for them to experience The Enlightenment, as our ancestors did, or do our best to selectively kill the Islamists in their midst and hope the simple, day to day, non militant practitioners of the Islamic faith decide to co exist with the West.

Nobody said life was easy.

I will agree that having young American soldiers with M4s and desert camo walking around their streets is not making any friends. Been there, done that, it will go on forever, and it will not sell to the taxpayers.
Few choices are left when you withdraw them.
Drones, or kill squads contracted by the CIA.
Drones are not popular in the ME.

I suspect it will get down to the latter.

@josie Sounds like you pretty much got my point.

Thank goodness for the Enlightenment!

Decent Muslims realize that all deployments are temporary.