Good Viewpoint on the "Us Against Them" Mentality

[Train]

no wonder he didnt link the Article, after googling his name, I found an editors note:

Maziar Shirazi is a Rutgers College sophomore majoring in Spanish, he has written for the school newspaper there, as well as Iranian.com

The article of his I found on Iranian.com: "Questioning the justifications for democracy"

yikes.

 

[imported_Aelius]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: Aelius

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
I asked for the lionk

Close Enough ?

Do you remember any of the Cartoons from the WW-II war years ?
They always depicted the 'Enemey' as dumb, stupid, and ugly.

kinda like the libs have been doing for the last 4 years with Bush?

Insults every frame along the way. Yes, not 'Official' Government presentation,but presented none the less to stereotype and lessen the stature of the enemy.

God forbid we "lessen the stature" of a country we are at war with like WWII Japan, shouild we have glorified the Japanese Samurai instead? give me a break, your grasping at straws now.

Besides, Japan did much worse than drawing funny pictures of us. Did you know that when the US invaded Okinawa the govt there told everyone that the Americans were notorious for raping women and torturing children. The locals were committing suicides by the thousands.

Your view is a double edged sword. It makes it easier to justify pulling the trigger when you need to but it also taints any good intent you may have had to begin with.

no, you have fallen for exactly what the article meant you to fall for. I didnt justify our de-huminization of Japan in WWII, they actually were an enemy that we were fighting, no liberation, no diplomacy, the US was all out attacking and destroying them. The correlation the article is attempting to make is that Arabs are the "enemy" but they are not. We did not attack "Arabs" we attacked Al-Queda and then Saddam. Like I said hes saying hate is here but it is not. sure you can find some people in America that are probably prejudice against Arabs, but you could do that with any race/ethnicity.

I fell for nothing. My view hasn't changed since O-dark in the morning. If my view could be so easily manipulated then I might be an ignorant teenager who knows nothing about the world except for what the TV tells me. Either that or I'm just plain ignorant/dumb. I'm not a teenager, I don't watch TV, I grew up under Communism and later Canada and I'm well educated enough to think for myself.

What's the point? The point is that the us vs them mentality exists and it doesn't matter if you denny it. You can justify it to yourself anyway you want if it makes you sleep better at night. It existed with Japan (obviously) and it exists now in Iraq.

I'm not trying to say that you or anyone else doesn't mean well towards the Iraqi people but you alone cannot change the minds of thousands of Marines who are more than willing to waste anyone if they think for half a millisecond that they are in mortal danger from someone. Even if many of them turn out to be unnarmed civilans mistaken for militants, or even journalists with cameras over their shoulders.

I realize why stuff like that happens and why it is justified to them or higher up the chain. Soldiers like that should never have to be put into a position where they have to make snap decisions like that.

I don't blame them because I know what goes on in their heads. I used to be a soldier. It's all really quite tragic.

 

[sandorski]

"The Enemy attacked us!"

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: Train
no wonder he didnt link the Article, after googling his name, I found an editors note:

Maziar Shirazi is a Rutgers College sophomore majoring in Spanish, he has written for the school newspaper there, as well as Iranian.com

The article of his I found on Iranian.com: "Questioning the justifications for democracy"

yikes.

not a good source I agree but I do hope you understood the article and why he wrote it

 

[novon]

Originally posted by: Train
no wonder he didnt link the Article, after googling his name, I found an editors note:

Maziar Shirazi is a Rutgers College sophomore majoring in Spanish, he has written for the school newspaper there, as well as Iranian.com

The article of his I found on Iranian.com: "Questioning the justifications for democracy"

yikes.

I received it by email, thanks for doing the research, but how does it discredit his viewpoint? He's not even an Arab.

Where's the link to "Questioning the justifications for democracy"?