The thread on the bombing of the al-Askariya Shrine in Iraq has me scratching my head and wondering what the fuck is wrong with you people.  Without singling him out, here is a representative post from Wave, who is apparently one of the Moderators here:

Quoted: Aren't we supposed to dance in the streets like they did when the Twin Towers and Pentagon was hit?

Now, pardon me, but I don't quite get it.

The U.S. is involved in a nation-building exercise in Iraq.  Failure means that we will have a longterm disaster on our hands, requiring either longterm/permanent occupation of sections of Iraq or pulling out and running.  If we abandon the task, Iraq will probably fracture into three states, with the central Sunni-controlled one ending up as a terrorist haven just as Afghanistan did in the 1990s.

So I find it a little odd that so many of you are cheering, jeering, and wiggling with joy in your chairs.

Still, this phenomenon interests me, so I thought I would poll the membership here to see how many of you regularly applaud al Qaeda's actions.  In particular, did you dance a jig when you heard the news about the shrine bombing today?  Did you go out and do the hustle on Sept. 11th, 2001, knowing that not only were 19 "MoslemMaggots(TM)" (trademarked by The_Macallan) killed, but also that the U.S. would be forced to go off and bomb yet more into oblivion?  Did you consider the thousands of dead Americans a small price to pay for the joy of being able to kill Muslims?

Are you overjoyed that al Qaeda may have finally found a way to trigger a catastrophic civil war in Iraq?  Will it make you happy when the Sunnis form their own enclave and dig up the various bioweapons samples that Saddam's regime buried in the sands?

Do you look forward to the discrediting of Bush's grand plans to reform the Middle East, ensuring that the Democrats regain control since the Republicans will have been discredited not merely on domestic programs (where, frankly, they've completely blown it by going hog-wild for pork and pork products) but also on international antiterror efforts?

So, with that in mind, please vote in my little poll today.  Up in a minute.

Quoted: has me scratching my head and wondering what the fuck is wrong with you people

Apparently there is no Allah/God, as you are still here and still typing .....

I'm somewhat conflicted.

On one hand, I think the bombing will be blamed on us and will cause an increase in attacks on our troops. That is never a good thing. An Iraqi civil war would also be a major problem.

On the other hand, anything that turns them against each other takes their focus off of us. An Iraqi civil war would tie up most of the combatants in Iraq, and would be damaging to their efforts to launch major offensives against us.

It's a bad thing, and dancing in the streets only drags us down to their special level of scum.

Oh yeah, one other thing:

"I like pie."

I'm dancing in the streets. They did it to themselves. fuck-em      

It's a bad thing, but it may very well have a silver lining.
There are a lot of regular Iraqis who are getting really sick and tired of the stupidity of the "insurgency";
the murder of ordinary Iraqis, the disruption of normalcy and the difficulty of earning a daily living because of all the bullshit, etc.  
They know who bombed this shrine and maybe we're getting closer to the "straw that finally breaks the camel's back" viz a vie their grassroots sympathy for the insurgents.  There are signs that even regular Sunnis are getting fed up with it.

Am I happy the shrine was bombed?  Maybe not happy, but....................

Do I care?  No

Will we still succeed?  Yep

Ya know what?

I have spent most of my life watching these dudes murder my countrymen over some pretty abstruse ideals. For some reason, their actions are always excusable and the result of some misunderstanding.

Fuck them.

I am not required to be tolerant of them any more than I would tolerate the same actions from my neighbor. Any ill that befalls them is alright with me and if their crap society eats itself while being forcibly dragged into the 18th century … good.

Quoted: It's a bad thing, and dancing in the streets only drags us down to their special level of scum.

+1

This is a war about civilization.

I want to vote

No, I think that the shrine bombing is a bad thing

AND

Ban 71-Hour_Achmed for the children

I think Wave's comment was supposed to show the difference between us (The West) and them (ROP'ers).


They would dance in the streets celebrating our deaths, whereas we are above that for their tragedies.

I think Wave was being sarcastic with that remark, well I like to think so anyway.

Quoted: Ya know what? I have spent most of my life watching these dudes murder my countrymen of some pretty abstruse ideals. For some reason, their actions are always excusable and the result of some misunderstanding. Fuck them. I am not required to be tolerant of them any more than I would tolerate the same actions from my neighbor. Any ill that befalls them is alright with me and if their crap society eats itself while being forcibly dragged into the 18th century … good.

Who is "them?" Everone in iraq is responcable for everyone elses actions?

It is this all or nothing nonsence that makes reform so hard.

Yes we should kill terrorists.

No, we should not look at everyone in these countries as terrorists, just as you should not be held accountable for your neighbor’s actions.

Quoted: Quoted: Ya know what? I have spent most of my life watching these dudes murder my countrymen of some pretty abstruse ideals. For some reason, their actions are always excusable and the result of some misunderstanding. Fuck them. I am not required to be tolerant of them any more than I would tolerate the same actions from my neighbor. Any ill that befalls them is alright with me and if their crap society eats itself while being forcibly dragged into the 18th century … good. Who is "them?" Everone in iraq is responcable for everyone elses actions? It is this all or nothing nonsence that makes reform so hard. Yes we should kill terrorists. No, we should not look at everyone in these countries as terrorists, just as you should not be held accountable for your neighbor’s actions.

I think "them" is pretty obvious to anyone with half a functioning medula.

Quoted: It's a bad thing, and dancing in the streets only drags us down to their special level of scum.

I agree that it might be a bad thing, but I don't agree with the rest of your comment. You don't win wars by trying to be the nicer out of the opposing armies. History has proven this time and time again.

Let the shiite clerics do a little intel on their own.

Quoted: The thread on the bombing of the al-Askariya Shrine in Iraq has me scratching my head and wondering what the fuck is wrong with you people. Now, pardon me, but I don't quite get it. The U.S. is involved in a nation-building exercise in Iraq.  Failure means that we will have a longterm disaster on our hands, requiring either longterm/permanent occupation of sections of Iraq or pulling out and running.  If we abandon the task, Iraq will probably fracture into three states, with the central Sunni-controlled one ending up as a terrorist haven just as Afghanistan did in the 1990s. So I find it a little odd that so many of you are cheering, jeering, and wiggling with joy in your chairs. Still, this phenomenon interests me, so I thought I would poll the membership here to see how many of you regularly applaud al Qaeda's actions. Are you overjoyed that al Qaeda may have finally found a way to trigger a catastrophic civil war in Iraq?

I don't think this will trigger a civil war in Iraq.  Civil war may be just over the horizon, but it is not yet inevitable.

I saw the thread in question and I agree with you Achmed.  Never thought I'd see the day when ARFCOM members would cheer at a terrorist act by Al-Qaeda (or an anti-american sunni group).

These attacks make the prospect of victory in Iraq less likely.   Hey, I don't like the Islamo-radicals either but, the hatred of Islam has gone to such extremes, that some even cheer when our Iraqi-islamic allies are killed.   Let's all say it now-- "Not all arabs are bad" i.e. kurds, many shia, and some sunni.  We need our arab supporters to provide intelligence info, and infantry soldiers to fight terroism and the insurgency.  We cannot win in Iraq without them.

I saddens me when allegedly "civilized" Americans behave as the barbarians do when innocent Americans are killed.

Eh, nothing you say will make feel bad for not feeling bad.

I don't have anything against this particular mosque (as I do the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem), but I don't really care for what it represents in general. So it won't be missed.

I think you're missing the point.  Most of us are apathetic to Muslims killing one another.  Why should we care?  Mulsims have been killing each other since before recorded history, so what's new?  I deplore it as both destruction of a historical landmark and a religious site, but really, what's new?

And there will be no long term occupation of Iraq, Americans have about had all we want of trying to help people that simply do NOT want to be helped.  A little more of the above and the Iraqi's are going to be left to stew in their own juices.  Pull out and run?  No, but how about leaving, shaking our heads, realizing the job went unfinished because our best just wasn't good enough to convince the savages that living in a democracy is better than living under an oppressive religious theocracy.  If the average Muslim in Iraq wants to live in freedom, the time has come for them all to step forward, brave the danger, and take up arms against the savages, because US troops won't be there to do it for them much longer.

Not much to get.  Schadenfreude may be a German word but the secret emotion it conveys is fairly universal.  Bombing a mosque may get some people off their ass and into the fight to preserve freedom...or maybe it won't..but at least it is not a church, airport, police station, oil facility or airport.  

The outlaws of the world do not operate under a national flag even though they may get some support from countries that find them useful as a distraction.  Iran will never elect OBL President.

Quoted: Quoted: has me scratching my head and wondering what the fuck is wrong with you people Apparently there is no Allah/God,

I could've told you that years ago!

Quoted: as you are still here and still typing .....

Hey man, don't blame me.  I voted to ban me.

Quoted: Hey man, don't blame me.  I voted to ban me.

It pleasures me to no end to see the terror machine feed upon itself.  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Ya know what? I have spent most of my life watching these dudes murder my countrymen of some pretty abstruse ideals. For some reason, their actions are always excusable and the result of some misunderstanding. Fuck them. I am not required to be tolerant of them any more than I would tolerate the same actions from my neighbor. Any ill that befalls them is alright with me and if their crap society eats itself while being forcibly dragged into the 18th century … good. Who is "them?" Everone in iraq is responcable for everyone elses actions? It is this all or nothing nonsence that makes reform so hard. Yes we should kill terrorists. No, we should not look at everyone in these countries as terrorists, just as you should not be held accountable for your neighbor’s actions. I think "them" is pretty obvious to anyone with half a functioning medula.

I’ll ask again, is everyone in Iraq responsible for the actions of a very few?

Maybe something like this will make the "Good Muslims" stand up to the extremists???

Quoted: Aren't we supposed to dance in the streets like they did when the Twin Towers and Pentagon was hit?

Fixed it, it's suppose to be sarcastic.

People don't understand--they operate under a completely different version of reality over there!

When that shrine blew up, do you know who Al Sadr was blaming?? Wahhabists (Al Qaeda), Baathists...and...get ready for it....'occupying forces'.

That's right folks. We held the door open for them to blow up the shrine according to these people!

Consider: You live for years under a system where all you have is your tribe, because you KNOW the state isn't looking out for you. You can't believe the media's lies, so what do you have in a land where unrestricted TV broadcasts and cell phones are prohibited?

A BIG FUCKING RUMOR MILL.

That's how that kind of crap happens. SO YES, THE SHRINE BOMBING WAS A BAD THING.

If the so-called insurgents want us to leave, they need to stop attacking their people and let us do our job, then we'll leave.

I really don't think they care about their people.  Iraqies are figuring out little by little who the bad guys are. Osama, a once upheld leader is becomming the terrorist, in his own peoples eyes.  Life is good.

Nope. To restate the point of the war on terror in general, and the war on Iraq in particular - The Middle East is a terrorist haven. In order to stop that and eliminate terrorist acts against America, we must either:

1. Free the Middle East, or

2. Destroy the Middle East.

There is no third option. Nothing else will work long-term. By the way, option 2 means literally killing EVERYONE in the middle east. That's hundreds of millions of people. Is that how you want America to be remembered?

Since freeing the Middle East is the only practical option, terrorism there can only be bad. The only good in this sort of attack is that it is hopefully outrageous enough to galvanize more of the population into fighting the terrorists rather then cooperating or ignoring them. Terrorists are desperate to get back control of Iraq. Letting them do it will invalidate all of our efforts there, and make meaningless the sacrafice of all of our brave men and women. So fuck all the terrorists, here and in Iraq.