2007-02-09
Hair-brained Logic
The violence in Iraq is hitting something far more fundamental than the Shiite/Sunni. Take a look at this.
Two people from the village had recently been kidnapped. One was found dead soon afterwards.
He told us people from the village responded by firing two mortars at a nearby district, where they believe the kidnappers had come from.
That district answered back, with a barrage of 11 mortars. Local tribal chiefs then intervened, but Ali fears a line has now been crossed from which it is hard to draw back.
Imagine that. Whenever you suspect some from a neighbouring suburb has done something you don't like, you just lob some mortars and hope that someone in upper management gets the message. This is not unique to Iraqis. I can remember Zeyad from Healing Iraq getting messages from Japanese asking for some Japanese nationals to be released. At the time I suggested he write back and demand the Japanese send 100k combat troops or else the hostages would be decapitated (or something similar).
And I read another report about a man whose cow was injured as he walked it through some university land, and he demanded compensation from the university?!
And on Kurdo's blog I can remember a Kurd screaming at a random Iraqi Arab that he wanted justice. As if this poor Arab had something to do with Saddam's crimes. I pointed out to the Kurd that this Arab was one of Saddam's victims, just like the Kurd himself.
Basically the essential problem here is that people with extremely poor logic skills have been given entire countries to run riot in. It's like a country run by kindergarten children. While we're assuming that they're rational actors like western governments.
Another instance was Alaa talking about the terrorists blowing up churches and even Alaa had to ask what the US response to that would be. It was a weird moment. There were Iraqis being blown up. Their religion is an unimportant personal choice. "thinker" pointed out that Christians are not tribal. I pointed out that they may as well be blowing up date palms as it has no military effect. There is a huge cultural gulf between the terrorists and the West. I don't think the terrorists are smart enough to spend the effort to understand their enemy, but the West should be taking courses in "terrorist logic" in an attempt to try to bridge the gap.
You know, one of the great advantages of training Indonesians etc in modern warfare is so that they can understand that they have no chance of winning. So that if their politicians ask them to attack the West, they will be laughed at by their own military. There's nothing more convincing than having your own military explain how they will be ultimately defeated. We somehow need to talk to the terrorists on their own terms. I fairly regularly chat (via MSN) to a Hizbullah supporter, who I am basically trying to kill. It is certainly interesting to be able to have a conversation with your enemy. I have not been able to penetrate his skull. He's convinced he's on the verge of wiping out Israel, in just a few months from now. It is pretty tragic that we're going to go to war over poor logic skills. The world's scientists should be working on this problem. Where are they? This friend/foe/neutral determination is the most important scientific question in the history of mankind.
Also, check out this article explaining that Islamic "logic" is of a dual nature compared to western logic of non-contradiction. Fascinating!
And here is another one showing the "logic" behind the mass murder:
"The Sunni Arab groups carrying out these attacks continue to believe that the Shia Arabs can be intimidated into allowing the return of Sunni Arab rule, or that the retaliation against Sunni Arabs will be so savage, that other Sunni Arab countries in the region will be forced to intervene. That this plan is so divorced from reality, is simply something you have to deal with in Iraq. Saddam created a generation of Sunni Arabs who were trained and encouraged to believe that boldness and ruthlessness would overcome any obstacle."
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Two people from the village had recently been kidnapped. One was found dead soon afterwards.
He told us people from the village responded by firing two mortars at a nearby district, where they believe the kidnappers had come from.
That district answered back, with a barrage of 11 mortars. Local tribal chiefs then intervened, but Ali fears a line has now been crossed from which it is hard to draw back.
Imagine that. Whenever you suspect some from a neighbouring suburb has done something you don't like, you just lob some mortars and hope that someone in upper management gets the message. This is not unique to Iraqis. I can remember Zeyad from Healing Iraq getting messages from Japanese asking for some Japanese nationals to be released. At the time I suggested he write back and demand the Japanese send 100k combat troops or else the hostages would be decapitated (or something similar).
And I read another report about a man whose cow was injured as he walked it through some university land, and he demanded compensation from the university?!
And on Kurdo's blog I can remember a Kurd screaming at a random Iraqi Arab that he wanted justice. As if this poor Arab had something to do with Saddam's crimes. I pointed out to the Kurd that this Arab was one of Saddam's victims, just like the Kurd himself.
Basically the essential problem here is that people with extremely poor logic skills have been given entire countries to run riot in. It's like a country run by kindergarten children. While we're assuming that they're rational actors like western governments.
Another instance was Alaa talking about the terrorists blowing up churches and even Alaa had to ask what the US response to that would be. It was a weird moment. There were Iraqis being blown up. Their religion is an unimportant personal choice. "thinker" pointed out that Christians are not tribal. I pointed out that they may as well be blowing up date palms as it has no military effect. There is a huge cultural gulf between the terrorists and the West. I don't think the terrorists are smart enough to spend the effort to understand their enemy, but the West should be taking courses in "terrorist logic" in an attempt to try to bridge the gap.
You know, one of the great advantages of training Indonesians etc in modern warfare is so that they can understand that they have no chance of winning. So that if their politicians ask them to attack the West, they will be laughed at by their own military. There's nothing more convincing than having your own military explain how they will be ultimately defeated. We somehow need to talk to the terrorists on their own terms. I fairly regularly chat (via MSN) to a Hizbullah supporter, who I am basically trying to kill. It is certainly interesting to be able to have a conversation with your enemy. I have not been able to penetrate his skull. He's convinced he's on the verge of wiping out Israel, in just a few months from now. It is pretty tragic that we're going to go to war over poor logic skills. The world's scientists should be working on this problem. Where are they? This friend/foe/neutral determination is the most important scientific question in the history of mankind.
Also, check out this article explaining that Islamic "logic" is of a dual nature compared to western logic of non-contradiction. Fascinating!
And here is another one showing the "logic" behind the mass murder:
"The Sunni Arab groups carrying out these attacks continue to believe that the Shia Arabs can be intimidated into allowing the return of Sunni Arab rule, or that the retaliation against Sunni Arabs will be so savage, that other Sunni Arab countries in the region will be forced to intervene. That this plan is so divorced from reality, is simply something you have to deal with in Iraq. Saddam created a generation of Sunni Arabs who were trained and encouraged to believe that boldness and ruthlessness would overcome any obstacle."
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 01:08 
