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CPT Holzbach
08-24-2006, 02:36 PM
From Ralph Peters at the NY Post (http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/arabs_last_chance_opedcolumnists_ralph_peters.htm) :


Iraqis deserved their chance. They got it. They voted. Three times. Each time along confessional or ethnic lines. They elected ward bosses, not national leaders. We could have skipped the balloting and apportioned legislative seats by population shares.


Through their own choices, cherished beliefs, values and norms, Arabs have condemned themselves to strategic incompetence. No society that oppresses women, denies advancement on merit even to men, indulges in fantastic hypocrisy, wallows in corruption, undervalues secular learning, reduces its god to a nasty disciplinarian and comforts itself with conspiracy theories will ever compete with us.


It would be racist to claim that Arabs are genetically inferior. It is simply the truth to admit that Arab societies are volatile disasters.

Arab terrorism isn't about redressing wrongs. It's about revenge on a successful civilization that left the dungeon-cultures of the Middle East in the dust.

Tom Odom
08-24-2006, 03:12 PM
Vintage Peters but I don't care for the taste.

Peters mixes Arabs and Muslims and always goes for the overstatement.

Racist? yep


Best
Tom

Uboat509
08-24-2006, 07:05 PM
Peters seems to be a member of the "Let's just kill them all and let God sort them out crowd." It plays very well to the right crowd but has very little practical value.

SFC W

Stu-6
08-24-2006, 09:06 PM
Peters seems to be a member of the "Let's just kill them all and let God sort them out crowd." It plays very well to the right crowd but has very little practicle value.



But it is good for selling papers . .

Bill Moore
08-25-2006, 12:02 AM
Concur with the thoughts above. Peters is good at selling articles to six pack Joe who can only see the world in black and white, but I would expect a former LTC with his experience to offer something in the way of practical value, not just entertaining spin.

He shapes his arguments as though the Iraqis rejected a gift we gave them, yet the Iraqi people didn't ask for this war. They didn't ask for the political, social, and economic disruption that this war brought upon their families, and they didn't ask for the security conditions that put their families in constant danger. The war created the conditions, and though it is the Iraqi behavior that is exploiting the conditions and creating the misery, we all know the perception on the Arab street is we created this (which is half true), so it is hard to say their uprising is is about revenge on a successful civilization, not addressing perceived wrong doings. I think Peter's hate dogma and spin plays right into our enemies IO campaign, so they are probably thanking Mr. Peters for helping them explain how the West is out to destroy Islam. While not Ralph's intent, this type of rant simply puts our soldiers and I would argue our nation in greater danger.

Reference his statement about Arabs being able to compete with us, well I think we found a fairly savy competitor in Iraq. Let's separate economic systems from the war. What Ralph pointed about corruption, lack of merit based promotions, etc. is extremely detrimental to economic development, but that type of behavior is not restricted to the Arab or Muslim world. Look at S. America, Christian segments of Africa, SE Asia, etc. Again simply anti-Arab spin that serves no useful purpose.