Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
I've tried to make a related argument to explain Iraq. People will say, "But we've built X number of schools and Y number of clinics..."

I reply: Imagine that somehow AQ was able to take over the United States and begin transforming it into an Islamic state. If they fixed the potholes in our roads and improved our schools, would that make it acceptable?

It's so difficult for anyone, especially Americans, to see themselves through the eyes of others.
Couldn't agree more. Though I don't necessarily agree with his politics, Bill Lind makes a decent point about the "Brave New World" of globalized materialism and how traditional Muslims (among others) react to that.

Iraqi "ungratefulness" made the most sense to me a couple of months ago, when I read Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. Towards the end he has a story about how he and some other homeless men were fed by a Christian church outside London, then told to sit through a service in return. Their response was to hoot and holler, disrupting the service and daring the poor worshipers below to attempt to toss them out. Seemed to tell me more about Iraq than thousands of other words I've read on the subject.