By GARY BAUMGARTEN
Ron Paul made an interesting point during last nights's GOP debate - one that caused some in the audience to boo him.
He suggested that the reason the U.S. was attacked on 9/11 was because of America's foreign policy. Which, he said, angered fundamentalist Muslims.
In fact, it has been argued, the post-9/11 policy has angered them even more. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, those who hold this view argue, are seen by many Muslims as Christian crusades. The infidels, it is held that they feel, must be repelled and attacked at every quarter.
It's a valid argument, worthy of consideration and debate. (For the record, I do not hold that the invasion of Iraq was a Christian crusade but rather a misguided mission motivated by other factors.) But, now that the U.S. troops are no longer engaged in combat missions in Iraq, where is the similar outrage over the killing of Muslims by Muslims?
Today, in Iraq, another attack on a group of Shiite pilgrims. Folks who were on a bus, heading to a Shiite holy site to pray.
The bus was stopped. The women ordered off. The men then taken to another location. And killed.
About two dozen people, whose only crime was belonging to a different sect than the Muslim gunmen who killed them, dispatched in the name of religion.
If that is not a holy war, what is?
Sadly, this attack was not an isolated one. Hundreds of other Shiites have been similarly killed in Iraq.
When atrocities occur in the Middle East, nations there line up either supporting or criticizing the governments involved. Depending on what sect is in charge.
Iran, which is not particularly known for its own tolerance toward dissidents there, is, for example, critical of Sunni-controlled Bahrain for its crackdown on Shiite demonstrators.
I don't know the number of Muslims who have been killed by Muslims in the name of religion. Perhaps there is a credible accounting somewhere. But any killing of anyone based on religion is too much.
Some religiously motivated massacres seem worthy of reporting and condemnation. Others, sadly, are largely ignored.
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Comments
Saddam killed all sorts of Arabs Sunni, and that some objected to, but not nearly as much as Israelis numerically inferior killings of Palestinian Arabs, and given the hostility of the Sunni towards the Shia at times, almost apostates, but not always either, not a word about the Shia Persians he killed, or all the dead Kurds, who if not Arab are Shia. That's how the world seems to work, if you have to be allies with people you wouldn't otherwise avoid criticism for "broader considerations," if as you in effect point out, that might be short-sighted too. The enemy of my enemy is my friend is ever popular, although sometimes the enemy of my enemy is just another enemy, a la what might be the "blowback" in Hamas (they're not socialists like PLO, and won't be a problem since they only care about religion) or the Taliban-mujehadeen(beat the Russians). The more things change...