Oh no! When I first saw that story, my thought was "wow, things have really progressed for UAE, apparently!" That was so good to hear. And then my daughter saw the story and asked if that person hadn't just put her life in grave danger and I thought nah, or that story and picture wouldn't be plastered all over the Internet. Maybe someday I'll stop being the eternal optimist.
No, I'd rather folks and you stay optimistic. I know that women in uniform is a particularly touchy subject with you Kate, so when a nation who doesn't recognize women in general allows the ladies to have position in their military, it's a step. You of all folks know that women like," Joan of arc," and men like Jesus himself died so that others could have the freedom they were really born for. They did so with the only regret that maybe they could have done more. I sincerely hope that the lady pilot (she has a name but names and I do not get along) with be allowed to fight and live a long life. But if not, she will have started something great and others will follow in the shadow of that greatness.
It's actually not a touchy subject with me. I've never said much about it either way. The military as a whole, yes, but not male or female. I don't even think of troops in gender terms except that this story was so exceptional. What I'm "touchy" about is the America-bashing I see. And it is rampant. And then there's always the backpedaling/track covering when someone is busted. Wonder if the Saudi prince who did the same bombings is getting the same treatment? I don't really know enough about the region to guess. I do indeed know, Sir. I just saw a while ago when reading this story, that Mariam's family not only "disowned" her but in the same statement voiced their support for ISIS. That poor girl. We can't choose our families. One of the unfortunate facts of life.
The fighters for ISIS are as much Muslims as Hitler was a Christian. She is in no way an enemy of the faith of her people: ISIS is their enemy. God bless her!!!!
Although I do not think she is an enemy to her faith, Tom, that does not stop her father and others of her tribe from saying so. No matter what we personally believe as Americans, the whole train of thought is different with whatever ISIS believes they are and whatever other Muslims believe. To use a bad comparison, the Irish had their own war based on Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians. Both labeled themselves Christians, and both were terribly dangerous, and biased. Yes, may God bless her mightily for her strength and fortitude and may He supply her with much more. She and others like her will need such blessings.
True you. I don't know about the prince. I just saw a picture of him with his buddies. But I am sure he will be well protected in flight and on the ground. I really hope the lady pilot will receive the same. So far as choosing her family. She can now have another one. Perhaps her country will embrace her as such.
Brother Bob, the fact that so much of the Muslim part of the world, including Shia Iran, have labeled ISIS as enemies of Islam shows that only some Muslims embrace those peculiar beliefs. I do not believe the anti-woman beliefs they assert are those of Muhammed, considering how many women and girls he bedded, even after claiming to have embraced the teachings of the Messiah, Jesus. I have even known Suni Muslims who understood that Muslims are supposed to be Christians, just the correct ones. I suspect that you understand that Islam has as many different interpretations of the Koran as there are members of the religion, you just aren't always careful about the precision of your words. If God did indeed call Muhammed to be the Apostle to the Arabs, He surely chose a flawed person for the task. And Joan of Arc was fighting for Charles VII and the papacy, not freedom. She is a hero for the French. Perhaps St. Thecla should be used as a better comparison, as she stood up for women at a time when many wanted to treat women as chattel.
True enough Tom. A tip o the hat and a hand shake. But, the Joan of Arc comment was more about folks who stand up for what they believe in and are persecuted for that. ISIS is out for conquest, no matter what they call themselves I agree.
I hate to say this, but have you ever heard of 9/11/2001? I would say that was pretty direct. And I seem to recall that there have been several other plots (less spectacular) that have been disrupted.
They are Shia. They are Muslim extremists trying to establish a Caliphate. The Ba'thiist state under Huesseiin was secular. Assad is a Ba'athist. Check your sources. Even Fox Views isn't this ill enformed'
Thomas, Please check Wikipedia again. Saddam Huessein was a life-long Sunni. Most of the leaders of both the Ba'ath Party in Iraq and the leadership of the Iraqi government under Saddam H. were also Sunni. This is why when the Iraqi government went through the 'de-Ba'athization' most of the replacements were Shi'ites. This replacement of Sunni by Shi'ite worked well for the Irani government, for most of them are also Shi'ite. In fact, it has been postulated the whole WMD myth was fabricated by an agent of the Irani who were thus able to get the US to defeat Saddam after years of Iran-iraq war proved fruitless. As for your reference to an even earlier comment of mine, YES, I know of the 9/11/2001 attack. Please remind me of the nationalities of the hi-jackers. Please remind me of the nationalities of the planes they flew. Please remind me of who lead and funded the operation. And please remind me of how many potential terrorists the ill-advised policies of the US has created. By the way, do you know why there were an odd number of hi-jackers (19)? It seems ONE was caught prior to 9/11/2001 by a female FBI agent. She informed her superiors of the potential of a hi-jacking, one of many warning. What was her reward? She was warned, disciplined and eventually harrassed out of the FBI. It was as if her chain-of-command was upset that she nearly exposed the 9/11/2001 plot; as if they wanted it to occur.
Hussein may have been Sunni, but he did not establish a caliphate. Even though he had mostly sunnis in his government, his government, as is Assad's, was Secular, just as the American government has been. Even today most people in our government are nominal Christians. The hi-jackers were all foreign Muslims who hi-jacked American planes. They were lead and funded by al-Qaeda, largely funded by Osama bin Laden at that time. Ill advised foreign policy, primarily from Republicans, has certainly contributed to terrorism. American corporate adventurism and corruption is probably a greater contributor to the problem. Many foreign foes also hate American altruism. When we feed hungry children, there are people who hate us for that.
Hijackers: 15 Saudi Arabians, 2 United Arab Emirates, 1 @ Egypt, Lebanon. NONE were from Iraq. So why did we attack Iraq? By attacking and occupying Iraq for so long the US created an immence amount of animosity against the US among the Iraqi, especially among the disenfranchized Sunni sect of Iraqi. The US trained Iraqi personnel as soldiers. We in the US who were listening were told a viable Iraqi governmental defence force would be achieved 'in the next six months.' We heard this in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.... What happened to all the trained soldiers? Could it be that many later joined ISIS? That would explain why the ISIS fighters knew how to use US weaponry... because we trained them. So the US created volunteers for ISIS, and probably trained many of them. Do you think doing more of the same policy of the past, coupled with killing a few of the ISIS warriors, is the correct course of action?
You will have to ask Bush junior why we attacked Iraq. The Iraqis we trained are the guys who turned tail and ran from ISIS. The Sunni who were loyal to Hussein may have joined ISIS. N.B. that President Obama has proposed that instead of following the ill-advised Bush league approach of sending American troops, we support those Muslim forces who want to protect their people from ISIS.
Today, 7 Jan., 2015, some 12 French editors, writers and cartoonists were killed in Paris by 2-3 masked gunmen. I learned of this from a CNN special report. The report went on to say these were Islamic terrorists but failed to draw a prima facia link of the masked gunmen to Islam or a Islamic group, relying soleing on people's fears to draw conclusions. They talking heads could not even avow these were Arabs as the gunmen spoke seemingly fluent native French. At no time was any American harmed or even threatened, only frightened. One alleged gunman surrendered to French authorities. Further information has yet to reach me, only dramatic speculations.
Things are not moving fast enough so they must turn up the heat, especially in France, yet they want to share the wealth and try to beat those war drums and get folks upset and ready to strike, yet again the extremists setting the stage for a war that only the military industrial complex benefits from.
I am unclear as to who you are refering to by the pronoun "they". Do you mean the plutocrats or the as yet unclear shooters?
The plutocrats, although I do believe that IS is wanting us back in Iraq. Why do they keep doing what has proven to get our attention?
Might want to check AP Wire there, Terro. But I fear you may say the people involved (the gunmen) are... what? Lying? when they say they are Islamic State? Because, yep yep, they did indeed claim allegiance. I could maybe recommend a better news source for you that's accurate? See, sometimes naysaying everything we hear is wise. Sometimes it's not... if something smells like a rat, well, it's usually a rat, ya know? If someone is of a mind to cut down everything that's said about a certain issue, others tend to start thinking they're crying wolf and turn off the listening button. Thus ends "The Wisdom of Kate" for this episode. Hope you're having a good weekend, 6.
The latest word to reach me through de-classified sources is that the recent activity in France was done by persons with NO connection with ISIS, but rather with al Qaeda. Still, the Public is not well informed as to the ongoing struggle between the "authorities" and the "terrorists".
