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U.S. applies 'double standards' toward terrorists

Mephisto

Philosopher
Mephisto
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
6,064
I'm not saying that that U.S. does or doesn't apply a double standard when it comes to terrorism, but I can certainly see why other countries can easily (and with some validity) make that claim. After all this administration does apply a double standard when it comes to the Bill of Rights, torture, etc.

It seems to me a notable oversight on the part of this administration that allows leaders like Ahmadinejad to make these claims. The war on terrorism in Iraq has proven to be nothing more that a major cluster-**** that has alienated our allies, incited our enemies and will leave our children's children footing the bill.

Iran: U.S. applies 'double standards' toward terrorists

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States of applying a double standard in dealing with terrorism by its lack of action against Kurdish rebels who launch attacks against Turkey from northern Iraq.

Ahmadinejad's comment came in a phone conversation with Turkish President Abdullah Gul on the same day Turkey's prime minister said his country would not hesitate to send troops across the Iraq border if needed to pursue the rebels -- formally named the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- who are seeking to carve an independent state out of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

The Turkish government -- which so far has restrained itself from undertaking a full-scale military operation amid diplomatic pressure -- wants Iraq to handle the rebels inside Iraqi territory and has been saying it can't wait indefinitely for Iraq to do so.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/10/28/iran.turkey/index.html
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Great! Iraqi insurgents, Sunni against Shia, Al Qaeda in Iraq, Iranian fighters in Iraq and now Turkey is going to jump in just in time for Thanksgiving!
 
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Self-interest has always been the cake of real world politics. Morality is only the icing. Reverse the two and you'll have a collapsed pastry every one laughs at and no one can stomach.
 
Garrette said:
Self-interest has always been the cake of real world politics. Morality is only the icing. Reverse the two and you'll have a collapsed pastry every one laughs at and no one can stomach.
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Wonderful way of putting it! Hope you won't mind if I use the analogy when the need arises? :)
 
incited our enemies and will leave our children's children footing the bill.
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I find it humorous that people think radical islamists dislike America today anymore than they did 50 years ago.
 
cloudshipsrule said:
I find it humorous that people think radical islamists dislike America today anymore than they did 50 years ago.
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Well after the Iraq fiasco and the Dubya debacle they might hate us a bit more, but your point is well taken. With global news networks and the internet, news of their hate reaches us much faster and is accompanied by photos or video which also makes theit hate more dramatic.

It is a shame that (at least on certain levels) our reputation for fairness, truth and justice for all has been squandered away. I seriously doubt that anyone insisting that, "We do not torture," would agree with that assertion if their own children were undergoing those interrogation techniques!
 
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cloudshipsrule said:
I find it humorous that people think radical islamists dislike America today anymore than they did 50 years ago.
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So in the standardized unit of hate the Phelps, how many Phelpses of hate is there for america in the middle east now vs say 65 years ago?
 
The US has always had a double standard when it comes to "terrorists."

If you're bin Laden's driver, you get a one-way trip to Guantanamo. If you're Orlando Bosch, you get to live freely in Miami.

Apparently there really are "good terrorists" and "bad terrorists."
 
So in the standardized unit of hate the Phelps, how many Phelpses of hate is there for america in the middle east now vs say 65 years ago?
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The total number of phelpses is directly related to middle eastern population density per square kilometer divided by oil production (in barrels/hour).
 
Cleon said:
The US has always had a double standard when it comes to "terrorists."

If you're bin Laden's driver, you get a one-way trip to Guantanamo. If you're Orlando Bosch, you get to live freely in Miami.

Apparently there really are "good terrorists" and "bad terrorists."
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Or, there are degrees of bad in terrorist organizations. You appear to be playing to the false dichotomy loving audience. Quelle suprise.

For what it's worth, some terrorist groups are mostly local, like the PKK and ETA, or the 17th November group in Greece. (IIRC, they are moribund/defunct.) The Tamil groups seem content to play locally as well.

Other groups reach out and touch people internationally, and thus qualify for the tag of "international terrorist." The IRA ran some ops in the UK, and against the BOAR in Germany, and of course we have the Locherbie event, and the infamous bombing in Berlin of a nightclub that got Qadaffi bombed.

This puts what Osama and his friends did at the WTC, Kenya, Tanzania, and the Bali bombings, and for that matter the Islamic Brotherhood's links to the bombings in Sharm El Sheikh into a more tangible perspective. It also puts Hezbollah's activities into something like an IRA mode, across borders and with international support, though with a local focus. The fruther away from "local" you get in your fun and games, the more likely you are as a group to draw attention of larger groups of opponents.

To sum up, not all terrorist groups are alike, in MO, and thus they don't require a cookie cutter response. If the PKK is anything other than a local group, I'd be interested to learn of a change in MO.

With that in mind, this "double standard" sound byte seems a product of myopia, and reliance on an all or nothing fallacy. The world isn't that simple, which is also why so much of the "War on Terror" rhetoric is clumsy at best, and in some cases self contradictory.

DR
 
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Darth Rotor said:
Or, there are degrees of bad in terrorist organizations. You appear to be playing to the false dichotomy loving audience. Quelle suprise.
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I can appreciate the point about why some terrorists are worse than others, and that some terrorists operate locally rather than internationally (though that doesn't apply in the case I mentioned)--but if you're going to talk about a "war on terrorism," it is not kosher to lock some in jail and roll out the welcome wagon for others. Local or international--either way, it's unacceptable.
 
Cleon said:
I can appreciate the point about why some terrorists are worse than others, and that some terrorists operate locally rather than internationally (though that doesn't apply in the case I mentioned)--but if you're going to talk about a "war on terrorism," it is not kosher to lock some in jail and roll out the welcome wagon for others. Local or international--either way, it's unacceptable.
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I agree and wonder on which side of the terrorist line a Democratically elected terrorist group Hamas lies compared to a terrorist group like the Iraqi Kurds lie?

The U.S. is certainly supporting "terrorists" from the point of view of the Turkish and combined with the recent snafu regarding the Albanian genocide we could lost yet another ally. Either way it's clear that what Dubya thought was a can of Democracy was a big can of worms instead!
 
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Cleon said:
I can appreciate the point about why some terrorists are worse than others, and that some terrorists operate locally rather than internationally (though that doesn't apply in the case I mentioned)--but if you're going to talk about a "war on terrorism," it is not kosher to lock some in jail and roll out the welcome wagon for others. Local or international--either way, it's unacceptable.
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But many of them are our terrorists! We love them and we'll do anything for them such as
1/ supply them with weapons- Taleban
2/ arrange for them to get chemical precursors - Saddam Hussein
3/ destabilise democracies for them - Argentina, Iran
etc
etc

As I once said
'"You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror."—Interview with CBS News, Washington D.C., Sept. 6, 2006'

from http://slate.com/id/76886/

Yours in peace mongering
Dub
 
Cleon said:
I can appreciate the point about why some terrorists are worse than others, and that some terrorists operate locally rather than internationally (though that doesn't apply in the case I mentioned)--
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So far so good, I see your point
but if you're going to talk about a "war on terrorism," it is not kosher to lock some in jail and roll out the welcome wagon for others. Local or international--either way, it's unacceptable.
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Non sequitur much, CLeon? Why don't you read what I wrote in a criticism of War on Terror rhetoric, and try again.

DR
 
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