Are Americans supposed to be better than Al Qaeda?

[DrWeird]

Because it's awful hard to tell the difference between the new pics and the Berg beheading.

[htuttle]

1. At least we're still better than Stalin!

Right?....................................right?

[MrSlayer]

2. Yes. We are supposed to be better but unfortunately we have failed to be.

And the orders came from the top to be as bad if not worse.

[MikeG]

3. Remember Osama chuckling over the WTC deaths?

Now look at the new picture of the girl smiling over the dead Iraqi body. Any similarity?

[jean]

4. AQ was not necessarily the crowd beheading Nick Berg - our intel

mistranslated the words thinking AQ was mentioned and it was not.

[Deja Q]

5. Purportedly

Everything going on, by both sides, is atrocious.

But "the other side" is supposed to be the terrorists.

We, as a civilized country, have a higher standard, especially when Bush* shovels out the "We are compassionate" mantra all the time.

We're only proving how we are really like those we hate.

Possibly worse.

We've ruined our own reputation by our own soldiers, possibly even by those who run the country - particularly if they support all this in any way shape or form.

We've enraged the world and have added fuel to the fire, thereby creating more REAL terrorists.

As Bush has said a lot of things about this being a long war, could this be a part of his plan - to create more terrorists by any means necessary to ensure that only (his idea) of "peaceful people" remain?

[leftistagitator]

6. I thought so

But after learning that a significant percentage of the American people view rape, forced sodomizing, murder, and torture as "frat pranks" I'm starting to have my doubts. What's even scarier is the fact that the right is clearly not capable of understanding the difference between consensual and forced sex. They just can't understand why Liberals think that gay people should be allowed to have sex, but no one should be forcibly sodomized by American soldiers. They can't understand why we tolerate expressions of sexuality found in porn or Britney Spears, but we refuse to tolerate the bizarre s/m porn made at gun point of innocent Iraqi civilians. It certainly makes you think about right wingers in a different way, when you realize that many of them are just evil people.

[Senior citizen]

7. How could we be?

Al Queda is a faith-based organization, and Bush is on a mission from God. I always have difficulty trying to assign positive values to religous fanatics and zealots, even if one is the clear underdog. All I know is that if I try to intervene and stop two mad dogs from fighting, they'll probably both try to rip my throat out. My understanding is that the age of enlightenment and the establishment of a haven from religious persecution in America, was supposed to lead the world out of the then-ubiquitous holy wars and into reason and peace. Returning to the dark ages and matching jihad with crusade means going backwards.

[oblivious]

8. I have seen no convincing evidence that Al-qaeda even exists.

So I can't compare Americans to a myth.

I mean it. I read all the "expert" reports, interviews and columns on Al-qaeda, and they are all contradictory. When you put them all side by side, sort of in table form, you realise that either the experts don't have a clue, or the whole thing is a myth, a cleverly constructed bit of propaganda to frighten the masses and provide a suitable hate figure.

[Jacobin]

9. As it happens, The Onion has your answer. Right here!!

WASHINGTON, DC—In a response to recent acts of extreme violence against Americans in Iraq and mounting criticism of U.S. military policy at home, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the government's new strategy of fighting terror with terror Monday.

"Look, in order to catch a rat, you gotta think like one," Rumsfeld said in a grainy and degraded videotape message filmed at an unknown location and released to CNN Monday. "We've been pussy-footing around the war on terrorism for years. All that time, the answer was right in front of us: In order to wipe out terror around the globe, once and for all, we've gotta beat them at their own game."

"We tried playing fair," Rumsfeld continued. "But how can you play by the rules when your opponent doesn't even know the rules? You don't bring a knife to a gunfight. That's just the way it is, folks. It's a dog-eat-dog world."

On the seven-minute tape, Rumsfeld is joined by counter-terrorist leaders Vice-President Dick Cheney and Attorney General John Ashcroft, each seated on folding chairs in front of an American flag. Ashcroft described some tactics the government currently uses—pre-dawn assaults on civilian targets and subjecting potential stateside traitors to psychological intimidation—as a "small step in the right direction."

http://theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4020&n=1

[dudeness]

10. terrorism vs state sponsored terrorism

to me there is no difference..both parties have had a lot of practice..

[BabsSong]

11. There is a very basic difference

We lie about what we do. Al Qaeda calls up and says "hey, dude, did you catch what we just did??". They actively recruit people to go out and kill Americans. We recruit people and tell them they are "protecting this country" (from what---an explosive camel with a WMD up it's butt??). We tell the world we are the princes of light and are the heart of darkness. They tell the people that they are on a mission from God to kill---at least they are honest about it.

[Dirk39]

12. Hard to tell:

Until lately, there were only two places, where it wasn't allowed to dance: Afghanistan and New York. At least Afghanistan has become more liberal lately.


During the sixties, 12.000 clubs in New York had a dance-license, now, "the city that never sleeps" only allows dancing in 296 clubs. A fun-police controlls, if New Yorker citizens don't make illegal use of their hips.
What I really don't understand is that the Talibans and the Al Qaeda's have a problem with the USA at all. They should unite against evil people like me.

Hello from Germany,
Dirk