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Originally Posted by 9th Engineer
Since then I have been doing more research both Hezbollah and Hamas but the differences were not of the sort that changed my opinions. Most of them involve what group of people they are trying to wipe off the face of the Earth and their area of operation. Both are extemely vocal in their wish to kill all Americans and this has only changed from time to time to keep the U.S. from halting aid.
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You have been visiting too many extremist sources. Hamas, in particular, has long had a strong 'hands off Americans' policy. AIPAC will do everything possible to obfuscate that fact. But again, can you see through the fog of propaganda to find a structure?
The Middle East has long been a complicated morass of so many with different agendas. Whereas bin Laden was an American ally, he then became an American enemy sometime after an event that changed the world: 1 Aug 1990.
Appreciate, for example, why the USS New Jersey off the coast of Lebanon did so much damage to American influence and respect in the Middle East. Appreciate why US Marines were attacked in their Beirut barracks. Why would those who talk to Americans then attack those same Americans (and why those Marines were not allowed to load their guns)? Again, nothing ‘black and white’ about it. And yet so many Americans will proclaim with hatred and a political agenda that *they* were always trying to kill Americans in Lebanon.
Who was spying for America in Iraq in the 1990s? Syria. Again, in a world of 'black and white', you might deny this reality. But again, the Middle East is fabulously complex. To simplify it for the cannon fodder, some (ie AIPAC) will proclaim repeatedly that Hezbollah and Hamas want to kill Americans. If they say it enough, it then is confused with facts. Instead, we cut through those lies and propaganda to find reality.
Same reason why Ho Chi Minh, a strong American ally, somehow became the hated enemy. Propaganda again hyping hate to the cannon fodder. Don't be cannon fodder. Keep digging; keep learning. You are now doing what is necessary for a minimal grasp of this fabulously complex region that we stuck our nose into. This quagmire has sucked us in by our nose because too many Americans blindly saw the world only in 'black and white' - exactly like Vietnam. Too many Americans are such cannon fodder as to say, “Rush says what has to be said”. An informed person knows otherwise – can separate propaganda from reality and from their real intentions.
For example, an informed person back in 2002 could obviously see that Saddam was never a threat to America. That Saddam had absolutely no interest in conflict with America. That Saddam had been doing everything possible to be an American ally – until completely blindsided by his Kuwait mistake. Meanwhile so many Americans knew otherwise; facts be damned.
The world did not change on 11 September. The world changed 1 Aug 1990. Understanding the complexity and a complete reversal even in American public attitudes is necessary to appreciate why that date is so important.