Friday, October 9, 2015

THE RUSSIAN BUSH

In my opinion, Vladamir Putin is the Russian's George W. Bush, and he doesn't do nuance either.  His country not only contains a very large population of Moslems, but its southern border consists mostly of countries with a majority of Sunni Moslems within them. Putin, however, for some reason, has taken the side of Shia, or Shia-like sects, in Syria.  He already has begun bombing Sunni's who are not allied with ISIL.  As was the case with W., Putin has become involved in a war, voluntarily, with people who can cause him great harm.  Lotsa Luck, fella.

4 comments:

  1. This is a two part comment. First, I'm curious about your current usage of Moslem over Muslim (there is historical preference for Moslem, but current attitudes prefer Muslim, unless used as an adjective, and even then in many cases). Current usage defines the two differently:

    A Muslim in Arabic means "one who gives himself to God," and is by definition, someone who adheres to Islam. By contrast, a Moslem in Arabic means "one who is evil and unjust" when the word is pronounced, as it is in English, Mozlem with a z.

    I'm curious if you were aware of this difference when you made the post.

    The second part of my comment is a link showing that the current involvement in Syria is for reasons other than what official government sources claim. This also sheds a different light on the refugee situation due to those conflicts. The reaction to those refugees (notice I didn't call them immigrants) is similar in nature to our current reaction to refugees coming across our southern US border due to US government actions in Central and South America. In both cases, there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle to which most Americans, and other people in the affected areas aren't granted privilege. Here's the link which forms its basis from WikiLeaks of State Dept. cables and was also affirmed by Edward Snowden: http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/33180-wikileaks-reveals-how-the-us-aggressively-pursued-regime-change-in-syria-igniting-a-bloodbath

    This link sheds a different light on the actions of Russia and the actions of Iraq in requesting Russian intervention in Iraq as well.

    I offer these comments and the link for thoughtful consideration by this blog's followers.


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  2. Greg, the distinction between Moslem and Muslim is due to my rather advanced age, If you re-read the article on the distinction, you will note that the spelling "Moslem" was in use "in my time", and the spelling Muslim is more recent. Some times I forget and revert to the old usage. All kinds of scenarios are discussed in any Administration and I can only comment on actions. I have seen only an Obama Administration that, overtly, kept hands-off the Syria Civil War despite Republican pressure until the use of poison gas and then when ISIL invaded Iraq. Obama has not taken overt action against Assad and reluctantly took covert action in trying to train rebel troops. Obama has dropped the training and is pretty much allowing the Russians a free hand. The thought that Obama has agreed to what Putin is doing because Congress refuses to give him authorization to go against ISIL has crossed my mind. I think, however, Obama probably says Putin is making his own bed and will have to lie there. The Sunnis whipped the ass of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and will probably do so again in Syria. This way Obama may get a twofer, both Assad and Putin.

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  3. Greg, to answer your query as to whether I knew that there was a difference between "Muslim" and "Moslem", the answer is no. Indeed, as vowels (with the exception of "a") are rarely written or, at best, indicated by a diacritical notation, both "Muslim" and "Moslem" would be written exactly alike in cursive Arabic (transliterated MSLM). That is why sometimes you see the spelling "Osama" and sometime you see :"Usama". Unfortunately, there was a limit to what I learned from the book, written in French, that I found in the University library, from which I learned my Arabic, but I am skeptical that "Moslem" means one thing and "Muslim" means the opposite.

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