By: dragonlady

dragonlady — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:12:20 +0000

So are we going to get an apology anytime soon for Iran holding our citizens hostage for 444 days? Or using Hezbollah to kill 19 Americans at Khobar Towers? Or for killing nearly 200 marines in Lebanon? Or providing shaped charged IEDs to insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan? Highly unlikely. The extremists over there just use our own apologies against us, unwilling to examine any of their own actions. Which is why when we do negotiate we them, we’ve already weakened our hand morally in their eyes, and they will see no need to make any concessions.

By: sinz54

sinz54 — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:42:30 +0000

The Palestinians openly celebrated the attack, dancing in the streets, handing out candy. Media cameramen who tried to film these events received death threats.

And as for the rest of the Muslim world, here's a poll taken only 5 months after 9-11:

February 26, 2002 Posted: 7:54 PM EST (0054 GMT)
PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) --Residents of nine Muslim countries called the United States "ruthless and arrogant" in a new poll, with most describing themselves as "resentful" of the superpower.

The Gallup poll found that by a 2-to-1 margin, residents in these nations express an unfavorable opinion of the United States, and a majority also indicated their displeasure with President Bush.

Most Muslims surveyed expressed the view that the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States were not justified morally, but larger majorities labeled U.S. military action in Afghanistan "morally unjustifiable."

Sixty-one percent said they did not believe Arab groups carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks. [!!!]

Researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with 9,924 residents of Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to gauge public opinion in those countries following the September 11 attacks. About half of the world's Muslim population lives in those nine countries. Not every question was asked in every nation.

The overall view was not a positive one for the United States: 53 percent of the people questioned had unfavorable opinions of the United States, while 22 percent had favorable opinions.

Most respondents said they thought the United States was aggressive and biased against Islamic values. Specifically, they cited a bias against Palestinians.

They also view American values as deeply materialist and secular and American culture as a corrupting influence on their societies, the poll found.

Residents of Lebanon had the highest favorable opinion of the United States, at 41 percent, followed by NATO ally Turkey with 40 percent. The lowest numbers came from Pakistan, at 5 percent.

Twenty-eight percent of Kuwaitis, 27 percent of Indonesians, 22 percent of Jordanians, 22 percent of Moroccans, 16 percent of Saudi Arabians and
14 percent of Iranians surveyed had a favorable view of the United States.

On Bush, 58 percent of those surveyed had unfavorable opinions, compared with 11 percent who had favorable views.

Of those surveyed, 67 percent saw the September 11 attacks as morally unjustified, while 15 percent of the respondents said they were morally
justified. But 77 percent said the U.S. military action in Afghanistan was morally unjustified, compared with 9 percent who said it was morally justified.

The interviews were conducted between December and January. The respondents were randomly selected and did not know a U.S. firm was sponsoring the poll.

Gallup said the sampling error was plus or minus 1 percentage point for questions asked in all nine countries and plus or minus 4 percentage
points for questions broken down by individual nations.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/02/26/gallup.muslims/

By: midcon

midcon — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:50:13 +0000

Zac, I am absolutely certain that Obama harbors no illusions regarding any lessening of the tensions with Iran. I am also certain that his efforts are not even targeting Iran. Instead he is focus on court of world opinion.

Wha we loss in the aftermath of 9/11 upon our invasion of Iraq, was the universal goodwill and support of nearly the entire world. That goodwill was squandered by an Administration who remained clueless how to use it.

Obama intends to get it back. I wish him great success.

Comments on: Iran: Apology Shmology

By: dragonlady

By: sinz54

By: midcon