[Buddha-l] Re: Greetings from Oviedo

[Dan Lusthaus]

> If the United States would withdraw all of its military presence from
> the Middle East, and end its unconditional subsidy of Israel, the
> "Islamic Threat" would go away.

Let's add this too common misconception to the list of fallacies. It goes to
the top of my list.

Get out that map of yours again, and get a list of all the present ongoing
conflicts around the globe (the UN provides one). Now mark all those places
on your map. Now connect the dots. When you are done you will have
circumscribed the boundaries of the Islamic world (with some additional
conflicts within those boundaries). None of that has anything to do with
Israel. In fact one of the more optimistic things to emerge in recent weeks
is the initiation by a variety of Arab and Muslim nations to consider and
even initiate relations with Israel (Pakistan, UAE, Kuwait, etc.) -- at the
same time that Europeans are atavistically trying to ratchet up efforts to
boycott Israel. Even the Muslims know that this is a fallacy -- they also
know it's the most effective thing to say to the international press
whenever something embarrassing is happening in the Muslim world that they
don't want to talk about. 2000 years of European history shows them that
this is a very effective scapegoat argument that has legs in the West.

If you think handing control of the Saudi and Iraqi oil reserves to Bin
Laden will make jihadist pursuit of hegemony go away, request your doctor to
prescribe some smelling salts.

There is a Buddhist sutra that draws a distinction between dogs and lions:
If you throw a stone at a dog, he chases the stone; if you throw a stone at
a lion, he chases you.

Don't be a dog.


Dan Lusthaus