May 19, 2005

In the U.S., kids have always played games pitting the "good guys" against the "bad guys." "Cops and Robbers" and "Cowboys and Indians" are two timeless pursuits of American youngsters.

Lately, there has been a slight change in one of the games. The new sport in town is called "Cowboys and Muslims."

Many U.S. citizens use this term in a perverted sense of pride. In their minds, all Muslims are Arabs and all Arabs are Muslims and all must be eradicated. This morning’s San Diego Union-Tribune devoted a portion of its "Letters to the Editor" page to the retraction of a story in Newsweek magazine of a U.S. soldier flushing a Koran down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Even the political cartoon affixed to the page was bigoted and mindless. It is titled "Our Research Department." One elderly Muslim asks another, "What do you read, O Holy One?" The other, reading a copy of Newsweek, answers, "Just looking for something for today’s riot." In other words, all Muslims want to create chaos and death.

Here is a letter that was published next to the cartoon from Norman Mann of San Diego:

It is bewildering to me to read of the Muslim, mostly Arab, violence concerning the erroneous report of interrogators at Guantanamo flushing a Koran down the toilet. More devastating and critical of all Muslims is the apparent acceptance of worldwide Islam of the brutal butchering of Arabs by Arabs in Iraq. Islam tries to make the world believe that the Koran teaches peace, but silence seems to accept the blood bath taking place daily in Iraq at the moment as pure Islam. Some Muslims state that the terrorists and suicide bombers are not following precepts of Islam.

It appears as though the daily Shia and Sunni violence trashes the Koran more than flushing a Koran down the toilet. The very massive silence from the Islamic world abstaining from criticism of the internecine slaughter of Muslims by Muslims in Iraq gives me all the more reason to believe that the response to the story in Newsweek, as irresponsible as it possibly is, is a poor excuse for Arabs turning their hatred toward the Christian countries and causing further internecine massacres.

The illogic of this letter is stifling. However, it matches the thoughts of millions of U.S. citizens. There is much violence and murder in the U.S., but I have never read that it is Christian-against-Christian violence. Yet, the writer assumes all acts of violence in Iraq are Muslim-against-Muslim. The fact that some Muslims are fighting Muslims who are collaborators with the U.S. in the occupation of Iraq never came into his mind.

How about the statement "Arabs turning their hatred toward Christian countries?" There are many Christian Arabs. Are they turning their hatred toward themselves. And, what is a "Christian country?" The writer is not clear in this aspect of his ethnocentric letter.

Now, let’s get back to the playing of games by U.S. youngsters. Today, adults dress up similar to the 10-year-olds who run around with their cowboy hats or their plastic police badges.

Condi Rice visited Iraq a few days ago. Actually, she did not visit Iraq, but the "Green Zone," the heavily-fortified area of Baghdad that is the only place in which U.S. citizens can be assured safety. Check out the picture of her with this article. It puts to shame the infamous photo taken of Michael Dukakis riding in a tank during the 1988 U.S. presidential campaign. But, at least she is wearing in-vogue military garb.

George Bush, Dick (appropriately-named) Cheney and other civilian administration officials all jump at the chance to wear a flight jacket, or baseball cap with a military symbol while visiting the troops. I have yet to see French Prime Minister Chirac, or German Chancellor Schroeder, or even Tony Blair in pseudo-military clothing. Only in America.

I am no psychologist, but I maintain that the U.S. officials, from the president to many Congresspeople, who dress up for the occasion when visiting a military institution, must have been deprived of certain types of toys as kids.

Today, they make up for it. However, there may come a day when the Muslims turn into the Cowboys. Just look at Rice’s outfit.