re: #58 Decatur Deb

If that’s what you want, settle in for a long wait. My people have been at it for 400 years in Ireland, and the Troubles aren’t over.

Look I hear what you are saying. But I think you are making a very false parallel if you think about this in terms of Ireland. The tensions and the history involved are entirely different, and so are the cultures.

One real big difference is that goons from the IRA did not believe they get 72 virgins to boff in Heaven if they die while murdering people. The typical Irish person does not embrace his own death.

Another big difference is that the typical Irish person finally got really tired of the destructive cycle and wanted to join the first world. There is an educational and cultural standard there that does not obtain in any nation in the M.E. other than Israel.

Yet another big difference is that frankly, Irish people are vastly more civilized than most cultures in the M.E. You simply can not look at a culture that thinks that honor killings are just fine, or that public decapitation is a family event to take a picnic to, through Western eyes and think that such people will be just like Westerners.