A Minuet with the Minaret: Ross Duthart of The NYT wrote an opinion "Europe's Minaret Moment" (Link Below) to which I responded.

What a conundrum: to keep or not to keep minarets in Switzerland. Can't we all just get along? Apparently not. Mankind has been going at each other since he came down from the trees and probably even before then. It's one thing to fight over food, small swathes of territory or mates and it's quite another to fight over religion, cultural ideologies and power, with huge pieces of geography in play not to mention the possible threats of nuclear war or the acquisition of WMD's. The stakes are certainly higher than in Australopithecus Boise's day.

The events of 9/11 and George Bush's destabilization of the Middle East hardened Islamic resolve across the globe. It now walks hand-in-hand with the U.S.'s utterly failed economic con games and has catapulted not just the US but the entire globe into a threat which need not have existed IF the powers-that-be AFTER 9/11 played their hands right. They surely did not. They created a catastrophe initiated by Iraq helped in no small part by a stupid, unquestioning and derelict-in-its-duty media including the prestigious New York Times.

Islamic rebellion is now a global problem. Europe who needed the labor of immigrants and who wanted to purge themselves of guilt for their own sorry treatment of the "other" now reaps what they have sewn. The Europe that gave us the glorious Enlightenment is threatened and the US is leading the charge against the threat with more attacks through its Afghanistan surge. It has its own horrific Christian fundamentalism with which to contend as more and more of the power brokers seek to cozy up to their religious fanatical base. It is a poisonous brew.

One can only HOPE that more rational thought prevails in BOTH the Islamic and Judo-Christian world. I THOUGHT Obama would be the conduit to do just that. I thought he would give us hope by fundamentally changing US policy on a myriad of fronts. It appears in many ways he is mirroring his presidential predecessors. Admittedly, he was handed a can of rancid policy botulism. Still, he could do so much. Instead, he appears to be acting in the same old way listening to the same old folly of generals who are leading him and us into yet another abysmal trap to what end I have not the foggiest idea. I hope I am consummately wrong because the dance of the Minuet with the Minarets of Europe will pale in comparison to the threat of the all out war with its attendant nuclear peril the clash of cultures and civilizations could certainly bring!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/opinion/07douthat.html?_r=1