The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #154376   Message #3624623
Posted By: Teribus
07-May-14 - 10:03 AM
Thread Name: BS: Islamic radicalism . . .
Subject: RE: BS: Islamic radicalism . . .
"Gee, FW, I seem to remember the U.S. and Britain flocking to Iraq and Afghanistan to wage war on Muslims." - GregF

Did you?? I remember a series of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets by an international terrorist group whose leader demanded that the entire population of the USA convert to Islam, shred their Constitution and their Bill of Rights and live in accordance with strict Sharia Law (Refer to and read the Fatwas issued by Osama bin Laden in 1996 and in 1998). That attack falling inside the geographic area defined by Article 6 of the NATO Charter meant that Article 5 of the same charter could be invoked - hence in October 2001 a handful of US Special Advisers backed up by Special Forces Units from NATO assisted the Northern Alliance in running the Taleban and their Al-Qaeda "Guests" out of Afghanistan and over the border into Pakistan the country in which both were created (As far as I know the Taleban leadership continue to hide out there to this day).

While the forces of several nations (For several read 49) are present inside Afghanistan I do not believe that they went there to wage war on Muslims per se - they went there to fight alongside Afghans who happen to be Muslims (Let us call them the ANSF) who represent the security forces and police forces of a democratically elected and internationally recognised Government of an Islamic (Muslim) Republic against certain insurgent elements who are also Muslims.

In Iraq IIRC it was the secular national socialist (Nazi) Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein who refused to conform to the terms and conditions of the ceasefire agreement his own generals signed to suspend hostilities in March 1991. As those terms and conditions were not complied with ANY of the original combatant powers could deem the ceasefire as having been violated and would therefore be at liberty to resume hostilities to enforce compliance - so - nothing whatsoever to do with killing Muslims at all.