I must say that I find one of the most hypocritical and obnoxious things in the world these days to be the sudden world fetish with the issue of whether the US should stop bombing the Taliban for Ramadan. Bush is so obsessed with sucking up to Moslem countries, many of whose politicians no doubt cheered discretely when bin Laden blew up the World Trade Center, that he is putting out feelers about perhaps stopping the attacks on the Taliban come Ramadan, in a few weeks.

There are some problems with all this. First, the Moslem world has never had any problems with attacking other people on THEIR holidays. One need not even recall the Yom Kippur attack on Israel. There were the Rosh Hashana pogroms last year, cheered on by most of the Moslem world, plus the annual Palestinian atrocities against Jews on Purim, also cheered on. Then there are the Islamist attacks on Christians on Christmas, like the pogrom against Christians in Indonesia in 2000, or against Christians in South Africa in 1996. And the Lebanese Southern Christians were never offered holiday reprise by the Hizbollah.

Second, the Moslems themselves have never regarded Ramadan as a time to end hostilities. Sadat picked Ramadan in 1973 specifically as the right time to attack Israel. Iraq and Iran never stopped bombing the bejeebers out of one another for Ramadan during their war. The PLO has never called off its atrocities during Ramadan.

Third, there is ample precedent for keeping up the pressure even during Ramadan. Even Bill Clinton bombed Iraq during Ramadan in 1998. The Russians of course never stopped attacking the Chechnyans during Ramadan. I do not recall any Albanians last year during Ramadan calling for ceasefires with Macedonians, or before that with Serbs.

So stop with the weepy-pooh tear jerks. Bombs away. Allah is with the Yanks!

Copyright © 2001 by Steven Plaut.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission