Sectarian Violence; Not Just for Baghdad Anymore

Everybody (except W.) knows that having Americans fighting wars in the Middle East is stupid because of the inherent disagreements between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. From our lofty perch in America, we can look down on the Islamic people of both sects thinking to ourselves how ridiculous and pointless the infighting is.

But we’re no better. Forty years after the fact, civil-rights era murderers are being prosecuted now that law enforcement is no longer so easily influenced by the Ku Klux Klan. That’s great. But in the same 24-hour news reporting period that we hear a story on that, we are also given the news tidbit that the KKK is experiencing a resurgence with not only old cells being revitalized, but new groups springing up in previously untapped ground in the Midwest.

The KKK is just the new arm of spokespeople espousing issues that have already polarized America. Previously, it was the mainstream Religious Right speaking out in areas of government or the media against immigration (read non-white immigration, obviously), gay marriage, abortion, etc. Now the Klan and other hate groups are taking on some of these same topics.

We have a lot to say about Islamic fundamentalists and how their fervor colors their thinking so that they cannot make rational decisions about how to interact with people.

For years now, Americans have been making bad decisions about how to do just that, for the most part also in the throes of religious zeal, but often even more caught up in a capitalist fanaticism. It’s just so close to being out of control now. I wonder if we can stop it before we have our cities torn apart and another country coming in with soldiers to show us how to do it better.