Has anyone here read "Shame" by Rushdie?

[GumboYaYa]

It has been about ten years since I read it so I am light on details, but I remember the themes well.

The book is very insightful as to the relationship of Islam to the West. Rushdie paints a picture of a society that suffers much internal strife often of its own creation, but projected onto the West. He focuses on the shame that pervades Islamic society and points to the subservience to the West as a big source of the shame.

I thought of this book this week as I watched the gory photographs of Uday and Qusay displayed on television. Our actions will inflame the anti-West passions in Iraq. These guys were monsters, but they were Iraq's monsters. Now we came in and killed them because the Iraqis were not able to do it themselves. We shamed them

It was a gigantic strategic error to let US forces kill these guys and an even greater mistake to flaunt it to the Iraqis and the world. We should have encircled the home where we found them and let the Iraqis administer the "justice." Of course this would not have gotten the political result desired.

Many more Americans will die because of the path we chose.

I am going to reread "Shame" this weekend. I highly recommend it to all you guys.

[ima_sinnic]

1. wow--good analysis

thanks for the heads-up about the book, too

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. You are so right

Thanks for your thoughtful analysis. But unfortunately, Bush and his minions apparently don't give a hoot about learning about Islamic culture or the feelings of people in other parts of the world. Heck, they don't even care about the feelings of a majority of Americans!

[teryang]

3. Colonialism and Anglo corporate ownership

...of their resources won't exactly enhance their appreciation for the west but it will provide the ready means to enhance their self esteem. A nationalist revolution for independence and self determination will be very satisfying. They get to kill the objects of their indignation on a daily basis.

[GumboYaYa]

4. That is Osama's ultimate goal and we are feeding the monster.

Unfortunately, those "objects of their indignation" are our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers.....

[soupkitchen]

5. Where I might disagree with you is

when you conclude that letting the Iraqis do the dirty work, "would not have gotten the political result desired."
It seems to me that this is another example of th Bush administation not thinking things through.

[InkAddict]

6. Not Shame...

but I highly recommend The Ground Beneath Her Feet

"It wasn't supposed to be like this."