Libyans desecrate WWII allied war graves

[TLAM Strike]

A furious mob has desecrated dozens of Commonwealth War Graves in a Libyan cemetery amid continuing fury in the Middle East over the burning of the Koran by U.S. soldiers.
Headstones commemorating British and Allied servicemen, killed during World War II campaigns in the Western Desert, lay smashed and strewn across Benghazi Military Cemetery.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...n-burning.html

[Oberon]

Hardly surprising. This IS the Middle East after all.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Hardly surprising. This IS the Middle East after all.

Actually I think it in North Africa.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Actually I think it in North Africa.

Geographically yes, mentality, all the same. If in doubt, blame Western Europe and set fire to something that belongs to them.
That being said, I dare say that Western Europe has done something similar to that to them before, burning down Mosques and that, probably not recently though, but that's how it goes. No nation is a saint.

[CaptainMattJ.]

Meanwhile they burn american flags, turn to us when they want to rebel, and then go back to the same thing they were always doing. not to mention these soldiers died to Wrench the axis from North Africa.

Its all such idiotic tribalism. It makes me sick to my stomach to see U.S soldiers urinating on dead soldiers and it sickens me to see these hypocrites desecrate war graves. Its all so ridiculous...

[joegrundman]

Originally Posted by CaptainMattJ.

Meanwhile they burn american flags, turn to us when they want to rebel, and then go back to the same thing they were always doing. not to mention these soldiers died to Wrench the axis from North Africa.

Its all such idiotic tribalism. It makes me sick to my stomach to see U.S soldiers urinating on dead soldiers and it sickens me to see these hypocrites desecrate war graves. Its all so ridiculous...

i think this whole thing is just another indicator of the fundamental problems with the Islamic world and its relations with the non-islamic -that is, as some Britisher of the colonial era once said (and i forget who it was) the islamic world is like an enormous drum. You tap one small part of it and you hear the sound all over it.

They like to say that they are not monolithic, and emphasise the diversity within them, when it suits them to do so. No doubt it is true too in many aspects - and for sure Muslim Malaysia had little in common with Muslim Pakistan (although there are pressures for standardisation in recent years), it is also the case that there are many similarities, and especially this tribal instinct to unite in common outrage when their inflated sense of grievance is challenged.

The reaction to this display of unity of theirs is that we see them as united and associate their readiness to acts of violence that we see in kabul and libya with muslim communities in europe, russia and america. As you say it reinforces "idiotic tribalism"

Yes they asked for help when they wanted to rebel - why wouldn't they? Asking costs nothing. We helped them in Libya for our reasons, not for theirs. Although I acknowledge a little gratitiude wouldn't go amiss. Although you should also keep in perspective - how many people does it take to desecrate a cemetary? It's not like it was official policy of whatever it is that passes for government in post-gadaffi libya.

But also, i wouldn't confuse the status of allied war graves in libya. I think they do not have the same meaning in Libya as they do in France for example, whereby they are the cost allied forces paid to liberate the oppressed from tyranny.

I argue that in North Africa, they were not about this. They were one set of colonial rulers fighting a turf war with another set of colonial masters. Mostly the whole thing represents a reminder of the wretched condition to which the muslim world had fallen (and still is in) compared to their medieval glory days when the muslim world was roughly equal to or better than the other main civilisations of the day. In those days muslim lands were not merely the battlegrounds were great christian nations did battle with one another (and just a minor part of the battle at that).

I would be surprised if they felt that gratitude to the allied dead was a feeling that we expected of them.