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Blew the crusade





(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

US President George W. Bush has not exactly turned out his best after the terrorist attack on the United States. In its own ranks, the criticism has been that Bush has not shown the necessary sensitivity to the victims and their survivors. Some international commentators and newspapers, on the other hand, have pointed to the president's somewhat rough rhetoric and its possible consequences.

After all, it becomes difficult to believe Bush when he insists that the terrorist campaign is an attack on the big S civilization, while at the same time responding with primitive cowboy slang taken from the wild west. He showed the pinnacle of unwise leadership this week when he announced that the United States would go Crusade against the terrorists. Whether the president here revealed his lack of historical knowledge or whether it was deliberate speech does not really matter. The point is that the president, who has now been appointed by the world as leader of the international fight against terrorism, feeds on an enemy image and a world conflict extreme forces have an interest in maintaining. After the end of the Cold War, thick books have been written about the conflict that will replace capitalism / communism; the eternal battle between good and evil – now under the name of Christianity and Islam. Because of Bush – and rigid forces in the Muslim world – we have now sharpened an old conflict with concepts such as crusades and holy war. Western Christian leaders declared a bloody crusade against Muslims in their attempt to conquer Palestine between the 11th and 13th centuries. In the Muslim world, crusades mean the same as religious wars.

If Bush is to have any hope of bringing necessary Arab countries into the fight against the guilty, he should urgently curb the vulgar use of language. Bush is in danger of upsetting even ordinary Muslims who have nothing left to do with terrorism. The image of celebrating anti-American Muslims following the terrorist attack on the United States is capable of stirring up American and Western patriotism to an even greater extent. The war of images and language can thus prepare the ground for a protracted modern war with historical roots. It is neither the Christian world, Islam nor the fight against terrorism served.

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