Where is it More Dangerous? (Part Two)

I posted what I hoped was a thought-provoking question here a few days ago, "What's more dangerous, a Christian church in Alabama or a Muslim mosque in Iraq?" Unless you have been under a rock and don't pay attention to the news, you know what I was referring to in this question. There have been about ten church arsons in Alabama during the past month. Also, about a week ago, a mosque was bombed in Iraq, which according to the AP at the time, triggered the beginning of a civil war in Iraq. Well, it's a week later and there is still no civil war. Thankfully cooler heads are prevailing for the most part.

It just seems to me that this isn't the first time that the AP has interjected opinions into their headlines that over time have proven false. It seems to me that whoever is responsible for these articles and headlines seems eager to describe our mission in Iraq as a failure. They jump on every potential setback and declare defeat. I don't know what their motivation is for this. It could be that they want something dramatic to write about and to say they got the "scoop". It could simply be an underlying liberal bias and hatred for President Bush and his policies. It could be both. Regardless, it's getting old to me.

The reason I compared the church fires in Alabama to the mosque bombing in Iraq should be obvious. It seems like every negative event reported in Iraq is aimed at proving how unstable they are. I can't help but think there is a little xenophobia going on here as well. Look at America. I love this country and I am proud to be a citizen. But look at our crime rate. Look at our cultural and social problems. Look at our murder rate, crime rate, abortion rate, illegal drug problems, illegal immigration problems, welfare fraud, and the list goes on and on. Then turn around and compare some of our statistics with Iraq.

View some discussion about this topic here.

The United States has been a democratic representative republic for 229 years. You would think that by now we would have a little better social order than we do. Iraq has been a democratic representative republic for about one year. It's scary to me that they are really not that far behind us in many areas and are probably ahead of us in some areas. Would you like to be an American civilian walking down the street in Baghdad? Probably not! What about and Iraqi in Alabama? Probably not much better.

Here's a perfect example from the Birmingham News:

Man of Arab descent shot; suspect held
Saturday, February 25, 2006
TOM GORDONNews staff writer

TUSCALOOSA - A man of Arab descent was in fair condition Friday night after being shot Thursday night by a man who had been yelling racial slurs outside a Middle Eastern takeout restaurant near the University of Alabama campus.

Among those who went to the aid of Nabil Chagri was John Bart Tyra, a Marine Reservist who returned from a tour in Iraq nearly a year ago. Afterward, Tyra said he was sickened by the incident.

"I shed a few tears over it, let's put it that way," said Tyra, a Tuscaloosa resident and a lance corporal in the Bessemer-based 4th Anti-Terrorism Battalion. "It just breaks my heart that that can happen here in the United States."

Friday morning, authorities arrested Jason Michael Gardner, 23, of Northport. He was charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. Gardner was in the Tuscaloosa County Jail on Friday night, with bonds set at $130,000.

The incident happened shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday at the Quick Grill, a small takeout restaurant specializing in Middle Eastern foods. It's situated on a stretch of University Boulevard known as the Strip.

Jassim Madan, a native of the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain, said he has operated the restaurant for about five years.

Madan said he was inside Thursday night when a customer told him a man was urinating on the restaurant. When the man was told to leave, Madan said, the man used a racial slur and slapped one of the restaurant's customers.

"Everybody was trying to control this guy," said Tyra, who had come over with a friend from a nearby bar to order some food and saw the guy yelling racial slurs. "He was causing so much drama. He was being a moron."

The man left but threatened to come back, and ultimately returned alone in his truck with a .22-caliber rifle and began firing at the rear of a van parked behind the restaurant, said Lt. Loyd Baker, commander of the Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit.