Miss Manners and global sharia. Funny how this issue of
thanks or the lack of them resonated. Kember, poor guy, will probably spend the rest of his life having to say that YES, OK, he
was grateful to be rescued.
(Seriously, I am very glad that he will have a "rest of his life" in which to enjoy the pleasures of home, liberty and family - and, credit where it's due, I am sure he is just the type not to lose his temper.)
I think that the reaction to the initial failure to thank the soldiers merely brought to a point the general disagreement that most people, including most of those who opposed the Iraq war, have with the Christian Peacemaker Teams and other similar pacifists or semi-pacifists.
Most people feel that the armed forces perform a useful function. The Christian Peacemaker Teams do not feel this. On a day to day basis they don't think that the rough men who guard us while we sleep ought to be doing it, so naturally they are not grateful. In a sense Mr Kember is inconsistent to start being grateful to the soldiers who rescued him in Baghdad, having seen nothing to be grateful for in the actions of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who guarded him all his life at home in Pinner.
There's no point in being annoyed when people simply act according to their own axioms. The thing to argue about is the axioms themselves.
That's why I don't hold it against Muslims when I hear that many of them want sharia law to be instituted worldwide. From the very fact that they are Muslims it should come as no surprise that they think it would be best for all of us if we lived by the divinely ordained sharia.
I don't have any intention of doing so, but the point at which I start disagreeing with them comes earlier and the point at which I start objecting comes later.
posted by Natalie at 9:00 PM
