Extremist Vs. Extremist

"Kill the American infidels"
-Osama bin Laden (paraphrased)










"Assasinate Hugo Chavez, the strong-arm dictator of Venzuela."
-Pat Robertson (paraphrased)











It amazes me how similar the rhetoric of the the far right Chrisitan conservatives and Muslim extremists are. Pat Robertson went on television and declared the democratically elected and wildly popular president of Venezuela a "strong-arm dictator" and called for his assasination on television. Is there any difference between this and Osama bin Laden getting on television and calling for the death of Americans?

It's all terrorism. It's all the threat of terrorism and it's all useless.

The problem I find is that I can actually sympathize with the reasons a man as crazy as Osama has for wanting to attack America. We're destabilizing the middle east and have been interfering with their politics at every turn where we're not exactly wanted. And with the situation in Iraq the reasons have increased ten-fold. I had hoped that Osama would remember the favors we did him in the 80's under Reagan, when we had the CIA train him and we gave him billions in dollars and support, but I guess he has a short memory. But I can understand his frustration with our country. I think his methods are abhorent, but I think I understand his cause.

With Pat Robertson I can't possibly imagine a single event that would justify Robertson's statements. Not only is Chavez popular leader who has been elected democratically, he's actually changed the country for the better. He's given land to the landless and he's taken the natural resources of the country (read: oil) and turned the profits into a boon for his country-men and their economy. I think the reason people like Pat Robertson and some of the hawks in the current Bush administration who want him out of office is that he's showing people that they don't need the "Free" Enterprise systems that the corporate pirates in the IMF and the World Bank are ruining countries with. He's a sterling example of Socialized Democracy on the march and it threatens these fat-cat free-market capitalist wackos.

Go to Greg Palast's website and read up on Venezuela. The man is a hero of an American with ACTUAL journalistic integrity. Sadly, he has to report from the UK.

But my original point is this: What's the difference between these fundamentalists? I think anyone who calls God's name down in the name of killing and/or profit is clearly psychotic and needs to be locked up.