Egypt4u

I have just been watching the video on the TV news that was originally posted on Youtube showing a group of people in Libya kicking over the headstones of soldiers in a British cemetery accompanied by the usual chants of “Allah Akbar” while at the same time taking a pick and hammer to a large cross that overlooked the graves and breaking it down.

So I suppose in true jihadist style we should be calling for revenge and shrieking wildly and madly with our clerics demanding blood, whilst burning the Libyan flag and rioting at every opportunity that presents itself, but of course we will not. We will accept the reasonable apology offered by the interim government of Libya, repair our soldiers headstones and just get on with it, a sharp contrast to all the mayhem that ensued after a few copies of the Koran were burnt by accident in Iraq.

Both things were sacred to the people of each country, but the double standards of these religious zealots is truly unbelievable. They can be offended to the point of insanity by the burning of a book or a cartoon, yet they can happily destroy the symbols of another’s religion and respect for their dead while chanting the mantra of their own god.

I cannot recall a similar incident when the graves of war dead were desecrated in this way, granted incidents may have occurred elsewhere, but never with this anti Christian message. I have maintained throughout this so called Arab Spring that we should never have involved ourselves in any of these Middle East conflicts and especially not Syria. We will always be the target for hatred as this video clearly demonstrates regardless of whatever aid or assistance we give to them, we should only act if our national interest is at stake.

Lastly the British government should with immediate effect demand that our fallen soldiers are respectfully exhumed and returned to the UK for reburial at a national cemetery and we will foot the cost which is a small price to pay, that is the least we owe to these people. The land can then be returned to the country concerned, any country that cannot protect the graves of the dead and especially the war dead of many nations who are internationally recognised as being 'laid to rest in a foreign field’

These countries do not deserve the honour of caring for our dead soldiers.

They have such short memories Horus. It was only a few brief months ago that they were appealing for support from the west in their struggle to oust Gaddafi. And it was largely the UK that responded to that call.

But I DO believe that these sort of anti western events are perpetrated by a minority who are influenced by extremists. Unfortunately that can become a dangerous minority.

Granted Grandad a minority, but ................. and this is a very big but, in all the years of being ruled by a dictator like Gaddaffi with his open hostility and hatred of the West, nothing like this ever happened under his rule, so we may assume that this evil dictator showed more respect for our dead than those we recently helped to liberate. Minorities like this soon become the majority and as we are witnessing in Egypt at the current time, once law and order starts to break down it is very hard to put the gennii back into the bottle again, all we have helped to create in Libya is another failed country.

So, and I am ready to be chastised for saying so, although the dictator regimes were brutal they did make sure that everyone toed the line....if you didn't, you were punished.

I have to ask the question, can countries like Iraq, Libya, Egypt and others to follow, ever enjoy some kind of democracy and respect for the law that, by and large, we have in the west? Or will they end up as new dictatorships

Interesting point to mull about Grandad. The Dictator regimes were brutal, made everybody toe the line and to 'our perspective' (aka the outside world) did seem to manage better than the chaos that is happening now but I wonder if the Dictators of today have such strong controls in place that they can still do what they want, when they want and how they want but are able to present an "all is ok" face to the outside world? In other words they are now able to successfully manage public perception of what is happening in their country. Now that this has gone all H*ll has broken lose OR have the people of the middle east always been combative and wild requiring extreme measures to impose control. Am getting at the chicken and egg concept here.

I think there are time of different circumstances in history that make any group of people more of less capable of bringing in a regieme that is up to no good. Obama was welcomed following George Bush with a fervour unseen in the USA for a long time. He is now not really liked by anybody. Hitler held Germany in his grip and some of the worst attrocities ever were committed. Why was Hitler able to sway public opinion so much? Why was he able to do what he did for as long as he did? Do we all only intervene when life circumstances have become so untolerable that we, as the civilized world cannot stand the moral and human degredation any longer?

LovelyLadyLux wrote: have the people of the middle east always been combative and wild requiring extreme measures to impose control.

LLL, I read your comment with interest but it was the above phrase that registered with me. That is a thought that has always been in my mind during the 'revolutions' of the last year. When people take to the streets, and fight for change, they always seem to lack any organisation or leadership and come over as a wild and unruly rabble. And when their former leader is deposed they are left with anarchy.

It seems that those headstones that were destroyed in the War Graves Cemetry in Benghazi, were the act of a gang of armed thugs who have taken advantage of a lawless situation that prevails to desecrate anything with other than Islamic symbolism, be it Christian, Jewish, Hindu or whatever.

The social structure of the middle east is tribal. People self identify along tribal lines which are further delineated by family relationships which have sometimes been purposefully created to keep peace or make alliances. Islam reveres the Prophet Muhammad himself had many marriages for the purpose of political alliances. I believe tribalism is an either 'you're IN or you're OUT' mentality. I believe that this inclusive/exclusive mentality makes it real easy to label and see others as having no value (you're an outsider) which thus allows these individuals to desecrate or vandalize that which others hold sacred.