Wiley,TL,Slash good posts all,
As we all are beginning to realise more acutely history goes back a long way and many ethnic groups have a far longer and more detailed 'version' than the wests!
Westerners tend to have a fairly 'recent' term of reference where to the people of the 'East' a thousand years ago was last week and 200 years ago was yesterday.
Towers in the last part of the 19th century the British were fighting for empire in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Perhaps this co-incides with Islam's putting aside of more gentile persuits? The battles between Islamic tribes and the British Empire lasted right through until the 1930s.
A large force of British troops managed to fight their way through to, and capture, Kabul. The Patan tribes then laid seige to them and after a long period, and with no rescue in sight, the British agreed to surrender. The Patan had promised them safe passage back, so with wives, children and servents in tow(why did the British always take the families with them?) off they went. As soon as they were in the mountain passes the sniping started, women and children were captured raped and murdered, and if anyone of the nearly 2000 British force survived history doen't record it very well.
Savage?....only to our eyes I'm sure.
I hope fervently that this will not end up in Jihad, although I've been saying for years that IF we ever have another big war it would be fought between Islam and the rest.
Perhaps the Muslim Nations will allow the West to remove the baddies and restore peacful relations with no sanctions, free trade and each following their own belief systems unencumbered. Perhaps that's the most ignorant, arrogant, nieve and fattuos attitude the west could have as far as the Muslim Nations are concerned.
As Wiley points out 'Bad' is merely a perspective away from 'good'.
We, in the west, tend to distance ourselves from the sins of our forefathers and stoutly refuse to feel guilty about things that happened before we were 'an itch in our father's trousers', although we can be sorry! Will the Easts vastly different perspective on what is 'ancient' history and what is 'modern' history allow us that in the future?
Chuck.
[ 25 September 2001: Message edited by: Chimbu chuckles ]