What if 3,300 Americans were killed in one week?

Professor Cole at the University of Michigan has written a fantastic piece on his blog. A brief excerpt follows and I highly recommend that you read more.

If America were Iraq, What would it be Like?

President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting the pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country.

What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics would have to be multiplied by that number.

Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last week? That is a number greater than the deaths on September 11, and if America were Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly or monthly toll.

Muslim Outcry Against Beheadings

Living in the United States, there is plenty of coverage of the brutal beheadings committed by barbaric terrorists. The press calls them "Islamists" but I consider them anything but muslims. Simply, they are not muslims and they are not "God fearing" people.

But you might wonder why there hasn't been a huge outcry against these acts. Well, there are plenty of people upset about it but the US mainstream media doesn't report it. That's a shame because all that it does is perpetuate the belief that muslims hate christians and jews. That's not true.

Most of the people in the Middle East live in countries with oppressive governments. Freedom of speech does not exist and they cannot speak against the government. Speaking against Islam is forbidden but who decides what is "against Islam?" If you live in an oppressive environment, the oppressors decide and if they don't like what you say, guess what? You're toast.

That being said - there should be more voices speaking up against these acts where there is freedom of speech. That hopefully still includes the United States and I'm going to do my part. As an Iranian-American who is muslim, I think we should be calling these people barbarians, terrorists and animals. But please, don't call them "Islamists" or "jihadists." Otherwise, the soldiers in Abu Ghraib would be "Christian barbarians" or "Crusadists."

UPDATED 12/16/2004

This post is getting a lot of hits so I wanted to emphasize a point.

There are many who are horrified, angered and disgusted by acts committed by these animals in the name of religion. Unfortunately, our government, the United States government, supports regimes that would stifle and suppress any organized protests (regardless of what the people might wish to protest). Those governments include our so-called allies in Saudia Arabia, Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. There are many reasons why America is hated but the root is how our government (since 1945) has treated the region.

It will never justify attacks such as those on 9-11 but it isn't because "they hate our freedom." To say that is to insult the intelligence of all those who dare ask "why do they hate us?"

Labor Day Weddings and an Iranian Winery in Napa

We attended two weddings this Labor day weekend - one in Sacramento and the next day in Napa. It was an exhausting weekend... but fun. And to cap off the festivities, we found an Iranian (Persian) winery called Darioush. The winery opened in 1997-98 and recently renovated their tasting facility. It's modeled after Takhteh Jamshid (aka Persepolis) - the capitol of the Acheamenid dynasty.