[Dean's World] Dean: A Footnote: Know Your Enemies, Know Your Allies

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Posted by Dean:
A Footnote: Know Your Enemies, Know Your Allies
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1143793181.shtml


   A common thing I hear when discussing the need to stop lumping all
   Muslims together--honestly, I get this argument a lot--is that in
   World War II, we knew perfectly well that the Japanese were the enemy
   and we did not worry about offending everday Japanese. We hated the
   Japs, we knew we hated the Japs, and that was that.

   So, the reasoning goes, why should we expect any difference with
   Americans today who think of Muslims as the enemy?

   Leaving aside all the obvious objections, let me take this metaphor at
   face value. We're fighting an enemy like Japan in 1942. Okay, no
   problem:

   Prior to World War II, it is probably safe to say that your average
   American could not tell you the difference between someone from Japan,
   China, or the Phillipines. Were they provinces of each other? Were
   they allies? The people there sure looked alike and had a lot of the
   same practices, right? Little yellow people who ate a lot of rice and
   talked funny, right?

   Furthermore, our earliest goal in World War II was the defense of
   Hawaii, which by coincidence was inhabited by a lot of people of
   Chinese and/or Japanese descent (such as [1]Captain Gordon Pai'ea
   Chung-Hoon, winner of the Silver Star and the Navy Cross). Later, as
   the war went on, our key objectives--long before we even thought
   seriously about attacking the Japanese homeland--were:

   1) Liberate China (especially Manchuria) from Japanese occupation, and

   2) Keep the Phillipines out of Japanese hands.

   Problem: all those people, they seem so much alike. A lot of them even
   had Japanese blood. So, if we hated the Japanese, why didn't we hate
   them too?

   During that war, the U.S. Government, along with many private entities
   in the press and Hollywood, went out of their way to make sure people
   knew the difference, for one thing.

   Furthermore, patriotic Americans who genuinely cared about the war
   effort went out of their way to make sure they knew the difference,
   and that their friends did too.

   For example, I am reminded of the classic radio serial The Green
   Hornet, which ran from 1936 until 1952. It also spawned a comic book
   that was popular during the War years.

   green hornet & kato

   Who was the Green Hornet's sidekick? Kato. What nationality was he? As
   it happened, he was a Filipino of Japanese descent. He spoke Japanese.
   He looked Japanese. He knew Japanese Karate, and used it frequently
   against the bad guys.

   World War II broke out. Did they drop Kato? No. He was just as
   important as ever. They just made sure their listeners knew he was
   Filipino not loyal to the Japanese Empire.

   (By the way, in case you're remembering the TV show from the '60s and
   are confused: they made Kato Chinese in that show just so they could
   put Bruce Lee in the role. The original character, fans of the
   original could attest, was always a Japanese Filipino--always.)

   So I have a simple question for you: if it was perfectly reasonable to
   expect 6-12 year old children in 1942 to understand the difference
   between Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino in 1942, can you explain to me
   why it is unreasonable, in 2006, to expect adults to know the
   difference betweeen Al Qaeda, Salafist extremists, and Shia radicals
   from Iran (enemies of the West) and Muslims who don't belong to those
   groups?

   Indeed, I'll ask it a lot more rudely: can you explain why you are not
   as intelligent as your average 8 year old child was in 1942?

   Seriously people: this is not a viable excuse. If you can't tell the
   difference between [2]this and [3]this, there is something very
   seriously wrong with you. And you're certainly not doing your country
   any favors.

References

   1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Pai%27ea_Chung-Hoon
   2. http://www.madison.com/post/blogs/militarymatters/index.php?ntid=77788&ntpid=2
   3. http://www.cfr.org/publication/9126/