@El Knighto
[quote="El Knighto"][spoiler]In the manner of discussion, please excuse my lack of formatting expertise. I'll just number these.
1. I wasn't arguing that the human compassion wasn't there. Nor was I saying the intensity of the compassion was justified (notice how I pointed that out twice, by saying something along the lines of "every life matters"). I'm saying that the repercussions of France being terrorized, as compared to the deaths of innocents in Middle Eastern countries, are far more impactful from the standpoint of a Western country than it is an Eastern. I'm willing to bet that people of Turkmenistan are far more mournful of their kin in Syria being killed than they are the citizens of France. Likewise, the people in the United States are likely more caring about their lineage in France. This is where my point of historical allies/the separation between the West and East was rooted.
2. [i]"when at many points France/England were staunch enemies."[/i] Lest we forget the absolutely horrid relations between most Middle Eastern countries, the wars in Africa from long before we colonized Australia, Pakistan and India, Bangladesh and India, Iraq and Kuwait, Persia and Greece, etc. ...
3. [i]"reason[s] to care about [eastern countries]"[/i] Oh. If physical objects, ideals, technological advancements, cultural influences, and the like are what's to be thankful for, shouldn't the West be absolutely adored by the Middle East? I'm thinking:
- steam engine
+ most industrial/mechanical advancements in the 1800's
+ cars
+ planes
+ powered boats
- Democracy (oof)
- Woman's rights (yikes)
- separation of religion and government
4. [i]"occasional mis-targeting of the bombers that the West sends over."[/i] Fair enough, I used the word occasional wrong, but the context of "innocent people from Beirut are just as innocent as people from France" still stands. Though, I can't be blamed myself for Bush invading Iraq after the Kuwait fiasco (I wasn't even born yet), so who-caused-what is a little irrelevant when we're talking about ISIL, in my opinion. Generally speaking, the incident in Kuwait, and the afterwards invasion of Iraq, was by no means the only factor that could spark the uprising that is ISIL.
Again, though.
I'm just saying that it's a little outlandish to say that the French people shouldn't be mourned more than the people in the Middle East. We don't hear as much about them (not our fault), and we don't actively search for news about death. So no, unless mainstream media decides to focus on the 50000+ deaths of people in Syria over the 140 people in France, we're not going to be praying to God in our homes without some research.[/spoiler][/quote]
Your formatting is perfectly fine and easy to follow. No worries there.
Thank you for making your first point clear. You're right; of course allied countries are more likely to demonstrate higher levels of support for each other. The media definitely controls what it airs and decides to continuously cover and what to ignore. This paints a very ignorant picture and in this case makes it seem as though a black and white war exists between the West and East. Which is not true. It's these backwards ways of thinking that lead to bigotry and we have a duty to educate ourselves on the very real matters at hand; not what the media wants us to see.
This ties in with your second point. The way you made it seem was it's a very black and white war between the West and the East, as if they are singular entities against each other, when this is simply not the case.
Re: your third point; you make it sound as though physical and technological contributions were never initially intended to be something worth being thankful for. Yet you praised France for the Statue of Liberty? So regarding what you initially said: I completely disagree. The East has had lots to do with us and contributed to our society in many more ways than just oil. And regarding democracy and women's rights, Indonesia, just as an example, is 100% pro women's rights (yikes). Turkey has more female representatives than the US (oof). So stop painting the East in a single brush. Do not generalise a whole side of the world on the actions of specific countries and even fewer radical individuals.
Re: your fourth point; you're absolutely wrong. The invasions of the Gulf are exactly why ISIS was created. [url=
www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/14/jeb-bush-isis_n_7284558.html]George W. Bush was too[/url].
To summarise and address your final para; "[i]We don't hear as much about them..[/i]" is completely right. But it IS our faults if we remain ignorant and solely pay attention to what our media tells us. Because our media only gives us a fraction of what really happens.
Anyways, thank you for keeping this a mature discussion/debate
