Heavily armed militants opened fire on the United States Embassy in Sana, Yemen, on Wednesday and detonated a car bomb at its gates, in an attack that left at least 16 people dead including six of the attackers, Yemeni officials said.
Yemeni soldiers took up positions in front of the U.S. Embassy in Sana on Wednesday.
No Americans were killed or wounded in the blast or when guards began to return fire, said a Yemeni official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
Yemeni security officials and witnesses said the death toll was at least 16, including four bystanders, one of them an Indian woman. The other dead were six attackers and six security guards, the Yemeni officials said, speaking in return for anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters
#1 – Islam, the religion of peace.
I know what you’re saying, it seems odd, but it’s an accident of geography, not a statement on religion. Wars/terrorism and battles in general in Islamic countries (middle east, Yemen, etc) are going to be perpetrated by …golly…Muslims. What did you expect, Eskimos?
Now when the British and Americans were fighting (revolutionary war), it was Christians killing Christians. When the South and North were fighting (Civil War)…all Christians. WWI? Mostly Christian nations. WWII? Mostly Christian nations. When the IRA fought the UK…Christians against Christians. If you go back in the last 500 years and tally up the deaths for wars, terrorism, general attacks…it’s going to be statistically representative to the geographic area the battles took place. Boring.
And if you’re going to go on about how ‘evil’ for some group/religion to try and destroy a culture and way of life…might want to go back about 300 years and see what happened to the native Americas who used to occupy what is now America. America and it’s “way of life” came into being by forcefully killing and removing another existing culture and “way of life” We were bigger and more powerful, so we just “took” what we wanted. Are you surprised OTHER cultures act that way too?
6200 American Babies sick on stuff from china.
16 non-americans dead in yemen.
Whose the real threat?
Cursor_
What a %$@#&%!!! headline. %$#@&!! idiot.
#22 [citation needed] According to CNN this morning, there are 6200 babies sick from tainted formula. It is believed that none of the formula is in the U.S. There are 6200 American babies in China?
Back to the topic. I have a theory of what’s wrong with the Middle East. Islam never had their Martin Luther. You see, all of the Western religions have this strict exclusivity built into them. Judaism is exclusive, but by it’s very design you cannot convert someone to Judaism. So that leaves Christianity and Islam as the real power players from a secular power standpoint. Martin Luther broke Christianity up into parts (not his intention, but that was the result)…which has slowly but surely drained the religious leaders of their secular power. Islam has had no Martin Luther. Their religious leaders are their secular leaders. It behooves them to keep the followers illiterate and pliable.
Christianity (and to some extent Judaism) has evolved through the last 1000 years to more and more secular views. They’ve had no choice because the people were becoming more and more educated as secular power ceased being about the “Divine Right of Kings” and more about the “Mandate from the Masses”. This should be seen as a good thing, not only from a secular citizens standpoint (good science does not evolve from God)…but also from a Christians perspective. As Jesus said, “We are in the world, not of it.”
Islam…stagnation. It exists where Christianity was 1000 years ago.
#11, I understand embassies — for friendly countries. I don’t understand embassies in countries where the populace is actively hostile to us.
#22, The reason we have 6200 sick babies is because we are giving the guys in Yemen a reason to try to kill us. If we weren’t over there, we wouldn’t need the money from China (which is paid to us in the form of trade).
So, who’s the real threat? The US government.
#25 “I understand embassies — for friendly countries. I don’t understand embassies in countries where the populace is actively hostile to us.”
So, we shouldn’t have had an embassy in the USSR, etc?
#26, If the Russians were constantly trying to kill us, then no. Note I said, “actively.”
I wouldn’t expect Russia to stay in the US either if their embassy gates were constantly being run at.
There comes a point where we have to ask ourselves if we are serving the needs of a country that doesn’t want us regardless of what the dictatorship wants.
#27 “There comes a point where we have to ask ourselves if we are serving the needs of a country that doesn’t want us regardless of what the dictatorship wants.”
Umm, do you understand that these “embassies” are there primarily to serve as a base for intel activities?
#27, And that my friend is the problem.
In the case of Yemen, I have to wonder if we shouldn’t rethink our reasons. You know as well as I do we are paying off the government there to keep it.
Are we gaining so much that we can support a dictator, an action that violates our message of spreading democracy?
Calin Islam never had their Martin Luther.
[snip]
Martin Luther broke Christianity up into parts Islam has had no Martin Luther. [snip] Islam…stagnation. It exists where Christianity was 1000 years ago.
Actually, Islam has plenty of fragmentation and different sect. First there is the major Shi’ite (which is what most Arabs follow) and the Sunni (which is mostly Persian) and sects, then there are the Sufi and the Kharijite. I don’t anything about the Kharijite but from what I know about the Sufi they are quite mystical and generally laid back. Its also worth noting that while Christianity was debating about what came after the edge of the earth and pioneering new forms of trial by ordeal, Islam was developing advanced mathematics, debating ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, creating novel poetry and generally advancing itself. Indeed, the European Renaissance happened because the crusades discovered a wealth of classical Greek and Roman texts from the middle east and started reading them.
Somewhere between then and now Islam metamorphosed into a fairly blinkered and fanatical vision (helped mostly by very wealthy Saudi clerics and very backwards Iranian dictator trying to regain the glories of the ancient Persian Empire by create his own vision of the ‘good old days’).
Islam doesn’t have to be as fanatical as it is in modern times, it certainly has gone through phases in its history of being quite tolerant. But then, intolerant forms of Christianity are also gaining ground these days with forty years of moving towards tollerance being washed away in a tide of anti-Darwin, anti-Abortion, anti-Everythingism …. seems to be the modern way everything. Even modern Humanism seems to be taking a bend towards the fanatically with the likes of Dawkins preaching that tolerance is just plan wrong ….
I was aware of the different sects of Islam. I’m not intimately familiar with any of them, but I am aware of their existence. I’m not sure of their origins other than the clearly racial qualities (Shi’ite vs Sunni, Arabs vs Persians). What I meant by Luther’s influence was more of a secularization of the church which followed. Luther’s notice “Hang on a minute!” Actually, he was German so, “Ein minuten bitte! Ich habe einen klienen problemo avec diese religioni.” (yes I stole the line)…was pointed towards the corruption in the church hierarchy itself. I’m unaware of this ever happening in Islam. There were breaks in the Christian church that had nothing to do with this particular event (Roman Catholic/Greek Orthodox).
Islam has become much more intolerant and “backwards” if you will in recent years. Fanaticism seems to be the order of the day. Again, it is a minority…but their minority seems vast compared to the Christian minority of abortionist killers.
Islam does not have to be fanatical at all, I agree with you. There are tolerant and good Muslims living all around the world. It is Muslims who’s culture have been controlled by the “church” for generations that are more and more intolerant and backwards.
I will disagree with you on intolerant forms of Christianity being on the rise. I think they’ve always been there…the fringe elements. I just think in today’s 24-hour news and internet culture they are just more visible.
It’s easy to just blog events. Why aren’t there any tech/poli stories about the future of “virtual embassies”??? Am I gonna have to start a media empire here, or what??
Hiya Calin:
Fair point. I see what you mean now. I wonder if part of the reason why Islam hasn’t had a ‘Martin Luther’ moment of questions is because the clerics have never quite held the same power as Catholic/Orthodox clergy do. Theoretically, according to Islam, anyone can speak directly to Allah whereas in medieval Christianity, the clergy were built up to be a necessary intermediary between God and his followers. I think the current power of the clergy is a fairly modern development in Islam, but I may be wrong about that….
Whats Islam got to do with this? Its war and in war there is no religion or nationalities, its just your interests versus mine. Im proud to be a Muslim and it is a religion of peace that non muslims dont understand. First study about religion then spit your nonsense here, most of you are damn atheists.
“No Americans were killed, that’s the good news.”
Isn’t this the definition of “moral relativism”…?
PB&Jam — You could be right about that. I think the intermediary in Christianity from that period derived from the necessity of the priest class to translate/interpret the word. I’m unsure if that sort of circumstance ever took place in the Muslim world.
#34– The U.S. is at war with Yemen? Since when?