Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Exchanging Weapons

While Tony Horwitz spent some time in Libya, he came up with an assessment, which was to go up to random people and ask them for different weapons, curious to see if they would give him what he had asked them for. The reason why he did this was to gain the knowledge of just how easy it is for, say, a terrorist to go up to a person and demand a weapon from them. On page 149, Horwitz discussed the type of weapons he could take from people with a man he was sitting with on the plane, who knew a lot about weapons. It is amazing how in Libya, people can exchange weapons so casually. In America, if anyone was caught illegally exchanging weapons of any sort, they would be thrown in jail. Laws and regulations in the Middle East and laws and regulations in America are so different. America allows things that the Middle East does not, and vice versa. An example of that is, as many of us have discussed to a great extent before, that some Middle Eastern women might not be able to show their faces, but people can, however, exchange weapons freely. - a.v.

3 comments:

Baghdad Blog said...

AV

I think you misinterpreted a few things in this last post, and I see them in a different way then what you see. On page 149 while Horowitz talks to the man about weapons he is not talking to him about what weapons he could take or get from people, he was in fact talking about what weapon is best to kill someone with, something a little less pleasant then just simply taking a gun. I also find it weird how you believe a terrorist will just walk up to someone and demand a weapon, when they in fact do not even have to try that hard and demand a weapon. They either get them from their terrorist camps or stations or can simply go into stores in their own or other countries to purchase guns. These two ideas I have thought about as you can see from my recent posts, and I just believe you were a slight bit of on your interpretations.

TH

Baghdad Blog said...

Just because the people in the Middle East have weapons when and wherever they need them, doesn’t necessarily mean they are all terrorists. Yes, there definitely are terrorists in the Middle East, partly to do with the easy access to weapons, which killed many people in the US during 911. People in the Middle East also need weapons for protection against the people who find pleasure killing other people. But then again, think about how easy it is for kids to get drugs and alcohol here. Even though it’s illegal, it doesn’t stop people from doing it, which is the way buying and exchanging weapons in the Middle East. -rb

Baghdad Blog said...

RB

Though many people who have weopans are not necessarily terrorist. I believe that the majority of people who use machine guns, RPG's and other weaponry are involved in warfare. People dont really take pleasure in killing people so much as they do it for their cause. For example, Iranians are currently giving weapons to Iraqi insurgents who are fighting the US now. Many tribes have lots of small arms weapons and certainly one can come across a gun very easily in many countries in the middle east. -MAD