Hostility and Weapons in the Middle East

After reading the first chapters of Bagdad Without a Map I have come to realize the hostility and fierceness of every person in all aspects of life living in the Middle East. In the movie Road to 9/11, we saw many examples of the adults’ community acting out with violence and crime. Now through the writing of Tony Horowitz we see that not only is the adult community like this, but also the children are being taught this. Every man in Yemen carries at least a sword, and most even more weaponry. These ways from the eyes of an American can be seen as that the community of Yemen is very warlike and dangerous but, the reason that they carry these weapons is fear of invasion says Horowitz. Driving through on the roads of Yemen, you are able to see the hostility and fear of all the people in the country. Another point that surprised me is the criminals in all of these countries. I got the feeling that the police officer that pulled him over was in fact not a police officer. He negotiated his price for driving without a license and also would not go to the police station. He clearly was not a police officer not having a badge and was just a criminal looking to rip off an American. All of these events that occurred in these first few chapters shocked and opened my eyes to other countries of the Middle East beside the ones that we know so much about, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. It opened my eyes to that it is not only Iraq and Afghanistan that are like this but most countries in the Middle East have the same views of the world and of the western world.

TH