I hear often “Bruce, I agree with you on almost everything except when you talk about the Middle East and Muslims”.
The funny thing is that the Mid East and Muslim world is a topic I know about professionally and it’s one thing I know a decent amount about. From this experience I’m telling you that the mainstream media is lying and misleading.

If you don’t agree with me on various topics that’s fine. But if you DO and are one of the people who agree with most of what I say except this one issue….please consider that it might….just might….be because of the experiences I’ve had and having better info than most people can get…especially if they have not even been to the region in a non-military role.

I also get misunderstood by people who think that just because I say there are misconceptions that I don’t know there are problems. Yes, evil is real and there are bad guys. Yes, there are aspects of the Middle East which are completely backward in my opinion. I’m a libertarian: most of the Middle East does not jive with my political leanings at all. I’m in favor of drug legalization, gay marriage and removing powerful central government control: all things which are uncommon ideas in the Middle East or Muslim world.

I also recognize that there are members of groups like the Taliban who are completely evil and cannot be reasoned with in any way. There is evil and ignorance in the world that is so fierce that it can only be dealt with through violence to prevent it from doing more violence.

Having said all this, I’m asking people to at least consider my experience: I’ve served in the military, I’ve been a government security contractor, I’ve traveled to every country in the Gulf, I’ve lived in Mid East countries, I’ve met everyone from poor people to Taliban, to extremists to heads of state, ambassadors, the Commander of CENTCOM, CIA agents, arms dealers, industrial leaders and protestors. This experience has shown me the nuances of our world and the region and the value of statistics.

Statistics are key: we need to look not at isolated incidents of violence but at overall real numbers. Yes there are crazy and extreme acts of violence…but there are also similar acts by virtually every religion and group. There are Christians who chop off limbs of those who don’t convert such as the Lords Resistance Army of Uganda or who believe God told them to commit mass murder like Anders Brevick. There are Christians who do ethnic cleansing such as Slobodan Milosovec and members of other religions who commit evil.

Some will say “well the Quran says….” and then come up with some quote or interpretation. This is no different than saying “the Bible says….”. Islam is not monolithic– the people do not all believe the same thing. We even see strong division between Shia and Sunni and many other sub groups on what true Islam is. Sure, some crazy nuts believe it means to kill people….but evidence shows us that it’s no more than other religions. I’ve met Muslims who drink, eat bacon, don’t wear headscarves, listen to rap music and have premarital sex, just as I’ve met Jews who eat pork and I met a Christian in the service who believed that the “Mark of the beast” was the “black man”. (I’ve been told by other Christians that is is the Moors, the gays, the social security number, the Jews or doesn’t mean anything at all).

Point is, there is inaccurate info. I’ve written enough — this was supposed to be a status update and has turned into a full blog post.

In closing, please keep a skeptical eye to what the media says. There are those with an interest in giving bad information.

I’ll keep this post as an organic document and come back and revise it as I get questions or comments.