Well I won’t argue with you there…

…but I wonder if, say Iran, had the economic power, technical expertise and military might of the USA, whether the Iranian leadership would be tempted to dictate more on their interpretation of ‘moral high ground’?

I shudder to think what would happen if Iran was in the same league as the US.

Nice rant.

Would you care to answer the question now?

What makes you think that your stereotypes are any less invalid than anyone else’s?

Stereotypes of who/what? Demonstrate to me one western power which doesn’t follow this approach?

Since we seem to be indulging in some mud slinging, I have a question.

Why are there so many Iraqi, Afghan and Iranian asylum-seekers in Britain? I mean if they are seeking asylum from oppression surely they wouldn’t be seeking asylum in one of those countries that was responsible for oppressing them? And if they are being oppressed in their own countries, who are they being oppressed by?

I know that isn’t a scientific measure of ‘high moral ground’ but don’t you think that it is a good indicator?

I don’t live in a Moslem country, and I don’t know weather you do, but do you think many British people seek asylum abroad?

Well I know many English people emigrate to warmer climates when they retire! 🙂

I would bet that most of those asylum seekers are actually in the UK for economic reasons, rather than being specifally oppressed. I’m not saying the Western powers oppress directly, but rather their policies in most of the world are “claimed” to be being taken on a moral higher ground, but are in fact based on personal and national interests. For example, when it comes to the Israeli/Palestinian issue, India/Pakistan, Iran, Iraq.

Flying Monkey,I assume you’re male.I’m not,so I can say I don’t believe there’s a woman alive who would swathe herself in a shapeless garment from head to foot if she had complete freedom of choice.I accept many women may happily choose to wear the burkha,and that’s fine.But the feeling in the West is that in the 21st century women should not have such a garment imposed on them.It goes against our ideal of freedom of choice.In my town there are many women who appear in public in a sea of black material with only their eyes able to give any expression that they are unique,individual human beings.Their husbands enjoy the latest Western fashions,jeans leather jackets,anything they fancy.King Abdullah doesn’t pronounce on what Western women should wear because he knows that Western men don’t presume to control every aspect of women’s lives .

BumbleBee, yes I am male and I understand what you are saying. I actually agree with you, I don’t think there is any need for wearing the complete burka from head to toe, the religion doesnt actually specify any one particular form of dresswear for women, that would be rediculous. What the religion does suggest is that women dress modestly and not degrade themselves. Now this has been interpreted quite differently all over the Muslim world, from the extreme which we see in Saudi and Afghanistan to the moderate in the form of the headscarf in Turkey, other parts of Europe, most of North Africa and the far East (Malaysia and Indonesia).

What really annoys me is the typical Western view of personal female liberation being only based on what she wears! You will find that in most of the Muslim world, just because a woman wears the head scarf, doesn’t mean she has fewer opportunities. In most moderate and even “hardline” islamic states, women have equal if not greater opportunites in terms of education, jobs, business, social standing, heck even becoming front line fighter pilots such as in the Pakistan airforce!

But you seem to be contradicting your own morality, that of personal freedom. If a woman chooses to wear a head scarf or burka, why can’t she?

What makes you think that your stereotypes are any less invalid than anyone else’s?

Because it is always western powers claiming to take the moral high ground in terms of foreign policy and preaching to other religions/cultures/countries all in the name of claiming to be morally superior, when in actuall fact it is rather more to do with national interests.

Most of the views expressed so far are the usual self righteous hypocritical garbage that has typified western views of Islam for many years and more yet to come.

Why does it bother people in the West what Muslim women CHOOSE to wear?

What gives the West the right to dictate to other religions, cultures etc?

Do you really think there are similar conversations going on in Muslim countries about what Western womern wear or that most people over there actually give a damn?

Have you ever seen a Muslim leader or politician dictating to the West how people should live or what to wear? I’ve never seen King Abdullah telling Western women what to wear or what not to wear…

The maintenance cost that I’ve mentioned above for F-CK-1 includes the items for upgrading, while the cost for Mirage in my previous post is mainly used for increasing Mirage’s availability ~ The availabilty of ROCAF’s Mirage 2000-5 was less than 45% (Only 25 Mirages out of the total 56 fighters was ready for active service) during 2006-2007 (At the same period of time, the availability of F-16 and F-CK-1 was around 70 to 75%). ROCAF hopes that after sealing up 9 Mirages and paying so much for enough spare parts, the availability of the residual 47 Mirages could reach the normal level of 70% in 2009.

I guess that explains the significant costs for the M2Ks and the F-CK-1, which I believe is undergoing extensive upgrade including CFTs right?

See, no air-force publishes any data about it’s fighters.

Really??!

It is a myth that Chinese fighters are “mired in screcy”, when we hardly know about the capabilities of supposedly well-nown fighters too, like F-16 of MiG-35. Beyond range-payload specs and names of some suites, little else is known.

You seem to be contradicting yourself here. You say we hardly know anything about “well known” fighters becuase “no airforce releases any data” and then claim that lack of avilability on data for the J10 is a myth? How can it be a myth if the capabilities of well known fighters is incomplete, given the fact that details of the J10 are even less easier to come by?