Iraq and Anger Management

I was just reading my email and I read a speech given on the radio by my future congressman. I'm very glad that he's going to be my congressman. I was extremely unhappy with Richard Pombo who offended me so deeply with his anti-environmentalism that it finally prodded me into doing something about it. For the first time in my life, I showed up at a campaign office and volunteered my time.

Anyway, Jerry's comments about Iraq brings to mind something that I was thinking about on a recent bike ride. While working out, I often listen to audiobooks and the one that I'm currently listening to is Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (audiobook) One chapter in Daniel Goldman's book really seemed apropos. It talked about the cycle of anger and how it builds. A few weeks ago we heard a lot about the report from the Iraq Study Group. The president in his infinite wisdom and in his roll as "The Decider" seems to have rejected its findings. I haven't read the report but from what I read in the newspaper, much of it seems really sensible. However, as I was riding and listening to Daniel Goldman's book, I felt like Daniel Goldman should have been on the Iraq study group. I think that his ideas if applied to Iraq might actually lead to a resolution of the problem.

I will admit that I know very little about Islam (it is on my list of topics to research) but my impression from looking at the world news is that it doesn't really foster a culture with a high degree of emotional intelligence. I could very easily have a gross sampling error but it seems like Islamic cultures seem unusually prone to retaliatory acts of revenge which ultimately leads to an ever escalating cycle of violence. I would really like to know if this is something that is codified in the Koran or if it is just a culture wide lack of education in emotional intelligence and the cycle of anger and how it escalates. If any Muslim out there ends up reading this, please feel free to educate me on this matter because I do freely admit that I'm only slightly less ignorant about Islam and Islamic culture than most Americans.