Sine Nomen
captain of chaos of the one man jewish conspiracy
Posts: 1,014
Yes. This is why, in a nutshell:
9-11 made it painfully obvious that Arab and Muslim states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, neither of which have transparent, mobile economies or open, democratic political systems, are susceptible to radical, violent Islamism because young men and women have nothing to look forward to in life. When young Ahmed is leaning against the wall because he cannot get a job and has no means by which to change his situation, al Qaeda comes along, quotes some violent passages from the Qur'an as well as anti-American and anti-Israeli vitriol.
The trick to defeating terrorism is not, as so many intellectuals (and the Kerry campaign) claim, to make young Ahmed like us or respect us. It's to give him the potential to enjoy the same sort of life you and I do. It's to give him the opportunity to go to school, earn a dignified living, buy a house and raise a family. He may still be angry at the US for this or that, but who cares? He lives a good life, and has a lot to lose, so he just chuckles when he hears that al Qaeda recruiter exhort him to martyr himself in the great Jihad against Jews and Crusaders.
How to do this, you ask? Well, since we don't really have the time to promote gradual reform and progress in the Arab and Muslim worlds (this ain't the Cold War, and there is no deterrent - they're shooting), we have to give the region a little kickstart.
That kickstart is Iraq, and to a lesser degree, Afghanistan. You see, there are already plenty of Arab and Muslim activists who are demanding economic and political reform - in Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and elsewhere. This is good, and it proves to people with half a brain that democracy is not something the West is trying to impose upon them, but rather something they are willing to risk their lives to demand. But, despite their best efforts, things just aren't moving quickly enough! al Qaeda still finds plenty of recruits to hijack planes and drive car bombs. So, we had to create an example for the entire world, not just the Arabs and Muslims, to show them that Arab culture and Islam are actually compatible with pluralistic, free republics and capitalism.
We can't go after Morocco, Egypt or Saudi Arabia, because they're our allies. We can't very well fight a country we're currently training and arming (it's bad form)! If only there were a hostile, repressive state in the area we could find! Wait, what's this? You say there's a diverse Muslim country of 28 million north of Saudi Arabia ruled by a bloodthirsty tyrant? And he’s hostile to the US? Yeah. Iraq was the logical choice.
So the idea is that in the absence of Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath party apparatus, the Iraqi people will choose to build in its place a free society. One where young guys who would otherwise lean idly against walls or take up arms against America instead go to work and vote. He can hate us all he wants, though I doubt he will, but it won't matter either way. The French, Germans and many others around the world don't like our foreign policy a damn bit, and yet because they both are societies in which people have political and economic opportunity, they are not large recruiting centers for those who wish us ill. A rich, prosperous and politically open Arab world would be no different, despite what people say about its religion and culture. Democracies do not fight one another.
Why? Because 600 years ago, Western Europe was equally mired in fundamentalist religion and poverty. But when people started making money, they found ways to ignore passages in the Bible that condemn making money off loans and other such restrictions. They said to the Church, "look, I have some money and I want to make more. You won't let me, so **** off". And they did. When the same thing happens in the Arab world, people will be inclined to listen less to religious clerics and more to investment bankers.
Those people who say we don't really understand Arab culture are guilty of ignorance themselves. Iraq will work as an example because there is such a thing as Arab identity that goes beyond religion and nationality. It's why Moroccans and Yemenis sympathize with Palestine, and why the Arab migrant workers who came home rich from Saudi Arabia in the 70's and 80's also came home believing in the radical Saudi sect of Islam known as Wahhabism. But this connection works both ways. Arabs will know when they see Iraq functioning like a modern state that they too can enjoy the simple freedoms of earning decent wages and voting for their guy in the election. They will not be told otherwise. That is the answer to terrorism, and why it was necessary to invade Iraq.
Got that?
A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy.
A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.
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