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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials
AMAT 223.95+1.7%Nov 21 9:30 AM EST
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To: mitch-c who wrote (51964)9/12/2001 7:55:22 PM
From: Sam Citron  Read Replies (1) of 70976
 
Mitch,

I respect your view of the realpolitik of the middle east situation and have no doubt that it stands as one of the obstacles to the "Marshall Plan" I am proposing. For any such plan to succeed will certainly require the full cooperation of the governing entity and such cooperation may not be easy to achieve. Some will undoubtedly resist because, as you say, their legitimacy may depend on their perceived "protector" role.

What harm though in trying? If the leadership were to resist an honest effort to help, it might very well undermine their legitimacy among their own people and hopefully make way for someone who is more moderate.

As for siphoning off aid dollars to the pockets of corrupt local officials, that is certainly another obstacle that is correctly identified. The corruption of certain local civil servants is a given. They too have families to feed and often they have not received their salaries in months. It is seen as natural to try to exploit their positions a little. It is called baksheesh, and it is a pandemic, not by any means limited to the Arab world. My plan would eradicate the need for such corruption by paying these officials good wages (in local terms) and using them as the front lines of the assistance plan.

I am not saying that what I propose is cheap or easy to achieve, but neither is the war on cancer. It is just that it makes better sense to me to attack the root causes of terrorism than to attempt to treat it cosmetically.

Sam
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