Hi, Mq.
The hearts and minds of the world are needed.
I don't know if you remember the old saw bandied about by one of Nixon's aides whose name presently escapes me when the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people were discussed: "Grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow."
It was an utterly wrong-headed way to look at things, as history proved. Hearts and minds always win out over force. It may take a long time, but the desire for freedom always wins. It's the analogue to the life force in all of us. We all want to be free and unfettered.
A smart society channels this desire in useful and productive ways. One which is destined for failure does not.
The Islamic fundamentalists are destined to fail, though they will do a lot of damage in the process. Not one reasonable Musim wants OBL to succeed to the extent that he imposes a Taliban in places like Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, etc.
Not many women want to wear sheets and mask, not all men want to wear a beard, and not all want to give up radio, video, cinema, Western music, and TV. They do, however, wish to see the US embarrased, hurt, and prostrate before OBL.
This is the schism in popular Islamic thinking and anti-American attitudes. The populace desires the freedom the West has to offer, thereby implicitly rejecting OBL and his fanaticism, yet know that OBL's plans call for a drastic reduction of the freedoms to which many of them have become accustomed and which they witness daily. In my opinion, once one has tasted freedom, there is no going back. Naturally, there are exceptions, like the terrorists, the Taliban, etc., but they will always be the minority.
We've already won their hearts and minds. Its just a matter of time before the realization that OBL's world calls for a life they cannot endure hits home. The tide will turn then.
Check this, it says it all. Though it speaks of the US, it could have been written about any group or nation that has freedom as its hallmark:
Editorial from a Romanian newspaper:
An ode to America
Why are Americans so united? They don't resemble one another even if you paint them! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations. Some of them are nearly extinct, others are incompatible with one another, and in matters of religious beliefs, not even God can count how many they are.
Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, the secret services that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed on the streets nearby to gape about. The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to
give a helping hand. After the first moments of panic, they raised the flag on the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a minister or the president was passing. On
every occasion they started singing their traditional song: "God Bless America!".
Silent as a rock, I watched the charity concert broadcast
on Saturday once, twice, three times, on different TV channels. There were Clint Eastward, Willie Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Cassius Clay, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Silvester Stalone, James Wood, and many others whom no film or producers could ever bring together. The American's solidarity spirit turned them into a choir. Actually, choir is not the word. What you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American soul.
What neither George W. Bush, nor Bill Clinton, nor Colin Powell could say without facing the risk of stumbling over words and sounds, was being heard in a great and unmistakable way in this charity concert. I don't know how it happened that all this obsessive singing of America didn't sound croaky, nationalist, or ostentatious! It made you green with envy because you weren't able to sing for
your country without running the risk of being considered chauvinist, ridiculous, or suspected of who-knows-what mean interests.
I watched the live broadcast and the rerun of its rerun for
hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of Californian hockey player, who fought with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that would have killed other hundreds or thousands of people. How on earth were they able to bow before a fellow human?
Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory
of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit which nothing can buy.
What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases which risk of sounding like commonplaces. I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion.
Only freedom can work such miracles! |
