trying to kill the bear is riskier than lying low and hoping the bear never attacks. But a person with a rifle will likely make a different calculation: Why should he risk being mauled to death if he doesn't need to?
Nice analogy and excellent article KLP...
But a more appropriate analogy is really that of a Kleptocracy, where the entire government organism is effectively a criminal organization attempting to blackmail the local residents. It is no surprise that Saddam admires organized criminal groups such as the mafia (The Godfather reportedly being his favorite movie).
He runs Iraq like a criminal organization, and I fear that he's developing into something right out of "James Bond" where Al Qaeda operates as a "false flag" entity of Iraqi intelligence in order to create sufficient stability throughout the region where leaders come to him for "protection".
If the guy was just another dictator, who had to balance internal political groups to maintain his power, it might be different. But he possesses absolute control of Iraqi society through the sheer force of will and exercise of terror and repression. A policy that he will extend to neighboring Arab states at any opportunity that arises.
Most Europeans don't acknowledge the great paradox: that their passage into post-history has depended on the United States not making the same passage. Instead, they have come to view the United States simply as a rogue colossus, in many respects a bigger threat to the pacific ideals Europeans now cherish than Iraq or Iran. Americans, in turn, have come to view Europe as annoying, irrelevant, naive and ungrateful as it takes a free ride on American power. This is not just a family quarrel. If Americans and Europeans no longer agree on the utility and morality of power, then what remains to undergird their military alliance?
Amen... and even more reason the US has to become more active in the Mid-East with regarding to shaping the political and economic trends in the region.
For those of you familiar with Harry Dent and his demographic analysis of the baby boomers in the US, we must overlay the same analysis upon the muslim world. They are enjoying their own baby boom, and unless shaped in such a manner where these young people feel some sense of hope for the future, they will dispair and fall prey to fanatics preaching Jihad against the west.
There is a "pig going through a snake" in the muslim world. And they are fast reaching the age where they reach adulthood and an entirely different set of expectations than they have as children.
Hawk |
