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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: JohnM who wrote (47652)9/29/2002 3:32:55 AM
From: Bilow  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
Hi JohnM; Re: Judith Miller's article: "In this harsh assessment, Pipes is supported by the miserable record of the militant Islamic regimes in Iran and Sudan, and formerly in Afghanistan -- the only places where Islamism has triumphed. He quotes Ali Belhadj, a leader of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, which was poised to win elections in 1992: ''When we are in power, there will be no more elections because God will be ruling.'' Such blunt statements encouraged Algeria's middle class to permit the army to cancel elections and accept harsh military rule, which continues to this day. An estimated 100,000 Algerians have been killed so far in the struggle."

I wonder what "Algeria's middle class" would have done if they had known in advance that canceling the elections would result in their being (slowly) slaughtered. A better solution would have been to let the Islamists win without violence. The resulting regime would be easier to overturn than one that one that won at high cost. The reason for this is that it is human nature to hold on tightly to things that are obtained only at great effort. Instead, they chose the solution that gave them a few more years of, let's not mince words, power over the poor class, but created an environment where the middle class was slowly eliminated. This gets back to my frequent point that sometimes there are no solutions to political problems.

-- Carl
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