Carl toolate when I wrote that. Awful busy this week but a couple of things .
We could go around the block on the Iraq thing but I don't have time.
The israeli Palestinian thing is a mess. Bur despite the awful things thay've done to each other, I think they could probably work well together but there is the problem of the rotten government foisted on the Pals by Oslo and the outsiders who keep trying to promote them into being destroyed by the Israelis. The Israelis are also ,I think victims of outsider s and their misjudgement when they came in possession of Palestine after the war. A
All that aside, I expect if the gangsters were run out of the place there'd be lots for the Is and Ps to do together.... I don't think it amtters a whole lot who runs them off but for the sake of the folk there, I hope it happens soon.
About the ethnic cleansing thing in Palestine. Ther is no doubt, there has been disposession by Israelis of Pallestinians from there homes, and worse, but nonetheless, I think the term should be reserved for much worse behaviour. And, as I asked you before, who actually has been driven away?
Now here is where I think there is misunderstanding or perhaps disagreement:
I agree with the objective of these ideas. But the reality is that our actions doing this will be perceived as an attempt to influence the internal conditions of these countries. For those who have difficulty understanding this human tendency, let me remind them of what happened when the Chinese wanted to influence US politics.
Wasn't saying do clumsy shit like the Chinese. Just make sure AlJaz stays in bizness. They get western feeds and interviews now. It might mean as little as supporting the Qatari ruler who is trying to become an un-ruler, it might mean doing a bit more.
The LA Iranian show is wildly popular in Iran and it's subversive, so what the hell. It's a labour of love by show biz exiles. Make sure they can get by.
In terms of radio broadcasts, the idea is to change the idea of the US and the West. This will change conditions in the country. VOA and BBC World have/had great following in tyrannized places. You're wrong. They'll seen as an effort to change conditions the countries by those who have most to gain from the present vile, unmodern conditions. I said straight news.
Propaganda, smaking . Actually smoking has declined in Canada overall and I suspect in US also. It's become unfashionable in non-teeenge cohorts. Being anti the US or anti-Europe or even taking up suicisde bombng is largely a matter of fashionablity for many folk. Fashions change for all sorts of reasons. One of those reasons is good advertising - propagnda.
Not everyone in the ME is a utopian whacko. Most folk aren't. The more an honest face is put on the West, the more folk are likely to feel for the ideas. Honesty and turning up every day are extremely important and count for more than anything.
The kind of stuff i'm suggesting is what works. If you want to market something, in the end you have to take risks or the folk won't hear you or see you but they'll certainly hear and see the competitors.
The US will know its on the right track when the governments there try to jam the signals or protest the content. They'll know they're on the right track when the regimes' leashed intellectualls turn up the volume. They'll know they're on track when the green card applications really start to increase.
All these things are great ideas, but your tone strikes me as paternalistic. The people in Afghanistan have been living there, for better or worse,
it was advice for the West. Afghanistan has no pan national institution everyone feels reasonably about. A really professional army everyone knows and likes, or at least respects, because it has quality leadership etc, is a pretty good start. It can protect the flegeling government and the army's good reputation reflects back on the government. If the US can promote it, good. Building roads etc is terrific but you have to be able to use them without being ripped off by highwaymen and left over Taliban. Many Afghans have expressed the wish there was a massive international peaceforce there so advice about security wouldn't go amiss with Afghans.
I have lots of respect for Afghans. They remind me of US folk. Can do. But their civic institutios have been obliterated and it's going to take time to build them up. The game there isn't over.
I think you're wrong about the alleged designs of the neighbors of Iraq. It is a general historical trend that nations are now less covetous of each others land. The Turks can barely handle the Kurds they've already got. The Sunnis in southern Iraq are more Arab than they are Sunni. Persian isn't spoken much in Iraq. [see cia.gov ]
The Turks are on the ground in Northern Iraq now and they do have covetous feeling s about the oil for at least two reasons.1. They'd like the oil. There is a Turkoman minority in the area and they've talked about "protecting' these folk who ostensibly were part of Ottoman hegemony. Sure. 2. They don't want the Kurds of N Iraq to have too much freedom. Gives the Turkish Kurds ideas. I heard the Turks talk about it and read about it.
There are tens of thousands of Shiite refugees in Iran and apparently the Iranians have been training them what exactly for is not clear but.... |
