Nice point, Paul, but I found myself focused on another of Ajami's points which is the absence of any "natural" political constituencies for "modernization" and, of course, the points he does not mention, the US track record on this score and the fact that modernization and democracy are, finally, items which cannot be installed by outsiders.
There is so much about this Iraqi invasion that has not been thought through publicly. What about, just as a for instance, the US invades Iraq for the reasons we've been told to date, to eliminate Saddam's WMD. And, after some struggles, succeeds. Then Bush announces to the assembled folk that we plan to "modernize" Iraq so our troops will stick around for a while, be in more than a little danger for a while, will be asked to deal with populations which, deeply, do not wish for us to be around, etc.
Frankly, the talk of the US modernizing the Arab world seems to me spin to justify an invasion rather than the product of careful planning. At least as careful as the planning which has obviously gone into preparations for an invasion. |
