Al Qaeda's war has resulted in the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the capture of many of their operatives in Pakistan, with even arab countries such as Yemen waging war against them. I haven't seen that many battlefield successes. The terrorists haven't even been able to dent Israel; and there are signs, Palestinians are tiring of the fight. Eventually popular opinion will turn against those who espouse terrorism, because there is no future in it. In the past 70 yrs, we have seen over 70 countries go for democracy. It is time to see if the arab nations will embrace democracy, and reap the rewards. It is worth a shot, because there is no future in the current state of affairs in the arab world. Yes, this war could lead to riots, but don't be so sure, that democracy won't be the winner, as democracies, not monarchies, not totalitarian dictatorships, lately have usually been the end results of popular uprisings, such as the french revolution. Communism was the results in the early to mid 1900's but communisms downfall, has left democracy the last obvious choice.
Al Qaeda is not defeated in Afghanistan; just underground. There continue to be incidents where administration officials get wounded or killed by Taliban and al Qaeda operatives. Afghanistan continues to be jeopardy.
Very few like terrorism but those in the Muslim world see it as a way to wake up the West. It will not go away any time soon.
Finally, this discussion over democray gets me tired. First of all, liked I've said before, democracy is a hard sell. It took the French nearly 200 years to make the leap from a monarchy to democracy. It took the Brits even longer.
The Russians went from the Tsars to democracy by way of 90 years of what they called communism. Democracy needs the best of soil, the best of weather, the best of neighbors and the best of intentions to make it.
The Iraqis do not have a clue. They've had very little if any experience with the institution nor do they seem all that interested. Hell, they're not all that excited about being liberated. We have to shake them to get a response. From the videos and pics I've seen, they have very little sense of fairplay.....of working together.......even the army is a mess. IMO democracy doesn't look promising at this point.
ted |
