You've got some very good points, there, and have obviously given it some thought.
I would put it to you, that the Example needed, for the Muslim world, didn't need to be in the Middle East, at all. Malaysia, for instance, is an excellent and successful example, of a Muslim nation that has concentrated on economic development, found workable compromises to ethnic conflicts, and is a Good Neighbor. And we don't have to do the costly, risky job of building it from the ground up, because the Malaysians have already done it themselves.
The large Muslim communities in N. America and Western Europe are other Examples, far more practical than Nation-Building in (all or part of) Iraq. Unfortunately, even with many years of intimate immersion in Western cultures, many muslims in the West, have done the exact opposite of what we'd expect. Familiarity has bred contempt, not conversion; these communities are putting on the veil, rejecting the Enlightenment, and sending checks to Hezbollah. This ought to give us pause, about this whole Example project: if the West has failed to convince Muslims, in France and L.A., to accept the Enlightenment, what hope is there of doing it in Iraq?
And, we don't really need a whole nation, as a playground for building an Example. It could be done piece-meal, by encouraging a broad range of organizations, NGOs, educational and cultural institutions, corporations, etc, across the entire Muslim World. This method, infiltration rather than frontal assault, would make it a bit harder for Islamists to call us Imperialists. |
