Hi CobaltBlue; Re: "Roller blading is the new craze in Riyadh:"
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But not all Saudis are ready to accept the idea of young men wearing T-shirts and long shorts roller blading in public places. As Majed Al-Shehri says, there are people who feel the practice is alien to Saudi culture and tradition. “Once a man summoned me and advised me to stop skating. He said that it was inappropriate and that things which are taken from the West are not good and advised me to look for another sport.”
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arabnews.com
This is a great example of why I say that we are guaranteed victory over the Arabs in the cultural wars if we just leave them alone. The strength of America is in its business, not in its military. Our military can break things and kill people, but it can't change anyone's mind. It's our businesses that change people's habits, customs and minds.
If we quit supporting Israel, and were no longer engaged in shooting up Iraq, our goods and services would be that much more used in Saudi Arabia, and it is our goods and services, and the lifestyles that they support and promote, that converts people to modernity.
None of this is going on in Iraq. Instead of buying cool American made (or American started) fads, the locals are watching American teenagers run around with menacing guns. Instead of being a mysterious faraway land of peace and plenty, with lots of cool stuff to play with (which pisses off the preachers but is very attractive to the youth), we become (in the eyes of Arab youths) a nation whose main objective is to shoot up the locals and steal their oil.
Our hands off foreign policy in Iran converted youth to our side. The same thing is happening in Saudi Arabia, as is well indicated by the article you linked in. It is simply a matter of time. Eventually, the Arab nation will drop into our hands like ripe fruit. What Bush is doing is shaking the tree, preventing the growth that can only come from within, and delaying the day that we become peaceful allies of the Arabs.
We do not have the political will to start a real war with the Arabs, one that would give us the excuse to kill the many millions of them that would be necessary to allow us to rebuild their society from the bottom up, like we did with Japan and Germany after WW2. So that plan of action, to remake the Middle East with military force, will fail from lack of political will, just like the Vietnam war failed.
-- Carl |
