AL QAEDA'S NEW COURSE By AMIR TAHERI:
I think you're right, on most points about that article.
1. Al Queda made a mistake, in attacking America in our homeland. They wanted to make us afraid, and they succeeded in that. But our response, to feeling less secure, was a greatly increased willingness of Americans to use force in Muslim areas, which is the opposite of what Al Queda intended.
2. The Islamists have an economic program that is even more dysfunctional than the Communist's. Based on their track record, where it's been tried in Iran and Afghanistan, and to a lesser extent elsewhere, the Islamists don't know how to produce prosperity. This alone, no matter what else they do, is a fatal flaw that (eventually) dooms their movement.
3. Unfortunately, most of the U.S.-backed regimes in the Islamic World don't know how to produce prosperity, either.
4. About the only example of a Muslim nation producing prosperity, in modern times, is Malaysia. The U.S. should seek to promote the Malaysian model.
5. In its early stages, Communism in the USSR, China, and Cuba, all sought to export revolution. All eventually learned to limit their ambitions, and became (mostly) status-quo powers. The Islamists, too, I believe, will go through the same process. Even if they take over the entire Muslim world, they aren't going to get back Spain (unless Spain allows in large numbers of Muslim immigrants).
6. Unfortunately, probably the only way to discredit the Islamists and their ideas, in the eyes of the people in Muslim nations, is to let them fail at governing. Until then, they champion the nationalist cause, and focus all resentments against the U.S. |
