Correct me if I am wrong, but by "Muslims" I assume you mean Arabs
No; I am talking about all those clinging to grievances as Muslims. Mahathir is not an Arab, nor the nutjobs running about Pakistan. The Arabs have drunk the Kool-Aid more than the others, but the delusions are wide-spread.
The issue of globalization is an important one which can (but does not have to) interfere with this desire to live life as one pleases. Before you condemn the Muslims for being anti-modernization (or anti-globalization) which by no means is clear to me to be the want of the majority, you should note that globalization has strong opponents in the West as well.
It's coming nonetheless. As Tom Friedman says when he's accused of being a cheerleader for globalization, that's like being a cheerleader for the dawn - it's going to happen whether you cheer for it or not. I don't know what the majority of Muslim people want - but the majority of Muslim governments are clearly anti-modern and anti-globalization, which is leading very many Muslims to pursue modernization by emigration.
. Without our support Israel would not have lasted this long. It is questionable if Israel can stand on its own now if we were to cut off our support of it
A very doubtful statement. What would have done Israel in, without our support? Not the Arab armies, that's for sure. The Arab armies have shown themselves incompetent at modern warfare. Israel has received support, but so have the Arabs, to an even greater degree, when you add in the history of Soviet support. Unlike the Arabs, Israel has a European-level economy of its own generating wealth. You can make the case that by perpetually meddling in the conflict and imposing cease-fires and "peace processes", America has hurt Israel more than helped it, by preventing it from fighting more decisive conflicts and teaching the Arabs that war is a game where they will be bailed out if they look like losing.
What I do not support is the idea that Israel should feel so supremely secure to do whatever it wants to do because there is no way we'd let it fail.
Whereas I would say that Israel is acutely aware of the possibility of failure, and measures its moves accordingly, whereas the PA & Arafat believe that they don't need to make any hard compromises because they don't believe they can fail or be cast aside no matter how they behave.
You make it sound as if their "dysfunction" is entirely of their own making and the greater powers (this includes Russians, the French, the British, etc) had no parts in it. Such an assessment is not fair any sense of the word
Of course they have been affected by the general tide of history for the last 200 histories. They're not alone. Did the European powers meddle only with Muslim countries and leave the rest of Africa and Asia alone? Were Muslim countries alone colonized? Of course not - indeed you could argue that the Arab countries would have been better off if the Ottoman Empire had been destroyed 60 years earlier instead of being consciously propped up by the European powers. Compare Egypt and South Korea, or Japan? Wanna talk colonialization? defeat? occupation? you got it. How do they compare now?
Have you checked on our progress there over the past two years? It may prove illuminating
Whatever the mistakes, it's real tough to argue they were better off under the Taliban.
As to Russians in Chechnya, the Chinese in Tibet, and so on, may they all burn in a hell of their own making. But how is that related to us?
Ask Mahathir, he'll tell you how. It's all one big ball of grievance to him. Didn't he just explain to you how the Jews rule the world, it's all the Jews' fault?
But ultimately, I agree with you that such changes "require a complete revolution in current geo-political realities" and we are unlikely to make it happen. So we will continue to suffer the consequences of our actions, just like everyone else. When we finally get to change, I hope it will not be because Hamas or some other organization got its hands on nukes.
If that should happen (G-d forbid), it's that Arab world that will change the most, and the fastest. You should worry more for them. |
