Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (11520)	9/15/2001 12:52:30 PM
From: JPR	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 12475

IMHO the US has to give Pakistan and other Islamic/Arab countries some "cover" here and not "demand" anything. All of these countries have a sizable minority of people who view the US as a "bully" and Bin Laden a "protector" of Islam and its interests. JPR's notes: Many middle east countries cannot bring themselves to accept US as the leader of the civilized world with all its faults and foibles. There are many preponderant vocal and active elements in the middle east and the like who cannot stand the prosperity and technological advances made by the west. America is an eyesore for the rigid, jealous, retrograde elements with fossilized mind set. They have to destroy what they can not have, own, profess, advocate or believe in. All this is done in the name of religion. Plurality is alien to those mind sets. The very fact that democracy has not taken a firm root in these countries is an indication that the rulers and the ruled are comfortable in their respective roles in light of the fact that free speech will land the ruled in to mortal trouble (mutilation included) or life-long incarceration. A religion and its tenets must stand on their own merits and intrinsic value. When a god-given religion needs human protectors, that religion is not worth its name, no matter what the name of that religion is. A system that practices mutilation for ordinary crimes is a cruel system and the adherents of that system are subhuman. A system that ignores and allows murderous crimes against their women and children is a dangerous and despicable system. --JPR If the US "DEMANDS" that these governments do something it will appear to Arab/Muslim domestic populations that their governments are kowtowing to US interests which then is perceived as disrespecting both Islam and their own national sovereignty. Better instead for the US to approach Muslim/Arabic countries quietly and offer aid and assistance to those who help the US. JPR notes: If it is not for the US, Iraq would have swallowed its neighbors. Some of the people in those rescued countries moved to Egypt and called US soldiers "White Slaves" fighting their war for oil. Their religion has not been an uniting force. There are deep divisions among Sunnys, Shias, Ahamadias, Kurds etc. This newly-oil-rich desert kingdoms, not used to wealth, have been shoved into a modern world all too quickly and adjustment and democracy will come in decades if not in centuries.--JPR There is also a strong sentiment among Arab dissidents that the US props up tyrannic oligarchic Arab regimes and actually stifles the rise of democratic institutions in these countries in the interest of political stability and uninterrupted oil flow. JPR's note: US can't be bothered with enforcing its system of governance on these upstarts. It is not for the US to ascend the moral pulpit and preach its values. They have to do it on their own. It is easier to do business with one oligarch than with a cacophonous body of democrats. Foreign policy compulsions of any country are based on self-interest and not on the interest of the fellow country. - JPR Additionally, a history of colonialism in these countries makes the populace very suspicious of anything "demanded" by Western Powers. I think Sec of State Powell has badly overplayed his hand here (when he called the ministers of 15 Arab Nations into the State Department and "Demanded" cooperation)--which is what you get when you put a soldier in charge of diplomacy. JPR's note: Powell serves at the pleasure of the president and has only an advisory role to the president.- JPR I am not supporting terrorism, I am just against stupidity in combating it. JPR note: My feeling is that a multinational UN force will bring Afghanistan under its control. Later will come an Afghan Govt. opposed to terrorism. This is actually good for Afghanistan. A lot of aid will start flowing in. If the parents don't control a tough kid on the block, the community or the law enforcement agency will bring the kid to his heels. --JPR