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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (150307)	11/1/2004 6:05:32 PM
From: skinowski	Respond to of 281500

"Clash of Civilizations is when the Muslim world is controlled by theocratic extremists -- and WE do business with them." What I meant to say, in part, was that there is a realistic possibility that Islamists will in the end capture political power in the Muslim countries, and re-unite their "Ummah" - and will, in effect, restore their empire, the Caliphate. That would not be the end of the world. They would not be self-sufficient, and would need many things from us. We will need their oil. So, we will do business. They would not be in a hurry to attack us, since in this case they will have a return address. I would expect that they - indeed - would make sure that any splinter groups among their people - "extremist" enough to keep attacking America - gets eliminated themselves. They will enjoy power and avoid conflict. Al Qaedista's and their ilk turning into statesmen and real-politicians would be bad news for the true believers, the (fringe) extremists. People who would suffer most from this restoration of a theocratic Islamic empire would be Muslims themselves. Living under a Shari'a inspired dictatorship would be no fun at all. Primarily, the potential beneficiaries of our present sacrifice and struggle are the Muslim people. Unfortunately, they are very slow to understand that, and many among them think it is cool when Islamist terrorists (their own future dictators and tormentors and jailers) "score" against America. For us, to live with another nuclear standoff would also be no fun, and it would be somewhat dangerous. Imagine a new Iron Curtain, but with more interdependence, and also more schizophrenic, with one side spiritually in the 7th century. No one knows how it would (will?) play out, but I think that the above exercise would be broadly correct.