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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (103060)	3/3/2005 12:46:31 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793897

just keep their pumps open and prices low and be nice to the Israelis I'd really like to know just how he thinks the Arab world has been "nice to the Israelis" for the last 60 years. Do 5 wars, an artificially created permanent refugee problem, and the promulgation of international terrorism constitute "nice" in Tom Friedman's book?

To: LindyBill who wrote (103060)	3/3/2005 4:22:32 AM
From: frankw1900	Respond to of 793897

Friedman just isn't comfortable with idea that the US has stopped supporting ME dictators. Or, perhaps he doesn't want to give the Bush admin credit for that. But when the super power was supporting dictators or pretending not to see their tyrannical nature, democratic arabs were not speaking very loudly. Now that the super power - in word and deed - is overtly favouring democracy they are speaking out. It's a lot easier when the super power is on your side, especially when it put down the nastiest dictator of them all. That's heartening, isn't it? The strongest symbol is a symbolic act. Friedman's self indulgence in liberal guilt makes his thought and writing turgid: They could treat their women however they wanted, they could write about America in their newspapers however they wanted, and they could preach intolerance of other religions all they wanted - just keep their pumps open and prices low and be nice to the Israelis. On 9/11, we got hit with everything that was going on "out back." Since then, it's been clear to me that unless we partner with Arabs and Muslims to change their context, unless we help them create the free space for a war of ideas that will allow for a new discussion out front and out back, we're just begging for another 9/11. The ME difficulty is tyranny and the corrective for that is democracy. Anyone living in the Middle East having an above room temperature IQ can see that. The US is showing the Middle East that the local emperors, Salafists and Komeniists and are wearing no clothes. Every time Bush says God's gift of liberty should be denied to no one he strips them naked again. Friedman is behind the curve. The US is already partnered and the war of ideas is already being fought.