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

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (158922)	3/9/2005 3:05:47 PM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Liberals view of arabs is similar to the old leftist view of african americans---they are needy. Who was it who said its better to teach a man to fish than to give him fish? Tough Love is better than guilt ridden public policy formation. Thats where the liberals went wrong in the 60s and 70s and thats where they go wrong now. You dont have to be a conservative to see this. There are plenty of liberals who get it. Mike

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (158922)	3/9/2005 4:47:26 PM
From: boris_a	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Tell me, do you think Arabs are incapable of democracy? Arabs are capable of democracy as well as you and me. What about Lebanon, which has a 50 year history of democracy? Building up of democracy (or civilization, or international law: all matters of good will, not of force) is a work of long time. The destruction of democracy (or civilization, or international law) takes considerably less time. It's like medicine: first, no harm. Be careful. The obvious mixing with material self-interest is corrupting everything. Do you support democracy movements anywhere outside of Europe? I support it everywhere, but only done by soft power, a virtue of Old America.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (158922)	3/9/2005 8:55:55 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Re: "Tell me, do you think Arabs are incapable of democracy? What about Lebanon, which has a 50 year history of democracy? Are they incapable too? Do you support democracy movements anywhere outside of Europe?" Be careful what you wish for Nadine, democracy is not, as Bush likes to state so simplistically, the cure for evil: msnbc.msn.com "Yesterday this “Party of God” showed its full strength as a political organization in the streets of Beirut. It turned out hundreds of thousands of supporters—by some estimates a million. The entire population of Lebanon is only about 4 million. Defying President Bush, who’s insisting that Syria beat a long overdue retreat from Lebanon, one message of the multitude was adamantly pro-Damascus, but that was not all. Hizbullah is still looking to define itself as the premier political party in the country. The speech by leader Hassan Nasrallah was not terroristic, it was essentially nationalistic, although there are a lot of gray areas between this group’s violent means and its political goals. “I was reminded of the language that the rank and file and Nasrallah himself would use when I met with them over the years,” said Picco. “This emphasis on their Lebanese character was always present. When I say rank and file, I mean even my ‘handlers’ in the car when I was blindfolded.” Hizbullah has come a long way since then, and in this new era of democratic euphoria sweeping the Middle East, yesterday’s demos pose a special problem for American policy. Hizbullah may be a terrorist group. It may be the last gun-toting militia in Lebanon, targeted for disarmament by the same U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 that demands Syrian withdrawal. But it’s now obvious that Hizbullah actually has achieved its goal to become Lebanon’s biggest and best organized political party. If there are free and fair elections in May, which is what Washington says it wants, what happens if Hizbullah wins big? It’s tempting to see Lebanon’s polls as a checkpoint on the big political map. You’re expecting to see one thing, then you see another. Things can go wrong. Things do go wrong."