The Arab Spring from a Counter-Terrorism Perspective
From Will at The Other News:
By Dr. Boaz Ganor World War III is occurring right now. It is not only a war of ideas, it is a religious war – not between Islam and the rest of the world, but first and foremost a war within the religion of Islam. It is a war of the culture of Islamic radicalism against the rest of the world, which includes the majority of Muslims worldwide.
■A few months ago, White House Counter-Terrorism Advisor John Brennan said, “Islamists and Jihadists are not our enemy.” In response, I wrote an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post which explains that moderate Arab leaders know that Jihadists and Islamists are the enemy. By saying that Islamists and Jihadists are not the enemy, the United States – the spearhead of Western society and the protector of liberal values in the world – is sending a confusing message to its allies worldwide.
■In the competition between the Iranian axis and the pragmatic axis, the Iranian axis is winning. Hizbullah is growing stronger in Lebanon and Hamas is gaining power and scoring points in Gaza for the Iranian axis. Also, the decision of Turkey to choose the Iranian axis is becoming quite clear.
■Dr. Condoleezza Rice has said that her next book is going to refer to a pillar of American foreign policy: the introduction of democracy in the Muslim world. My upcoming book will address exactly the opposite. It will be about how terrorists and fundamentalists are misusing the democratic apparatus of the state in order to promote their goals. When fundamentalists win in democratic elections, it is one man, one vote, one time.■Is there anything we can do in order to change this negative outcome? I would call to immediately establish a second Marshall Plan, similarly to what happened after World War II, for those new regimes being established in the Muslim world and to support other pragmatic regimes that have not yet faced internal revolutions. Since imposing democracy on these societies might be counterproductive and dangerous, it should be an incremental process. At the end of the day, only Muslims can and should educate Muslims.Now read the rest of this must read posting!Read the full story here.
3 comments:
Fine, some truth, some error in my opinion. He is right that we should not impose democracy on them. They would just vote the Muslim Brotherhood in right away. But, he is still speaking from the perspective of Big Brother. He would have “us’ send “our” money to certain regimes to manipulate a favorable outcome for “us”. If our federal government were within the limitations of the constitution, they wouldn’t even be able to collect tax money for these “philanthropic” projects.
When are we going to have a Presidential Candidate that knows that?
The end of WWII was a time of momentous change in the world. The major losers, Germany and Japan were devastated, broke, their industries in ruins, their people broken and starving.
France and Britain learned that though they may be winners, the days of Empire were over. Their subject peoples demanded that if they were allowed to die fighting for the white man they should also be allowed to live like the white man. Though the winds of change did not blow as fast as they wanted, blow they did. The West accepted the moral obligation to help in their development, the bonds were loosened, technical and financial help started pouring in. Here is the story of what happened to those people, the population figures are for 1950 and today in millions:
Germany 68-81
Japan 82-127
Egypt 21-81
Libya 1-6
Jordan .5-6
Syria 3-19
Yemen 1-23
In other words, while Germany and Japan rebuilt their counties to become the 2nd and 3rd largest exporters in the world, whilst slowly growing their populations, the Arab world had a fuck-fest and not much else. What you are seeing is the end of it, the financial crises has made sure that the basics of life can no longer be subsidized as it has been all along, the end of the cold war also means no more fighting about who can give most. The West does not want their labour, in Yemen the oil has already run out. Bribery, corruption and brute force has always kept the lid on in these pressure-cooker countries, when the bribery stops not even brute force can keep the lid on.
This whole mess has nothing to do with democracy, it has a lot to do with the internet waking up the various people that they are living in a shithole, a shithole that is getting worse by the days. They want jobs and food and education and security and because we have that in the west they now think that democracy might give it to them. When they realize that democracy does not give anything but the right and the framework to earn their food and education and security they turn on democracy faster than they did on Mubarak.
No government can rule a people once they have exceeded the capacity of the country to support them, they can die off or go and conquer. The west does not have the money to support them, the only way for future survival and co-existence is to let nature, red in tooth and claw, have its way
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