The point is to drive a wedge between generic Islamic fundamentalists and the clerical fascist variety. Lesser of two evils. I don't think MK is suggesting a Chautauqua on the Gulf.
<<<joke alert>>> :-)
-cb
----- Original Message ----- From: "Max Sawicky" <sawicky at bellatlantic.net> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2001 8:56 PM Subject: RE: Wonking: Asking "Why"
> seems to me that MK is implying anti-Americanism
> in S.A. stems from a yearning for democracy among
> the masses. but if OBL has a following in SA,
> it is not based on a desire for more democracy
> but for a more thorough-going theocracy. the
> destruction of anything resembling a social-
> democratic left in the ME took decades and I
> suspect it would take some to reconstitute
> itself, except in Palestine and Lebanon.
>
> mbs
>
>
> Hi,
> Now this makes sense. Klare usually does.
> :-)
> -cb
>
>
> So I think that we have to take a different approach, based
> on coordinated, unrelenting international police work aimed at identifying
> bin Laden's cells and eradicating them one by one. At the same time, we
> will have to conduct a moral crusade against Bin Laden, portraying HIM
> as the enemy of Islam, on the grounds that no TRUE believer in the Islamic
> tradition could take innocent human lives in this manner. To succeed at
> this, however, we will have to reassess U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf,
> showing more sympathy for the Arab Muslim masses and calling on the Saudi
> regime to announce a timetable for democratization and the provision of
> basic human rights. Only when Saudi citizens are allowed to express their
> grievances in a lawful, peaceful manner will it be possible to eliminate
> the threat of anti-American jihad.
>
> (A preliminary analysis of the September 11, 2001 terrorist
> attacks on New York and Washington, and its implications for U.S. foreign
> & military policy. Based on a talk given by Michael Klare,
> <mklare at hampshire.edu>,
>
> Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, at Smith
> College, Northampton, Mass., on September 13, 2001.)
>
> http://www.fpif.org/commentary/0109why.html
>