"Helping" the Arab world

Daniel Davies dsquared at al-islam.com
Thu Feb 6 00:38:12 PST 2003


Someone wrote, quoting Thomas Friedman:


>>A hit-and-run invasion is not an option. Iraq will be controlled by the
iron fist of the U.S. Army and its allies, with an Iraqi civilian "advisory" administration gradually emerging behind this iron fist to run daily life and produce an Iraqi self-governing authority.

The unstated logic is that the real threat to open societies today comes from all the angry young men and women being produced by the misgovernance, backwardness and extremism emanating from that part of the world. And if that anger results in another 9/11 it will mean the end of the open society as we know it, and globalization as we know it.

That is why helping the Arab-Muslim world get onto a different course is the only meaningful response to 9/11. But it is a long-term, difficult, risky, costly, audacious project. <<

I note in passing that this is exactly the same choice (totalitarianism and independence versus democratic rights under American supervision) that the US offered the Vietnamese in the 1960s, and look how brilliantly well that turned out ... Friedman may be overestimating the willingness of the Arabs to be led by the nose and patronsied.

dd

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