[lbo-talk] Once Upon a time

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 8/20/06, Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at rawbw.com> wrote:
>
> [fThis is rom a blog referenced on Juan Cole's page]:
>
> Once Upon a Time
<snip>
> Their ideological solution story was democratizing the Middle
> East. There were several key beliefs that developed the story:
>
> market organized, liberal democracies are the only possible outcomes
> of economic and social development Fukuyamas end of history theory;
>
> development in the Arab world is being blocked by traditional and
> dictatorial rulers, most notably Saddam Hussein;
>
> smart bombs and other precision guided munitions can enable the United
> States to surgically remove Saddam and his supporters, and send a
> message to other rulers to speed reforms;
>
> Most Arabs and Muslims do not deeply care about the Palestinians, but
> their rulers and clergy use it to divert attention from their real
> interests.
>
> The neo-conservatives story of the New Middle East has been ridiculed
> for being simplistic and naieve. It told of an international system
> composed only of states, ignored the variety in radical Islam, missed
> completely Saudi Arabias deal with Islamic fundamentalism to
> bolster its regime, overstated the importance of economic development
> and understated the accompanying social dislocation and insecurities,
> etc. These critiques miss the point: The neo-conservatives did not
> misperceive reality, they did not look at reality at all.

IMHO, most liberals and leftists have the same problem as
neoconservatives: they hate "traditional and dictatorial rulers" like
the pre-war Iraqi government and the Iranian government today, but,
given half a chance, populaces in the Middle East flock to illiberal,
anti-imperialist Islamists rather than nice liberal democrats, let
alone nice liberal socialists. The reality: democracy (even much less
than full democracy) in the Middle East = the rise of illiberal
political leaders in the Middle East, for populaces there are not
liberal.  Since neoconservatives and most liberals and leftists are
united in their denial of this fundamental reality,
Tel-Aviv-Washington wars in the Middle East, unchecked, proliferate
endlessly.

Before aspiring to shift the public opinion to the Left here, the
first thing we need to do is to get it in touch with the real world.
-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>