Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: That Subliminal Kid
I have an opinion and a mind that's why. And distinguished scholars like Samuel Huntington who wrote "Clash of Civiliazations" and study the middle east for a living would totally disagree with Ledeen as well. Ledeen hasn't a clue in my opinion. The above article is scary for the shear scope of it's flawed assumptions and unsupported suppositions. You don't base a major military and global commitment- indeed- civiliazation changing crusade on vagueries like the whims of "the people". Does Ledeen have a TV? Has he seen the reacitons of the common man in the street to 9/11? Does he have a clue as the pulse of the Arab and Islamic world other than little anecdotes about Indian disco music and some college kids supporting the US in Iran? Ledeen offers nothing in the way of fact- alot in the way of rhetoric.
18 posted on 09/04/2002 2:42:25 PM PDT by Burkeman1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies ]


To: Burkeman1
There were demostrations in Iran on 9-11 in support of the US. Perhaps you need a TV.
30 posted on 09/04/2002 11:32:39 PM PDT by rmlew
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies ]

To: Burkeman1
Does Ledeen have a TV? Has he seen the reacitons of the common man in the street to 9/11?

And basing one's opinion on what you see on TV is, of course, scholarly. If you want to go that route, how about including the information-starved Afghanis who didn't even know about 9/11, until newsmen told them about it? Or those who celebrated liberation from the Taliban in the streets of Kabul? Or the anti-regime demonstrations by the Iranians that have been verified by several different news sources? Of course, the latter weren't televised (something to do with government-controlled media, I believe), so, of course, in your well-wrapped reasoning, those events don't exist.

As for Huntington, there are a few things he did not take into account in his diagnosis: chiefly, the violence of Miltant Islamists against Muslims. The oppression and brutality that characterizes the Iraqi, Iranian, Syrian and Saudi Arabian regimes may make for apparent solidarity, but only because the alternative -- dissent -- is punishable by death, or worse. Maybe these people aren't ready for democracy, but it's a safe assumption that the very humanity of the common man cries out for an existence with some semblance of freedom and dignity, in whatever form that might take. Look to the secular government of Turkey for a model; it isn't exactly utopia, but it's a damn sight better than the living hell endured by the common man in Iraq.

There's no quick cure-all, but it's better to fight trying to change things, albeit slowly and with difficulty, then simply waiting for the cancer of militant Islam to spread and engulf the world. It's exactly that failed policy of appeasement that brought us 9/11, and that will bring us even darker days in the years ahead if we do nothing to change these regimes.

33 posted on 09/05/2002 8:34:47 AM PDT by browardchad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson