Posted on 07/19/2004 7:32:54 PM PDT by Wycliffe
Dear Spengler, I do the hiring and firing for a global hyperpower. Last year I invaded an Arab country in order to build the first Arab democracy, but what do I get? They shoot at my soldiers, they set off bombs, they shoot at each other - they are driving me crazy! How can I achieve my dream of building an Arab democracy? Puzzled on the Potomac
Dear Puzzled, You seem insensitive to cultural differences. Not everyone does things the way you do. Have you ever seen an Arab democracy? How do you know what you are looking at is not an Arab democracy? If you call it an Arab democracy, can anyone prove that you are wrong? The European governments insist that the Palestinian Authority is an Arab democracy, for example, and honor Yasser Arafat as an elected head of state. Why not follow their example, and declare victory? Perhaps this is as good as it gets. Spengler
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Dear Spengler, Recently I became prime minister of a Middle Eastern country that had just undergone an invasion by a hyperpower. Soldiers of the hyperpower and its allies still occupy us. Everywhere I look, I see chaos. Where should I begin? Muddled in Mesopotamia
Dear Muddled, Learn from the experts, of whom Yasser Arafat is the most sage. Chaos is your friend, and no one swims more adroitly in troubled waters than the Palestinian leader. An enemy's praise is sweet, and here is high praise to Arafat from an Israeli intelligence site, www.Debka.com:
Three abductions were staged in the Gaza Strip in a 10-hour period on Friday, July 16 - first the venal and hated Gaza police chief Ghazi Jebali, followed by the southern military coordinator, Khaled Abu Aloul, and lastly, four of five French aid workers ... They were all freed within hours and none hurt.
The next day, as [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon's office crowed that these events proved how necessary it was to speed up his unilateral evacuation, Arafat struck with lightning speed: he rid himself of Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, who had been forced on him in the first place, purged the top ranks of Gaza Strip national security and installed his own men.
By nightfall Saturday, Arafat was in absolute command of the territory. His nephew, Mussa Arafat, chief contractor of the Rafah smuggling tunnels from Egypt, was named head of national security forces in the Gaza Strip.
When he handed in his cards at the emergency cabinet session in Ramallah Saturday, the second short-lived Palestinian prime minister complained that the chaos in the Gaza Strip was unprecedented. For Arafat, this milieu is meat and drink. Stability, I long have argued, is a mirage in your part of the world, and those who pursue it will perish. Arafat has survived longer than any other leader in the Middle East because chaos is his natural element. As Mephisto said to Faust,
"... all things you have rendered By terms like sin, destruction - evil, in brief Are my true element-in-chief" (Walter Arndt's translation).
The old imperial powers understood this; a proverb on the Euphrates once had it, "If two fish fight in the river, the English are behind it." Chaos lurks at the heart of imperial rule, and the true imperialist employs it to his advantage. Americans are not imperialists by nature; that is, they are both too generous and too ignorant to run an empire. Do not count too much on them. At some point they will declare victory and go home. Spengler
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Dear Spengler, I have done my best to emulate Yasser Arafat, and all I get for my troubles is a lousy cave in western Pakistan. As the chief executive officer of a global conspiracy to restore the Islamic caliphate, I have had to kill a few thousand people here and there, but Arafat has killed far more people than I have. He is treated like a head of state, while I am hunted like a criminal. Where did I go wrong? Worried In Waziristan
Dear Worried, Your error is obvious. Arafat only kills Jews. Spengler
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
And yet...and yet...
I think they're going to make a go of it. Lord knows they have enough people around them working hard enough to see that they do not. Sometimes that only helps. Time will tell.
But let's not expect a tidy little utopia. What we're trying to start there is what we have in the United States - a raucous, inefficient, wasteful, and gloriously entertaining expression of human absurdity and high humor. It is, in fact, "the worst form of government...except for all the others."
But let's not expect a tidy little utopia. What we're trying to start there is what we have in the United States - a raucous, inefficient, wasteful, and gloriously entertaining expression of human absurdity and high humor. It is, in fact, "the worst form of government...except for all the others."
Bears repeating.
Hey, you're not even HERE till tomorrow!
Funny.
Dear Spengler, I have done my best to emulate Yasser Arafat, and all I get for my troubles is a lousy cave in western Pakistan. As the chief executive officer of a global conspiracy to restore the Islamic caliphate, I have had to kill a few thousand people here and there, but Arafat has killed far more people than I have. He is treated like a head of state, while I am hunted like a criminal. Where did I go wrong? Worried In Waziristan
Dear Worried, Your error is obvious. Arafat only kills Jews. Spengler
Before you give advice you should DTR. Iraqis are not Arabs; therefore we are talking about building a "muslim Democracy" in Iraq, which is as easy as building a "palestinian State" in Israel, for people who clearly are "Jordanian".
Much Love, Darheel.
Here's a terrific piece if a bit old by Amir Taheri who I think is Iranian, saying that Islam and Democracy are incompatible
ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY: THE IMPOSSIBLE UNION
by Amir Taheri
The Sunday TImes
May 23, 2004
Iranian Muslim Amir Taheri says his faith cannot embrace western liberalism because our notions of equality are antithetical to the basis of Islam
In recent weeks there has been much soul-searching, in the Islamic world and among the wider Muslim diaspora about whether Islam is compatible with democracy. This sparked a debate hosted by Intelligence2, a forum I took part in last week. As an Iranian now living in a liberal democracy, I would like to explain why Islam and democracy are essentially incompatible.
To understand a civilisation it is important to comprehend the language that shapes it. There was no word in any of the Muslim languages for democracy until the 1890s. Even then the Greek word entered Muslim vocabulary with little change: democrasi in Persian, dimokraytiyah in Arabic, demokratio in Turkish.
Democracy is based on one fundamental principle: equality.
The Greek word isos is used in more than 200 compound nouns, including isoteos (equality), isologia (equal or free speech) and isonomia (equal treatment).
Again we find no equivalent in any of the Muslim languages. The words we have such as barabari in Persian and sawiyah in Arabic mean juxtaposition or separation.
Nor do we have a word for politics. The word siassah, now used as a synonym for politics, initially meant whipping stray camels into line. (Sa'es al-kheil is a person who brings back lost camels to the caravan.) The closest translation may be: regimentation.
Very interesting post Wycliffe. They've never had a desire to develop equality even between men and women, thus never created a word for it.
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