> The author, who writes under the name “Anonymous,” argues it
> is not dislike of freedom, democracy and Western culture
> that led bin Laden to wage war against America, but rather
> his disdain for U.S. policies and actions in the Muslim
> world, particularly America’s relationship with Israel.
Amen. I’m so tired of the “they hate us for our freedoms” argument. Really? So why aren’t they attacking Denmark? Or India? Or Portugal? All of those countries have freedom and democracy. Bush and the rest of red-state America seem to think that America is the only country with democracy, freedom, capitalism, and opportunity.
On the other hand, can you name the only country that has put military bases on Islamic holy land and steadfastly supports Israel’s hard-line stance against the Palestinians?
> The Bush administration’s policy on Afghanistan is described
> as a failure because it hinges on producing a Western-style
> democracy with religious tolerance and women’s rights – all
> of which he characterizes as an “anathema to Afghan political
> and tribal culture and none of which has more than a small,
> unarmed constituency.”
Whether it’s right or wrong, you cannot impose morality upon a culture. Hell, we’ve only begun to be a civilized culture ourselves! Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we had our own forms of ethnic cleansing (lynchings) and apartheid (Jim Crow laws). Before the XIXth Amendment, we treated our women as second-class citizens. We even had our own form of the burqa to hide women’s bodies from view (Victorian-era clothing, corsets, etc.)
Imagine it’s 1824 and the French invade America, rout our armies, bomb our buildings, kill our innocent civilians, and then tell us we are now forced to treat our women, blacks, Chinese, Mexicans, and Native Americans with honor, equality, dignity, and respect. Sure, it’s the right thing — we could’ve avoided the women’s suffrage movement, the Civil War, the Trail of Tears — but do you think it would really have succeeded in pre-Civil War America? Can you see the plantation-owners of the South cheerfully releasing all their slaves and helping their women with the chores?
Social morality is something that evolves, something that is earned through the struggle of the oppressed classes. Norman Mailer wrote the sentence of the year in January’s Playboy when he wrote “You cannot impose democracy upon tyranny by conquest.” Yes, we can force them to be civil and we shouldn’t stand idly by while atrocities are committed. But they are going to have to work out their own social and political contracts.
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_ | "RADICAL" RUSS BELVILLE | Read More at http://radicalruss.net/blog/
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