Tuesday, November 30, 2004
So they hate our policy not our freedom
Well, no shit thanks for the breaking news. Will the Bush administration wise up and change their rhetoric and try to find a way to work with Arabs instead of going on a "crusade" and killing them?
Probably not.
What's damning is this is from the military not some left or right wing think tank, no different than what happened when the CIA, the NSA and other groups in the Government told Bush Iraq wasn't a threat and by doing this we are creating a hugh recruitment drive for Terrorism.
The people in charge just don't get it and we're going to pay for it, the economy the middle east we will reap what we've sown.
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Well, no shit thanks for the breaking news. Will the Bush administration wise up and change their rhetoric and try to find a way to work with Arabs instead of going on a "crusade" and killing them?
Probably not.
* Muslims do not "hate our freedom," but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf states.
* Thus when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy. Moreover, saying that "freedom is the future of the Middle East" is seen as patronizing, suggesting that Arabs are like the enslaved peoples of the old Communist World - but Muslims do not feel this way: they feel oppressed, but not enslaved.
* Furthermore, in the eyes of Muslims, American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led to democracy there, but only more chaos and suffering. U.S. actions appear in contrast to be motivated by ulterior motives, and deliberately controlled in order to best serve American national interests at the expense of truly Muslim self-determination.
* Therefore, the dramatic narrative since 9/11 has essentially borne out the entire radical Islamist bill of particulars. American actions and the flow of events have elevated the authority of the Jihadi insurgents and tended to ratify their legitimacy among Muslims. Fighting groups portray themselves as the true defenders of an Ummah (the entire Muslim community) invaded and under attack - to broad public support.
* What was a marginal network is now an Ummah-wide movement of fighting groups. Not only has there been a proliferation of "terrorist" groups: the unifying context of a shared cause creates a sense of affiliation across the many cultural and sectarian boundaries that divide Islam.
* Finally, Muslims see Americans as strangely narcissistic - namely, that the war is all about us. As the Muslims see it, everything about the war is - for Americans - really no more than an extension of American domestic politics and its great game. This perception is of course necessarily heightened by election-year atmospherics, but nonetheless sustains their impression that when Americans talk to Muslims they are really just talking to themselves.
What's damning is this is from the military not some left or right wing think tank, no different than what happened when the CIA, the NSA and other groups in the Government told Bush Iraq wasn't a threat and by doing this we are creating a hugh recruitment drive for Terrorism.
The people in charge just don't get it and we're going to pay for it, the economy the middle east we will reap what we've sown.
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