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OT Wonder how GOP will rig elections....
Calif Bill wrote:
I notice that you are still stealing copyright material. And no local Atlanta papers that support you agenda? Here yoo go, **** for brains...an editorial from today's AJC: Rooting out terrorists tough in dictatorships By MANSOUR O. EL-KIKHIA Published on: 07/21/04 It is fascinating how politically interdependent the world has become. I am not a fan of conspiracy theory, but I do think the Bush administration is fighting and defending the wrong war. Mansour El-Kikhia, a native of Libya, is an associate professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where his specialty is Middle Eastern politics and international relations. Billions of dollars are pumped into a brand new security industry that has sprouted since Sept. 11. Now that its roots are down, it will not go away without a fight. Indeed, nothing pleases this new industry more than the perpetuation of an atmosphere of fear to provide its existence with a reason to be. Fiddling with the alert color codes, setting up commissions to postpone America's presidential elections, keeping Americans constantly on edge with unsubstantiated warnings of potential terrorist attacks all serve that purpose. It is easy to blame Islam and Muslims for all the ills in the world because injured people need quick answers on the causes of their injury. But Islam is not the reason for terrorism, even though those who committed that awful act declared themselves to be Muslims. I would venture that political interdependence among non-compatible countries is the source of the new global instability. The world is rapidly converging economically and politically, and, while it did develop a common economic dictionary, it has no such political lexicon. Islamic fundamentalism, like Christian fundamentalism, has been with us for hundreds of years and will be for hundreds more. All one has to do to find religion is to look at the Republican Party's platform or at the platforms of Christian parties in Europe, or for that matter at the Likud Party in Israel. There is no such party in any of the Arab countries. That role has been usurped by dictatorial regimes. The first Muslim political movement to emerge in the modern age was the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928. However, Gamal Abdel-Nasser's dictatorship quickly eradicated it, like all other political movements in Egypt, and sent it underground, where its splinters became radicalized and re-emerged with a vengeance during the '70s. In spite of the constant repression the mainstream Islamic movements face in Egypt today, they continue to be the most trusted by the average Egyptian. They are the providers of social services, charities, medical facilities and all the other social and economic concerns the Egyptian government should be handling. The Egyptian government is not unique in its disrespect for its people. I am constantly amazed by the lack of respect all Arab regimes display toward their citizens. They do little to alleviate their political, economic and social pain. Unemployment in North Africa is more than 20 percent, resulting in huge numbers crossing the Mediterranean to reside and work in Europe. Saudi Arabia has close to a million Egyptian workers and millions more from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, yet unemployment there exceeds 15 percent. These dictatorships instill policies of the status quo; in other words, policies that keep them in power indefinitely. In my lifetime, only two Arab rulers have left the seat of power walking. The rest vacated their seats being carried. What makes matters worse is that these dictators are trying to ensure their seats for their children after they leave. Hafez Assad of Syria did it and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Moammar Gadhafi of Libya are following suit. Saddam Hussein would have done it. I certainly can't imagine an Iraq under the psychopath Odai. There are no institutions to hold the dictators accountable and no opposition willing to confront them, except Islamic organizations. America continues supporting these regimes with aid and arms, as well as turning a blind eye to the atrocities they commit against their people. If this administration is serious about confronting terrorism, it needs to change the focus of its war and, when it does, it may find enlightened Muslims are its best allies. -------------------------------------- A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush; A vote for Bush is a vote for Apocalypse. |