Posted on 02/13/2011 8:03:20 AM PST by Beave Meister
It’s a new day in the Arab world — and, let’s hope, in American relations to the Arab world.
The truth is that the United States has been behind the curve not only in Tunisia and Egypt for the last few weeks, but in the entire Middle East for decades. We supported corrupt autocrats as long as they kept oil flowing and weren’t too aggressive toward Israel. Even in the last month, we sometimes seemed as out of touch with the region’s youth as a Ben Ali or a Mubarak. Recognizing that crafting foreign policy is 1,000 times harder than it looks, let me suggest four lessons to draw from our mistakes:
1.) Stop treating Islamic fundamentalism as a bogyman and allowing it to drive American foreign policy. American paranoia about Islamism has done as much damage as Muslim fundamentalism itself.
In Somalia, it led the U.S. to wink at a 2006 Ethiopian invasion that was catastrophic for Somalis and resulted in more Islamic extremism there. And in Egypt, our foreboding about Islamism paralyzed us and put us on the wrong side of history.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Drivel
exactly. no oil in egypt. kenya, somalia and others have been going at it for decades.
There’s only one thing that makes me smile about an eventual Muslim takeover of the west... that the liberals will be the first ones to get their heads cut off.
islam is an evil cult of oppression murder and terror.
it seeks to destroy western civilization.
it is the enemy of freesom and liberty and of America
there are no good mussies...
“We supported corrupt autocrats as long as they kept oil flowing and weren’t too aggressive toward Israel.”
As opposed to corrupt autocrats that cut off the flow of oil and make war on Israel.
Muslims will usually end up with unpleasant rulers. That appears to be the nature of the beast. One suspects the author really thinks we should have been backing the anti-american thugs all along on the shining path Obama has showed us bitter clingers.
paranoia (the vice of the ignorant and unwashed) about islamism puts us on the wrong side of history, so the elites assure themselve and us with wise headshakes
On the street, they say it more graphically:
if rape is inevitable, lay back and enjoy it
Someone ought to ask Kristoff to write a column on what he finds wrong about Islam and see if it gets printed?
POVERTY
ML/NJ
One of the most juvenile analyses on foreign policy I have ever read. Maybe this guy learned from Madeline Albright. How about the entire world is way behind what we were 20 years ago.
The fact that many utopians conviently forget is that the information revolution started with DARPA ie the US war machine.
Let’s get to the real issues:
1) How much do these clowns in Egypt get from us now? The army knows who butters their bread.
2) Regarding 1: what happens if the new regime goes back to the tried and true Arab foreign policy of “Destroy Israel at any cost.”
3) The Suez canal
4) Under what conditions should the US provide military support. Will anyone on the left address a situation where someone needs protection against raging assassins?
They are running field tests for the end game........ us
No kidding.
Years ago, he was the NYT reporter in China. He and his wife at the time wrote a book about their experiences, and the book is filled with the same kind of nonsense presented so solemnly here. For instance, he was always taking Chinese democracy activists to task for not being bolder, never failing to notice that those who were were immediately arrested and thrown in prison.
The level of idiocy required to write this article cannot be imitated or duplicated by a human being of average intelligence.
The writers of the New York Times are profoundly talented in idiocy.
Egypt can teach America what Mob Rule is and how mobsters can steal everything worth stealing..
“For instance, he was always taking Chinese democracy activists to task for not being bolder, never failing to notice that those who were were immediately arrested and thrown in prison.”
Well, it’s pretty easy to be bold behind a keyboard thousands of miles away in a “free” country...but this is how these people work - sort of an intellectual analogue to “limousine liberals”.
‘’there are no good mussies.’’ Yes there are- dead ones.
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