Hey!
Good to see you posting.
I am not ready to pass judgement on this project yet. As you might remember I think in this in terms of generations.
However, it has certainly been a rougher ride than I had expected.
I also have to admit that I have increasing doubts that any sort of enlightened democratic society can exists along side with islam. If it is possible, the world has certainly never seen it yet. This, I must admit, had made me increasingly worried about the islamic minority in Norway (and other western European countries).
Nice to hear from you.
Cheers,
Euro.
Well, the fatal flaw in Bush's Great Emancipation Strategy is the following.
The democratic impulse is a significant minority, especially in the Arab world, if not the greater Muslim world.
The dirty not so secret is that given the opportunity, many, at least half, would prefer a theocratic society rather than any form of secularism.
The Civil War in Iraq has just begun. The jihadi moths strategy is attracting worldwide jihadis but the question, how many dead soldiers is the USA going to tolerate.
Plus, all our rhetoric reeks of hypocrisy when the US wholeheartedly supports totalitarian monarchies like the Sauds, endorse the dismissing of legislatures as in Jordan, a sham election endorsing Musharraf in Pakistan, and similar window dressing in Egypt.
Either we go whole hog for secularism even with StrongMen or end up endorsing a virtual Shia state, as we have in Southern Iraq.