Posted on 03/04/2008 11:58:27 AM PST by jdm
Question: What is the most extraordinary thing about the following extraordinary sentence?
BAGHDAD — After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.
Answer: It is the lead of a story in today’s New York Times. The paper of record, which for the past few years could accurately be described as a body count with a styles section, is now acknowledging the realization of the most ambitious goal of the Iraq War: the de-radicalization of Muslim citizens. This is, in its way, more important than political reconciliation and even more important than hunting down al Qaeda. This is the long war stuff, the hearts-and-minds stuff.
The goal was to offer freedom as an alternative to extremism; the criticism was that it was a dream; the reality is that it is happening. From the Times:
Such patterns, if lasting, could lead to a weakening of the political power of religious leaders in Iraq. In a nod to those changing tastes, political parties are dropping overt references to religion.
And the revelations don’t end there. Sabrina Tavernise, who wrote the piece, notes that the extent of Iraqis’ wholesale rejection of jihad is unique in the region:
The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religious practice among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology.
It is impossible not to infer that the Bush Doctrine and the commitment of the men and women in uniform has facilitated this shift. Far from “creating more terrorists” as the failed cliché goes, the war has helped to nurture an appreciation for liberty among Iraqi youth. A 24-year-old Iraqi college student is quoted as saying she loved Osama bin Laden at the time of 9/11. Now, after seeing the efforts of religious leaders to curtail her daily freedoms, she rejects extremism entirely. While George Bush’s critics can make no useful connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq, this young woman has no problem doing so.
Ms. Tavernise rolls out another shocker with the admission that Saddam Hussien was not the simple secular player that the war’s detractors had always claimed:
Saddam Hussein encouraged religion in Iraqi society in his later years, building Sunni mosques and injecting more religion into the public school curriculum, but always made sure it served his authoritarian needs.
Well, what do you know? Someone should tell Senator Carl Levin, who in 2005 described Saddam’s regime as “intensely secular.”
This Times piece represents a tectonic shift in the Iraq War and in the larger ideological struggle. From this date on, the War cannot be talked about in quite the same way. Those opposed to it can no longer snicker so easily when recalling the President’s assertion that people everywhere want freedom, and they may have to check their rage before declaring we’ve created more terrorists. There are some who understood that changing hearts and minds was the only way to triumph in the long run, but felt that Iraq was a huge setback in that pursuit. Martin Amis, a critic of the war, said of Islamism:
I think it will atomize. And also there will be sectarian strife within it. Also, I think that it is so fantastically poisonous that in its most millennial form, Islamism, not Islam, Islamism is so poisonous that it will burn itself out.
Amis may have thought going into Iraq was the wrong move, but there is little question that the embers have started to cool in Mesopotamia.
Since its the NY Times, I suspect they're referring to Bush's Christianity.
Someone read this to the Pelotians.
The NYT is not the paper of record.
I wonder if those same doubting Thomases will believe the NYT instead?
;-)
Sorry Abe...whatsa you problem? Just because the NYT publishes a piece more consistent with your views, the world will suddenly change? Blue skies will open up and it will be sunny days all over again? Give...me...a...break.
It is one f’ing article by a traitorous publication just as skilled in manipulation of public opinion as it is in double talk.
The article is just one data point. They are no self-appointed “newspaper of record” as far as I’m concerned. Death on them, and the sooner the better.
Ping. Good news on Iraq.
I don't have the same vantage point as you but I agree 100%. Iraq will never be the same after years of interactions with the West. If this works out and it appears to be doing so, Iraq will be the envy of the Middle East.
Regards
France went through a similar culture shift after suffering 64% casualties from 1914 to 1918.
Germany followed suit by 1946 at the latest.
Radical Islam is only 7% of the Muslim world. That’s a mere 70 million people.
And of those 70 million, only a fraction are the right age and gender and health and willingness/dedication to be used for combat (perhaps 7 million).
Well, from 2003 to 2008...a period longer than the First World War...they’ve suffered in excess of 700,000 battlefield casualties.
So it should come as no surprise that a culture shift is again possible.
We’ve seen it before.
Kill off enough of the warrior class, and what remains is a different culture.
Yeah, I was pretty shocked when I picked up my free copy of the Times and saw that on the front page. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn or two...
A few years ago I visited the Ardennes and I began to get some idea of why Europe is what it is today in terms of their deep reluctance to defend themselves militarily. They exhausted themselves. Your observation about the warrior class being destroyed is an interesting insight.
ping
I hope you are right. I suspect that Iraq will become a bomb magnet along side Israel by all of the radical Islamo-Fascists who are yearning to drive the world into the 4th century.
With a prosperous and free Iraq emerging the youth of Iran next door are going to get pretty antsy with their oppressive Mullahs. The next decade should prove interesting.
welllll?
Actually, most of the Middle East got a little nervous right after the first elections here in January 2005. Kuwait finally granted women the right to vote and hold public office a few months later and Saudi Arabia first broached the subject of women being allowed to {gasp!} drive vehicles.
As Iraq grows stronger, the neighboring countries get more jittery. Iraq just may lead the way to liberty all over the region. Iraq is the Middle East's "land of the free and home of the brave."
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