[Red6]

In a republic ruled by laws, in a nation with democratic processes, private ownership of the means of production, where does this leave the Sheik, Mufti and Imam? How does the Despot skim his money off the top of an economy as in near all these nations when you have a rule of law and private ownership? Want to do business in Libya/Saddam's Iraq/Egypt.......? Sure, just pay off the despot and his family and they will open the door to their market. Just like every little bureaucrat in Egypt expects his Baksheesh, so does the despot himself if you want to do any sizable business in that nation. Islam is organized around it's religion with religious courts/judges (Mufti), schools (Madras), tribal leaders (Sheiks) and their Mosque is the primary source of information (Imam). Most of these nations are dictatorships that simply skim off the top and there is an intricate relationship between Islam/religion and the despot, often a sort of symbiotic relationship as best seen in Saudi Arabia.

Western ideas of political and economic organization, a rule of law are inherently an EXISTENTIAL threat to the entire power structure of these societies, and the power brokers in these places know this. That's why as long as they could they tried to keep Western influences out, which is impossible in the day and age of Internet, cell phone, satellite TV, global trade, jet air travel and a decline of the physical restrictions to movement in a post Cold War era. Ironically, what makes the threat of terrorism greater to the free Western nations is also the same framework of conditions that threatens the despot in the Middle East and North Africa.

What you are witnessing in North Africa and the Middle East today is another example of the domino theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_theory (Although the write up in Wikipedia doesn't do it justice - but it makes the general point)

Let's say the US had not massively come in to help Germany, abandoned Berlin and W. Germany had imploded. What is the probability that the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria would have gone too? High. Likewise, after we abandoned Vietnam, what happened in Laos and Cambodia, and eventually was stopped at the borders of Thailand?

These sort of things can best be looked at as waves that sweep a region. A friend and I literally predicted what is happening today as soon as the government in Tunisia toppled and before Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, etc were in the news. You normally have some precipitating event......... and all the rest is history. I wish I could pick lottery numbers that well. lol

What you address I agree with, the modern Western culture is one of nihilism, hedonism, it's savage, crude, short sighted, ignorant.... whatever you want to use to describe it. Everyone points the finger at the other, blaming him and talking about how he's even lower than oneself, but in reality Western society as a whole is in decline and can best be described as a cesspool. But that's not what I meant. I meant as you properly assumed the more traditional meaning of the concept of what the world “liberal” really meant before it was perverted. Realize, Capitalism is in all reality amoral. It's neither good nor bad, it's simply what people make of it. You can spend the money in your pocket to help someone or buy some booze and a whore. But Capitalism is the ONLY economic organization/process that truly allows for freedom and liberty in a society. Unfortunelty, as you correctly point out, a society without righteous values and morals buys the booze and whores.

[annalex]

Let's say the US had not massively come in to help Germany, abandoned Berlin and W. Germany had imploded. What is the probability that the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria would have gone too? High. Likewise, after we abandoned Vietnam, what happened in Laos and Cambodia, and eventually was stopped at the borders of Thailand?

Yes, there is such a thing as a domino effect, and we were right to fight for Germany and for Vietnam. But then the enemy had a sponsor, the Soviet Union. Al Qaeda cannot be compared to that, they are a purely reactive and barely organized force. They are also, like it or not, a popular movement, just like Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood. Bring a rule of law to the Middle East and you may end up with a stronger enemy than before, and ten bucks a gallon of gas, easy.

But Capitalism is the ONLY economic organization/process that truly allows for freedom and liberty in a society

First, I would take issue with that. Moral laws allow for liberty. Capitalism is merely a market: buy booze and whores on the free market and soon enough you will not have any freedom left, including in the end even economic freedom. Capitalism functioned very well in America while it was a nation whose moral law was the Christian Bible. Now that we have lost it, as you look around yourself you don't see much freedom: we pay half of what we earn to the government in the form of various taxes, fees and regulations, our children are raised by the government, our pensions are run by the government, real estate market, -- the cornerstone of popular capitalism -- is manipulated by an international band of shysters, it is impossible to start a manufacturing business without an army of lobbyists in DC, access to labor in China, and money in international finance markets. We no longer have capitalism, we have global crony capitalism badly managed by governmental bureaucracies. This kind of thing is existential threat to us; it also is a threat to them of course, but my sympathies are with this country.