There’s probably more to this statement than I’m aware, but can I ask you for clarification on what I think I see you saying? Are you saying that democracy and freedom are simply cultural values, not necessarily less dangerous to peace than the values common in Arab or Islamic cultures?
Because I think that it’s the preverbal “root cause” to terrorism. That leaders propped up by fundamental Islamic dogma can’t manage a society that competes with the West, and they have to insight hate of us among the population to keep their fristration and anger from turning inward and removing them from power.
So we’re finally attacking the root cause of terrorism, despite the difficulty of “changing their culture from the outside”. But in the end, we’re only neutering the reach of the culture of one or two nations, by dropping their governments. Actual culture change will have to come on its own, influenced by our presence and the parameters of the governments that we promote.
I dont see another way to attack the root cause of terrorism. Do you?
No, that is not what I am saying. Democracy is merely a form of Government. It may involve certain cultural values, and certainly how any people might decide to implement it, might involve their unique cultural values; but it is more political theory than anything else. Freedom, on the other hand, means very different things to different peoples, and different things to people of different ideologies, even within the same societies--as witness the debates in 20th Century America, still going on.
Where we differ, really, however, is in three particulars:
1. I do not think that "Democracy" is a suitable system for most Third World peoples, and have stated my reasons in some detail in a Chapter of the Conservative Debate Handbook (Democracy In The Third World.)
2. I do not think that the absence of Democracy has anything whatsoever to do with a "root cause" of terrorism. And I cannot think of a clearer mistake than insulting the people of a whole region of the earth, with the idea that we know what is better for them than they do, and intend to change their culture; as a way of dissuading them from embracing "terrorist" tactics. We need to isolate the actual terrorists, not continue to make them folk heroes by confirming their propaganda. (They have charged us with trying to do exactly what the Administration now says it is trying to do, when we were not trying to do that.) (See War 2001!, for my autumn 2001 suggestions as to how the War On Terror should be fought.)
3. The cause for the perceived lack of innovative progress in the Near East, in recent generations, is not cultural stagnation; rather both the lack of innovative progress and any cultural stagnation are kindred effects from the destruction of much of the regional academic potential, in various wars, with a particular emphasis on the genocidal actions of the Mongol conquerors around 1400. This is tragic, but it is not something the American taxpayer can correct; nor should our Government be building sand castles in a frivolous effort to deny reality.
William Flax