Posted on 02/06/2005 4:49:58 PM PST by Dubya
WASHINGTON - Just days ago, I folded myself into a US embassy vehicle in Bamako, Mali, fresh off the plane from Timbuktu, the historic center of Islamic learning and trans-Saharan trade in the north of the country. Looking out the car window, I saw that thousands of cheering Malians were lining the streets of this city, which had been cleared for VIP travel. I admit, I was stunned by this outpouring of enthusiasm for the American ambassador and an American senator.
Then I realized that they weren't there for us. They were waiting to cheer the motorcade of Iranian President Mohamad Khatami, whose plane had just landed at the airport.
Bamako's reception for the Iranian president should be a wake-up call for US policymakers. We need to do much more to reach out to struggling countries like Mali. If we don't, other influences may step in to fill the void.
Driving into Bamako, I had been mulling over the meetings I'd had in Timbuktu with imams and local officials to hear their views of the terrorist threat that has emerged in their region, to listen to their concerns about US policies, and to find out how we can work together. The Malians I met, like the Algerians and Nigerians and Kenyans I have met, do not hate the US, although many have grave concerns about some of our policies. Malians I spoke with had concerns about everything from the invasion of Iraq to the effect of US trade policies on Mali's textile industry. They are happy to discuss their views on issues of terrorism. But they're even more interested in talking about their own priority: the fight against poverty, the struggle for a reason to hope that life for their children will be better than life is today.
The generous outpouring of American support for tsunami victims in South Asia is a credit to our nation, but it doesn't make up for our neglect of many other regions. That neglect has serious implications for our security in the post-9/11 world. The US is in a long-term fight against a radical ideological movement in the Islamic world, yet our policy toward many struggling Muslim nations is either shortsighted, underfunded, or both. From Somalia, where we have no policy at all, to Tanzania, where we have no ambassador (despite the fact that terrorists attacked our embassy there in 1998), the US is not rising to the policy challenge. Our indifference can create a vacuum that others - whose interests may clash with our own - can easily fill.
I suspect that Mali hopes to get some much-needed assistance from Iran. Saudi money is funding the establishment of extremist schools and mosques around the world. With a different agenda, the Chinese government is offering the kind of tangible support across Africa that creates goodwill and longstanding relationships, building roads and soccer stadiums, making long-term loans, and trying to secure access to African oil markets. Mali, a Muslim democracy and one of the poorest countries in the world, has attracted more American interest than many of its neighbors, but our diplomats still struggle to find the resources to compete for hearts and minds there. Meanwhile, other forces quietly make their own long-term investments in the region.
Many of the Malians who lined the streets to welcome the Iranian president were children. The US needs a policy today that will turn these children into adults who view America as an ally, not an enemy; who will see Americans as partners, not competitors; and who reject international terrorism and those who support it.
In July 2001, just months before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 changed the way we think about security and the world, the CIA published the report "Long-Term Global Demographic Trends: Reshaping the Geopolitical Landscape." It highlights the importance of "youth bulges" in the populations of much of the developing world, and raises real questions about whether national economies will be able to generate jobs for these youths, and whether the increased expectations and aspirations of generations who see the same glitzy media images that bombard our own children will be met.
"The failure to adequately integrate large youth populations in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa is likely to perpetuate the cycle of political instability, ethnic wars, revolutions, and anti-regime activities that already affect many of these countries.... Increases in youth populations will aggravate problems with trade, terrorism ... and crime," the report states.
This is a projection, not a prophecy. But if we want a less threatening future, we Americans need to get in the game, increase our diplomatic presence, listen to the people on the ground, and combine widespread, quick-impact development projects with long-term investments in fighting corruption and promoting the rule of law. This has to be done in Mali and across the developing world. Most of all, we need to stop thinking solely in terms of how the world will look next year, and start thinking about how it will look in 50 years.
At her confirmation hearing, Condoleezza Rice told the Foreign Relations Committee that when the Soviet Union collapsed, the US was "merely harvesting the good decisions" of "wise and farsighted statesmen" in the late 1940s.
It is time to plan again for a generational effort, to commit to a policy of engagement, and to plant a new crop of wisdom. The US must engage with Muslim communities, and offer tangible support to struggling nations.
Without that sustained, consistent effort, our talk of partnership in the fight against terrorism will be seen for what it is: an empty gesture, and an empty-handed one at that.
• Russ Feingold is a Democratic senator from Wisconsin and ranking member of the Senate's Africa subcommittee.
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The United States is not losing the battle to engage Muslims. The ill-informed Senator needs to understand the Muslims are loosing the race to engage themselves. Their corrupt institutions and questionable religion are the source of their discontent, poverty and backwardness. Not the United States. Not the West. Not Christendom. Islam is their failure.
"Russ Feingold is a Democratic senator from Wisconsin and ranking member of the Senate's Africa subcommittee."
Like the British were racing to engage the Nazis.
Not to be over the top about it, but is he an idiot for not being able to figure that one out? How many of them know who the hell Russ Feingold is, and why would they cheer him and not the leader of a fellow Muslim nation?
This guy's not nearly as sharp as I gave him credit for being (even though I never liked his politics).
Feingold suffers from selective memory loss of the timespan from January 1993-January 2001. We're still overcoming 8 years of neglect, obtuseness and misspent opportunities of the Clinton era. Russ needs a serious dose of memory recall, a cliffnotes version of flacid military operations in Somalia, destroying aspirin factories in the Sudan and killing camels in the deserts of Afghanistan may bring him back into focus.
I refuse to sit by while you defame one-half of the visionary team that brought us the most well-thought, effective and fair election law reform of our time.///tee-hee-hee
We lost the race to engage the Nazi's, the commies, and the fascists as well.
Why is it that every nation expects it to be our obligation to make them prosperous? And where does any President get off saying it's our "duty". It's no where in the Constitution and we are neck deep in debt now from the billions we have thrown down rat holes that never make it to the goals it was intended. Why don't they blame their leaders for stealing it and take proper action?
No they rather sit back and belly ache for what they have not earned, our tax dollars.
I've about had it with this "What has America done for me lately" attitude. It's never enough, or it's too much....enough already.
Young people were educated in Nazi policies as soon as they entered school.
"The Government demands that the school be inspired by the ideals of fascism...it demands that the school at all levels and in all its instruction train Italian youth to understand fascism, to ennoble itself through fascism, and to live in the historic climate created by the Fascist revolution."---Benito Mussolini
Yes, we acted too slowly in WW2, thankfully had the upper hand taking the war to them. Then we DIDNT act against the communists and luckily they imploded...will we wake up and take action against the muslim horde? They are already a billion strong.
I thought the headline read "US losing the race to ENRAGE Muslims."
There's certainly no lack of opportunity for that.
One should always endeavor to do so in a post 9/11 world.
Why try?
The goal is to convert or kill.
Why even bother? It will always be a losing proposition.
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