Iraq and the Arabs' Future (long)

Foreign Affairs ^ | January, 2003 | Fouad Ajami

[Utah Girl]

This is long, but well worth the read.

[RonF]

I might dispute your title. I don't think that Iraq's future (at least with regards to the present regime) will be long at all.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

BTTT

[MoralSense]

bump to read the rest. Fouad Ajami is a great scholar, and a very courageous man.

[Utah Girl]

I meant the article itself was long. Sorry about the confusion.:) And I hope you are right about the present regime in Iraq not being long at all...

[denydenydeny]

Indexing.

[CatoRenasci]

Excellent post. This is an important article. Bump!!

[Publius]

Excellent article. Fine analysis and right on the money.

[yankeedame]

Up until only 50 or so years ago the Arab world was refered to as "tribes with flags", not true government, and in many ways it still is. The ways and social organization of countless generations is not swept away by a handful of years.

History (and geography) reveals not only the past of a people, but also their character, and it is here the West errors. Look how long the western influence of France in Algeria, the British in Egypt and "The White" in South Africa lasted once direct pressure/influence was withdrawn. There is no reason to believe the results will be different with the United States vis-a-vis Iraq.

Our hope lay in establishing, and maintaining, sluice gates for the free flow of the 21st century to the restless, and plentiful, youth of those lands. Little more can we do. For change must come from them and from within.

Alas, it will take a very,very long time-- something bore with impatience in the West-- but then as the Arab saying so rightly goes: "All things fear time", and the leaders of those tribes with flags are no exception.

[MoralSense]

This righteous sense of Arab victimhood -- which overlooks what Arab rulers do to others while lamenting its own condition -- emanates from a political tradition of belligerent self-pity. The push should be for an Arab world that acknowledges its own economic and political retrogression and begins to find a way out of those crippling sectarian atavisms.

A scholarly bumper sticker, if you will.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

bump

[Molly Pitcher]

Thanks for the post, Utah Girl. Ajami makes an excellent read.

[ijcr]

There is in the Middle East a time frame for redeveopment.
If the technological advances in hydrogen fuel cells starts to pay off,then they will only have about 20 yrs to
maximise the oil dollars.

In the next quarter century the entire region will become irrelevant.

[Savage Beast]

"There would be no "hearts and minds" to be won in the Arab world"

That's okay. Just remember the immortal words of Lyndon Johnson.

[Savage Beast]

"Few Arabs would believe this effort to be a Wilsonian campaign to spread the reign of liberty in the Arab world."

Is there any appreciable desire for liberty in the Arab world? There doesn't seem to be.

[desertcry]

"...No Hearts and mind to be won in the arab world". So, if we don't get rid of saddam, the arabs would bring back to life those more than 3000 who died on 9.11.01, restore the WTC, and pentagon, and the islamists never hated us? Does this mean that the arabs never hated the non believers, if the US, and it's allies don't kick saddam out of iraq? Has the author of this article been in a time warp?

[Stultis]

bookmark

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Got a reading list this should be on!

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