Skeptic
21st May 2009, 12:02 PM
This (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTUyMWU4NGNkNmRkNzI1NWIwMzA1NmViOTYxNDI0N2Q=) is an extremely intersting report by Jay Nordlinger.
It agrees with what I keep saying: there are many Arabs who would like to change the system and would like democracy, free market, and liberty. But they are held back by the old guard -- the kleptocratic oligarchs -- whose excuse is, naturally, to blame Israel (and the USA) for everything. Clearly, say the kleptocratic autocrats, there's no way, say, Egyptians can stop "honor killing" as long as Israel exists, nor can Kuwait be expected to lower the number of government workers from 80%, as long as the Palestinians are suffering. Bull! Say the reformers. If Israel disappears tomorrow, things in Kuwait and Egypt will be just as bad. Israel simply has nothing to do with it.
These reformers are brave men. They deserve our support, as I keep saying. They are the REAL radicals in the Arab - Muslim world, in many cases braving harassment, jail, even death for their views. But who are the best supporters, the #1 lovers, of the kleptocratic oligarchs? Not their people, who are kept down; certainly not the reformers, who are killed and arrested; and not even the Islamists who would like to pull them down to reestablish the chaliphate (and killing all Jews and other infidels, as well as gays, women who bare their arms, etc., besides.)
No, the kleptocratic oligarchs' #1 lovers are the peace-and-love USA and European "peace camp", the ones who essentially agree with the kleptocratic oligarch that, why, yes, the real reason the Arab world is so backward, corrupt, and (currently) hopelessly behind is in fact the eeeeeeeeeeeeevil USA, Israel, and (above all) Bush; and that, besides, the USA has SOME NERVE to demand change from, say, Sudan or Libya when it itself, as "everybody knows", is "really" a theocratic dictatorship.
Read the whole thing.
It agrees with what I keep saying: there are many Arabs who would like to change the system and would like democracy, free market, and liberty. But they are held back by the old guard -- the kleptocratic oligarchs -- whose excuse is, naturally, to blame Israel (and the USA) for everything. Clearly, say the kleptocratic autocrats, there's no way, say, Egyptians can stop "honor killing" as long as Israel exists, nor can Kuwait be expected to lower the number of government workers from 80%, as long as the Palestinians are suffering. Bull! Say the reformers. If Israel disappears tomorrow, things in Kuwait and Egypt will be just as bad. Israel simply has nothing to do with it.
These reformers are brave men. They deserve our support, as I keep saying. They are the REAL radicals in the Arab - Muslim world, in many cases braving harassment, jail, even death for their views. But who are the best supporters, the #1 lovers, of the kleptocratic oligarchs? Not their people, who are kept down; certainly not the reformers, who are killed and arrested; and not even the Islamists who would like to pull them down to reestablish the chaliphate (and killing all Jews and other infidels, as well as gays, women who bare their arms, etc., besides.)
No, the kleptocratic oligarchs' #1 lovers are the peace-and-love USA and European "peace camp", the ones who essentially agree with the kleptocratic oligarch that, why, yes, the real reason the Arab world is so backward, corrupt, and (currently) hopelessly behind is in fact the eeeeeeeeeeeeevil USA, Israel, and (above all) Bush; and that, besides, the USA has SOME NERVE to demand change from, say, Sudan or Libya when it itself, as "everybody knows", is "really" a theocratic dictatorship.
Read the whole thing.