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Old 08-04-2006, 09:54 PM   #6 (permalink)
powerclown
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I don't want to speak for Ustwo, but I think what he initially implies is that no matter what anybody does, extremists will do their thing regardless. 9/11 was before Iraq, the Taliban was before 9/11, there were dozens upon dozens of terrorist attacks going back decades before 9/11, before Dubya, before Clinton, before Reagan, before Carter, before Blair, before Major, before Thatcher. So I don't see it as a refusal to look at the issues; I would guess that Ustwo is well aware of the issues at hand.

In the case of the Islamists - who are the source of most of this trouble imo - this shit goes back to an extreme and violent interpretation of the Koran...but I also think it has to do with how Muslims see their place in the world, to what I think flstf was alluding to above. I think they are a culture filled with fear and insecurity, doubt as to who they are and how they achieve their dignity in the world, fear of outsiders and different values...lets face it, if the world was a giant city, the Middle East would be the run-down, boarded up, locked-down part of town that everyone would avoid.

Dictatorships and dysfunctional religious oligarchies provide no economic incentive, no foreign investment, poor educational systems, no way to provide for decent jobs, no civil rights, no transparent judicial systems, no freedom of speech, no religious diversity, no political diversity, no cultural diversity, no exchange of ideas, no innovation...these governments don't create the infrastructure necessary to meet their citizen's basic needs, nevermind to allow for the personal/spiritual/academic/technical growth needed to compete with other countries around the world in anything whatsoever.

And oil only perpetuates these systems. Most of the thought and energy of any given country in the Middle East is put into extracting and exporting oil - little expertise or involvement in any other field.

So this is where I have a problem with the countries of the Middle East feeling a sense of entitlement, while simultaneously pointing the finger at Israel and the West as the source of all their troubles, turning a blind eye to their own corruption and dysfunction. They choose to look outward to avoid having to look inward.
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