ERnie: Looking back on 2006 - 2007, who would have thought that secular Iraqi nationalism would become ascendant ? Ironically we have Saddam to thank for a good part of this. The Baathist regime was, along with the Gulf states and places like Tunisia and Syria, the most secular in the Mid East. Saddam saw to it that this would be the case since it was the most practical way to quell sectarian rivalries, which otherwise could be bloody and unforgiving. So, machine politics --at the national level-- worked its magic. Less kindly, Fascism had an impact on popular consciousness. Now the Iraqis, while jettisoning the bad features of Saddam's reign, are mindful of the good features. This seems to be at work in the current situation. This said, how much is America's doing would be nice to know. I suspect the influence of American example is considerable --how could it not be ?-- but I'm still in the dark in terms of serious studies of the effect. Billy ============================================== In a message dated 3/5/2010 11:39:18 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
Hi Billy, On Mar 5, 2010, at 11:28 AM, [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) wrote: The determination lies in the realisation that few nations throughout the world could have survived the trials and tribulations of the past seven years intact; yet the Iraqis, through providence or an indomitable stubbornness, have done just that. I hope and pray that it is true, and it may well be. Iraq may never be peaceful, liberal, or united, but they appear to have reached a certain equilibrium. -- Ernie P. = _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
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