http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011052213602/editorial/world-opinion-and-edito rial/to-understand-the-middle-east-why-not-study-the-real-middle-east.html?u tm_source=Right+Side+News <http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011052213602/editorial/world-opinion-and-edit orial/to-understand-the-middle-east-why-not-study-the-real-middle-east.html? utm_source=Right+Side+News&utm_campaign=84a0eefc9e-daily-rss-newsletter&utm_ medium=email> &utm_campaign=84a0eefc9e-daily-rss-newsletter&utm_medium=email
To Understand the Middle East Why Not Study The Real Middle East? Sunday, 22 May 2011 11:07 Barry Rubin <http://www.rightsidenews.com/component/option,com_mailto/link,5a4216429e562 b3f21942e593ca4baee61a777df/tmpl,component/> E-mail <http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011052213602/editorial/world-opinion-and-edit orial/to-understand-the-middle-east-why-not-study-the-real-middle-east/print .html> Print A lot of people may think that I'm too tough on President Barack Obama and the New York Times. Yet every day they do something that-despite my high suspicions and low expectations-amazes me. Consider a New York Times article <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/us/politics/12prexy.html?_r=1> , "Obama Seeks Reset in Arab World. First, the concept of "reset" was invented by the Obama Administration and has been used by it to describe the new policy about to be announced on the Middle East. One could not possibly think of an idea more unsuited to the region. Reset implies starting over, forgetting everything that has happened before. Yet there is arguably no part of human society that is more obsessed with history than the Middle East. You have people ready to die and kill to realize a vision of society from more than twelve centuries ago, a reborn country that had been destroyed more than nineteen centuries ago, and the world's longest-lasting continuing conflict that has been going full steam now for more than six decades. And those are only three examples. Who thinks like this, that you can press a button and have history disappear? Americans, or at least a certain kind of American. The concept of reset is so remarkably ignorant and doomed to fail that it is shocking that the great geniuses who guide America haven't thought of this problem. To my best knowledge not a single person has pointed out this fatal flaw though everyone in the Middle East innately understands it! The Arab world isn't erasing history so much as reliving it, heading back to the 1950s and 1960s, but with revolutionary Islamism replacing Arab nationalism. And that's even worse. Then there is this shocking quote from the same article: "Obama has ordered staff members to study transitions in 50 to 60 countries to find precedents for those under way in Tunisia and Egypt. They have found that Egypt is analogous to South Korea, the Philippines and Chile, while a revolution in Syria might end up looking like Romania's." I'm not a big fan of this type of political science, which never produces useful results. But leaving that aside, doesn't anyone notice a few details? Revolutionary Islamism doesn't really exist as a national factor in those countries. Neither does radical Arab nationalism. The three countries mentioned as being like Egypt are in fact dominated by a basic pragmatic approach, an absence of dominating ideology, a strong social flexibility. No matter how many degrees he might have anyone who would use such a method as a guide to policymaking on a life-and-death issue is a fool. (Oops! There goes my hope of a job in the Obama Administration!) Now, in about 400 words and taking about three minutes of your time I have explained why the current policy plans of this U.S. government are doomed. Why not instead study Egyptian history and society, the Muslim Brotherhood, and things like that? Yet I suspect there is one more hidden factor here. The American government has this thing called the State Department and sections of the Defense Department that do this kind of thing. There are people who have been following Arab politics and ideology and the military for decades. Why not call on them for their analysis? I think that Obama is instead turning to his clueless National Security Council staffers (the ones who wanted Husni Mubarak overthrown in 24 hours) and left-wing academics or think-tanks, and a couple of pundits (the names Zakaria and Friedman have in fact been mentioned) instead. The result is going to be something of a combination of hilariously stupid and the kind of policy that ends up setting off wars and getting tens of thousands of people killed. But then if your advisors deny that the Muslim Brotherhood is a radical Islamist anti-American group favoring genocide against Jews-indeed argue it is sort of secular-what can one expect? If the courtiers keep calling you the smartest president in all of history how are you going to correct your errors? Now if one could only reset Obama's worldview.. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/us/politics/12prexy.html?_r=1 SOURCE: The Rubin Report <http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2011/05/us-policy-to-understand-middle-eas t-why.html> Barry_RubinBarry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center <http://www.gloria-center.org/> and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). His new edited books include Lebanon: Liberation, Conflict and Crisis; Guide to Islamist Movements; Conflict and Insurgency in the Middle East; The West and the Middle East (four volumes); and The Muslim Brotherhood. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
