Zell, Chris wrote:
If oil wealth were to evaporate, Iran in particular might become a
surprizingly liberal democracy, with a secular basis. Supposedly,
less than 25% of Iranians see religion as the dominant influence in their life.
I have heard that. There is also a lot of support for the US in Iran.
There appears to be a lot of interest in cold fusion, too! That's a good sign.
Even as I say this about oil wealth and terror, I realize that
there is also some frightening evidence to the contrary. . . .The
Wall Street Journal published details, some time ago, about Bin
Laden directed groups operating on a shoestring, with agents barely
living on part time jobs while they plot murder.
In addition, Atlantic magazine wrote about interviews with young
Muslim men in Europe, who complained that they "felt like nothing".
Sure. The people plotting to blow up aircraft with liquid explosives
were born in England. Their money and expertise apparently was coming
from Pakistan. Cutting off the money is necessary but not sufficient.
But as I said, these things tend to burn themselves out. The fever
passes, the society recovers. In the 1960s, the US was plagued by war
and riot, which has for the most part subsided. Many young Muslim men
of Europe probably have a right to feel oppressed, ignored and angry.
For that matter, many young black men in the US felt that way back in
1968, but over time they decided that burning down their own houses
was not making things any better, so they stopped.
As I see it, Middle Eastern societies have to stop trying to turn
back the clock 800 years, and turn it back about a thousand years
instead, to get back to their real roots as enlightened men of
science. And we Europeans & Americans have to get back to *our*
roots. We must return to the 1950s ideal of a brighter future, a
middle-class life for everyone, technological progress, and education
-- not Empire! -- as the source of wealth and power. One of the most
despicable things about Dick Cheney is his espousal of the notion
that the US should be an empire, lording over other countries.
Nothing could be more un-American, or more self-destructive. This
"super-power" garbage makes me sick. As a Russian said just before
the fall of the Soviet Union, "we just want to live in an ordinary
country." Nothing super about it -- just ordinary people going about
their business. It will be good when the rest of the world catches up
to the U.S. in wealth and military power (or potential military
power), and the U.S. stops thinking it is the world's policeman.
- Jed
