FIGHTING SMARTER . . .
Should be the Dems' slogan (and program) for the Fall elections, to answer the "cut & run" bromide. Lord knows we need to fight terrorism alright, in many and better ways than we are doing now, especially smarter ways. Certainly we need to understand better what's going on in the Muslim world, and why.
Our woeful lack of understanding is costing us horrendously in Iraq. In a recent AP poll, 61% of Iraqis asked want the insurgents to win, and want our people dead. Not just beaten, but dead! That depressing, even shocking news is totally different from what we have been hearing from the White House. So it is even more baffling. How do you start to understand that?
It gets worse: five of Iraq's 25 million people are Kurds. They like us and wish us well, and even have friendly relations with Israel (who helped them train their own excellent army). They aren't Arabs though, with whom they have long had important differences. When you remove the 5 million Kurds from Iraq's 25 million population, leaving 20 million Arabs, the 61% of 25 million becomes 75% of the 20 million Arabs. Not good. That is backed up with the further poll results showing 3/4 of the population of Iraq think U. S. troops are doing more damage than they prevent, and should leave.
But we can't accept that: denial is not just a river, it's the name of a new book by Bob Woodward that informs us that contrary to what we have long been told, field commanders in Iraq have been asking for more troops for a long time, to no avail. They've been denied, just like the true
situation we are facing there, which Woodward says is far worse than we have ever been told. Woodward's findings, as reported by those who have seen them (I have not), back up what Congressman Murtha has been saying about how bad things are there, and explain some of Murtha's urgency and indignation. Murtha, of course, is a politician. Woodward is not, and is not noted for partisan views. He has, in fact, long been a favorite at the White House.
"The concepts and categories that are often cited in order to explain the Middle East to Western audiences --- modernity, democracy, fundamentalism, sectarian nationalism to name a few ---can no longer satisfactorily account for what is going on. It is rather the old feud between Shias and Sunnis that forges attitudes, defines predjudices, draws political boundary lines, and even decides whether and to what extent those other trends have relevance." p. 82, The Shia Revival
by Vali Nasr (the Author, a Shiite born in the Middle East, lives in the U. S., is fluent in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and travels widely and regularly throughout that region. He teaches at The Naval Post Graduate School.) Karen Armstrong (who has written a famous book on Islam) says of this book: "Brilliant, clear and erudite. This is indispensable reading for anybody who is trying to make sense of the tragic conflict in the Middle East." I have been studying Islam for years, and this is far the best I have seen on the Shia-Sunni conflict.
Like the pressures within a volcano may build for years before the top blows, Prof. Nasr explains the pressures and conditions in the Middle East that have now exploded with volcanic force. He relates how Sunni extremists have been growing in numbers and influence for a hundred years, and with it, a growing discrimination and oppression of the Shia, who were minorities in all Arab countries except Iraq, where although a majority, were still dominated, controlled, and suppressed. But in 1979 the Shah, a tyrant imposed on the people of Iran by the U. S. and Britain, was overthrown by a Shia revolt, marking a Shia resurgence that would be felt powerfully next door in Iraq.
As Prof. Nasr explains: "The war in Iraq came at a time when Sunni extremism was on the rise in the Muslim world. The decade preceding the war had witnessed the growing influence of Wahhabi and Salafi trends in Sunni extremist circles and a turn to jihadi activism and violence after the events of 9/11. The Iraq war provided a new arena for this militance to express itself. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi went to Iraq with the specific purpose of confronting the U. S. and providing al-Qaida's global war against the U. S. with a new venue. In Iraq's sectarian divide Zarqawi saw an opportunity. A Shia-Sunni war would destroy America's project in Iraq far more quickly and thoroughly than al-Qaida's terrorism could by itself." (p.243, op. cit.)
Clearly that is what has happened! America's project in Iraq has been destroyed. That is evident in the attitudes of the Iraqis as expressed above. "The conflict that mattered to the mobilization of extremists and support for them on the Arab and Pakistani streets was not the one Washington was focusing on --- it was not the battle of liberty vs. oppression but rather the age-old battle of the two halves of Islam, Shias and Sunnies. This ws the conflict that Iraq has rekindled and this is the conflict that will shape the future." (P. 245, Nasr) More on this later.
jgoodwin004@centurytel.net
Should be the Dems' slogan (and program) for the Fall elections, to answer the "cut & run" bromide. Lord knows we need to fight terrorism alright, in many and better ways than we are doing now, especially smarter ways. Certainly we need to understand better what's going on in the Muslim world, and why.
Our woeful lack of understanding is costing us horrendously in Iraq. In a recent AP poll, 61% of Iraqis asked want the insurgents to win, and want our people dead. Not just beaten, but dead! That depressing, even shocking news is totally different from what we have been hearing from the White House. So it is even more baffling. How do you start to understand that?
It gets worse: five of Iraq's 25 million people are Kurds. They like us and wish us well, and even have friendly relations with Israel (who helped them train their own excellent army). They aren't Arabs though, with whom they have long had important differences. When you remove the 5 million Kurds from Iraq's 25 million population, leaving 20 million Arabs, the 61% of 25 million becomes 75% of the 20 million Arabs. Not good. That is backed up with the further poll results showing 3/4 of the population of Iraq think U. S. troops are doing more damage than they prevent, and should leave.
But we can't accept that: denial is not just a river, it's the name of a new book by Bob Woodward that informs us that contrary to what we have long been told, field commanders in Iraq have been asking for more troops for a long time, to no avail. They've been denied, just like the true
situation we are facing there, which Woodward says is far worse than we have ever been told. Woodward's findings, as reported by those who have seen them (I have not), back up what Congressman Murtha has been saying about how bad things are there, and explain some of Murtha's urgency and indignation. Murtha, of course, is a politician. Woodward is not, and is not noted for partisan views. He has, in fact, long been a favorite at the White House.
"The concepts and categories that are often cited in order to explain the Middle East to Western audiences --- modernity, democracy, fundamentalism, sectarian nationalism to name a few ---can no longer satisfactorily account for what is going on. It is rather the old feud between Shias and Sunnis that forges attitudes, defines predjudices, draws political boundary lines, and even decides whether and to what extent those other trends have relevance." p. 82, The Shia Revival
by Vali Nasr (the Author, a Shiite born in the Middle East, lives in the U. S., is fluent in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and travels widely and regularly throughout that region. He teaches at The Naval Post Graduate School.) Karen Armstrong (who has written a famous book on Islam) says of this book: "Brilliant, clear and erudite. This is indispensable reading for anybody who is trying to make sense of the tragic conflict in the Middle East." I have been studying Islam for years, and this is far the best I have seen on the Shia-Sunni conflict.
Like the pressures within a volcano may build for years before the top blows, Prof. Nasr explains the pressures and conditions in the Middle East that have now exploded with volcanic force. He relates how Sunni extremists have been growing in numbers and influence for a hundred years, and with it, a growing discrimination and oppression of the Shia, who were minorities in all Arab countries except Iraq, where although a majority, were still dominated, controlled, and suppressed. But in 1979 the Shah, a tyrant imposed on the people of Iran by the U. S. and Britain, was overthrown by a Shia revolt, marking a Shia resurgence that would be felt powerfully next door in Iraq.
As Prof. Nasr explains: "The war in Iraq came at a time when Sunni extremism was on the rise in the Muslim world. The decade preceding the war had witnessed the growing influence of Wahhabi and Salafi trends in Sunni extremist circles and a turn to jihadi activism and violence after the events of 9/11. The Iraq war provided a new arena for this militance to express itself. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi went to Iraq with the specific purpose of confronting the U. S. and providing al-Qaida's global war against the U. S. with a new venue. In Iraq's sectarian divide Zarqawi saw an opportunity. A Shia-Sunni war would destroy America's project in Iraq far more quickly and thoroughly than al-Qaida's terrorism could by itself." (p.243, op. cit.)
Clearly that is what has happened! America's project in Iraq has been destroyed. That is evident in the attitudes of the Iraqis as expressed above. "The conflict that mattered to the mobilization of extremists and support for them on the Arab and Pakistani streets was not the one Washington was focusing on --- it was not the battle of liberty vs. oppression but rather the age-old battle of the two halves of Islam, Shias and Sunnies. This ws the conflict that Iraq has rekindled and this is the conflict that will shape the future." (P. 245, Nasr) More on this later.
jgoodwin004@centurytel.net
posted by John Goodwin at
10:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home