RE: [Iraq] The real reason for the war

From: Jeff Davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Jun 06 2003 - 14:26:49 MDT

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    --- Ramez Naam <mez@apexnano.com> wrote:
    > From: Jeff Davis [mailto:jrd1415@yahoo.com]
    > > No. Some segment of Islam--maybe even a very
    > > large fraction--may disapprove of western cultural
    > > values, but so long as we keep it here, and don't
    > > force it on them, it's probably not something they
    > > care a whole lot about.
    >
    > Hmmm. I don't agree. I think the large majority of
    > people in the middle east *like* western culture.
    > If anything, I think the right approach is to
    > consciously export *more* western culture to this
    > region - just not through tanks and cruise missiles.
    >
    > mez

    I agree, mez. I got sucked into the mass media
    demonization of islam that conflates militant islamic
    extremism with the whole of the islamic world.
    I'm inclined to accept your first person report that
    says Arabs (and by extension the rest of the islamic
    world) are regular people who, like regular people
    everywhere, find the American Dream irresistable. An
    enthusiastic embrace which provokes the response,
    "Well, duh! What's not to like." (Is the American
    Dream pumped up with dramatic license? Sure. Who
    cares? We/the world love it all the more.)

    And as you suggest, tanks and cruise missiles,
    predictably, logically, and rightly provokes the
    opposite attitude and response.

    I'm going to finish with this thread, because Michael
    Wiik in his post citing

    One Big Thing Wrong
    by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

    http://www.extropy.org/exi-lists/extropians/0306/9602.html

    has provided what I see as the definitive treatment of
    the matter.

    Thanks, Michael. Thanks, Ramez. Thanks, John.
    Thanks, gts. Thanks, Spud.

    Best, Jeff Davis

    "Enjoying being insulting is a youthful corruption of
    power. You lose your taste for it when you realize how
    hard people try, how much they mind, and how long they
    remember."
                                Martin Amis

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