Good
summary, Ed. The situation with Iran is even more negative: the US intervened
twice in Iran's efforts to create a more democratic government for itself: once
in 1953 when the US covertly overthrew the elected reformist government, and the
second time (which lasted a good ten years, say) when we propped up the Shah of
Iran (including providing training for his private thugs, the SAVAK). This
interference with Iran resulted in Khomeini and his fanatics coming to power and
the Irani reformist being shunted aside, until their welcome and recent
re-emergence.
Interestingly, the US then became so obsessed with Khomeini that we
encouraged a guy called Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq to invade Iran, a war
that was to last eight years, costs hundreds of thousands of lives, and
lead to Saddam's internal political and police death-grip on Iraq. Then of
course we had to go take care of Saddam....
US
policy in the Middle East is full of these pathetic instances of wrong-minded or
short-sighted actions that lead to bad and unforeseen but foreseeable
results.
Also,
to your list we can add the Palestinians, under Israeli
occupation.
The
Arabs do not blame the US solely for the predicaments you summarize: they do
blame the US for undermining their efforts to redress these
problems.
Cheers,
Lawry
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Ed Weick
Sent: Fri, September 26, 2003 5:52 AM
To: pete; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Myopia (fwd)Something I read on Egypt suggested that upper and middle class young, often well educated, look around themselves and see their country in a mess and with a corrupt government propped up by funding from the US. In Saudi Arabia, the educated young see a corrupt, enormously wealthy regime kept in place by American oil revenues and deals on military bases. In Iran, they see a paranoid, repressive regime isolated and hemmed in by the US. In Jordan, they have to live with Israel, their next door neighbour, kept there by the US. And, in Iraq, they now live in a country wrecked by the US. Who to blame, who to hate, who to take terrorist actions against? Why the Americans, of course!Ed----- Original Message -----From: "pete" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 9:33 PMSubject: RE: [Futurework] Myopia (fwd)>
> On Thu, 25 Sep 2003, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> >Seems that many of the 9/11 terrorists came from relatively well off
> >homes, Were not poor at all. Yet they still turned against the
> >infidels/modernity.
>
> If I were a typical resident in one of the arab countries, I would
> probably be most concerned with getting by, and spend my days and
> attention on that task. However, if I were one of the fortunate
> few to have affluence and free time by accident of birth, I would
> be particularly aware of the comparative poverty of my countrymen,
> and might be driven by the guilt of my unearned position of comfort.
> So, I would be greatly surprised if the result were otherwise.
> Revolutionary thought has always been somewhat of a luxury,
> everywhere. I can't think of a single revolutionary leader who
> had a dirt poor background.
>
> -Pete Vincent
>
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