http://www.aqoul.com/archives/2007/01/war_with_tradit.php
War with Traditional Islam An interesting blog post from miltiary specialist and commentator Col. Pat Lang (a real colonel, unlike my old Col appelation, a mere shortening of my name) on <http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2007/01/ideologies_exis. html> War Against the Boogey Men, critiquing the American approach to the Iraq war and the larger engagement with the Middle East. The item that caught my eye was this: "Freedom" and "Islamic Fascism" clearly have "special" meanings here. I say that "freedom" as the bushies use the term is code and really means westernization and "globalization" in the sense that we want to see the world "ironed out" flat so the it meets the egregious Friedman's dream of a homogeneous world. "Islamic Fascism" means, I think, simply "Islam." That is, Islam as it has been understod by millennia of Muslims. That is, as an all encompassing view of the world and man's relationship to God. "Ah, but these are not real Muslims," I can hear the outcry now. Rubbish. We non-Muslims can not dictate to any particular group of Muslms what Islam means to them. We want an Islam similar in its role in life to the emasculated role that Christianity plays for most Americans in their lives? Sorry! We do not get to choose for them. There wil be a reaction to what I have written here. It will be similar to the outrage vented on me by a former congressman from the Midwest who went on and and on about the nice ladies who come to his office to tell him that Muslims are a peaceful lot. Peaceful? Yes? Within limits. My analysis leads me to the belief that we are fighting against traditional Islam. Emphasis added. While I am not in agreement of necessity with what appears to be a poke at globalisation - although it can also be taken as a poke at the cartoonish idiocy of Friedman's understanding of globalisation - I found his statement on the presumption of the American (and to a not very much lesser extent European) engagement with Islam to be of import and worthy of discussion. Far too much of American and indeed European policy presumes to engage in social enginering - which one can at least say for the Europeans is not contrary to their general philosophy, excluding to a certain extent the UK where a touch of liberalism exists. Outsider driven social engineering does not have a brilliant history of successful change, and worse, in my opinion tends to short-circuit insider change - e.g. take a look at the ever-weakening position of liberals in the Arab world, whose grass roots weakness is only compounded by their need and all too often apparent desire to call upon European and American Big Daddies to push their agendas. In the economic realm I am rather more tolerant as there I see a greater scope for outsider supported change - largely via market forces but also directly; but touching on things emotional like family and sexual relations - intimate relations perhaps - well, I know of no society that reacts well to outsiders there. [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: osint@yahoogroups.com 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.shtml Yahoo! 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: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[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/
