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Originally posted by Spanky
I point out that this statement, to T-Rex, is not only utterly stupid but is bigoted:
"And the Arab world wants democracy as much as they want a hole in the head. They don't get it, they don't care to get it."
And T-Rex defends it by saying that military force may not be the best way to achieve our ends - as a defense of this statement? Is it just me but there is absolutely no connection between this statement and his defense of it.
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Look, you're not trying very hard. The statement is not bigoted. It's reportage. Someone living in the Arab world is telling you what he sees, not what Arabs are capable of.
And I don't recall what I said about military force, but the point was that we have pursued policies -- military and otherwise -- that are effectively delegitimizing democracy among Arabs and strengthening other constituencies. It's not just the invasion of Iraq, though clearly that's a part of it. It's also our support for undemocratic regimes in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, among others, and the perception that our policies value Israeli lives and interests more than those of Palestinians.
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This statement says that the Arab world, that is all two hundred and seventy million Arabs from Morocco to Baghdad, do not want Democracy. In addition it says that they don't get it.
If I said all blacks south of the Sahara not only don't want Democracy, but that they also don't get it. Wouldn't that be considered bigoted?
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I think you are taking one sentence out of context and misreading it. I don't think the author of that e-mail meant to speak definitively about all Arabs. I think he is taking Yemen to be typical.
To sum: I point out an obviously stupid and bigoted statement and T-Rex defends it by pointing out an extraneous issue, instead of acknowledging the obvious.
Why are working so hard to fulminate about what's not being said instead of trying to engage with what is?
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Let's us try this again:
T-Rex can't you just acknowledge that this statement is not only bigoted but stupid:
"And the Arab world wants democracy as much as they want a hole in the head. They don't get it, they don't care to get it."
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No. It's neither bigoted nor stupid. I hope it's wrong, but I'm afraid that the author is seeing something real.
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We all understand that you think that military force is not the best way to bring democracy to the middle east.
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But of course it's more complicated than that. It's hardly just a question of military force. Under Hussein, there was very little civil society in Iraq, so it should be no surprise that the transition has been rough. We tried to support the opposition, and there just wasn't much there to support. I suspect things would have gone if the country had been run under UN auspices instead of by the Cato and Heritage Foundations. That would have been a use of military force, too.
