Ciao!

Sam Huntington was right

The Prague Post published an interesting column by Jeremy Hurewitz. He asks a simple question: If the left opposes war, what does it support? Here's an excerpt:

On the one hand the left espouses equal rights for women, minorities and homosexuals; it lauds free speech and a vibrant independent press as essentials of civil society. The left is a guardian of the separation of church and state and a watchdog of the judicial process. So it finds itself in diametrical opposition to the nature of most Arab societies. But in the wake of this opposition, the left simply sticks its head in the sand rather than confront the reality that as globalization integrates the world order ever closer, we are hurtling toward a clash of civilizations unless the world comes to some sort of agreement on universal values. The left has failed to say that it will not stand for the oppression of women, the vicious repression of human rights and suppression of democratic principles. The only thing it can articulate is a naive and dangerous blame-America-first rhetoric as the root of all problems in the world today.

This hypocrisy is at its zenith in the case of Iraq. For years the left criticized the UN sanctions against Iraq. These sanctions left the Iraqi population debased and demoralized, with dismal health care and a falling standard of living. Though this decay of Iraqi society was due explicitly to Saddam Hussein's exploitation of the sanctions to enrich himself on the lucrative oil black market while he ignored the suffering of his own people, the left called the UN's attempts to contain Hussein genocide. Now, as America moves toward confronting Iraq over its failure to disarm, those same voices from the left praise those sanctions, speaking about them with a degree of reverence as the most intrusive and effective sanctions in history.

Blogger Thomas Nephew has also reluctantly come ("kicking and screaming") to support war in Iraq (and this guy vehemently hates Rumsfeld, Bush, and co). Plus, he gives a point-by-point counter to every anti-war argument I can think of. The anti-war crowd is losing the PR war. Maybe they should come out w/ better arguments?

Oh, and The Hindu just published an article under the headline "Arab nations rally behind US". Apparently, Egypt and about a dozen other Arab countries dismissed the recent Frankenreich proposal. Apparently, Qatar and Bahrain (and the four other little Gulf emirates) understand the meaning of the words "loyalty" and "alliance" better than the French, Germans, and Belgians. They're mobilizing their "Peninsula Shield" forces to Kuwait -- just in case Kuwait is attacked, as a gesture of solidarity.

Posted by Miguel at 03:13 AM

Comments

Posted by: bil at February 14, 2003 09:10 AM