03-08-2003, 07:14 PM
"I wanted to point out that there are many other reasons why there are problems in that area of the world, the least of which is the fairly recent resurgence of fundamentalism in political life there."
Why would there be an extremist, religious, xenophobic, backwards looking, anti-technological force trying to move the whole area to some warped vision of their dark ages?
Maybe because there is an opposite force? Because there are or were (in Saudi Arabia, in Iran, in Kuwait, in the UAE, in Egypt, etc...) powerful, secular, modernizing forces that were removed forcibly from the hands of their people, and thrust into the hands of some few oligarchs in order to secure a cold war power base for the West? (And no, it's not about only one thing. It's oil, control, ideology, religion, history, all sorts of junk)
I mean, what happens then, when your pro-west, pro-technology, semi-secular dictator starts to oppress you? You fall into the hands of whatever anti-west, anti-technology, fanatical revolutionary who comes around the block. It has been said many times by people who know the region that the best damn thing ever to happen to Osama Bin Laden was that the US started launching missiles at him. So he became the embodiment of everything the hated Saudi regime was not, despite his being a two-bit rich kid playing at terrorism.
So, those problems and the resurgence of fundamentalism there (as everywhere) are one and the same problem. Don't back off your point; you had it spot on.
Jester
Why would there be an extremist, religious, xenophobic, backwards looking, anti-technological force trying to move the whole area to some warped vision of their dark ages?
Maybe because there is an opposite force? Because there are or were (in Saudi Arabia, in Iran, in Kuwait, in the UAE, in Egypt, etc...) powerful, secular, modernizing forces that were removed forcibly from the hands of their people, and thrust into the hands of some few oligarchs in order to secure a cold war power base for the West? (And no, it's not about only one thing. It's oil, control, ideology, religion, history, all sorts of junk)
I mean, what happens then, when your pro-west, pro-technology, semi-secular dictator starts to oppress you? You fall into the hands of whatever anti-west, anti-technology, fanatical revolutionary who comes around the block. It has been said many times by people who know the region that the best damn thing ever to happen to Osama Bin Laden was that the US started launching missiles at him. So he became the embodiment of everything the hated Saudi regime was not, despite his being a two-bit rich kid playing at terrorism.
So, those problems and the resurgence of fundamentalism there (as everywhere) are one and the same problem. Don't back off your point; you had it spot on.
Jester