{"id":1392,"date":"2005-07-23T08:27:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-23T13:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/?p=1392"},"modified":"2005-07-23T08:27:00","modified_gmt":"2005-07-23T13:27:00","slug":"a-few-thoughts-on-something-i-know-very-little-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/?p=1392","title":{"rendered":"A few thoughts on something I know very little about"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was a comment I left in response to ‘s post<\/a>. I ventured off topic. He was originally discussing evaluating the Iranian execution of teenage homos from a modern American cultural framepoint and the sensationalization of the single incident (not unlike, oh, say, Matthew Shepherd, but in this case more the rule and less the exception), and I wandered down a topical trail about cultural imperialism and Iraq:<\/p>\n

Given my typically american appalling lack of historical knowledge, the Middle East more or less stopped existing between the crusades and World War I. A few hours before I’d read your post, while bored at work, I’d actually been researching what was going on in the middle east in the years between desert storm and shock and awe when I stumbled across something that started with the formation of Iraq in the early 1900’s under british colonialism. That still leaves a very large gap.<\/p>\n

I agree. I don’t think we can turn them into us at all. And that’s not what I want. I also don’t recall proposing bunnies & rainbows. =) I propose conversion via a combination of education, food, healthcare, work, and most importantly, contact with the rest of the world all served with a religious and social neutrality. The two keys in that are education and work. From that the food, healthcare, and contact with the outside world would pretty much become self-sustaining. Obviously, that can’t be done in territories where most are hostile to us, nor can it sensibly be done in a country that’s tearing itself apart (see also, Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis packed together under one roof). But we could fund aid programs carried out by more liberal Muslims or any other group they are unlikely to bomb on sight. <\/p>\n

As for lacking the luxury of time, I’m afraid that we have no choice. You don’t change people’s hearts and minds overnight. No matter how quickly you can get a fax from the Appalachian Mountains to the Fertile Crescent, the human time frame is less amenable to speed ups. Unless, of course, you want to slaughter the majority, and separate the rest, that is, forcibly disassemble the culture with an ongoing campaign of genocide. Color me not in favor. We’d start learning what international disapproval really means, even in the absense of disapproval we couldn’t afford it, and it’s simply completely wrong.<\/p>\n

I agree with Pat Buchanan<\/a> (and thanks to whichever livejournaler posted this where I could find it). This “stay until we fix things” idea is bullshit. Our presence there is inherently destabilizing. <\/p>\n

That’s not to say that I think packing our bags tonight and leaving tomorrow with no further planning is a good idea. That would be a disaster. Saying “we fucked up and we can’t fix it, can somebody please help” might be a start (expect that from Bush about the same time I grow wings and fly). Maybe do a little nation deconstructing so that the kurds have their own state, the sunnis theirs, and the shiites theirs. I’m no expert on middle eastern affairs, and I don’t pretend to be. I’m throwing out my best guesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was a comment I left in response to ‘s post. I ventured off topic. He was originally discussing evaluating the Iranian execution of teenage homos from a modern American cultural framepoint and the sensationalization of the single incident (not unlike, oh, say, Matthew Shepherd, but in this case more the rule and less the … Continue reading “A few thoughts on something I know very little about”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}