From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Tue Aug 29 2006 - 12:29:46 EDT
Here's a link to Bacevich's case that the tables are turning for the US, in the Middle East: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/08/27/no_win/ The more the so-called "international community" has anathemized Islam, the more Islam becomes a popular ideology of the oppressed. As they say, religion - with its spiritual relativisations of blame and victimhood - "thrives on persecution". That would be one the great strategic disasters of the Bush administration, in my opinion. Another disaster is the persistent idea that you can win wars through massive bombing raids and razzias, as a substitute for real politics. By shellshocking and indiscriminate slaughter you obviously don't win the hearts and minds of the people, if anything you make the opposition of the survivors even more resolute. Even today there are still lingering speculations that America could have won the Vietnam war if Hanoi had been razed to the ground. I imagine that future historians will regard the beginning of the 21st century as a time when world leaders had lost their sense of what the priorities for humankind are. Most of the old doctrines having been demolished by a newly emerging world reality, there is a profound sense of disorientation and uncertainty all round, and a conservative reflex that all that can be done is to contain crisis situations, rather than resolve them. J.
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