Monday, September 17, 2012

Arab Spring Washes the Scales from American Eyes

The truth is a hard pill to swallow. It took a couple of wars and an “Arab Spring” for the scales to fall from our eyes. Americans are coming to terms that not everyone yearns to be free and embraces free markets and self-government. Speigel Online published the following:

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"The murder of an ambassador in Libya and the attacks on US diplomatic missions in other Arab countries is sure to strengthen the skepticism that more than a few Americans feel toward Muslims and the political changes brought by the Arab revolutions. The deeply held American belief that all you have to do is liberate people from serfdom and dictatorship, and then democracy and a market economy will develop more or less on their own, burned to ash in the trial by fire of Iraq. A fact that academics and historically informed diplomats have always known can now be observed throughout the Arab world: Deeply ingrained cultural attitudes do not change simply because one political regime replaces another. In the long process of building a democratic society, it is not possible to simply skip stages."

Yet, we still have some politicians who are having a hard time understanding this simple truth. Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham come to mind. Here is McAmnesty on the latest atrocity in Libya:

“We were right to take the side of the Libyan people, and others in the region who share their peaceful aspirations. And we would be gravely mistaken to walk away from them now. To do so would only be a betrayal of everything that Chris Stevens and his colleagues believed in… it would also be a betrayal of America’s highest values and our own enduring national interest in supporting people in the Middle East who want to live in peace and freedom.”

They don’t want to live in peace and freedom. And after all that has happened, McCain believes our lack of support for the Syrian rebels is shameful, even though these very same rebels are made up of an Al Qaeda element. And chances are they’ll end up just like all the other rabble that was unleashed by the “Arab Spring.”

It’s time to wakeup Senator McCain.




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