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Blog: IRAQ THE MODEL:

“Me: who threatened them? Papers guy: the death notes were signed by the mujahideen; they said that they will kill anyone who continues to print, distribute or sell newspapers.”

“He then showed me one of those notes; the ban includes virtually every paper but basically ‘papers that promote Safawi [Persian] Shiasm, blasphemous secular ideas and democracy’.”

The Officers’ Club: A Brief Explanation of the Problems in the Mid East, Part 2: “‘Tradition’ in America might be baseball games and apple pie, but in some places in the Arab world, it means killing people who don’t worship the same god as you, stoning homosexuals, assassinating poets and cartoonists, and enslaving the female half of the population. This doesn’t jive well with the West, and as our two worlds become more and more interconnected, these differences will have to work themselves out, probably in the following ways:

-Non-violently, like it has been in the US where Muslims and Arabs integrate into American society, live by our laws, and still retain their religious identity, but accept our cultural identity (i.e. the label of ‘American’)

-Passive-Aggressively, like in Europe, where Muslims and Arabs integrate into society, but want to live by their own laws, keep their own cultural identity, and riot or kill people when they disagree with policy or speech.

-Violently, like in the Sudan, where the Arab government is killing people who are not Arab/Muslim. Or the Balkans, where Serbia tried to kill/cleanse the Muslim Albanians out of its society. Or any other country where militant Islam or militant reaction against Islam occurs. “

Interesting information I’ve been talking to friends about. What I’ve seen change:

• Syria out of Lebanon
• Libya open itself to UN inspectors and denounce Terrorism
• Free, multiple party elections, though not a complete Government in Iraq
• Iran’s Leadership, through blowing smoke, is, by reports, really becoming a concern to the Iranian Middle Class and students. Since the Median age in Iran is 25, that is the bulk of the country. Time may play out that the same people that overthrew the Shah could overthrow the clerics. In other words, rational people might take over that theocracy which exports terrorism as part of its 25 year history.
• Jordan has opened its markets to western investment as has Kuwait opened its stock market.
• Other Arab nations have introduced woman’s voting rights to different levels and have expanded democratic rights, though not massively.
• Afghanistan, Pakistan and India much safer together…

There have been many changes in the past few years … It will take another 10 to see the real results.

The Officers’ Club: A Brief Explanation of the Problems in the Middle East Part 1

I had to break the link to this fine article because the blog hosted on blogspot got taken over by another person.. and the content is no longer there. I will find it and repost! –Jetman