The Economist dissects the relationship between the low-brow-tobacco-chewing-cowboy-boot- wearing president and the heavily accented Jewish intellectual. The conclusion: they may be very different but their minds think alike. Much of the piece re-hashes some of comments that I made previously about "The Power of Democracy", but it does a good job summarizing the book and how W's foreign policy meshes with it.
Kudos to ChristaB for name-checking the Muslim Brotherhood in her essay. To understand Islamism you need to understand its source and that source is the Brotherhood. It was the Brotherhood that emphasized the comprehensive nature of Islam, insisting that there was more to it than religious observance. It was it's leading light Sayyid Qutb who helped radicalize the Brotherhood and twist the meaning of jihad from one of personal fulfillment and struggle to its current interpretation a call for violence and bloodshed. Qutb's writings have helped inspire at least two generations of terrorists. Even bin Laden's ideological lineage can be traced to Qutb and the Brotherhood.
One last thing about Qutb. His story disproves the truism that "if they get to know us, they'll love us." Qutb was a relatively free-thinking Muslim until he came to study in America in the late '40's. He was horrified by the social mores and the free wheeling sexuality of post War America, can you imagine his reaction if he would have come over twenty years later? Qutb returned to Egypt convinced that the west was immoral and decadent. Next thing you know he's inspiring fanatics to kill Nasser. I'm not saying that we should not have cultural exchanges or permit foreign students, I'm just saying that it is not the magic bullet that many consider it to be.
No Hump Day Highlights for the second straight week. They're actually make me work for the pittance that they pay me. If I can I'll post tonight or tomorrow morning.
Nick Kristof is always at his best when he is talking about the Far East, but his latest series is above and beyond his previous work. Last year Kristof paid to free two sex workers in Cambodia and he recently returned there to see how they have fared since. The result has been a riveting series.
A hat tip and a bow to the brave people of Iraq. We may not know where these elections may take them, but the remarkable turnout was an encouraging sign. Election photos and updates can be found here. My favorite pic is this one posted by a blogger in Baghdad. Walter Russell Mead notes the ties between tyranny and terrorism and declares that "each vote strikes at terror." A voter in the town of Baquba shares the sentiment but in more graphic terms. Jim Hoagland is hopeful about what the election means and uber-realist Fareed Zakaria says that having elections does not mean that you have a democracy. Ironically Zakaria's notion also held by the idealist Natan Sharansky.
Not everything out there is about the elections. Tom Wolfe (yes that Tom Wolfe) chimes in on W's inauguration speech and traces its lineage to the Monroe Doctrine. An interesting piece in the Washington Times spotlights the sham Egyptian presidential election scheduled for October. An LA Times op-ed expands on a topic that I brought up this week and am pessimistic about - the reunification of China and Taiwan. Thomas Friedman declares himself a geo-green. Reduce our reliance on oil and the producing countries will be forced to open up their economies and societies. The focus is on the Middle East, but this would also work for Venezuela. Despite his assertion to the contrary doesn't that make Friedman a neo-con? An op-ed in the NY Times urges the Jewish people and Israel to stop using the Holocaust card. David has grown up to be Goliath so they need new tactics to garner international support. A decent argument is made, but the state of Israel has to be the puniest Goliath I've ever seen.A bona fide foreign aid supporter thinks that once it comes to aid that less can be more. Finally I am reluctant to mention it since it is going to go nowhere, but Andres Oppenheimer reports on Jimmy Carter's plan to save the OAS and democracy in Latin America.
