Though I agree that we need to understand how American foreign policy is
understood in the Middle East, I generally agree with Lucy's comments.
My own point would be this: there is *nothing* we in the west can do, short
of wholly cutting our ties to the rest of the world or ceasing to exist
ourselves, that would satisfy the "Islamicists" as these folks call
themselves. Among our sins for which we are demonized are the fact that we
not only educated women, we allow women to participate fully in the
political arena. And we actually believe in democratic principles, as hard
as they can be to put consistently into practice. Above all, we believe in
"nation-states" and genuine religious freedom. And we are happy to help
people in other parts of the world follow our lead on these points: in other
words, we are dreadful neighbors. Of course modernity will encroach upon
the Middle East regardless of what we do.
We need to understand how deeply our view of the world differs from theirs,
and how little we can do to redress these grievances.
A further point: the man who murdered 5500 people is (almost certainly)
wealthier than anyone he killed, his family could probably afford to rebuild
the WTC themselves. Issues of wealth and poverty do indeed surround first
world/third world interaction, but wealth and poverty are not the issues
here.
Ted Davis
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