[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JAN07/SOTU.flv 400 300]
Many bloggers who are far more educated, erudite and knowledgeable than myself will have much to say about tonight’s State of the Union speech. So I’ve selected just one minute of it.
Bush refers to the 19 men who “got onto airplanes” and came “to kill us.” Fifteen of those men were from Saudi Arabia.
Tonight, Bush said, “The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies, and share in the rights of all humanity.”
I’ve been to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and let me tell you something. Secure it is. Free it isn’t.
Hear any talk of invading Saudi Arabia? Didn’t think so.
Doug, I love your remark, “We made it possible for them to start it, but we can’t finish it for them.” So true! In removing strongman Saddam Hussein, we created a vacuum politically, in which various factions can now fight with one another, and we can’t stop them. Saddam Hussein kept a sort of “peace” and order in Iraq through a reign of terror: “troublemaking” individuals or groups were tortured and/or killed. “Law and order” therefore came with a heavy price tag.
But now our war in Iraq has opened a Pandora’s box of chaotic violence. For the average Shiite or Sunni Iraqi, Saddam’s regime was oppressive and harsh, but at least you knew what the rules were, and more or less what to expect by obeying or not obeying those rules. At least the average Shiite or Sunni could leave his house, go to his job, and feel relatively confident that he would come home to his family again, alive, for supper that evening. Now, many Iraqis are jobless and in any case, afraid to leave their homes. Nobody knows if he stands on line for a job, whether he’ll be blown to bits by a suicide bomber.
One final observation, related to my first posted comment: we as Americans can not forcibly yank another country’s culture or religion out of the Middle Ages mindset. Sure, we Americans may think women are treated unfairly as “second class,” or too restricted, by another culture or religion that is foreign to us. India’s long history of a traditional caste system is a concept totally alien to America, a country where a poor kid can grow up to become the U.S. President. But America can not force quick changes in the thinking of other peoples regarding their culture or religion. Certainly not in the mere several years time we’ve had troops in Iraq. Such changes are an evolutionary process that take time.
And so, unless we are willing to restore law and order in Iraq by instituting, in effect, another dictatorial Saddam form of iron fisted government – which of course we will not – we can only watch and wait and hope for Iraq to sort things out for itself: What role religious laws might take in its next form of government, and whether that new government will choose a dictatorship, or a democratic leader.
Welcome back, Cactus Lizzie! Another cogent and compelling comment.
I’m of the opinion that we have no choice but to let this mess play out on its own. It’s THEIR country, it’s THEIR civil war. We made it possible for them to start it, but we can’t finish it for them.
President Bush keeps up a steady drumbeat talking about freedom and democracy in the Middle East. But in order to create the kind of freedom and democracy he envisions for Iraq, Afghanistan, and other Islamic countries, you really have to have a SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
The problem is, a whole lot of devout followers of the teachings of Muhammed don’t WANT a separation of church and state! They see the intertwining of Islamic law and government law as morally correct, a natural way of life, and a bulwark against chaos and decay in society.
Muslim people are not the only ones who point fingers at the unraveling of the fibers of American moral society. Fundamentalist Christian preachers in the U.S. do it all the time! They point to the removal of prayer from schools, the “need” to teach CREATIONISM along with Evolution in the public school system, our moral decadence of abortion, euthanasia, and so on…You could even go back to the removal of Sunday “blue laws” if you really wanted to push the argument. Remember that? Stores were closed on Sundays, so employees could have a day off with their families, and go to church!
So let’s not be hypocritical. There are plenty of the religious right pulpit pounders in our society, who want to return more religion into OUR lawmaking. So why are we trying to cram down the throats of Iraqis a form of government which, in order to function, needs at least a reasonable degree of separation of church and state? The American way of democratic lawmaking is not suitable for every culture. We need to stop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.