IP: Re: Alternate view of Arab anger

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

I don't find this a rant. I said a long time ago that I want to present a 
variety of opinions . djf


> Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 07:56:30 -0500
> From: Steve Cohen <stevecoh1 () home com>
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Subject: Re: IP: Alternate view of Arab anger
>
> Dave -
>
> (I don't expect you'll put this on IP.  Perhaps you'll dismiss it as some 
> rant.  But if you don't want to post it, I do wish you'd find something 
> else to counter Podhoretz' argument with.  His position is enormously 
> hateful to me - and what's scarier, this position is apparently being 
> taken seriously at the highest levels).
>
> While I actually agree with Norman Podhoretz that Israel is only a 
> subordinate issue fueling Arab anger against America, I must say that I 
> find the "explanation" he does offer for the phenomenon incredibly hateful 
> and ultimately empty.  These are the voices that are apparently urging 
> Bush to take out the whole Arab world now - and not just the people who 
> attacked us.
>
> But notice that Podhoretz never, in his whole venom-soaked piece, attempts 
> to locate the source of this supposed pan-Arab hatred for all things 
> Western except in some obviously incomprehensible psychosis of the Moslem 
> mindset.  He scoffs at Arabic textbooks which claim that imperialism has 
> been inflicted on the Arab nations.
>
> And yet: why does the United States even care about the Middle East? After 
> all, there is no such interest in Africa or the South Pacific or other 
> poor regions far from our shores.  Why has the Republican party repeatedly 
> said that the Middle East was a strategic area and all these stupid little 
> wars Clinton got involved in weren't?  Everyone knows the answer.  Why has 
> there been so little mention of  it?  THE MIDDLE EAST HAS OIL.  The West 
> acts toward the Middle East as if it regards this fact as an unfortunate 
> mistake of nature to be rectified by any means necessary.  This causes us 
> to view these Arab states and their people as means to the end of oil 
> extraction.  And it's been going on for years. While rhetoric about 
> "imperialism" is often overblown, in this particular case, it's almost 
> classically true.  We need their oil and will stop at practically nothing 
> to get it.
>
> Without confronting THIS issue, I maintain that no discussion of Middle 
> Eastern politics can be fully honest.  And no one, on either side, is 
> discussing it.  The bin Ladenists don't discuss it.  Evidently, they see 
> no political gain in talking about oil.  The issue doesn't resonate with 
> the Arabic masses, perhaps because they can see no benefit.  What 
> difference to them if the wealth further enriches the various sultans who 
> have taken control of it, as opposed to the Americans?  The religious 
> issue, though, is more potent politically.
>
> The conservative Arab rulers don't discuss it.  They're scared to death of 
> it.  Their wealth and position are entirely dependent on the oil. And so 
> they maintain an uneasy codependency with the bin Ladenists, covertly 
> financing them, yet fearing them, to deflect mass anger from themselves.
>
> And certainly we're not discussing it.  It doesn't fit with our self-image 
> of doing good everywhere we go.  Much better to numb ourselves with "They 
> hate us for what we are, for our modernity, our democratic values."  And 
> blah blah blah.  Think about it.  Can you imagine, for even one second, 
> anyone saying, "I hate them for their democratic values"?  I can't.  OK, 
> now how about this one: "I hate them because they always lecture us about 
> democratic values, meanwhile, look what they're doing to us."  That one 
> has a little bit more of a ring to it, doesn't it?
>
> How can we say "they hate us for what we are, not for what we do", when we 
> are unwilling to see, let alone mention, the things we do?  News reports 
> indicate that the Bush administration is torn between the Colin Powells 
> and voices like this one.
> We need intelligence and understanding, and instead we close our minds. 
> God help us all.
>
> Steven M. Cohen



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