http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/163197.html You just keep on telling yourself, while you drive around with relatively cheap oil, bought at the price of the "monies" sent to the freedom-repressing dictators.
You keep blaming others for your own problems.....rise up, take charge - get rid of Islam as a governing force, that is holding you back more than anything else. Religion has no business in governence.....get rid of Islam in government and see how quickly freedoms result. DD
How are these my problems? I'm not Muslim by any stretch of the imagination. However, American foreign policy in the area is corrosive, and a major reason why there is a democracy deficit. Ironically, with Islamist parties embracing democracy, and propelling it forward, your argument is holding little water. I'll agree that the long-term implications can be off-putting. Ideally, I'd like to see an atheist head of state in this world---that includes America. But you can't always get what you want. The Middle East is filled with people who believe in the Muslim faith. Democracy means giving power to these people; it means giving power to Islam. If you can't live with that, then continue endorsing your government's position of imposing secular dictatorships in the area.
He must be talking about the Taliban and their embracing of Western Embassies today. http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_new...ted-in-multiple-taliban-attacks-in-kabul?lite DD
Are you claiming that a) a functioning democracy has been propelled forward in any of the Arab countries b) that the Islamists were the driving force behind pushing a democracy, and that they have proven that they embrace democracy? The way it has actually happened is that regular people, liberal people, started protests against repression, that Islamists later joined these protests, piggybacked them with their own agenda, and are now taking power because they are the most organized ones after many years of repression, and despite that repression, because they can rely on religious power structures which survived the repression. Whether the Islamists' goal is to actually install a democracy is highly doubtful. Their goal was to take the opportunity to take power. What they will do with it remains to be seen.
You do realize that Muslim does not equal Islamist right? And it is sort of a "HAVE TO BE ONE" type of deal, where people have not really had the choice in the last 50 years, so calling everyone Muslim is like calling everyone that once went to church Christian. DD
You can thank American policy for the organization bit. ex: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943664,00.html
Don't you find it funny that America's FOREIGN policy is the root of all that poverty, and greed by fake religious leaders? It is easier to blame your neighbor than to fix up your own house. DD
Oh, but wait, I thought Muslims were ALL Islamists, and Islamists were ALL fascists, and well, ALL fascists are bad. For the purposes of this discussion it seems like that is the MO. It's a good thing we're at the point where we can talk in specificialites when it comes to the people of the Middle East. Should we begin by separating out the Shia from the Sunni?
I want to seperate ISLAM from governance. Get rid of an archaic belief system that represses women, and embrace freedom of choice in regards to religion, and even NOT believing, and you have something. DD
American foreign policy is a doozy. It has consistently been on the wrong side of freedom in many regions of the world. It is not the sole cause of every problem in the world, but it is a significant factor.
Well, I want to stop the evangelicals from hijacking the general election, but I can't really do that can I, without suspending American democracy. The majority of people in the Middle East are Muslims. It follows that democracy to the region empowers Islam, because even if you think their belief system is archaic and quaint, they sure as hell don't. So put your beliefs out there. Would you rather a dictatorship that imposes secularism, or a democracy that imposes Islam? The first choice is the default option of a government accustomed to exporting "capitalism and freedom" at gunpoint, so I don't blame you one lick if you choose that.
I'm sure it's all the fault of Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Halliburton, Condaleeza Rice, Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers, Chief Justice Roberts and George W. Bush
But FOREIGN Policy is not foreign rule or empire building, those other governments could just say piss off.... There is nothing wrong with a country looking out for it's own best interests and it's peoples interests. Maybe if the Middle Eastern countries would do that instead of lining their own pockets and oppressing their own people and forcing religion down their throats they could actually accomplish something. DD
