Where Are We Headed in the Middle East?
Over the last few days, I have grown increasingly concerned as I watch the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah in Lebanon. I have tried to make some sense of what this newest round of war means, because this particular attack from Lebanon has a very different feel to it. It begins to look more and more like an extension of the struggle the insurgents are fighting in Iraq and the ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan by the Taliban faction. It almost seems like a fire that is spreading a little bit at a time and if not contained will come to touch every person in the Western world.
NPR recently carried a series of broadcasts that provided an historical overview of the area we now call the Arab world. Most of us in the west, including our historically clueless President and his advisors, have failed to understand that the insurgent Arab factions we and the Israelis are up against are waging a very different kind of fight than Western nations are fighting. A significant number of Arabs have joined the insurgency in Iraq, in the Palestinian territories, in Afghanistan and now in Lebanon for matters of honor: the honor of their respective tribes, the honor of their particular sect of Islam, the honor of their ancestors who they believe have suffered egregiously because of the "interference" of Westerners into their culture and society.
First came the crusaders, hundreds of years ago. Then Napoleon and the French armies completely overwhelmed the army of Egypt and set into motion the resentment and anger that is driving the fighting today. After that came the British. At the end of World War I, the European powers divvied up what was left of the Ottoman Empire and stage was set for everything else which has happened since. What we are witnessing today in Act 13 or 14 of what will probably be a very long and deadly drama.
In a recent article in the Boston Globe, Alan Dershowitz, the noted attorney and legal scholar, defined one of the significant differences between the two different side of this fight. In the West, we have moved beyond the need to avenge the bruised honor of our particular "clan." We established the rule of law and have aspired to promote tolerance, justice and fairness in our societies. Chivalry was a nice idea. A protracted shootout between the Hatfield's and the McCoys is no longer a suitable way to work out our differences in our part of the world. In the West, chivary is an idea whose time has passed. The nations of the West don't always realize their aspirations, but we at least have some worthy goals to shoot for.
In the Moslem world the vestiges of tribal and clan loyalty are still very strong. So honor killings and suicide bombers are what is called for, in the current environment, from the perspective of a significant number of Moslems. This is not about what Islam preaches. It is more about how the teachings of Islam are interpreted... the eye of the beholder thing.
I won't say that those of us in the West don't fall victim to this kind of thinking, even in recent history. The fighting in Northern Ireland is certainly proof of that, with the Catholic factions fighting the Protestant factions essentially over something that happened over 400 years ago. It was some obscure battle very long ago that kicked off all the bloodshed that killed and injured hundreds and thousands of people in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
In the present situation, there can be no negotiated resolution. There can only be a long protracted struggle in which one side eventually totally defeats and humiliates the other side. In this fight, there can be no middle ground. A line has been drawn in the sand and I very much fear that what happened on 9/11 has set into a motion events which will in time touch every one of us in one way or another.
As Americans we do not yet understand our enemy. In our minds, we just want to bring democracy and "civilization" to a part of the world which seems to us a bit archaic and chaotic at best and barbaric at worst. And we place a very high value on life, so that the loss of a single American is keenly felt. This is the same perspective the Israelis bring to their current struggle to survive as a nation. We see the other side as barbaric and as placing very little value on a human life. We see Al Quaida and Hezbollah and the Palestinans as willing to sacrifice innocent men, woman and children to achieve to realize their goals.
On other side of the fence, there is an entirely different sense of the situation. To a significant portion of the Moslem world, the values and the ideas of the West are threatening their very way of life. They have to insulate themselves from the corrupting influence of the West. Their way of life has been compromised and damaged and they cannot permit that to continue to happen. In their sphere of influence, there is not even general agreement on how to preserve their way of life. The Shiites have chosen to take one path and the Sunni Moslems have taken another path. So if the Shiites and Sunnis are not fighting us in the West, they are in conflict with one another. In the war between Iraq and Iran in the late 20th century, over a million soldiers died, counting all Iranian and Iraqi soldiers. The value of life in such a world is measured in the degree to which one is willing to sacrifice one's life in the name of the holy struggle. And if some other people, whose only involvement was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, also die in the process, well, that is just regretable collateral damage.
A democratic nation which tries to defend itself against people who think like that cannot win, no matter how that nation chooses to play the game of war. To fight fairly and honorably guarantees sure defeat at the hands of the "barbarians." To fight fiercely and in the process injure or kill innocent civilians, the democratic nation becomes the villian.
Our adversary in this current fight will never give up and will never change their way of thinking about the value of life or the way the world works. And we will not allow our own way of life to be destroyed by such a people. So the way I see it, things are going to get very ugly before this fight is over. The events of 9/11 were just the one of the first vollies fired. And all the rest that follows is history unfolding before our eyes. I am very fearful about where all this is leading us. Only time will tell if my fears are unwarranted. However, I am not overly hopeful about the ultimate outcome of all this.
NPR recently carried a series of broadcasts that provided an historical overview of the area we now call the Arab world. Most of us in the west, including our historically clueless President and his advisors, have failed to understand that the insurgent Arab factions we and the Israelis are up against are waging a very different kind of fight than Western nations are fighting. A significant number of Arabs have joined the insurgency in Iraq, in the Palestinian territories, in Afghanistan and now in Lebanon for matters of honor: the honor of their respective tribes, the honor of their particular sect of Islam, the honor of their ancestors who they believe have suffered egregiously because of the "interference" of Westerners into their culture and society.
First came the crusaders, hundreds of years ago. Then Napoleon and the French armies completely overwhelmed the army of Egypt and set into motion the resentment and anger that is driving the fighting today. After that came the British. At the end of World War I, the European powers divvied up what was left of the Ottoman Empire and stage was set for everything else which has happened since. What we are witnessing today in Act 13 or 14 of what will probably be a very long and deadly drama.
In a recent article in the Boston Globe, Alan Dershowitz, the noted attorney and legal scholar, defined one of the significant differences between the two different side of this fight. In the West, we have moved beyond the need to avenge the bruised honor of our particular "clan." We established the rule of law and have aspired to promote tolerance, justice and fairness in our societies. Chivalry was a nice idea. A protracted shootout between the Hatfield's and the McCoys is no longer a suitable way to work out our differences in our part of the world. In the West, chivary is an idea whose time has passed. The nations of the West don't always realize their aspirations, but we at least have some worthy goals to shoot for.
In the Moslem world the vestiges of tribal and clan loyalty are still very strong. So honor killings and suicide bombers are what is called for, in the current environment, from the perspective of a significant number of Moslems. This is not about what Islam preaches. It is more about how the teachings of Islam are interpreted... the eye of the beholder thing.
I won't say that those of us in the West don't fall victim to this kind of thinking, even in recent history. The fighting in Northern Ireland is certainly proof of that, with the Catholic factions fighting the Protestant factions essentially over something that happened over 400 years ago. It was some obscure battle very long ago that kicked off all the bloodshed that killed and injured hundreds and thousands of people in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
In the present situation, there can be no negotiated resolution. There can only be a long protracted struggle in which one side eventually totally defeats and humiliates the other side. In this fight, there can be no middle ground. A line has been drawn in the sand and I very much fear that what happened on 9/11 has set into a motion events which will in time touch every one of us in one way or another.
As Americans we do not yet understand our enemy. In our minds, we just want to bring democracy and "civilization" to a part of the world which seems to us a bit archaic and chaotic at best and barbaric at worst. And we place a very high value on life, so that the loss of a single American is keenly felt. This is the same perspective the Israelis bring to their current struggle to survive as a nation. We see the other side as barbaric and as placing very little value on a human life. We see Al Quaida and Hezbollah and the Palestinans as willing to sacrifice innocent men, woman and children to achieve to realize their goals.
On other side of the fence, there is an entirely different sense of the situation. To a significant portion of the Moslem world, the values and the ideas of the West are threatening their very way of life. They have to insulate themselves from the corrupting influence of the West. Their way of life has been compromised and damaged and they cannot permit that to continue to happen. In their sphere of influence, there is not even general agreement on how to preserve their way of life. The Shiites have chosen to take one path and the Sunni Moslems have taken another path. So if the Shiites and Sunnis are not fighting us in the West, they are in conflict with one another. In the war between Iraq and Iran in the late 20th century, over a million soldiers died, counting all Iranian and Iraqi soldiers. The value of life in such a world is measured in the degree to which one is willing to sacrifice one's life in the name of the holy struggle. And if some other people, whose only involvement was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, also die in the process, well, that is just regretable collateral damage.
A democratic nation which tries to defend itself against people who think like that cannot win, no matter how that nation chooses to play the game of war. To fight fairly and honorably guarantees sure defeat at the hands of the "barbarians." To fight fiercely and in the process injure or kill innocent civilians, the democratic nation becomes the villian.
Our adversary in this current fight will never give up and will never change their way of thinking about the value of life or the way the world works. And we will not allow our own way of life to be destroyed by such a people. So the way I see it, things are going to get very ugly before this fight is over. The events of 9/11 were just the one of the first vollies fired. And all the rest that follows is history unfolding before our eyes. I am very fearful about where all this is leading us. Only time will tell if my fears are unwarranted. However, I am not overly hopeful about the ultimate outcome of all this.
posted by hfireman | 12:57 AM
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