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March 30, 2006
Behavioral Changes
I've been so busy and distracted that I forgot to make a major point the other day with my post on how our assumptions underlie our foreign policy. Listening to Thomas Friedman on NPR this morning reminded me about it.
The two assumptions governing our policy in Iraq and the larger Middle East are that a certain class Muslims are dangerous and that Muslims can be democratized and reformed. The first assumption can, despite the efforts of the President and many on the Left, only really be changed for the better by Muslims themselves, and recent events are instead tending to solidify and expand the assumption, towards the assumption that all Muslims are warlike and dangerous and that they will give no quarter.
The second assumption, though, is under serious threat by the people increasingly calling for us to pull out of Iraq. But since they aren't thinking through the implications of their proposed policies, they've missed a big factor: if we decide that Iraq is a lost cause, it means that we've decided that democratization and thus presumably pacification of Muslim countries is a waste of time. And that means that when we go to war against Iran and other Muslim countries, which we will continue to do so long as we perceive them as threatening, it will not be to build their nations up but to destroy their nations and kill their people. Not the governments, but the people.
And I really don't think we want to go there.
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