“Washington has been more interested in strongman rule in the Middle East and elsewhere than in encouraging democracy. The result is a credibility problem that accompanied American troops into Iraq and continues to plague them as the United States prepares to hand over sovereignty to local authorities. All the Shahs Men helps clarify why, when many Iraqis heard President George Bush concede that [s]ixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe . . . ~Dr. David S. Robarge, is a member of CIAs History Staff. https://cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no2/article10.html When we look at human conflict across the globe, and particularly the Middle-East, what we see now are the remnants of past events and processes; since the age of exploration and the ascendancy of the Western World as the dominant global power, processes have evolved that have prevented the natural evolution of Middle-Eastern societies. These processes include, invasion, colonialism, empire building, slavery, mercantilism, tactics of divide and conquer, and more recently, co-optation, and government by proxy. These are all human processes and taken over the millennia are part of Human evolution writ large. That does not mean that we need continue our counter-productive and destructive behavior. With modern understandings of Human behavior and social organization and the world’s immense wealth, knowledge and technological prowess, humanity has a bright future ahead, but only if we believe and act as if we have a bright future ahead. We determine our common destiny by the compassion we show in our everyday lives. WE have been blessed in this country with great wealth, freedom and, when compared to the totality of history, a decent political system. WE are also blessed that we are a cross-section of the world’s kaleidoscope of Humanity and have the opportunity to show the rest of the world how attractive our system is by our ability to work together for the mutual benefit of all. This is our true strength and is more powerful than all the military might in the world.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 04:38:18 +0000
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