Arab Street
I'll never forget a conversation I had at the table one evening while I was in the seminary. It was in the fall of 2003, a few months after we entered Iraq. My 'heated' conversation was with a Benedictine monk, Fr. Patrick, who was an Air Force Reserve chaplain and had recently spent 30 days in Qatar where the US military placed its command and control center for conducting the ground war in Iraq.
Two facets of our chat stand out clearly in my memory. One argument of Fr. Pat's was that democracy was not a realistic possibility in the Middle East. I had stated that freedom from tyranny was the over-riding justification for the US intervention in that region, and the removal of Hussein was the imperative, first step that had to be taken. Hussein was a thug who threatened and killed his own people and his neighbor's people. Take this monster down, then see if the Iraqis would thrive in freedom.
Also, Fr. Pat insisted that the insurgents (terrorists) were, on the whole, Iraqi's trying to defend their own nation. I suspected that the terrorists were foreign extremists who were recruited by an international network of various groups.
Fr. Pat is of the same mind as many who have always warned that the 'Arab Street' was some amorphous, fathomless, alien people who were hostile to any Western form of society, especially, politically and philosophically, based on the long history of autocratic theocracies in Muslim nation-states. I would ask Fr. Pat today whether the Arab Street may have more in common with us than he first thought.
Two facets of our chat stand out clearly in my memory. One argument of Fr. Pat's was that democracy was not a realistic possibility in the Middle East. I had stated that freedom from tyranny was the over-riding justification for the US intervention in that region, and the removal of Hussein was the imperative, first step that had to be taken. Hussein was a thug who threatened and killed his own people and his neighbor's people. Take this monster down, then see if the Iraqis would thrive in freedom.
Also, Fr. Pat insisted that the insurgents (terrorists) were, on the whole, Iraqi's trying to defend their own nation. I suspected that the terrorists were foreign extremists who were recruited by an international network of various groups.
Fr. Pat is of the same mind as many who have always warned that the 'Arab Street' was some amorphous, fathomless, alien people who were hostile to any Western form of society, especially, politically and philosophically, based on the long history of autocratic theocracies in Muslim nation-states. I would ask Fr. Pat today whether the Arab Street may have more in common with us than he first thought.
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