Very Interesting

Submitted by Avraham (United States), Nov 19, 2003 at 21:00

Dr. Pipes, this is a very insightful article. However I would add that Iraqification is impossible since there are no Iraqis. What I mean is that Arabs and Muslims in general do not identify themselves at the level of the nation-state; their terms of self-identification are either at the subnational, tribal level, or at the supranational level of the Ummah. These collective communal identities are recipes for disaster, as has been shown by-among many others (including yourself)-Dr. Bernard Lewis. Allowing socalled "Iraqis" to govern Iraq's domestic future would be a big mistake, given the seemingly incessant Muslim desire for revenge and religio-nationalistic pride over socioeconomic self-sufficiency and coping with reality. As you have noted before, "Militant Islam is the problem, moderate Islam is the solution," and we need a full-scale support system for moderate Muslims-starting at the municipal level-to successfully reconstruct Iraq. I agree with you that Americans are less up to this job than Iraqis are to Usama bin Laden's job, but there is never a good reason to abandon what is right because the ...westerners are-as always-so shortsighted.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".