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PrioritiesReader comment on item: Articulating American Ideals to Muslims Submitted by Art Deco (United States), Jan 20, 2006 at 18:51 The sole concern of the Muslim World today is decades of the Israel occupation of Palestinian lands while America prefers to see the continuation of the never ending peace process because the existence of the "the low intensity conflict", as the situation is in Palestine, is a valid pretext for American interference in the internal affairs of the Muslim World - read Henry Kissinger's rules of conflict in his book " Diplomacy"....Off the top of my head, I can think of some 43 countries where the majority of the population is at least nominally muslim. There is considerable variation among them in level of affluence, in ethnic and confessional diversity, in their degree of internal order, in political and economic institutions, and in geographic locale. Presumably these countries are like any other and must address one or another deficiency in their common life: e.g. street crime; excesses in public sector borrowing and expenditure and the vagaries of the international currency market; defects in military discipline, performance, and procurement; defects in the performance of the civil administration; political corruption; self-defeating mercantile regulations; defects in industrial relations; failures of public health; indigency and vagrancy; ineffectual school systems; environmental degradation; defects in urban planning; slapdash municipal services; and the usual conflicts over manners and morals in an unsettled society. I see these are mere details, and the only thing that really matters to anyone is the pride of a small segment of the larger Arab world, a segment whose political class has been for more than six decades notably truculent, corrupt, and bereft of constructive ideas and purposes. Despite the incalculable damage on its credibility the US still regards itself as a paragon of truth and Democracy. It expects us to regard WMD hoax, false anthrax exhibition at the General Assembly, existing torture in Abu Ghuraib and Guantanamo, Secret prisons worldwide, renditions, planting of pro-American articles in Iraqi newspapers and host of other dirty tricks as things of the past. Our Big Consciences lobby (eg Human Rights Watch) has adjudged that perhaps 290,000 Iraqis simply disappeared into the maw of the Baa'thist secret police between 1968 and 2003. I am now enlightented that this is of scant consequence and distracts us from addressing the authentic outrages of Cpl. England's human pyramids and of the U.S. Military putting journalists on the payroll. We prefer to live under [dictators] and settle our internal affairs peacefully. We will be democratic in our own sweet way and in our sweet time, without outside interference. If the US wishes to help the starting point should be Palestine. There are Men, Women and Children there who are in more urgent need of liberation and democracy than anybody else anywhere in the Muslim World.... And the political leadership thereof has rejected three clear opportunities (in 1947, in 1978, and in 2000) to negotiate a modus vivendi with their Jewish neighbors which would in fact allow for domestic self-government. It gets to be a bore. When President Clinton failed to persuade Chairman Arafat to accept peace agreement on Israeli terms.... "Israeli terms" meaning Israel continues to exist? ...the suffering of our brothers in Palestine and the healing may only be achieved when proper treatment is applied.... Means an ethnic cleansing extravaganza that will make the Bosnia war look like a walk in the park?
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