Offers of Financial Aid

Submitted by Fredric Fastow (United States), Nov 7, 2006 at 10:47

Dear Mr. Pipes.

Can you please refresh my memory - exactly what "offers of financial aid and attempts to build democracy in the Muslim world" do you mean in regard to the Bush administration's response to acts of unprovoked Muslim aggression? For that matter, which "acts of unprovoked Muslim aggression" did you have in mind? If you mean the attacks on the World Trade Center, then I guess you are referring to the continuing war in Afghanistan and our parallel efforts at foreign aid and support of the Karzai government.

If you mean the war in Iraq, I think that was not a response to acts of unprovoked aggression. It was more a response to, shall we say, incorrect intelligence about Saddam's WMD. The attempt to build democracy in Iraq was a "response" to the disorder into which Iraq quickly sank after our military victory there.

However, I believe you yourself have said that a nation's objective in war should be victory, not social improvements. I think you need to say more, therefore, about the details and significance of any "financial aid and attempts to build democracy in the Muslim world."

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