Quote:
Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira
Well, Giving Palestine back to Egypt and Jordan seems like a good idea. The problem is there is four million people in there. And if Palestine becomes Jordan and Egypt, what the hell do you think the palestinian extremists are going to do? They are going to start fucking up Jordan and Egypt. They will want independence because they want to go out and fight the Israelis once more.
|
The Palestinians will never fuck up Jordan or Egypt, for the simple fact that if they act up, both countries will gladly Black September the Pals' asses into submission. Unlike the Israelis, Arab countries almost never make peace deals with resistance groups within their borders...they simply clamp down upon them ruthlessly, and genocide the populations if the resistance gains popular support.
And as cold as it may sound, I really could care less if that's what happens to the Palestinians. I just can't bring myself to feel a whole lot of sympathy for them, no matter how much I might occasionally find the Israelis detestable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira
And for the democratic arab countries. There is Jordan. It's not democratic but the King did say he wants Jordan to be a Democratic country. He took some steps towards democracy. Small steps but steps none the less. It has awesome liberal heads of state. There are problems in the country such as the lack of water and lack of oil but their Nuclear powerplants the Jordanian government is building would help with those problems.
|
Jordan is way, WAY away from being a democracy. It is a secular monarchy with a minor facade of democracy laid out on top. If Jordan is the best case you can cite for Arab democracy, you've got a serious problem.
The norm in the Arab world has been gangsters like Saddam and Qaddafi, and that is why I really don't think we need any more Arab countries. Their record doesn't lie. Those people are not capable of building democratic, free societies. They won't be until they (A.) become much more secular, (B.) learn how to educate themselves and build functioning societies, and (C.) stop blaming everyone else (meaning, America and Israel) for their problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira
If the protesters in Iran can finally top the Ayatollah and Dinner Jacket, then we would have Iran too.
|
...which, unfortunately, is not going to happen. I respect the bravery of the Iranian protesters, but the unfortunate fact is that they're outnumbered and will never be able to develop into a major revolutionary movement. For every one of the pro-democracy protesters, there are about 20 ultra-conservative Shi'a who support Ahmadinejad and are proud of the Islamic Revolution. Iran, too, is going to need to undergo enormous cultural change before it will become a democracy.