Open Iraq Debate

Here is good back and forth between bloggers, Mr. Soros and Medienkritik about the war in Iraq.

I must admit, there isn't much forth, Soros only responded once and pretty much got whipped.

This is the argument that got me in favor of the Iraq war. But there is a different type of anti-war argument, not put forward by Soros, or many other people for that matter, that has little to do with Bush or UN impotence. The argument is that we are stuck in a major bind because our policies are consistantly anti-Muslim in the Muslim world, and these policies have given rise to Osama Bin Laden's popularity.

Notice in the back and forth above, not a single mention of OBL. We only talk about Saddam, who, while being a threat, cannot be compared to Hitler's growing threat prior to WWII - that is a major stretch, and we all know it.

In the eyes of Muslims, why is it that the US supports the Saudi Royal family? Why is it that the US seems to blindly support Israel, which in the eyes of Muslims is a patently illegitimate state, why does the US support India who violently oppresses Muslims, why does the US support Russia versus the Chechyns, why does the US support China versus their Muslim populations. Don't get me wrong: I do not favor supporting a Palestinian state led by corrupt autocrats, or appeasing Chechyn terrorists....but I do believe that we have put ourselves in a very tricky situation with our dependance on Middle Eastern oil. I believe the first and only true step towards moving ourselves away from supporting horrific regimes is to make a true and bold step towards energy self-sufficiency. So long as we do not make this fundamental effort, I think, out policies will be open to attacks of rabid self-interest.

We are in a disfunctional relationship with the Saudi Royals and the general Arab world. We support corrupt autocrats over religious extremists. And it appears to me that the religious extremists are the ones gaining popularity in the region.

But despite having disfunctional relationships with corrupt Arab leaders, they have not declared war on us. The religious extremists have. We should violently oppose extremists, go in and kill them without worrying about "fairness" or whether our behaviour would hold up in a court of law. This is a war - a war of Sunni Muslim fascists from all around the world attacking the west in an effort to restore pride to the Arab world. These guys are tough - they are the first Arab army to defeat a Western power (russia in afghanistan) in 800 years. They are the first Arab army ever to successfully attack the most powerful nation in the world (9/11). These guys are not to be underestimated. They way to beat them is to make their lives and the lives of anyone who supports them miserable and short. And in conjuction with the war, we move quickly towards energy self sufficiency, hybrid cars, drilling in Alaska, and so forth, weaning our dealings with the Arab world to nil. One of these days, there will be a major pan-Arab civil war. One of these days, Israel is going to have a tough time defining itself as a Jewish state as the Palestinian population rises. And one of these days, Muslims are going to see what a lame world would be offered by OBL and his crony's, and popularized religious extremism will be thrown into the dust bin of history. But so long as we are perceived as self-interested capitalists, only supporting those who can offer us oil and other such resources, our standing in Arab world will be low and we will be subject to the likes of OBL organizing and putting together armies to fight us.