quote:
Originally posted by Magness:
But the reason that I said that I think the Arab world needs to grow up was not strictly to say that they need to become liberal democratic societies. Rather, the world is rapidly become a very small place and if the Arab world want to interact with the Western world, they need to be more accepting, a little more open-minded.
If they hate Western culture so very much, then perhaps the should do a post WW2 communist China and cut all ties to the rest of the world. Oooops. No oil revenue. Whether they like it or not, a vast portion of the Arab world's economy is based on oil production and sales to the West. We are their customer. I tend to think that they cannot economically survive without us. (And the reverse is probably also true.)
I'm not really certain where I'm going with this reply, other than to say. I think that I was correct in the first place, The Arab world does need to grow up. I'm not saying that they need to be like us. But they need to be more tolerant of us. We are completely tolerant of their monarchies and dictatorships, so long as they don't impact our vital interests. We haven't tried to boot out the Saudi monarchy, even if we might think that a democracy would be better. We only attacked Iraq after they threatened a vital Western interest. We haven't attacked Iran, regardless of how much they seem to hate us. They haven't attacked any vital Western interests.
I suppose the most simple way to say this is "Don't bug us and we won't bug you."
Very good points, now, lets reverse the situation and apply it to us! They don't want us to become totalitarian, they don't want to force their beliefs upon us, they are attacked when they act in a way that is detrimental to our interest... so tell me, who's forcing who?
Now, what do you think would happen if they decided to cut ties with the West? The West would go in, just like we did in Iraq, to "fix" the problem from our perspective. The reality of it is that the vast majority of Arabs living in the Middle East don't get anything from the oil revenues, they go straight into the hands of the princes and rulers. Take the oil revenues out and it won't affect the majority of the population.
The Arab world doesn't need to grow up, it's the World (including us) who needs to grow up and learn to interact!