Wednesday, April 09, 2003
So today I watched CNN in the lunchroom at work this morning with a bunch of other people as they took down the Saddam statue. My friend Sahra, who is a beautiful woman from Egypt, was even more enthusiastic about it than me: "I just hope that they finally killed [Saddam]!"
It was yet another war for which the market scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark was a metaphor:
The Arab warrior blusters and threatens and waves his sword, while Indy just grimaces and pulls out his pistol and shoots the guy. (I wish I had thought of the metaphor, but I have to give credit to dfwgator on FR for it). I'm hoping that this one will finally cause enough soul-searching on the Arab street to cause a change in attitudes. I asked Daniel Pipes Monday night at his lecture, "What event or events might change the Arab mind?" And he wouldn't state a specific example, but gave two events that had that effect on other populations: Berlin in 1945, and Berlin in 1989. A profoundly violent one and a profoundly peaceful one. I think we have seen both today. The anguished reactions from many in other Arab states make me hopeful, ashere.
Amir Taheri says today: 'Here is the first lesson to draw from the liberation of Baghdad: Iraqis, and Arabs in general, are no different from other human beings. They, too, prefer to live in freedom and dignity. They, too, are grateful to those who come to their aid in their hour of need. They, too, reject the disease of anti-Americanism that prevents so many otherwise sane people from acknowledging that the United States can be a force for the good."
And my dear friend Luigi emailed me a picture from the front page of today's Corriere Della Sera.
I will go back to talking about shallow things at some point. But today is not a shallow day.
It was yet another war for which the market scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark was a metaphor:
The Arab warrior blusters and threatens and waves his sword, while Indy just grimaces and pulls out his pistol and shoots the guy. (I wish I had thought of the metaphor, but I have to give credit to dfwgator on FR for it). I'm hoping that this one will finally cause enough soul-searching on the Arab street to cause a change in attitudes. I asked Daniel Pipes Monday night at his lecture, "What event or events might change the Arab mind?" And he wouldn't state a specific example, but gave two events that had that effect on other populations: Berlin in 1945, and Berlin in 1989. A profoundly violent one and a profoundly peaceful one. I think we have seen both today. The anguished reactions from many in other Arab states make me hopeful, ashere.
Amir Taheri says today: 'Here is the first lesson to draw from the liberation of Baghdad: Iraqis, and Arabs in general, are no different from other human beings. They, too, prefer to live in freedom and dignity. They, too, are grateful to those who come to their aid in their hour of need. They, too, reject the disease of anti-Americanism that prevents so many otherwise sane people from acknowledging that the United States can be a force for the good."
And my dear friend Luigi emailed me a picture from the front page of today's Corriere Della Sera.
I will go back to talking about shallow things at some point. But today is not a shallow day.
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