>
>If you don't read the NewYorkTimes, you won't have seen this
>article, which offers an informed and balanced view---:
>
> >The Big Terrible
>>By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN>
>>AMMAN, Jordan
>>
>> By quirk of fate I have been in Jordan for much of the World Trade
>>Center crisis. Sitting here, I've been struck by the number of
>>e-mails that have reached me from friends around the Arab-Muslim
>>world from Kuwait and Cairo, from Lebanon and Turkey all just
>>wanting to say how upset they were with what happened and checking
>>if the family was O.K. In their own way, they each echoed what a
>>secretary in Jordan tried to say to me in the most eloquent broken
>>English that this terrorist attack was "the big terrible."
>>
>> I relate this not to suggest that my friends around the Middle
>>East reflect all public opinion out here. They do not. One need
>>only visit some of the most popular Arabic Web sites and chat rooms
>>to see that public opinion in the Arab world is split about 50-50
>>between those appalled by the bombing and those applauding it. The
>>harshest e-mails, Arab techies tell me, come from Islamists in
>>Saudi Arabia and the gulf, home to some of the hijackers.
>>
>> No, I relate this simply to say that America still has many
>>admirers in this part of the world. For all that Middle Easterners
>>get enraged with America, many others value it, envy it and want
>>their kids there. They envy the sense of ownership that Americans
>>have over their own government, they envy its naοve optimism, its
>>celebration of individual freedom and its abiding faith that the
>>past won't always bury the future. For a brief, terrifying moment
>>last week people out here got a glimpse of what the world could be
>>like without America, and many did not like it. America is not
>>something external to them; people carry around pieces of it in
>>ways often not articulated.
>>
>> Why does all this matter? Because we need the help of the moderate
>>Arab states to fight this war. And for now, most of these Arab
>>leaders are ready to cooperate with us because enough of their
>>publics are tilted our way. But the moderate Arab leaders are
>>praying that the U.S. will proceed carefully and surgically,
>>because they know that public opinion here, even after all the
>>American deaths, is by no means solidly pro-American.
>>
>> On Sunday I interviewed Jordan's King Abdullah, one of America's
>>real friends. He had three wise messages: We can win if you
>>Americans don't forget who you are, if you don't forget who your
>>friends are and if we work together. "The terrorists are trying to
>>break down the fabric of the U.S.," said the Jordanian monarch.
>>"They want to break down what America stands for. The terrorists
>>actually want to provoke attacks on Arabs or Muslims in the U.S.,
>>because if the American communities start going after each other,
>>if we see America fragment, then you destroy that special thing
>>that America stands for. That's what the terrorists want they
>>want to be able to turn to your friends here and say, `Look, this
>>is all a myth.'
>>
>> "That is why you have to be very careful when you respond make
>>sure you respond in a way that punishes the real perpetrators, that
>>brings justice, not revenge, because otherwise you will be going
>>against your own ideals, and that is what the terrorists want
>>most."
>>
>> At the same time, U.S. strategy can't just be about punishing the
>>bad guys. It also has to be about helping the good guys. Jordan is
>>a country with a decent government and an economy that despite
>>the Intifada grew 3.9 percent last year, thanks largely to a
>>free-market approach, with an emphasis on software, technology and
>>textile development that is drawing U.S. investors. That's a lot of
>>jobs. (Jordan is also the first Arab country to sign a free trade
>>agreement with the U.S., but ratification has been foolishly held
>>up by the Senate.) In short, Jordan is becoming a good Arab model
> >for how to do things right. We have a fundamental interest in this
>>model succeeding, for all its neighbors to see. Terrorists thrive
>>in failing, stagnant, weak states with illegitimate regimes not
>>countries on the rise.
>>
>> Which brings up the king's last point: "The bad guys work
>>together, but we don't. The terrorist groups are a global
>>organization. They know how to cooperate and stay focused on their
>>military objectives. We have not. Some people didn't want to share
>>intelligence. [Some] said, Islamic terrorism is not my problem, and
>>looked the other way. We can defeat them, but only if we learn to
>>cooperate globally as effectively as they do."
>>
>>http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/18/opinion/18FRIE.html?ex=1001808564&ei=1&en
>=e81762e1cc88bce0
--
Camilla Flintermann, former CG for Peter 83/70/55
Oxford, Ohio
<[log in to unmask]>
on the web at http://www.geocities.com/camillahf/index.html
"Ask me about the CARE list for Caregivers of Parkinsonians ! "
And visit the CARE webring at http://www.pdcaregiver.org
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