Osama, Verbatim

Remarks from the Fray:

Thanks to Slate for giving us another chance to at least encounter other opinions - whether we agree with them or not.

I would certainly tend to AGREE with BL in his assessment that the US administration uses its ideals as mere lipservice to cover its real motives, that the US administration (dominated in almost all key positions by 'ex-' big corporate cronies) is really simply a voice for Big Business interests and that these interests subvert and use the ideals simply to further their own interests. In a rare display of honesty, John Bolton recently stated quite openly that the US is and will continue to pursue its OWN interests and agenda in the Middle East and Iraq, and the sooner the Iraqis realised it and came to terms with it, the sooner a settlement could be reached.

Where we might differ with BL is that he looks to a palpably FAILED system as his answer. There were times when the Moslem culture was more open and tolerant than the West but anyone who has read the history of the Ottoman and Seljuk Turks at their height (let alone the recent rule of the 'Faithful' in Afghanistan) would hardly look to Moslem theocratic rule as the answer to this world's problems.

It is certainly true that BL has succeeded beyond his wildest expectations in affecting and changing the world but his main success has been in allowing the extremists of the other side to use it as an excuse to further their own selfish interests and agenda, and to enrich the oil and armaments industries as they could never have hoped to do without his activities. The victor has been extremism and greed on both sides. So what we need to do is to try to make the PURPORTED ideals of the US into the REAL SYSTEM and apply it equitably - instead of milking the poor third world for the benefit of US and western society, and rich corporations in particular, we need to find ways spread the wealth and prosperity, the freedom and democracy, and regrettably I cannot see BL's theocratic society or ANY theocratic society (with their long long history of intolerance and cruelty) becoming the means to achieving this.

--distantvoice

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(9/14)

• Broder: A Bellwether Town's Forecast
• Meyerson: Assembling an Obama Nation
• Froomkin: A Reversal for the White House?
• Editorial: The Bush Administration's Silence