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Originally Posted by Repo
Osama bin Laden must be very pleased since his plan is to install Islamic rule in the tradition of the Ottoman Empire, that covers Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Thanks to President Bush, bin Laden is closer to his goal...
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He would be more pleased if we just gave up and left the reigion, since that's what he told everyone we were gonna do and every day we stay there we make a liar out of him, which makes it tougher for him to recruit more people to his cause.
I think you're forgetting that, whether they're secular or Islamist, what matters is that these are
elected governments. When you criticize Muslims in the middle east for electing governments you don't like and you criticize Americans for electing a government you don't like you make it sound like you hate democracy. Is it wrong for Islamic people to be represented by Islamic governments? If they decide, as free, adult human beings, to make war on each other is that our responsibility?
I wouldn't dare presume that the Muslim world can do without the same liberties we gained ourselves only a couple centuries ago. And the issue is the same today as it was then, described here in the words of Patrick Henry,
"This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery..." The fact remains that despite the Ba'athist regime's secular status it was still a dictatorship, and it's subjects were the slaves of Saddam Hussein.
"What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" As long as the Muslims are willing to make that kind of sacrifice then they deserve the chance to be represented by their elected governments, even if they turn on us in the end. That's democracy.