May 21, 2011

Dangerously Unclear

The more the president clarifies his foreign policy in the Middle East, the less I understand it. Apparently the U. S. is supposed to create middle-class jobs in order to ensure that democracy flourishes where revolutions and protests have occurred and are occurring. I didn't realize that a country could create jobs in another country, or that it was supposed to. Considering how many expensive fixes we've tried on our economy and how high our unemployment rate still is, it seems laughable to suggest that we can create jobs halfway around the world. Further, it seems likely that the rule of law is a more fundamental precursor to democracy than middle-class jobs. Historically, it seems that the rule of law must come before both middle-class jobs and democracy.

Now comes the news that the president wants Israel and its neighbors to abide by terms that don't make sense and won't solve problems. It reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem. The reason that there is turmoil and conflict there is that radical Islam has established cultural institutions and incentives to encourage their teenagers to commit suicide by blowing up Israeli teenagers. An entire subculture of suicide and murder has been bred in order to exterminate a modern, tolerant, multiethnic democracy - Israel. Setting borders here or there won't solve the fundamental problem, which is that radical Islam will carry out its gruesome murders and terrorist campaigns as long as radical Islam has structure and some semblance of legitimacy. Radical Islam wants to bring all the world under its domination, which is why it will never be satisfied with a two-state solution, and why it continues to attack Israel, us, and even other Muslims.

I could write about the illogical and unrealistic specifics of the president's proposal (he wants the Palestinian state he would forge to be non-militarized; whoever heard of a country without a military?) but they are rendered ultimately irrelevant by the true problem. The true problem is that radical Islam has clearly set out its goal of subjugating the world, and radical Islam's first targets are Israel and the U. S. Believing that the problem all along has been hard feelings about land, and making all sorts of diplomatic plans and treaties about land, will never solve the true problem of murderous, radical Islam.