Powder Keg Posted by Shadi Hamid

As you've probably heard, former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today. Another tragic moment in a region with no shortage of tragic moments. And so it continues. The Muslim world has been, is, and will continue to be a powder keg, with disastrous consequences for the rest of the world. For the rest of our lives, the Arab and Muslim world will continue producing tragedies like the one we saw today. Unless we have a plan - a long-term plan - for addressing the root causes of the extremism, terror, and radicalism tearing the region apart. Do we have a plan? Or will we continue to responding in ad-hoc fashion, providing no vision, no narrative, no endgame? This violence and terrorism is not exactly random. It is a product of a world very different than ours, one suffering from decades if not centuries of economic, political, religious, and cultural stagnation.

Comments

[Dan Kervick]

This violence and terrorism is not exactly random. It is a product of a world very different than ours, one suffering from decades if not centuries of economic, political, religious, and cultural stagnation.

There seems to be some tension between this statement and the idea that "we" need a plan for addressing the root causes of the extremism, terror, and radicalism tearing the region apart.

[Tim]

"Those who would make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK

I'm not saying that is totally fits this situation, but I've always been reminded of that quote when talking about the world's current problems.

[dolphy]

For the rest of our lives, the Arab and Muslim world will continue producing tragedies like the one we saw today. Unless we have a plan - a long-term plan - for addressing the root causes of the extremism, terror, and radicalism tearing the region apart.

I agree with Dan Kervick about the tension between the two statements; I also agree with Shadi Hamid that we need a plan to deal with the root causes of the violence and extremism. That may seem contradictory at first glance, but what I mean is that our need for a plan is obvious, but independent of the situation on the ground in Pakistan (not to mention all the other places involved). Our role in that region and our idiotic policies pertaining to terrorism and extremism in the Muslim world have inflamed already highly combustible situations. The Bush misadministration’s egocentric, manichean and ignorant bullying and meddling, and their continuation of a long-standing American tradition of using arms sales as a substitute for diplomacy have produced blowback with a vengeance.

That said, it is also true that because of such policies, we have no leverage at all where we need it most. The mere hint of U.S. support for a given politician or party in the Muslim world is now an almost automatic guarantee that the lucky recipient of our largess will be immediately made the target of unspeakable hatred and violence. So yes, I agree with Shadi that we need a long-term plan—the sooner, the better—but we dare not fool ourselves into believing that we can untie the Gordian knot we’ve done so much to create. The cruelest irony is that, having stumbled across the globe in blind imperial arrogance, we’ve helped create a mess that will be faced and —in the short run, at least—can only be addressed by the people most directly affected by it. Morally, we have a great burden in south Asia and the Middle East.

Perhaps over time the situation will ease enough that we can play a positive role there without igniting a venomous backlash. But for that to happen, I’m afraid we’ll have to put much more effort and resources into educating Americans about the world around them. After all, how is one to gather public support for a rational foreign policy in a country where a large percentage of the electorate still thinks Iraq was involved in 9/11?

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