[lit-ideas] Re: The Philippines and Iraq
- From: "Simon Ward" <sedward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 17:33:32 +0100
Lawrence:
"One can now plausibly argue that there is no such thing as militant Islam,
just a few blustering petty warlords who can be sufficiently cowed to keep them
from causing too much trouble. And of course there are the "Jihadists" who are
causing considerable trouble, but there aren't that many of them - so goes the
arguments of Roy, Kepel and Fukuyama. I don't agree with this argument, but I
think it a serious and interesting one. So about this war we are conducting we
can say it is prudent (if the U.S. administration is correct in its assessment
as I believe it is) or a mistake (if Fukuyama, Roy & Kepel are correct), but we
cannot with plausibility (in my opinion) argue that we are engaged in war of
empire."
Conversely, if the US administration is (i), incorrect in its assessment, or
worse (ii), knowingly false in its assessment, that is, there are few
Islamists, then we must look at other motivations, including one of modern
imperialism in the sense of seeking to expand markets for capital investment.
In a related matter, it will be interesting to monitor the US administration's
reactions to Venezuela's appropriation of the oil fields.
Regards
Simon
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