Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Change Is Good
I keep seeing articles that link President Bush's rise in the polls and the tense situation in Iraq with the word "despite." Why? Some people say Bush haven't a plan. Well I sure as hell don't think John Kerry does. Some people say that Bush is pissing off the Arab world. I say that good chunks of the Arab world were already pissed off: at least now some of them are shocked, awed, or blogging. Thankfully, some of us aren't so oblivous.
This brings me to the latest Mark Steyn column, where he argues (again) that stability in the Middle East is not just overrated, it's making a virtue out of vice. Now, I've always been a believer of the law of unintended consequences and wary of strongheaded ideological change: it's called conservatism. But in this case I must say that there is a good argument for Steyn's view: Islamic extremism is a threat to our way of life, and eradication is the conservative thing to do, just as it was appropriate for conservatives to work towards defeating communism in the Cold War.
I do not expect that the Arab countries will develop into some sort of fascimile of the multicultural secular democracy of many Western countries, at least not in the next 25 years. But there is a difference between culture and plain human decency, between being a menace within your borders and a threat to the world. Much of the Middle East have crossed those lines long ago, and cleaning up this mess is long overdue.
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