Russ Feingold----US Losing the Race to Engage Muslims

[rodeodance]

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0207-32.htm

Published on Monday, February 7, 2005 by the Christian Science Monitor
US Losing the Race to Engage Muslims
by Russ Feingold

Just days ago, I folded myself into a US embassy vehicle in Bamako, Mali, fresh off the plane from Timbuktu, the historic center of Islamic learning and trans-Saharan trade in the north of the country. Looking out the car window, I saw that thousands of cheering Malians were lining the streets of this city, which had been cleared for VIP travel. I admit, I was stunned by this outpouring of enthusiasm for the American ambassador and an American senator.

Then I realized that they weren't there for us. They were waiting to cheer the motorcade of Iranian President Mohamad Khatami, whose plane had just landed at the airport.

Bamako's reception for the Iranian president should be a wake-up call for US policymakers. We need to do much more to reach out to struggling countries like Mali. If we don't, other influences may step in to fill the void......


The generous outpouring of American support for tsunami victims in South Asia is a credit to our nation, but it doesn't make up for our neglect of many other regions. That neglect has serious implications for our security in the post-9/11 world. The US is in a long-term fight against a radical ideological movement in the Islamic world, yet our policy toward many struggling Muslim nations is either shortsighted, underfunded, or both. From Somalia, where we have no policy at all, to Tanzania, where we have no ambassador (despite the fact that terrorists attacked our embassy there in 1998), the US is not rising to the policy challenge. Our indifference can create a vacuum that others - whose interests may clash with our own - can easily fill.........

[jmatthan]

1. He should remember who he voted for!!

eom

[rodeodance]

2. what vote are you referring to?

[gottaB]

4. I assumed the confirmation of Condoleeza Rice

That's a fair criticism insofar as Feingold is exhorting the administration to listen to reason.

Feingold is also outlining one aspect of a Democratic approach to foreign policy. The fact that he voted to confirm Rice isn't particularly germaine here, because, as he has argued, his vote was not based on an agreement with Rice's ideological prejudices.

[gottaB]

3. Feingold is talking sense

An empty-handed Africa policy is worse than worthless. It's what diplomats call a blunder.

[bullimiami]

5. ""with us or against us""

so if the muslims WANTED to get along, they would accept jesus.

i guess they were asking for it all along.














(yes its sarcasm) just in case...