CBC: The devaluation of a society (roots of terror)

[unhappycamper]

The devaluation of a society
Jim Reed
CBC News Viewpoint
July 21, 2005

Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the last century, Western powers have followed policies that resulted in the social and cultural devaluation of the Arab and, by association, the Muslim Middle East.

It was the British Empire that set the Muslim/Arab world on its course toward authoritarian, centralized rule. Powerful governments, under kings, emirs or tribal chieftains, were thought by the British to be easier to control than popular movements that might have given rise to some form of democracy.

The very idea of democracy in the Arab world was anathema to the British and, later, the Americans; any popular movement was seen as a potential threat to Western hegemony. This held especially true after the discovery of oil in the region.

The British government and its Colonial Office supported, we might even say invented, these centralized governments – Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States – and often maintained them in power through a combination of military support and financial subsidy.

MORE
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_reed/20050721.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Interesting. The Mideast got where it is because of a frustration of

natural democratic ambitions and yet here this Administration is forcing their version of democracy upon the region which is antithetical and hypocritical. Real democracy would mean Iraq could choose to be a theocracy, hostile to the U.S., organize other countries against our government and businesses, and cut itself off from the world. Or it could continue the status quo. But the bottom line is it's THEIR choice, not ours.