I started with the Weekly Portion (Parashat HaSavoo'a, in Hebrew) and now I am thinking on Middle East politics. Foreign Minister Condolizza Rice said in 2005:
For 60 years, my country -- the United States -- pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East. And we achieved neither. Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people.
Two years later, Secretary Rice is back in the Middle East with the Secretary of Defense, bringing presents: $63 billion worth of arms. Thus, the USA has turned back to its post-war strategy of arming moderate Arab states ie Sunni dictatorships (as well as Israel). The neo-con post 2001 policy of trying to establish democracy backed by American military force has failed in Afganistan and Iraq. America has recognized that the nineteen twenties
Tacho Somoza and the marines scenario is the one that best serves its interests. I for one liked Tacho (Anastasio Somoza Garcia known as Tacho, for his love of shiny medals) and enjoyed living in his Nicaragua. He and his sons brought fifty years of internal peace and moderate prosperity to Nicaragua. The Americans wanted him to be a democracy, so he organized ersatz political parties and 'free' elections he always won. When Jimmy Carter, a leftist idealist, ordered him out, he dutifully moved his furniture into a cargo plane and left Nicaragua to the Sandinistas. Pffuia.
Two years later, Secretary Rice is back in the Middle East with the Secretary of Defense, bringing presents: $63 billion worth of arms. Thus, the USA has turned back to its post-war strategy of arming moderate Arab states ie Sunni dictatorships (as well as Israel). The neo-con post 2001 policy of trying to establish democracy backed by American military force has failed in Afganistan and Iraq. America has recognized that the nineteen twenties Tacho Somoza and the marines scenario is the one that best serves its interests. I for one liked Tacho (Anastasio Somoza Garcia known as Tacho, for his love of shiny medals) and enjoyed living in his Nicaragua. He and his sons brought fifty years of internal peace and moderate prosperity to Nicaragua. The Americans wanted him to be a democracy, so he organized ersatz political parties and 'free' elections he always won. When Jimmy Carter, a leftist idealist, ordered him out, he dutifully moved his furniture into a cargo plane and left Nicaragua to the Sandinistas. Pffuia.
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