Well, we are certainly becoming a new roman empire (and most likely we will also fall). And finally Osama has decried his reasons for which we should. Reading through that is quite impressive. As a disbeliever of all Zoroastrian-derived religions, i couldn’t help but disagree with his world view in relation to religion and sexual/social morality, yet so many of his points regarding policies, politics and ethics were so accurate and the wakeup call that i wanted the US to have after WTC that it was quite eerie to read this message, regardless of who its author might actually be. Aside from his statements about our foreign policies, one point struck me in an interesting way:
You are a nation that exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools calling upon customers to purchase them. You use women to serve passengers, visitors, and strangers to increase your profit margins. You then rant that you support the liberation of women.
Oh, and friends have also pointed out similar articles of interest:
– The Push For War
– Our Way: The Trouble with Being the World’s Only Superpower
Seriously, the objectification of women in the west, takes place with thier full consent or at thier urging. It happens because feminists fought for the right to wear what they wish, to behave as they wish. To throw it back in our face because some ass hole who lives in a cave wants to cover up all women in burga’s is unwarranted. The women here have full freedom to wear burgas if they so chose.
I definitely believe that the oppression of women in such foreign countries is pretty horrifying, especially when they have no voice. !But! I also think that he makes a good point that we forget to consider here in the west. Although we can wear what we want and have a lot more freedoms, we are still embedded in a fundamentally mysogynist country that is full of violence against women and other mechanisms to silence and abuse them. The United States has a tendency to say to the world “We’re right; you’re wrong; follow us” (see democracy & elections for example). This is a poor move on our part. Instead, we should be saying “Look, we have these ideals and we think we should all be striving for them and this is what we’ve learned on our path so far so we thought we’d share; it’s not perfect, but we’re trying…”
There lies the problem. Some countries like India, do that, and everyone bemoans the cultural hedgemony of the US. And countries like the ones in the middle eastern, just cover the ears, and suppress thier people telling them we are to blame for thier problems. I know we are to the extent we prop these sham governments up, but thats my point. Instead of siting back and let Iran happen all over the place, we need to make sure there’s a democratic system in place before we step back. It really isnt interventionism when you realize that we are already in the middle east and actively involved with thier filthy, spineless monarchies.