"East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." So wrote Rudyard Kipling, well over a century ago. He was talking about culture clash, and the folly of multiculturalism, long before the term was even invented. His point was that, no matter what the preachers tell us, people are different. Different peoples have different cultures, different belief systems, different ways of looking at the world and at other peoples.
Our "civilized/progressive/modern" Western ways may not be the best ways for all peoples. We may judge such cultural norms and practices as beheading infidels and shunning homosexuals "old-fashioned/barbaric/heathen" or maybe "just plain wrong". But if some people -- Arabs, for example -- see those things as right, according to their lights, shouldn't we just leave them to it? Who are we Westerners to impose our notions of democracy, our culture, our beliefs or anything else on them?
Walt is not the only one posing such questions. On the CBC News website today, ace Middle Eastern correspondent Nahlah Ayed asks "Should the West stop intervening in the Middle East?" Ms Ayed has thought the question through thoroughly, but for some reason [Because she works for the CBC? Because she doesn't want to betray any pro-Muslim bias? Ed.] doesn't come to any conclusion beyond "Though all these options are debatable, we are now almost beyond the question. The West has intervened, and is intervening, and the pushback has now touched Canada at home. Agree or not, we have entered an indeterminate period of turbulence."
Well... yeah! Duhhh.
In the Globe and Mail, Patrick Martin tells us "There are consequences to joining the war against the Islamic State". [Sorry, no link for this one; it's behind the Groan and Wail's stupid paywall. Ed.] Again, duhhh! Didn't Walt say just that two days ago, in "Harper's Islamic chickens come home to roost"? You betcha!
What's surprising to me is that the hard questions are being asked, and the folly of Western intervention in a Muslim vs Muslim conflict pointed out, so quickly. We are already hearing acknowledgments from the US military leadership that the war against ISIS [They're still saying "ISIL". Ed.] is not going well.
Sober and thoughtful people are already reminding the Prez and his hangers-on (like Canada's Steve Harper) to remember the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan. Their war -- for it is their war, not to be blamed on previous administrations -- is not only unwinable, but based on a bad premise, namely that we should impose the values of our "civilization" on a people who clearly don't and won't believe that "the Western way is the best way."
Walt asks how many more lives will have to lost and how many billions of dollars wasted before we finally learn?
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