Questions

Amir Taheri askes some import question in this The Australian column:

Why are so many Westerners, living in mature democracies, ready to march against the toppling of a despot in Iraq but unwilling to take to the streets in support of the democratic movement in the Middle East? Is it because many of those who will be marching in support of Saddam Hussein this month are the remnants of totalitarian groups in the West plus a variety of misinformed idealists and others blinded by anti-Americanism? Or is it because they secretly believe that the Arabs do not deserve anything better than Saddam Hussein?

I don't have an answer to these questions. I wish I did, because I think these virulent Anti-War protesters are the tip of the iceberg of a larger culteral shift that needs to be confronted (not with force, with ideas.) My evidence for this is how easily the seem to find allies, people who perhaps arn't willing to go as far in their condemnation, but are willing to include them. Certainly not everyone who was anti-war is in this category. There were are variety of valid reasons to oppose the war in Iraq. The balance of pro vs. con seemed to me to favor intervention, but I can certainly understand someone weighting the different factors another way and coming to a different conclusion. What I don't understand are those people who seem to desperately long for totalitarianism, and those who claim to hate totalitarianism, but stand should to shoulder with those who do everything they can to promote it.