You were asleep.  It’s alright, so was I.  When I got in my car at 6.30 the talk was of a speech that happened while the nation slept.  It is mostly our habit to ignore anything that doesn’t happen within the time zones that encompass our nation but this time it happened to make the radio and I happened to hear it on NPR.

The president spoke in Cairo a little over a week ago and I heard it a few hours later on the radio.  The portions that I heard were interesting, and well thought out but the one section that struck me was this:

Indeed, none of us should tolerate these extremists.  They have killed in many countries.  They have killed people of different faiths — but more than any other, they have killed Muslims.  Their actions are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings, the progress of nations, and with Islam.

This line struck me for many reasons but by far the most profound thought I had was I’ve never thought of it like that before. If there is one point that I’d wish people every where to hear, it is that point.  I have had a little less than a dozen Muslim students pass through my classroom door and, other than the hajib they wear as a choice, they are as diverse as their peers.  Some are quiet, some are leaders, some are thoughtful, and some don’t participate in class.  I’ve always tried to reconcile the horrors of the world by thinking that not all Muslims are the same but I’ve never quite thought what the president said in Cairo.

Of all the things I want people to remember is that these extremists – these terrorists – aren’t waging war on America or the western world, they are waging a war on those who disagree with them, on the good and the sensible who wish for peace and prosperity.  These people are Christian and Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist, Muslim and Atheist, but mostly they are people.

I just wish it was that simple…

~Forth

I’ve been asked (more than once) what my focus in history was.  Since I have a degree in it people assume, I think, that I was given a large choice of classes to become an expert in a specific sort of history.  Unfortunately, that is not the case with a bachelor’s degree.  It is the Masters and Doctorates that get to be that specific -dare I say lucky.  Yes, yes, I was given some choice and I inevitably chose foreign policy when I could, including as many polisci classes as I could get away with.  Few people know that before I landed on history and English – I was going to be history and political science, I was ten credits deep before they told me they couldn’t license me to teach political science.

All of this is why I’m excited to see The Office this week… No actually I meant to say the debate at the University of Mississippi on Friday.  (I just wanted to get an Office plug in there; I’d like to see its poll numbers. Good enough to make these two candidates blush, I’d wager.)

“He doesn’t share my worldview” is a phrase I’ve inserted into a few comments and posts, which, while it may see to indicate the world around me, I usually think of as how we deal with the world as a nation.  This questions concerns me more today because I used to feel pretty secure.  Growing up I saw America as the large friendly dog in a small room.  Good natured and well meaning but when it wagged its tail a vase got broken.  I’ve learned better since though and I no longer wish to hear the phrase from ignorance comes bliss.  The past hundred years have seen the nation turn into what is termed a crusader state and the “with us or against us” attitude of the current administration as a manifestation of that crusade.  The idea that we need to practice global meliorism – the belief that America has a responsibility to nurture democracy and economic growth around the world – is older than this administration.

Make no mistake, George Bush’s foreign policy isn’t Texan.  The press and history may like to describe him as a cowboy but his advisors on foreign policy and his education in it come from somewhere else.  The United States is slowly coming down from a precipice where it was unrivaled in the military, manufacturing and technology sectors.  Today, the Chinese are awakening to their dominance in manpower and manufacturing while the Russians are practicing what is known as power politics with the world.  Both have seized on an opportunity handed to them not by George W. Bush -though he certainly did us few favors – but by history, geography, and progress.

Why is all of this important to 08 08 08?  Because, while John McCain was right about the surge and is certainly a military minded man (not a general or admiral by any stretch but at least raised by a couple), I don’t see the world policy of the next 4 to 8 years as that of war.  The war fatigue we are experiencing is one of the reasons John McCain is not performing as well as he thought he would.  Americans aren’t looking for a general and while I’d like those in power to know how to win a war, I’d rather have someone in power who can prevent a war.

The foreign policy of America must start looking to within the borders to improve our standing outside of our coasts.  John Quincy Adams said “Americans don’t go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.”  Now, of course, he was talking about a different world but today we are still setting an example for those around us.  We set an example of materialism and greed, of abuse of power, and of course of militarism just as much as we set an example of economics, governance and philanthropy.  It has always concerned me that America is so shocked when the world is brutal, when they are in effect imitating the history of the world.  I wasn’t even that shocked by the NYC terrorism seeing as though it was preceded by a attacks on embassies and military installations around the world.  Tragic, yes.  Unexpected, no.  Few from my generation remember the attacks in Beirut or the detonation of a military barracks in 1983.  I doubt the men who planned and carried out 9/11 have forgotten it.  We are insulated by time and distance but were it to happen today how would we react?

America is seldom reflective and while we as individuals may consider how these attacks could have been stopped, I wonder if we consider how they could have been prevented.  I ask why are people attacking us rather than how can we stop them.  A movie that I feel tries to get into this idea is Syriana.  The movie in itself has been indicted as… liberal.  I guess I consider that a stamp of approval though.  At the heart of the movie was the fact that all of the main characters from the many sides of the oil issue are essentially family men (and women) reacting to the world around them.  They aren’t good they aren’t evil, they are just human.  While we should not base our foreign policy on a few scattered movies, we should consider what the message is saying about the world we live in.

To that end, before I had settled on Sen. Obama (D-Il) I heard a report from abroad.  The NPR reporter had spoken with people in the Middle East and had discovered what I consider to be a remarkable notion.  That should America elect Barack Obama these people would be forced to change their worldview of us.  Many balked at the idea that the United States would truly let it happen.  Now I can hear the naysayers already; those who mocked Obama for speaking in Germany, and those who contend that George W. Bush hasn’t damaged our reputation abroad.  They are saying, “You really want to decide on our president by what the rest of the world thinks?”  No, I don’t.  But I will say it would be a nice bonus to our world image if they stopped thinking of us as a bunch of white supremacists hell bent on recreating a world in our image?

~Forth

Update: McCain doesn’t want to debate in the midst of crisis.
The story here. My response as posted on my Google Reader is this: “I’m sorry, this IS the time for politics. Politics isn’t a dirty word. Politics are how we make decisions in this country and these are big decisions. On Message: McCain is slipping in the polls and he doesn’t want to be flippant about the economy. Under Message: McCain is slipping in the polls and he doesn’t want to go on TV and possibly make it worse.
This is just what George Will was talking about. John McCain is an “off with his head” politician. We pay these men to be able to vote on the economy while still being able to talk about foreign policy. That’s the job.”