tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1414025411716568353.post9111399552423410605..comments2023-10-17T05:20:29.635-04:00Comments on Shadowed Forest of World Politics: Arab Leaders Can't Do the MathWilliam deB. Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07103937881679464836noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1414025411716568353.post-10089979725859995712011-04-10T17:40:10.852-04:002011-04-10T17:40:10.852-04:00Advocate,
While it is hard to argue with your ind...Advocate,<br /><br />While it is hard to argue with your individual points, they are still cheap shots. I was making a serious argument - that Mideast regimes (yes, including Israel and Iran [my apologies for failing to make that clear]) are creating a lot of needless trouble for themselves because they can't do the math. They react in incompetent ways that provoke precisely what they are trying to prevent. That is not just immoral, it is stupid. Bombing hospitals and arresting children are stupid, counter-productive, unprofessional tactics.<br /><br />Saudi and Libyan tanks may look more effective (especially when supported by Washington), but those tactics as well will, I predict, induce some very large chickens to return home to roost.<br /><br />As for the continuing dictatorship of the Egyptian army, its tactic of scheduling a constitutional vote was a smooth move for the would-be dictators while its tactic of shooting up democracy demonstrators at Tahrir this week will probably prove to have been as dumb as Mubarak's behavior at the end. Tantawi has now needlessly made himself a target.<br /><br />I stand by my words: Mideast leaders, from Ahmadinejad to Netanyahu to Mubarak to Assad to Saleh to Abdullah, cannot do the math.William deB. Millshttp://shadowedforest.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1414025411716568353.post-72758449265318306072011-04-10T17:26:27.761-04:002011-04-10T17:26:27.761-04:00Mills:
Speaking for the much maligned dictators, w...Mills:<br />Speaking for the much maligned dictators, whose labors are becoming harder every day, for the last 50 years, they have based policy on the calculation that a little repression would yield a great deal of stability. That calculation, for 50 years, proved correct in one country after another.<br /><br />True, since January, there is some evidence that the old calculation may be failing, but it still works in Iran, Israel, and Bahrain. The Syrian, Yemeni, Jordanian, and Saudi dictatorships remain in control, Gadaffi is fighting a draw against the whole Western world, and even in Egypt, democracy remains under attack by a triumphant and dictatorial army, so exactly who is it who "can't do the math?"<br /><br />Some foreign tanks, a bit of blood in the streets, a few hospitals bombed...in the broad sweep of history, these are but details.<br />--Devil's AdvocateAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com