Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA07249 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 19 Jan 2002 19:18:41 GMT Message-ID: <3C49C0F4.33899A01@clara.co.uk> Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 18:54:44 +0000 From: Douglas Brooker <dbrooker@clara.co.uk> Organization: University of London X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; I) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Islamism References: <NEBBKOADILIOKGDJLPMAKEMNCJAA.debivort@umd5.umd.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi Lawrence,
Lawrence DeBivort wrote:
> Hello, Doug,
>
> One of the effects of our actions in Afghanistan and of Bush's "war"
> language/meme, is an increased destabilization in Saudi Arabia (among
> others). Saudi Arabia began distancing itself from US actions at least a
> couple of months ago, when it prohibited munitions transfer on its territory
> for US planes bombing Afghanistan, specifically of the that monster bomb --
> what was it called -- the Daisy something? The US military had hurriedly to
> relocate its staging bases into neighboring areas.
Leaving Saudi Arabia will make it more difficult to maintain bases in other
places in the Gulf.
The consequences of the intervention will play themselves out over the next
decade, this isn't a short term thing. Is it controversial to say this is about
the oil in the Central Asian Republics? Does anyone think that China and Russia
are going to welcome an American presence there with open arms?
> Have you seen Mamoun's Fandy's SAUDI ARABIA AND THE POLITICS OF DISSENT? It
> has some interesting descriptions of current Saudi dissent, and a chapter on
> Bin Laden, written, refreshingly, before Sept 11, 2001.
>
I read a bit about it - one criticism of the the book was it focused on
fundamentalist dissent and ignored more liberal Islamic opposition groups.
These groups exist in Saudi Arabia and other countries.
A memetic issue here seems to be the effect of fear on Western foreign policy.
Western leaders fear 'them', they don't fear the West. There are not many
other Islamic countries that are suitable for the kind of righteous bombing
campaign that is still going on. One of the mythic adages of the 'warrior' is
about not letting you enemy determine your actions. Has the Pentagon 'blown
its wad?'
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