by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hat makes two-dozen British Muslims want to blow up thousands of innocent passengers on jumbo jets? Why does al Qaeda plan hourly to kill civilians? And why does oil-rich\u00a0Iran\u00a0wish to “wipe out”\u00a0Israel\u00a0?<\/p>\n In short, it’s the old blame game, one that over the past century has taken multiple forms.<\/p>\n Once, a tired whine of Islamists was that European colonialists and American oilmen rigged global commerce to “rob” the\u00a0Middle East\u00a0of its natural wealth. But they were pretty quiet when the price of crude oil jumped from around an expensive $25 a barrel to an exorbitant $75.<\/p>\n Recently, oil exporters of the\u00a0Middle East\u00a0have taken in around an\u00a0extra<\/i>\u00a0$500 billion\u00a0each<\/i>\u00a0year in windfall profits beyond the old lucrative income. It is one of the largest, most sudden \u2014 and least remarked upon \u2014 transfers of capital in history.<\/p>\n Another old excuse for Islamist anger was the claim the West had favored autocrats \u2014 the Shah, the House of Saud, the Kuwaiti royal family \u2014 in a cynical desire for cheap gas and to prop up strong anti-communist allies.<\/p>\n Some of that complaint\u00a0was<\/i>\u00a0certainly accurate. But since September 11,America\u00a0has ensured democracy in\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0, spent billions and over 2,500 lives fostering freedom in\u00a0Iraq\u00a0, pressured\u00a0Syria\u00a0to leave\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0, and lectured long-time allies in\u00a0Egypt\u00a0and the Gulf to reform. For all this, we are now considered crude interventionists, even when our efforts may well pave the way for radical Muslims to gain legitimacy through plebiscites.<\/p>\n I<\/span>slamists have and continue today to gripe about Western infidels encroaching on Muslim lands. Osama bin Laden attacked because of American troops stationed in\u00a0Saudi Arabia\u00a0, or so he said. Hamas and Hezbollah resorted to terror to free\u00a0Gaza\u00a0,\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0and the\u00a0West Bank\u00a0, or so they said.<\/p>\n Yet, nothing much has changed since the\u00a0United States\u00a0pulled its combat troops out of\u00a0Saudi Arabia\u00a0, or after the Israelis departed\u00a0Gaza\u00a0and\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0, and announced planned withdrawals from parts of the\u00a0West Bank\u00a0. Meanwhile, the elected Iraqi government wants American soldiers to stay longer (while the latest polls suggest the American public doesn’t agree).<\/p>\n Then there is moaning that the West treats its Muslim immigrants unfairly, despite evidence to the contrary. After all, Muslims build mosques and madrassas all over Europe and the\u00a0United States\u00a0; yet Christians cannot worship in\u00a0Saudi Arabia\u00a0or have missionaries in\u00a0Iran\u00a0. Western residents or immigrants in most Arab nations would not dare demonstrate on behalf ofIsrael\u00a0. But in\u00a0Michigan\u00a0last week, largely Arab-American crowds chanted “Hezbollah” \u2014 despite that terrorist organization’s long history of murdering Americans.<\/p>\n Another Islamist grumble is that the West supports only\u00a0Israel\u00a0. Again, that’s hardly true. The Europeans gave plenty of aid to the P.L.O and Hamas, and their hostility to\u00a0Israel\u00a0is well-established. The United States make no bones about aiding Israel, but it also has given tremendous amounts of money to the Palestinians, Egypt ($50 billion so far) and Jordan. And without the United States, Kuwait would be the 19th province of Iraq, the Taliban would rule Afghanistan, Saddam and his sons would still slaughter Kurds and there might not be any Muslims left at all in Kosovo or Bosnia.<\/p>\n T<\/span>he one thing, however, that the\u00a0United States\u00a0cannot do to please Islamists is change its liberal character and traditions of Western tolerance. And isn’t that the real story behind all these perceived grievances and phantom hurts: the intrusive dynamism of freewheeling Western, and particularly American, culture?<\/p>\n Both its low form of girly magazines and punk rock as well as its impressive literature, art, commerce and technology now saturate the world. And why not? American radical individualism appeals to the innate human desire for freedom and unbridled expression. Westernization subverts most hierarchs, especially in the reactionary world of Islamic fundamentalism, where the mullah, family patriarch or state autocrat can’t keep a lid on it. Instantaneous communications have also brought to an insecure Middle Eastern society firsthand views of how much wealthier, freer and more tolerant the outside world is when it is democratic and transparent.<\/p>\n But instead of providing a blueprint for reform, these revelations only incite envy and anger from millions who are advised that parity with the West is found instead by retreating further into 7th-century religious purity.<\/p>\n So never mind the trillions in petrodollars, billions in aid and concessions. Unless we change our very character, or the Middle East achieves success and confidence through Western-style democracy and economic reform, expect more tired scapegoating and violence from radical discontents, from Lebanon to London \u2014 and well beyond.<\/p>\n \u00a92006 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services What makes two-dozen British Muslims want to blow up thousands of innocent passengers on jumbo jets? Why does al Qaeda plan hourly to kill civilians? And why does oil-rich\u00a0Iran\u00a0wish to “wipe out”\u00a0Israel\u00a0?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[771],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-110","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5914,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/an-irrelevant-middle-east\/","url_meta":{"origin":3906,"position":0},"title":"An Irrelevant Middle East","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to oil discoveries elsewhere, the region is losing its geostrategic clout. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Since antiquity, the Middle East has been the trading nexus of three continents \u2014 Asia, Europe, and Africa \u2014 and the vibrant birthplace of three of the world\u2019s great religions. Middle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/economy-europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3647,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/its-the-oil-stupid\/","url_meta":{"origin":3906,"position":1},"title":"It’s the Oil, Stupid!","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services It is usually silly to offer a single solution to complex problems. But it's hard not to when looking at the serial savagery in Iran and the Arab world. Oil \u2014 the huge profits it provides and the insidious influence it gives those\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "April 2007"","block_context":{"text":"April 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/april-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3572,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/back-to-the-future-in-the-middle-east\/","url_meta":{"origin":3906,"position":2},"title":"Back to the Future in the Middle East","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services If Gen. David Petraeus can't stabilize Iraq by autumn \u2014 or if Americans decide to pull out of Iraq before he gets a fair chance \u2014 expect far worse chaos eventually to follow. We will see ethnic cleansing, mass murder of Iraqi reformers,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2007"","block_context":{"text":"July 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/july-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3603,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/more-middle-east-madness\/","url_meta":{"origin":3906,"position":3},"title":"More Middle East Madness","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services \"The Palestinian people will never forgive the Hamas gangs for looting the home of the Palestinian people's great leader, Yasser Arafat.\" So Palestinian Authority spokesman Abdel Rahman recently exclaimed. \"This crime will remain a stain of disgrace on the forehead of Hamas and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2007"","block_context":{"text":"June 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/june-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4769,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/thicker-than-oil\/","url_meta":{"origin":3906,"position":4},"title":"Thicker Than Oil","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Putting to rest the Left's Iraq deceptions. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online It has now been almost a year since the liberation of Iraq, the fury of the antiwar rallies, and the publicized hectoring of Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Sean Penn, and other assorted conspiracy freaks \u2014 and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "March 2004"","block_context":{"text":"March 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/march-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4176,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-not-support-democracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":3906,"position":5},"title":"Why Not Support Democracy?","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Our orphan policy in the Middle East. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Why still no big-font, front-page headlines screaming, \u201cMillions Vote in Historic Middle East Election!\u201d or \u201cDemocracy Comes At Last To Iraq\u201d or \u201cAmerica\u2019s Push for Iraqi Democracy Working\u201d? 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