Finding a strong-man to rule Iraq - come on!

Submitted by Lloyd Lionel Klein (United States), Apr 13, 2004 at 14:16

As for: "They should seek out what I have been calling for since a year ago: a democratically-minded Iraqi strongman, someone who will work with the coalition forces, provide decent government, and move eventually toward a more open political system."

A "democratically-minded Iraqi strong-man" sounds like an oxymoron to me. The nearest, even remotely, that I can think of, in the Arab world, is King Hussein of Jordan, who cannot afford to be democratically-minded, even if he does lean towards other Western values.

Also, the idea that ‘total infrastructure destruction' is what made the Germans amenable to changing their political system, does not apply, by your own admission to Muslims, because of their religion. The only reason it worked in Japan is because the Japanese admired and wished to emulate Western achievements. The Muslims don't!

No one in the West is inclined to say this, even if some do believe it, but a most brilliant Christian Lebanese friend has for many years advocated genocide of all Muslims. I was horrified by this thought, coming as it did from a brilliant scientist. I was incredulous when I was 40, but now that I'm 61, I am beginning to see its inevitability. Short of containing Muslims to their own lands and stopping all intercourse with them, genocide is, unfortunately, the only logical solution, which has the benefit that it does not leave the problem for our children to solve. Equally unfortunate, in today's World, no one will come forward to "bell the cat".

Of course, you can easily prove the genocide thesis wrong by pointing out just one Muslim country, where "a moderate form of Islam" is so well entrenched that Islamism cannot gain a toehold. Then I'd be prepared to believe that there is a better way. I remain agnostic to the idea of Muslim genocide, hoping always to hear of a better way.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".