"Waking From it's Sleep" begins with describing the affect the Bush invasion into the area affected the people's mindset and the attitude toward American political leaders. It goes into detail about how our invasion was felt as retaliation and that the people resented that decision. However, a large part of the article was devoted to explaining why the region is war-prone. With the oil industry, the region is destined for a rough road.
Lastly, "Which Way Will They Go", discusses how non-Arab nations affect Arab countries. This article also describes the differing actions and reactions of our recent political leaders to the Arab society.
The Wikipedia articles talks about current conflicts occurring throughout the middle east. The people are uprising in hopes to gain the things they want, and to dispose of all the political and economic burdens forced unto them. This including all of the western ideals and values being imposed. While western countries think this is aiding in the Middle East's "westernizing", it's only going to cause more instability and unrest in the mind of Arabs toward the West.
Many of these sections described the protests of the Arab people and their struggle for simple freedoms. I found an article by Weber titled, "Merkel's flip flop", which described Angela Merkel's (a notable conservative Christian democrat in high position) "flip-flopping" on the issue of nuclear power within Germany.
In an article by Nizar Awad titled, "The Lion versus the Lion-Tamer Or People Power versus State Power", Durkheim's Social Consciousness is referenced. Awad writes that it was an influential cause of much Arab Uprising. Because of the unified belief in values and their culture, they resorted to revolution.
In a final article by Anissa Haddadi called "Israel: Pro-Syria fighters Kill Palestinians",Marxist ideology is combine with Arab nationalism. Haddadi claims that the PFLP, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, sees "the destruction of Israel as integral to its struggle" to rid itself and all of the Middle East of Western influence. The article is primarily about the killing of 14 people for President Assad. The point, is to remove all influence of the West in order to restore equality within the PFLP and the Middle East.
I find myself perplexed by all the issues revolving around the Middle East. It appears that while much of these crimes are new, the real core of the issues is not, that they date back decades. I don't, personally, see an end in sight to all the Arab revolts and unrest, it just doesn't appear that any of the cores of society are stable enough to support anything. Reading all this has a dark and impressionable affect and right now I feel hopeless about their situation. Unless we can act in a way that isn't offensive or abrasive to their culture, and the Arab governments get their act together, it's just not going to happen.
They are in a rather helpless situation because all of the power rests in the hands of a few corrupt individuals and the people do not have enough similarities to unite them and reach a consensus for change. It does not help that America is almost pretending to help them when the U.S. is part of the reason the region is in such a dire situation. Also America's economic system is dependent on the Middle East, the country definitely has selfish motives
ReplyDeleteI think as long as the dictators have oil money, it does not matter what the poor and uneducated people want. They can't overthrow bullets and tanks with good wishes and the money supply is endless. Even when they fall, the next person in is usually some extremist religious party that is intolerant and wants nothing more than power. It's unfortunate but a constant anyways.
ReplyDeleteI also found it dark and depressing to read these articles. It's frustrating to read because article after article describes how history continues to repeat itself in the Middle East. It seems like the constant conflict between opposing groups will never end. I wonder how long their oil resources will be able to sustain themselves and what will happen to the nations once the supply begins to really deplete
ReplyDeleteThe fight over oil there, acts as oil to a fire. It keeps it going, and it keeps us fighting also. The countries that are classified as arab are very different, but it is easy to just keep the sterotypical picture in our head.
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