Re: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama Discuss Space Policy

On 25 Feb, 13:48, Quadibloc <jsav...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Feb 25, 4:10 am, Ian Parker <ianpark...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Lets ask a simple question - Can Americans learn Arabic?

Oh, of course they could.

Learning a second language, however, requires a lot of time and
effort. Much of this effort is dull rote memorization. And it's a
skill that requires practise to retain as well.

So the fact that America has a privileged position - that classes in,
say, Spanish as a second language are treated like art or drama
classes, optional subjects not part of the core curriculum, essential
for promotion - benefits its educational system. People who are "all
thumbs" when it comes to second-language learning - like people with a
"tin ear" who can't seem to learn to play a musical instrument -
aren't barred from entering college, and pursuing careers in science
and engineering. And the enthusiasm of other students for learning
isn't blunted by at least one additional source of drudgery in the
school day.

If there was lots of interesting entertainment material produced in
Arabic, or if Arabic speakers were economically dominant, so that
learning Arabic was useful in gaining employment in the cities,
Americans would learn Arabic just as other people have learned other
languages in countries affected by one form or another of colonialism.

Of course, from the context of your other posts, the question is
really - are Americans willing to take the trouble to understand the
mind of the Islamic world?

Yes I think this is bang on. My point funamentally is this. If you are
going to simply go to Rotterdam and pay whatever the price it is, you
do not need to know Arabic, you do not need to understand the Islamic
mindset. If you are involved though you need to get the best people
available.

If you are discussing pure economics, rather than morality etc. the
most economic solution would be to smply defend yourself against
Canada or Mexico and spend all your defense money on energy and energy
research.

Americans, like human beings generally, when in what they perceive to
be a position of strength and not weakness, naturally react to events
such as those of September 11, 2001 as follows: it is not for us to
understand them; it is for them to understand, and very quickly, that
this sort of nonsense shall not be further tolerated.

Cooler heads have prevailed - there are people in the CIA who *can*
read Arabic, and G. W. Bush, drawing on his experience in the oil
industry, believes the terrorists to be unrepresentative of the
Islamic world, with which we can continue to build ties of friendship.

I think that the American people should direct their anger at what
Reagan et al. did during the Cold War. The terrorists are indeed
unrepresentative of the thought of the majority of Arabs. But

a) It only takes a small number of people to create a violent
insurrection.

b) This is where anger should be directed against Reagan and the other
cold warriors. The US backed up the most reactionary elements in
society. The backed (and are still backing) the Wahabbi régime in
Saudi Arabia, and they financed and trained OBL. They were
instrumental in getting their people into the ISI.

The ISI. In the recent elections the Pakistani people did NOT vote for
extremists. Any extremist that stood got a derisory vote. However
extremism is still well represented in the ISI and some of the middle
ranks in the Army.

I think the proper response of the rest of us to this is to be
pleasantly surprised by the statesmanship and sobriety of the American
response to terror, and not to annoy the American people with requests
to do even better. September 11, 2001 has left them in a bad temper,
and thus such efforts are likely to be counter-productive.

I could not disagree more. The actions of the US, particularly during
the Cold War were instrumental in getting terror moving. The people of
the Middle East do not want it, in fact surveys in the Middle East
show that the population as a whole is even more condemnatory of
terrorism than the West. It is after all a Western import.


- Ian Parker

.

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