June 6, 2004: Headlines: COS - Afghanistan: COS - Iran: Speaking Out: Brandeton Times: Imagine sending Peace Corps workers with tools instead of Marines with rifles to Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Speaking Out: January 23, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: Speaking Out (1 of 5) : Peace Corps: Speaking Out: June 6, 2004: Headlines: COS - Afghanistan: COS - Iran: Speaking Out: Brandeton Times: Imagine sending Peace Corps workers with tools instead of Marines with rifles to Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-45-115.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.45.115) on Tuesday, June 08, 2004 - 7:43 pm: Edit Post

Imagine sending Peace Corps workers with tools instead of Marines with rifles to Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran

Imagine sending Peace Corps workers with tools instead of Marines with rifles to Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran

Imagine sending Peace Corps workers with tools instead of Marines with rifles to Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran

Pendulum turning? Saudi crackdown is a hopeful sign

I've always assumed the radical terrorists who threaten the world in the name of Islam would overreach. Last week, there were hopeful signs that that time may have come.

In the Arab world, it was one thing when the terrorist only targeted "infidels" in the United States, western Europe or Israel. But since they have begun hitting "soft targets" in some of their own Muslim-dominated countries, attitudes are changing. In Saudi Arabia, scene of a siege last weekend at an oil company residential compound in which 22 died, people are becoming aware of the threat the terrorists pose to their own security. This was the third attack on Westerners inside Saudi Arabia in a month and one of a recent series that has sparked a high-profile crackdown on terrorism by the Saudi government. Now ordinary Saudi citizens are heeding their leaders' call to report suspicious activity.

As a young employee at the Planning Ministry told The Associated Press, whereas the militants once had a wide base of support among Saudis, "now the situation has totally reversed against them and the people have started monitoring anyone who could be suspected as belonging to these groups." An employee at City Hall in Riyadh called the terrorists "the nation's real enemy, for they are more dangerous than Israel. What they are doing now is worse than what we've seen from any of our enemies throughout history." He said he believed the recent attacks, by targeting the Saudi economy, were aimed at impoverishing the Saudi people.

Indeed, no less a Muslim figure than Pervez Musharraf, the leader of Pakistan, has issued a call for an "Enlightened Moderation" by the Islamic world. In a column written for the Washington Post (printed above), Musharraf said terrorism "has created a lethal force that is all but impossible to counter. The unfortunate reality is that both the perpetrators of these crimes and most of the people who suffer from them are Muslims."

Musharraf's call for an "Enlightened Moderation" by fellow Muslims is a two-pronged strategy. One calls for the Muslim world to shun militancy and extremism and to focus on social and economic gains. The second calls for the West, and the United States in particular, to "seek to resolve all political disputes with justice and to aid in the socioeconomic betterment of the deprived Muslim world."

At last! Recognition by a responsible leader of a Muslim nation of the true threat posed by international terrorism and of Muslims' duty to forego it as a solution to their problems. At last! A call from a respected Muslim leader for believers to disprove the perception that Islam "is a religion of militancy in conflict with modernization, democracy and secularism."

The very use of the word "enlightened" by Musharraf is symbolically important. Remember, the Enlightenment was the label given to the period in the 18th century in western Europe when traditional social, religious and political ideas were rejected in favor of rationalism. It was a marked departure from the Dark Ages thinking of medieval times. Enlightenment ideals inspired leaders like Thomas Jefferson to found this country on such principles as the equality of human beings, freedom of speech, religion and the press, and representative government.

Is the Arab world, in many ways still stuck in medieval traditions, becoming enlightened?

Of course, Musharraf's second point, about "resolving political disputes with justice," is code for equitable resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, generally considered the epicenter of Arab hatred of the West. That means, at the very least, a secure homeland for Palestinians.

But who doesn't want that, except a minority of extremists on both sides? The U.S. has been trying for decades to help the warring factions find a solution that permits both Israel and Palestine to co-exist. Perhaps with moderate Arab leaders like Musharraf behind the effort, it will have a better chance of success.

And I have no doubt that, instead of spending billions to wage war against terrorism, Americans would gladly rechannel their money to building up those impoverished Arab nations that have been held back so long by radical zealots and demagogues. Imagine sending Peace Corps workers with tools instead of Marines with rifles to Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.

The Bush administration should use diplomacy to encourage member nations of the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) to adopt Musharraf's call for enlightened moderation in relations with the West and for stiff resistance to terrorism anywhere it rears its ugly head. Call me naive, but I now harbor a slim hope that the pendulum may be turning against the terrorists.
David Klement is Editorial Page editor of the Herald. Readers may reach him by phone at 745-7047, by fax at 745-7097, or by email at: dklement@bradentonherald.com.




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Story Source: Brandeton Times

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Afghanistan; COS - Iran; Speaking Out

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By Anonymous (adsl-69-107-97-103.dsl.pltn13.pacbell.net - 69.107.97.103) on Sunday, March 05, 2006 - 1:54 pm: Edit Post

Yes, but what if the Peace Corps is being used by NSA/CIA as a tool for multinational oil to fight indigenous peoples worldwide?

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-25-123.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.25.123) on Sunday, March 05, 2006 - 3:54 pm: Edit Post

Nancy Wallace writes: What was the point of the Peace Corps? Was it a CIA front after all?

"To this day, I run into people of a progressive leaning who have a favorable view of the Peace Corps and think that it represents the benevolent, generous side of American society. It does not. Young people who join it indeed may be generous and benevolent (as well as clueless as I once was), but the Peace Corps as an organization is at bottom one more weapon in the arsenal of imperial domination. Like the military, the Peace Corps has a specific role to play. It is the PR front man, the warm-up act for the real show, the good cop, playing in tandem with the bad cop. Yet even at this, as my experience demonstrates, it does a poor job. It is sloppy and haphazard and ineffective."

"John Perkins, the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, says that he was recruited out of the Peace Corps. That may be another function of the Peace Corps, serving as a proving ground for the next generation of CIA agents, career diplomats, and international corporate goons. If I ever saw Sr. Orteaga again, I too would have to congratulate him on his anti-imperialism."


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