Going from wanted terrorist to the current leader of Syria, the curious character arc of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani is emblematic of many current Middle Eastern leaders.
“ Russia’s descent into state terror was contingent on the loss of faith — the process that saw its genesis in the time of Dostoyevsky and snowballed after the Bolshevik revolution.”
Actually, late 19th and early 20th centuries was a time of expanding violence, not necessarily by the state but by those seeking to disrupt and undermine it.
The tradeoff for getting out of the nation-building business is that if you’re going to have any kind of relationship with other countries, you’ll have to accept that many other countries are run by the worst people in them, and that you can’t afford to offend those people. That doesn’t excuse Trump accepting gifts from places like Qatar, but it does show that politics is no place for idealism.
In the same way that America has been shaped by the "Albion Seeds" which settle this land, and most of Latin America is poor and corrupt because they were settled by the Spanish, all of the nations "settled" or founded on Islam have the same make up that is just so incompatible with the modern world- just got done listening to a 2-hour interview with Raymond Ibrahim on the Winston Marshall show. So while I am glad that Trump has decided to not get involved in any more nation-building in the Middle East, we still have to deal with these Islamic nations. Nations who the more "Islamic" they become, the more they regress to 7th century bedouin culture. That is just not something that will ever work out good enough for most of us in the modern world.
Great essay. I’ve long known that there are simply no good options in the Middle East. Islam has been a regressive force preventing humane modernization and rationality in their politics and culture. So yes, you’ll have the terrorist who is now a respectable “world leader.” In a dysfunctional failed state, the criminal is elevated and the saint is, well, martyred.
Does this run parallel to the Dostoevsky idea of the great man? Only in a Christian context. In the Muslim world, I get the feeling that might makes right and there isn’t much naivety or universal morality to exploit or “transcend,” except if it’s coming from Western progressives.
“ Russia’s descent into state terror was contingent on the loss of faith — the process that saw its genesis in the time of Dostoyevsky and snowballed after the Bolshevik revolution.”
Actually, late 19th and early 20th centuries was a time of expanding violence, not necessarily by the state but by those seeking to disrupt and undermine it.
Great read from First Things on the era:
https://firstthings.com/suicide-of-the-liberals/
“… Qatar, an Iranian client and terror sponsor…”
And the country where we have our largest airbase in the region Al Udeid.
The tradeoff for getting out of the nation-building business is that if you’re going to have any kind of relationship with other countries, you’ll have to accept that many other countries are run by the worst people in them, and that you can’t afford to offend those people. That doesn’t excuse Trump accepting gifts from places like Qatar, but it does show that politics is no place for idealism.
In the same way that America has been shaped by the "Albion Seeds" which settle this land, and most of Latin America is poor and corrupt because they were settled by the Spanish, all of the nations "settled" or founded on Islam have the same make up that is just so incompatible with the modern world- just got done listening to a 2-hour interview with Raymond Ibrahim on the Winston Marshall show. So while I am glad that Trump has decided to not get involved in any more nation-building in the Middle East, we still have to deal with these Islamic nations. Nations who the more "Islamic" they become, the more they regress to 7th century bedouin culture. That is just not something that will ever work out good enough for most of us in the modern world.
Great essay. I’ve long known that there are simply no good options in the Middle East. Islam has been a regressive force preventing humane modernization and rationality in their politics and culture. So yes, you’ll have the terrorist who is now a respectable “world leader.” In a dysfunctional failed state, the criminal is elevated and the saint is, well, martyred.
Does this run parallel to the Dostoevsky idea of the great man? Only in a Christian context. In the Muslim world, I get the feeling that might makes right and there isn’t much naivety or universal morality to exploit or “transcend,” except if it’s coming from Western progressives.