1/16/2005|||110588015779875657||||||
ONE MORE WAKE-UP CALL

Tom Friedman may have his migivings about American policy in Iraq (all right, it goes beyond misgivings - he describes the administration's performance as "pathetic"). But he still has no time for the notion that all the ills of the Muslim world are caused by the Great Satan:

"Ah, you say, but the Europeans live in free-market democracies and they have become very anti-American. Yes, some of them. But for Europeans, anti-Americanism is a hobby. For too many in the Muslim world it has become a career. I am sure that young Taiwanese, young Koreans, young Japanese, young Poles and young Indians have their views on America, but they are not an obsession. They want our jobs, not our lives. They live in societies that empower their young people to realize their full potential and to express any opinion - pro-American, anti-American or neutral.

"So I don't want young Muslims to like us. I want them to like and respect themselves, their own countries and their own governments. I want them to have the same luxury to ignore America as young Taiwanese have - because they are too busy focusing on improving their own lives and governance, running for office, studying anything they want or finding good jobs in their own countries."


|||Clive|||http://clivedavis.blogspot.com/2005/01/one-more-wake-up-call-tom-friedman-may_16.html|||1/16/2005 12:56:00 pm|||||||||
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