Revolution
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
You say you want a revolution?
John Brown led the raid on Harper's Ferry in hopes to start a slave revolt that would sweep the South, and put an end to slavery. A new young president was informed that an invasion of Cuban nationalist was going to make a landing on their island home, and begin a revolt that would overthrow a leader who aligned himself with a political ideology, which was unacceptable to a democratic society. In both cases, the revolutionary seeds failed to take root and grow.
The attempt to kick start a democratic revolution in Iraq has a shot at breaking this historical cycle, however, if it makes it, the reason will not be just because of military intervention. This is not to discredit our military, in fact, our best military minds agree that military muscle without diplomacy can quickly be viewed as imperialistic at the least, and totalitarian at its worst.
We are seeing that extremist Islamic groups are having a tough time selling their form of social engineering. The jury of the world court can call in the verdict as they witness the brutal display of torture, and death freely displayed by the extremist themselves via the Internet. This is a bit like the bank robber who turns in the surveillance tapes of his or her crime so they can see themselves on the nightly news.
All people, regardless of nationality, religion, or gender, by in large cannot accept the denial of basic human rights to individuals. The recent "election" in Iran proves the point, as hundreds of thousands marched to demonstrate a corrupted vote backed by most of the theological (religious) leaders of Iraq. Recently released ravings by Bin Laden were basically ignored by the Muslim world, while President Obama's Cairo speech was, for the most part, positively accepted worldwide. Finally, the public beating of young women who wanted an education in Afghanistan by the Taliban would only be viewed positively by supporters of the Dark Ages.
The failure of Brown at Harper's Ferry and the Cuban nationalist at the Bay of Pigs can be blamed on an uniformed population. This time around the (Muslim) population is informed, and it is up to them to answer the call of revolution. We can change the world alright.
Dave Baumgartner
Warsaw, via e-mail[[In-content Ad]]
You say you want a revolution?
John Brown led the raid on Harper's Ferry in hopes to start a slave revolt that would sweep the South, and put an end to slavery. A new young president was informed that an invasion of Cuban nationalist was going to make a landing on their island home, and begin a revolt that would overthrow a leader who aligned himself with a political ideology, which was unacceptable to a democratic society. In both cases, the revolutionary seeds failed to take root and grow.
The attempt to kick start a democratic revolution in Iraq has a shot at breaking this historical cycle, however, if it makes it, the reason will not be just because of military intervention. This is not to discredit our military, in fact, our best military minds agree that military muscle without diplomacy can quickly be viewed as imperialistic at the least, and totalitarian at its worst.
We are seeing that extremist Islamic groups are having a tough time selling their form of social engineering. The jury of the world court can call in the verdict as they witness the brutal display of torture, and death freely displayed by the extremist themselves via the Internet. This is a bit like the bank robber who turns in the surveillance tapes of his or her crime so they can see themselves on the nightly news.
All people, regardless of nationality, religion, or gender, by in large cannot accept the denial of basic human rights to individuals. The recent "election" in Iran proves the point, as hundreds of thousands marched to demonstrate a corrupted vote backed by most of the theological (religious) leaders of Iraq. Recently released ravings by Bin Laden were basically ignored by the Muslim world, while President Obama's Cairo speech was, for the most part, positively accepted worldwide. Finally, the public beating of young women who wanted an education in Afghanistan by the Taliban would only be viewed positively by supporters of the Dark Ages.
The failure of Brown at Harper's Ferry and the Cuban nationalist at the Bay of Pigs can be blamed on an uniformed population. This time around the (Muslim) population is informed, and it is up to them to answer the call of revolution. We can change the world alright.
Dave Baumgartner
Warsaw, via e-mail[[In-content Ad]]
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