Saturday, December 19, 2009

Arab "Moderates" Hate the US, Too

From Greg Scoblete at Real Clear World:
But the second dynamic is even less favorable to the U.S. and that's the extent to which the moderates don't much like the U.S. either. A recent poll from the University of Maryland illustrates the point: while there is a disgust of al Qaeda's methods (and thus, of radicalism) there's a basic agreement on al Qaeda's political objectives of forcing a change in U.S. foreign policy:
A study of public opinion in predominantly Muslim countries reveals that very large majorities continue to renounce the use of attacks on civilians as a means of pursuing political goals. At the same time large majorities agree with al Qaeda's goal of pushing the United States to remove its military forces from all Muslim countries and substantial numbers, in some cases majorities, approve of attacks on US troops in Muslim countries.

Your run of the mill moderate may be disgusted by al Qaeda attacks against America and may find the idea of slaughtering infidels abhorrent, but he may also think that we're getting what's coming to us and so isn't very motivated to get himself killed purging the radicals from his midst.

It seems to me that Americans who advocate fighting wars in the Middle East, including the President, miss the importance of this. Hardly anybody in the Middle East believes that we have their best interests at heart. The more Muslims we kill, regardless of who they are, the more people there hate us and want us to leave. We cannot fight our way out of this situation. The only way we can end the hatred against us is to stop killing Muslims and pull almost all of our forces out.

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