In watching part of the Charlie Rose interview, it finally dawned on my why America will never be successful in the Middle East. America has a very individual, isolationist view of itself and other countries, whereas most of the countries in the Middle East sees themselves as part of a larger region. These ties, whose existence can probably be traced to tribal affiliations from the dawn of existence in that region, cannot be underestimated. These peoples, while under different sovereigns, share a cultural identity, religion (with some minority exceptions), and language (with the exceptions of Iran and Pakistan, who speak Farsi and Urdu for the most part, and of course, Israel, who has closer affiliations with us and speaks western languages and Hebrew, but is surrounded by Palestinian speakers of Arabic). As Americans, we value the individual, not the collective. As Arabs, it would appear that their sovereignty is important, but the collective Arab world as a region is more so. I could be wrong, but it sure seems this way.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 13:06:29 +0000
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