(2002-09-19) a

Nick Denton qualifying Steven Den Beste's diatribe on Dealing With Terrorism. Steven says What they want is to stay with their traditional Culture and for it to be successful, and that isn't possible. We can make them rich through aid, but we can't make them successful because their failure is not caused by us, but by the deep flaws in their culture. Their culture cannot succeed. It is too deeply and fundamentally crippled... I am forthrightly stating that it will be necessary to destabilize the entire Middle East, which puts me exactly counter to European Foreign Policy.

Steven refers to (Lieutenant Colonel) Ralph Peters' 1998 essay on Spotting the Losers: Seven Signs of Non-Competitive States (Restrictions on the free flow of information. The subjugation of Women. Inability to accept responsibility for individual or collective Failure. The Extended Family or clan as the basic unit of social organization (Tribalism). Domination by a restrictive religion (Religious Cult, Theocracy). A low valuation of education (Educating Kids). Low prestige assigned to work.) The future will never be fully predictable, but Globalization means the imposition of uniform rules by the most powerful actors. They are fundamentally economic rules.