The following informal memo (Download file) was passed on to me by a pro-Israel, pro-war attorney. Apparently this is what passes for sober wisdom among neocons; this is the kind of thing they are apparently passing along to each other in secret, wink-wink emails.
The piece is, as far as I can tell, anonymous, but draws on Colonel Ralph Peters views. The memo breathlessly argues that “our enemy” is basically Arab culture. As it suggests: “We’re facing a 14th century culture engaged in a 14th century war against us. The problem is that they are armed with 20th century weapons, which may eventually include nuclear weapons. … It may sound strange to say, but what we have to do is to take the 14th century culture of our enemies and bring it into the 17th century. Once we’ve done that, then we can work on bringing them into the 21st century, but that will be much easier.”
I’m reminded of Rothbard’s proposal to repeal the Twentieth Century (unlike the William Buckley/National Review crowd, who advocated that conservatives “stand athwart history, yelling Stop.”)
So it seems to me that instead of bringing Arab culture from the 14th to the 21st century, we should meet them halfway, around the 18th or so. What the hell, let’s make it the 16th.
11:00 am on March 26, 2004
