Re: Regarding Germany (#49971)
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra on January 5, 2005 at 2:52 PM

Surely, the issue of the Enlightenment is indispensable to consider when focusing on the issue of the Middle East. But focusing strictly on "religion" per se tends to obscure the fact that the Nazis, for example, embraced all of the elements of occult and cult worship, worship of the charismatic leader and the secular "religion" of racial-blood ties. And in Japan, sworn allegiance to the Emperor-as-deity played a fierce role---though, in all honesty, the kamikaze pilots were not, strictly speaking, "suicide bombers." Those pilots were welded into their cockpits.

Still: "Religious" overtones can be found in virtually all forms of statism, whether they be Islamic-fundamentalist, Nazi, Communist, or otherwise.

German, Japanese, & Iraqi canvases compared? (#50014)
by Sudha Shenoy on January 6, 2005 at 9:06 AM

Are we saying that Germany & Japan provided good canvases for US foreign policy to paint on, but the Iraqi canvas is definitely not usable?

Re: Regarding Germany (#50072)
by Max Swing on January 7, 2005 at 7:30 AM

And if we remember Germany, then we should also remember that it took four years before there were something like a solitary state, but still the allied powers did not want a constitutional Germany by then. It took Germany until 1990 with the 4-2 treaty to get their state in paper.
So, how long would it take in Iraq? while Germany was relatively peaceful after the war, we have a hostile environment in Iraq. We had (at least in the population) common ideals and values between the Unitd States and some of the population of Germany. We have a lot less here in Iraq with a completely different culture and ideology to begin with...