| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| The Iraqi Blogosphere is Humming (go read) |
| 2005-11-11 |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #1 At some point I hope that the Iraqi intelligencia realize that Iraq has, for a time, an amazing potential: to become the nucleus of something comparable to the EU, or even better, to become the start of something akin to "The United States East". That is, to be the center of a growing, Middle East democratic hegemony, a confederation of nations inclined to prosperity, openness, and peace. Inherently, it would be of "Islamic character" as much as the EU is of a "Christian character". That is, having a separation of church and state, with religion only peripherally involved in government at all, by law. The first stage of such a union would take a profound leap of imagination. That Turkey abandon its furtive and spurned pursuit of European integration, and instead embrace Iraq as the two founding states of this confederation. What today sounds incredible is no less so than was a confederation of France and Germany after WWII. I suspect Jordan would be quick to join such an agreement, and the three nations together would have a magnetic attraction to others. Granted, the biggest obstacle would be democracy, freedom and transparency; but the momentum in the region is already in that direction. Such concepts are no longer anethema, and are being examined closely. Arabia would be far more hesistant, being of a conservative nature, than would many of the Gulf states, but the economic attraction would be irresistable. Other states would take far longer to integrate, in that way being more like the EU in its development. Iran might be incapable of belonging, as much as Russia cannot belong to the EU: it is just both too alien, and too enormous. Once in its general configuration, this Middle East Common Market would easily rival the EU, and would lead to modernization, prosperity and growth at a tremendous clip. It is an irony that the Arab world could find their empire restored, but not as an empire, and not in conflict with anyone, even the non-Arabs who lived within. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-11-11 12:46 |