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July 15, 2005
Alaskan in Exile
by Neil Zawicki

     In response to the London bombings this past week, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, “The terrorists won’t win.”

    My immediate response was, “They won’t lose either.”

    That is not to say I advocate the actions of the terrorists, or believe they are justified. It is only that I agree to observe the dynamic.

    The Arab world has been marginalized and subjugated by the West. That is certain. We cite the crusades as the beginning. But a closer inspection will reveal the Arab world as a once vaunted empire.

    In fact, the argument that the Christians came along and began to bully the Arabs is inaccurate. Islam did not come into being until 622 A.D.  Arab armies had conquered Mecca by 630 A.D., and by 637, Arab armies had taken the Byzantine Empire, and then the Persian Empire by 651. Next, the Arab Empire took Egypt, and by 715 had reached France, after conquering Spain, Portugal, Samarkand and India.

While the Arab world is credited with many technological advances and innovations that were later assumed by the conquering west, Arabs as well learned technology from their conquests. In 751, the Arab Empire introduced paper to its culture, after Arab soldiers captured Chinese papermakers in Asia. The Arab Empire at this time was ruled from Damascus.

    So, after more than 150 years of conquest and expansion by the Arabs, the Christian world decided to fight back, and sent armies to defeat the empire. The Arab Empire fought defensively and declined over the next thousand years, being defeated and colonized piecemeal along the way by European powers. It wasn’t until later that the cocky young United States began to take advantage of the conquered territories of the former empire. As a result, generations of Arabs have been raised with anger and frustration, while generations of Americans (and Europeans) have been raised with hubris. We can only pity both sides.

    The lesson here is that Empires fall. I submit that the last century has seen little more than the dominant side doing what any dominant side will do, and now this new Western Empire is on the defensive, because the threatened have said, “enough.”

    In this new war, whether they admit it or not, both sides carry the standard of religious ideology. Both sides, however, operate under a distorted view of their chosen religion. Even more absurd than that is for anyone to take sides in the fight, declaring one right and the other wrong.

    If the United States and the Western Empire decline and vanish as a result, so be it. If the Arab World further declines and vanishes, so be it. What is obvious is that when the dust settles, a new empire will have emerged. And I have nine dollars that says that empire will be viewed as unjust and arrogant.

Rather than historians and political activists, perhaps population ecologists could keep track of the current world social climate; it really is no different than the predator/prey population cycle: as the bunny population increases, so do the wolves. The wolf population spikes, causing the bunnies to decline. The wolf population then crashes due to lack of bunnies. This allows for more bunny proliferation, which allows for more wolves, and so on.

If only we were all bunnies, all would be right in the world. (Note to critics: This suggestion is intended to be absurd. Clearly a bunny-centric population would lead to new and unforeseen problems. Perhaps cannibalistic bunnies.)

We may see the very notion of nations become obsolete in our lifetime, but I doubt it. I do hope that we as a species are evolving, albeit painfully, toward a time when nationalism is considered quaint, and cultures of every type make up our identity and economy.
   
Reference:   

Chronology of the Arab World, part 1 www.caabu.org/education/chronologypart1/

“Why Are We At War?” Norman Mailer, Random House, 2003

www.gypsymoth.ento.vt.edu/~sharov/PopEcol/popecol.html

   
   


Neil Zawicki, exiled Alaskan, is Editor at Large for Insurgent49, a former reporter for the Alaska Star, and winner of the Alaska Press Club's 'Best Columnist' award. He is now living out the rest of his days in an undisclosed location in Oregon. He can be contacted at -  neil@insurgent49.com
- Columnists -

Editor's Desk
by Aaron Selbig

Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

Alaskan In Exile
by Neil Zawicki

The
Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford





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in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.