Peti oktobar na bliskom istoku i arapskom svetu

[borris_]

Odlican tekst

Across centuries, the urge for dignity remains intactBy ROBERT ZARETSKY Feb. 2, 2011, 8:19PM Share Del.icio.usDiggTwitterFacebookStumbleUponEmail Close [X]Nearly three millennia ago, events in the Mediterranean gave birth to Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War - the bible for theorists of political realism. In light of today's events in the same part of the world, Thuydides still has relevance — after all, he tells us he wrote his book not for his contemporaries, but for future generations. American students, crushed by the text's length and density, would disagree. But their contemporaries in Tunis and Cairo would instead embrace the ancient historian for truly grasping the events now upending North Africa.In the midst of its 30-year war with Sparta, Athens decided to play its strongest hand: It would lay claim to the entire Aegean Sea with its superior navy. The small island of Melos, until then neutral, fell within this zone of control. Yet neutrality was no longer an option. Athens sent a fleet of triremes to Melos. They delivered an offer the Melians could not refuse: Join our side or die.The Athenian position is starkly simple: questions of justice were for fools and children. Instead, they insist justice depends on the calculus of power. In short, "the strong do what they have the power to do, and the weak accept what they have to accept." Every attempt by the Melians to make the Athenians qualify this brutal assertion fails. Who knows, the Melians finally blurt out, they might still prevail with the aid of luck. The Athenians have a good laugh. Hope, they scoff, "is an expensive commodity." As for morality, they add, look no further than our might. In a phrase dear to our own age's political realists, the Athenians assert this is not a law they themselves made, but instead one that had always, and will always, exist.But the Melians refused to submit. Free for 700 years, they declare they won't give up. Astonished, the Athenians dismiss the Melians as childish: "You see uncertainties as realities, simply because you would like them to be so." They return to their ships, begin their siege, conquer Melos, execute the men and enslave the women and children. The realists, it seems, carried the day. If the sole law of human nature and politics is power, Athens had every right to demand Melos' surrender. Melos' refusal led to dire, apparently inevitable consequences.Contemporary political realists echo the Athenian commanders: The idea that strategic interests of a state justify the uses of power and morality is a cover for these naked national imperatives. This reasoning not only justified the brutal reign of authoritarian rulers like Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, but also justified our support of these regimes. These rulers are tyrants, but at least they are our tyrants. This matters in a region where we have critical interests and explains why we mostly overlooked the appalling human right abuses. In essence, our own leaders accepted the Athenian observation that the strong do what they will and the weak must suffer these decisions.But Athens overlooked another Thucydidean axiom. As we see at Melos, just as humans strive to control others, they also resist those who attempt to do so. Resistance on behalf of human dignity is no less fundamental than efforts to break human dignity. If, as Thucydides believed, human nature is constant - the millennia of history that divide us from ancient Athens suggests he is right - Thucydides would have little patience today with our current brand of political realism. It is the sort of "realism" expressed by France's foreign minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie. Reacting to the Tunisian regime's bloody efforts to suppress the popular uprising, she concluded that France needed to work on the training of the security forces in this former protectorate. But American diplomats should not gloat. When Mubarak's regime, kept afloat by billions of dollars in American assistance, unleashed its security forces, our administration initially retreated behind a smokescreen of neutral remarks. While it seems centuries ago, it was only last week that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted our "strategic ally" was stable, while Vice President Joe Biden asserted Mubarak was not a dictator.Today's streets of Tunis and Cairo strangely resemble the ancient beach at Melos. In both cases, the powerful believed that triremes and spears, tanks and guns, legitimated their rule. In both cases, the weak refused to suffer the powerful, claiming that human liberty and dignity also were part of political reality.While Melos was defeated, the story did not stop there. Soon after, Athens invaded Sicily, the island that straddled Greece's food supply lines to, of all places, Egypt. Like Melos, the city of Syracuse resisted; like Melos, Syracuse confronted very long odds; and like Melos, Syracuse nevertheless insisted on the reality of freedom. Unlike Melos, Syracuse pulverized the Athenian forces. The youth of Cairo and Tunis are as "unrealistic" as the Syracusans: Is it any wonder they are winning? It is time our own statesmen and women wonder what political realism truly means.Zaretsky teaches history at the Honors College, University of Houston, and is co-author of the forthcoming "Boswell's Enlightenment."

[dig_chohano]

Треба погледати шта Гелн Бек каже зашто Арапи мрзе Америку. Нема бољег есеја на ту тему.

Daj youtube.

[Indy]

Daj youtube.

Pa bilo pre par strana.

[dig_chohano]

Pa bilo pre par strana.

Onda sam slep, jbg. Jedino sam video onu carsku viziju početka svetskog rata sa tablom, kredom, varticama i nadvojvodom Ferdinandom.

[SNARC]

Kakve snimke su sada pokazali na AJ..neke kombije koji namerno ubrzavaju kroz masu i udaraju i kose pred sobom gomile ljudi..

[Indy]

Onda sam slep, jbg. Jedino sam video onu carsku viziju početka svetskog rata sa tablom, kredom, varticama i nadvojvodom Ferdinandom.

Pa to je to.

[hazard]

Taj klip mi je otvorio oci, ne samo po pitanju politike, vec i mnogih drugih stvari. Vec sam poceo da provaljujem ko mi je u zivotu friend, ko enemy, a ko frenemy.

[dig_chohano]

Sad iskopah Bekovu viziju od pre neki dan, kalifat, nafta, socijalna pravda, kalifat, novi krah berze, kalifat, glad, kalifat... Najstrašnije je što u US ima pitaj kurca koliko ljudi koji gajbi žderu tv dinner i veruju mu svaku reč.

Edited February 4, 2011 by dig_chohano

[Аврам Гојић]

Ljudi disciplinovano i veselo dolaze na Tahrir, vojnici cuvaju red i mir.Ja nisam bas siguran cega je Mubarak predsednik u ovom trenutku.(Al Jazeera malo preteruje, ne volim populizam. Voditelj: "Jel` tako da ih ima milion? Jel' da da ih ima milion"? Na Tahrir staje milion jedino ako ih pulverizuju.)

Edited February 4, 2011 by Marko M. Dabovic

[Dionysos]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cWOK0Lfh7wау јеботе...

[Indy]

[Аврам Гојић]

izvaditi iz kola, dohvatiti za kragnu, zaklati. jebes pacifizam, ovo ne treba da zivi

[Indy]

Taj da se moli kom god bogu da Mubarak ne zglajzne, jer ce ga (buduce vlasti) najverovatnije naci.

[Muwan]

(Al Jazeera malo preteruje, ne volim populizam. Voditelj: "Jel` tako da ih ima milion? Jel' da da ih ima milion"? Na Tahrir staje milion jedino ako ih pulverizuju.)

Pa dobro, ne znaju svi za te male trikove sa preterivanjem u brojanju ljudi na ulicama :D Srbi su ih doktorirali u vreme onog čuvenog natezanja: "Da li je na terazijama juče bilo 20 hiljada ili 200 hiljada ljudi", sve sa proračunom kvadratnih metara i broja osoba po jednom kvm. Prosečan gledalac AJ će se verovatno smrznuti od uzbuđenja kada pedeset puta uzastopno čuje: "Milion!". Inače si u pravu, od početka rade dobar posao ali pokazuju priličnu sklonost ka senzacionalizmu - kao da ga nema dovoljno samog po sebi. Jutros je voditelj pitao neku aktivistkinju za današnji plan aktivnosti i samo što nije bilo: "Je l' tako da postoji mogućnost da krenete na predsedničku palatu? Je l' da da ćete ići na predsedničku palatu?"Btw, ono specijalno vozilo velike dužine ne bi trebalo da je previše teško identifikovati a zatim zakopati vlasnike u mravinjak dok ne kažu ko je vozio te večeri, a zatim dotičnom pokazati kako kolonija termita može da bude efikasna.

[Takeshi]

Demonstranti hriscanske veroispovesti stite muslimanske kolege tokom molitve.