Promoting “Dignity”
American Democracy promotion is so last decade. But fear not, there’s a new American promotion-du-jour for the Middle East in store, Obama style.
Naive or insightful? You decide:
..Democracy does not fill stomachs, alleviate malaria, or protect neighborhoods from marauding bands of militiamen. Democracy, in other words, is valuable to people insofar as it allows them first to meet their basic needs. It is much harder to provide that sense of dignity than to hold an election in Baghdad or Gaza and declare oneself shocked when illiberal forces triumph. “Look at why the baddies win these elections,” Power says. “It’s because [populations are] living in climates of fear.” U.S. policy, she continues, should be “about meeting people where they’re at. Their fears of going hungry, or of the thug on the street. That’s the swamp that needs draining.
If we’re to compete with extremism, we have to be able to provide these things that we’re not [providing].” This is why, Obama’s advisers argue, national security depends in large part on dignity promotion. Without it, the U.S. will never be able to destroy al-Qaeda. Extremists will forever be able to demagogue conditions of misery, making continued U.S. involvement in asymmetric warfare an increasingly counterproductive exercise — because killing one terrorist creates five more in his place.
Ahh, so neat. Unfortunately, Obama’s foreign policy advisers miss the part where they explain how an American promotion of “dignity” in Dahieh, south Lebanon and the Bekaa will drain Hezbollah out of its supporters.
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Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.
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By “dignity” he basically means prosperity. Using that term instead, the idea sounds pretty old and basic. Bring a minimum prosperity to an area, such as reliable basic services and a function system of law and order, then people don’t feel their lives are cheap anymore, and they don’t throw them away to violence. They also have more to lose by that path, and less to gain.
Although your cynicism, there is a point in reaching “dignity” as a step toward progress.
It wasn’t the overwhelming defeat that Egypt suffered in ‘67, that facilitated the Israeli-Egyptian peace. But it was Egypt’s “victory” of the ‘73 October war. In other words, Egypt first had to regain it’s dignity, then it was mature enough to make peace.
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The idea is sound, but pretty much relegated to ivory tower intellectualism at this point as it does nothing to offer concrete steps as to HOW you go about making people in Dahieh prosperous (to use Mus’s example) when their religious leaders (who they are far more inclined to believe than an American president) tells them it’s all a sham to sell out Lebanon to the Zionists.
The sources for “dignity” are different for different people and are based on customs and culture. It will take a targeted approach for a targeted audience – no small exercise. Mus’s, “ah, so neat” and BV’s, “offer concrete steps” pretty much follows my own thinking. Spelling out the details is a big order. I confess to being cynical enough not to place too much faith in what politicians say when running for election. A picture of hope has been offered. Now what we need is a game plan.
I don’t know about this Obama. If he’s repeating some textbooks like a parrot.
But the issue of Dahieh can be solved, actually, with prosperity or dignity or whatever you prefer to call it.
For example, if jobs are created, schools builts, hospitals opened, and people stop wasting their time listening to Hassouna, but they go about their lives… If people start thinking “I want to be the successful man, not Hassouna…” then we may end this Hezbollah crap.
Perhaps we need to explain to the people in Dahieh and Lebanon that they can dream and reach the top, they don’t need to follow losers like the ones they keep following. Some “ego” building is needed. Self confidence. Be a leader, not a follower.
Exactly, Happy Arab.
Barack Obama seems to have little in the way of concrete ideas. His whole campaign revolves around vague promises of “hope,” “change,” “dignity,” and “prosperity.” You’re right to call him out to explain exactly how “dignity” will draw Lebanese Shiites away from Hezbollah.
Furthermore, as terrorist experts are well aware by now, terrorists tend to be drawn not from the poorest members of their societies but from the better off. Prosperity, assuming it could be achieved, might only bolster Hezbollah.
I suspect Hezbollah will find a more concessionary partner in Obama than in the current president, but I doubt any president is likely to have much of an impact on Lebanon one way or the other.
I think the world would be a better place if Arabs sought dignity less and truth and justice more.