A Change in Strategy

I have been giving the war a lot of thought. Progress is coming in Iraq a painful inch at a time. It is a process which will not be done again for a while.

So as much as I think Democracy Promotion should still be a major part of our strategy, for the time being it cannot be primary. Our primary focus needs to be on the clash of cultures. To win that clash the West needs more exposure in the East. How do you get it? Television, radio, cell phones, and the 'Net. And what is the #1 requirement for those bits of equipment? Electricity. Even the advance of cell phones requires electricity for the towers and rechargers.

Electricity and street lights do quite a lot to reduce crime at night. Making people feel more secure and in fact be more secure. Lights in the home. Lights in the street.

Theologically Based Cultural Norms

Jonah Goldberg over at NRO says that theologically based cultural norms are the foundations of our liberties. I correct that impression:

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Actually it was the opposition of one set of theologically based cultural norms against another set of theologically based cultural norms that gave us all the good things you mention.

Sometimes theologically based cultural norms are wrong. Thus no theology or its attendant ideology ought to be ascendent.

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I had more to say about this on 17 October in relationship to Bush's Foreign Policy.

Geoge Bush, in the most radical change in American Foreign Policy in 200+ years has embarked on the world transforming policy of separating church and politics. This is quite surprising for a man so deeply involved in the politics of the religious right in America. America's stated policy is democracy, but not just any kind of democracy. It will be a democracy where the will of the people is supreme. The will of a few will not have ultimate sway. We see this in America. The government is secular and bad policy is not the writ of god. Dread Scott is no longer the law of the land.