In The Face Of Fear: Buddhism, Burma, Egypt, Politics, And The Modern World

The New York Times has an amazing piece that really should be read by all Americans as we consider our place in the world. “2 Detained Reporters Saw Secret Police’s Methods Firsthand” takes us directly into the underworld of one of America’s great allies in the Orwellian “War on Terror” which is turning 10 this year. How will we celebrate the tenth anniversary of 9/11? Perhaps with a global roll call of who is “with us” and an unwieldy list of newly-deemed “axis of evil” countries that no longer toe our line in international intervention and preemptive shock and awe. What ever happened to the world’s love of the smell of napalm in the morning?

One nation, it seems, is hoping for a new scent, and a new morning. Egypt is on the cusp. Of what exactly is yet to be seen. It may be a Turkey-like moderate Islamic state as many of us hope, or it may be the unheard first shots of World War III, as our friend Bill O’Reilly suggests (if the Muslim Brotherhood comes to power, that is).

To be fair, I agree fully with O’Reilly on not blaming our intelligence services or the Obama administration on this. And I do also agree that it’s in our interests to get “the best people” in power as possible. But I also agree with the comments of Bruce Reidel at the Daily Beast:

The short answer is it is not our decision to make. Egyptians will decide the outcome, not Washington. We should not try to pick Egyptians’ rulers. Every time we have done so, from Vietnam’s generals to Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, we have had buyer’s remorse.

And I think suggesting that WW III is in the works is just another example of Bill’s fine “raving right wing fear-filled windbaggery,” for lack of a better term. And don’t even get me started on Glenn Beck.In any case, there are many more intelligent voices out there, including Lebanon’s Ya Libnan news service, discussing three possible futures for Egypt, Aljazeera English, and individuals like Jami Miscik (ex-CIA), writing for Fortune magazine, who writes:

We were amazed that almost every Egyptian in authority that we spoke with didn’t see this coming. Last week on Tuesday night, after the protests had begun and we crawled around roadblocks to get to a dinner with prominent Egyptians, many of those who showed up were certain that the protests would peter out in the next few hours. I thought, how surreal this was as they could be looking into the precipice of their own privileged positions ending.

Ms. Miscik continues:

Clients want to know how the unrest could spread. I’m telling them that authoritarian leaders everywhere, including in Russia and China, are worried. The Yemeni President announced he will step down in 2013 and that his son will not stand for election. Others such as King Abdullah of Jordan are trying to take preemptive steps like replacing their entire cabinets.

And, turning even further abroad, to a place closer to home for American Buddhists, including myself, is Burma. As the Bangkok Post Editorial page recently notes:

The situation is similar to one much closer to home, in Burma, where the chances of regime change seem much more remote. If anything, the political situation in Burma is more dismal. In Burma, of course, it is the military leadership who actually have the ruling power, despite the pretence of transferring power to a civilian government through the sham elections of last November.

Writing from Thailand, the author laments, “Like the US and other Western nations, Thailand in particular has long found it politically and financially expedient to do business with a repressive regime while periodically offering mild reproaches.”

After searching for a moment for online resources for a Buddhist response to all of this, I’ve decided to instead ask you what you think. Please leave a comment, just a word or two or a long rambling rant if you’d like. See what others have to say and I’ll do my best to chime in a bit too.

In the face of fear: Buddhism, Burma, Egypt, politics, and the modern world