Letters: Real meaning of 'Arab Spring'

RE: "HOW TO fight 'their Islam,' " (Bykofsky, Sept. 14).

I've spent a little over five years in the Middle East (Cairo, Beirut, Iraq, Amman and two other, lesser-known places). I understand the culture, the Quran, the economy and the prejudices/hatreds. I also understand there are a lot of "nice" people there not prone to violence for the sake of violence. Nevertheless, the region is prone to chaos.

The violent chaos of revolt without a cause - what our ruling elite pronounced the "Arab Spring" - has yet to conclude. Did our leaders naively believe these ruthless and violent mobs would ultimately aspire to create democracies across the Middle East? Or did they believe, as Neville Chamberlain did in 1939, that appeasing our aggressors would result in peaceful coexistence?

The lesson should not be lost on Americans. The leaders who dubbed this the Arab Spring were the same leaders who vehemently criticized President George Bush's administration for trying to establish democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, when the populations so clearly were not ready for Jeffersonian utopia.

It is not an Arab Spring, and it is not about democracy. It is about an angry and violent people who understand only that "might makes right" and weakness must be exploited. It is about dissatisfied people who want more of everything, in a system incapable of providing for their wants and needs. Without a strong power to harness that anger, chaos and anarchy will prevail. We have now seen that democracy was not their cause, but our hope, sprung from our own deluded view of a region we do not understand.

It is quite possible that our perceived weakness, coupled with the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, caused a "now or never" mentality among our adversaries, leading to these attacks. If that is the case, there will likely be more.

Unfortunately, we will not recover the strength we once had abroad anytime soon. That strength and reputation was the direct result of decades of diplomatic and military efforts, and has apparently been unraveled by the fantasy that "we can all just get along" by philosophically hammering our weapons into plowshares.

When you vote in November, will you chose a strong America or a polite America?

Bill Merrill

San Antonio, Texas

No more nice guy

Stu, I loved your solutions, particularly "no more acts of contrition."

Yes, it's complicated, but this pussy-footing in regards to radical Islam is getting old.

Bill Mann

Cochranville

Big hand for the judges

Recent media reports praising the city's success in curtailing, and hopefully preventing, future flash mobs fails to recognize the hard work and impact of Judge Kevin Dougherty and the judiciary as a whole.

Dougherty and his colleagues sent a very strong message to these reckless and dangerous street hooligans who were found guilty by imposing deservedly stringent jail terms.

For months our city was held hostage to the fear and uncertainity that, at any moment, these spontaneous massings of violent hooligans would suddenly erupt and prey upon innocent, law-abiding citizens as they walked the streets of Philadelphia.

Hopefully, those days are now behind us thanks to the hard work, dedication and vision of Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and the Philadelphia Police Department.

But we should not forget the important contribution of Dougherty and all the judges who took these violent assaults on innocent citizens very seriously. They deserve our thanks and appreciation for standing up for the victims of violence and for handing out appropriate punishments for these violent assailants.

Jim Kenney

City councilman-at-large

Drug dealers' paradise

Philadelphia has become a drug dealer's paradise. With the exception of Center City or in and around the transportation hubs, the Police Department practically has a non-existent walk-the-beat presence. How many uniformed police officers have you recently bumped into on the sidewalk during your morning or evening stroll/jog around your own neighborhood?

I lived in New York City and Chicago prior to calling Philadelphia home, and compared to other cities drug dealers in Philly have an unprecedented bravado and swagger. When I lived on 13th Street in North Philly, drug deals routinely took place in broad daylight without fear of police intervention - like they were just handing out Halloween candy.

I quickly learned there is a lack of law-enforcement protection for community members who put their necks on the line in an effort to rid their neighborhoods of predatory drug dealers. If you happen to cross paths and make eye contact with your neighborhood drug dealer, typically, they give you that look: "What are you going to do about it?"

Residents don't have the intel that Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has at his disposal on the current status of the supply-and-demand logistics of the Philly drug trade. But at some point the flood gates opened and too many drug dealers started calling Philadelphia home, judging by the number of drug transactions that take place every day on the streets of Philadelphia.

Jason Kaye

Philadelphia