Will the Seeds of Freedom Take Root in the Mideast’s Soil?

I imagine you sitting in a Cairo cafe, sipping coffee. Or maybe you’re in a market in Amman, or at home in Damascus. Tanks and bombers, U.S. and British, have invaded an Arab country. Tanks and machine guns of U.S. ally Israel prowl the lands you call Palestine. Around you, fellow Arabs call for Arab unity. Some demand a holy war.

I have covered enough conflict in enough cultures to understand: Uprising is a sure path to a life of purpose. Glory in the cause! All other things fade in importance, even self-preservation. But is that your only choice? Or your best choice?

Your great Arabic novelist, the Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz, wrote this: “In the universe floats the will, and in the will floats the universe.” So, what is your will?

Perhaps you would be interested in a perspective from here. Americans are beginning to grasp that this war was not merely an exercise of our power. It turns out also to be a recognition of yours. The division you can see in American society is not between those who support Arabs and those who oppose them. No, the quarrels on our streets and in our politics, and the larger disputes between the U.S. and its allies, are about coexistence.

Americans can be sentimental that way, often naive, but it is our tradition, our conceit. Many are historically unprepared or, let’s say, unburdened by history’s old grudges and certainties.

Our president is such a man, and he has dared to proclaim that war will liberate an oppressed people in Iraq and reduce the threat of global terrorism. Many hope he’s right. Dione Benson, watching the war from Los Angeles, cried when a U.S. serviceman named Fred was killed in battle. What made her weep was the final letter Fred wrote to his wife and 2-year-old daughter. He told them it was his job and desire to help Iraq’s people.

“Help is the key word here,” Benson explained to me. “... And if there are more men and women like Fred who believe that way, and are fighting for the rights of people to life -- a life of freedom -- I’ll back them all the way.”

As I said, Americans can be romantics. But we can be tough on ourselves too. There are many of my countrymen who believe that the U.S. has no right to try to write the narrative of another people, least of all with bombs. These Americans are certain that war will beget more war, more terrorism, more oppression. They see misguided imperialist motives by our leaders, and a forfeiture of morality.

What Americans are coming to understand is that whichever view prevails depends on you. You are empowered.

In less than two years, George W. Bush will stand for reelection. He will be accountable not only for the outcome of battle, but also for his promises. Will he succeed in coaxing a long-overdue settlement that is acceptable to both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Will he help Iraq back on its feet without plundering it? Will the seeds of freedom he seeks to plant in the Middle East take root? Will he have made friends or enemies in the world? Is he good to his word?

Drink it in. This is what democracy tastes like.

Self-determination? This is no longer something for the future. Your response today and in the weeks ahead will shape not just your future but will influence ours, too, and surely the broader relations among peoples and nations of the world. Whether you take a chance on Bush’s promise of opportunity or decide on confrontation, or whether you seek some other path -- we call it voting with your feet. The leaders you follow, the actions you choose, the ideas you embrace, truths you behold, the direction you head, will set the terms of tomorrow.

Our paths have converged, collided. For the first time in my lifetime, my countrymen and millions of other citizens of the world are not deaf to what Arabs say or how they feel or what they want. Yes, let us acknowledge: Violence got us here. The violence of Islamic extremists and the counter-violence against extremism. We must also recognize that violence creates its own terrible momentum.

So now what? What will be the order of this coming new world order? The minute this war commenced, it became decisive in one regard: The future of this universe we share will not be determined apart from your will.