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Shorris does not convincingly indict the neoconservatives, nor does he reveal new insight into the meaning of Judaism. The value of Jews Without Mercy is an inadvertent reminder that morality, including religious morality, can be a productive facet of secular policy making and statesmanship. Without going to the extreme of imposing religious strictures on others, a la the Moral Majority, political and economic leaders can still form effective policy based on moral grounds...
...addition, Saddam's aggressively secular, socialist regime has long been anathema to Khomeini's philosophy of government, which insists on the clergy's God-given right to rule. With its 55% Shi'ite majority and Shi'ite shrines at An Najaf and Karbala, Iraq should, in Khomeini's view, be the natural home of a sister Islamic republic...
...disastrous consequences of the war. Some 100,000 Iraqis have been killed or wounded in a fruitless bid to seize control of the Shatt al Arab waterway and Iran's oil-rich Khuzistan province. Yet most Iraqis despise Khomeini's brand of Islamic fanaticism and prefer the secular nature of Saddam Hussein's government. Saddam Hussein's downfall would also provoke grave apprehensions in the gulf sheikdoms (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates). Those states and Saudi Arabia have poured at least $20 billion into Iraqi coffers to help keep the advancing Iranian...
Another legacy of this trip is a heightened prestige for the papacy, even among secular observers. Significantly, the London Times said in an editorial: "John Paul leaves Britain carrying with him the affection and admiration of far more Britons than he arrived with." Columnist James Cameron, who calls himself an agnostic, wrote in the influential Guardian: "I could rather wish we had a few more Popes around, if they were as benevolent and rational as this one seems to be." In the crowd at Glasgow, one skeptical businessman remarked, "I have tremendous admiration for this man and what...
...states are most worried by the thought of a Shi'ite government coming to power in Baghdad, thereby creating the conditions for a Shi'ite alliance that would include Iran, Iraq and Syria. Such an alliance could carry with it an Islamic fundamentalist force that could topple secular Muslim governments throughout the gulf...