In Tuesday's Letter to the Editor, ("An invalid assumption," Aug. 29) Ryan Davidson is writing from the perspective of a dangerous ideology. It is clear from his language that he is prey to the "savage Arab" stereotype - that of an uncivilized people that needs to be punished, isolated and sent to bed without its supper.
When he states that countries such as the U.S., Canada, Britain and Germany cannot deal with the Middle East as we could deal with more "civilized nation states," Davidson propagates this harmful and unsophisticated Western-supremacist view of Arabs. The issues at stake here and the responses and behavior of both sides must be analyzed with attention paid to the real and often quite logical behavior of those who "hate us."
Try turning the tables for a minute, Davidson - here we are accusing "uncivilized" Iran of making nuclear weapons for unfriendly purposes when we are the only one who has actually dropped the bomb.
Clare Feeney
junior
off campus
Aug. 29
