Middle East makes its own misery?

And what do you think about this? Just before september 11 I found this in a Dutch newspaper, I traslated it.
You can mail me for some discussion. I do agree with the writer in some way, but not in all...


09.11, five years later
Middele East makes its own misery
'Know your history', writes Rachida Azough (Het betoog, september 2nd. Column in a Dutch Newspaper)
Totally right, but does she know the history? To her opinion is the West (west, of what we say is Europe and the US) 'for the biggest concern responsible for the misery in the Middle East'. Is that right?
True, Egypt was under British dominion from 1882 till shortly after the Second Worldwar. That is at about seventy years. The rest of the Arabic Middle East was under Turkish for centuries. The British ended that in the First Worldwar. Then the British and the French divided that part of the world into infuence atmospheres. Those dued till shortly after the Second Worldwar, so at about thirty years.
Seventy or thirty years: those are short periods wich mean less for the kind of a country. The British (and the Americans) left nothing behind in the Middle East then a florising oil industry.
Say, the West had never been interested in the Middle East. Then where would have been rised the oil industry? Who would have established that?
The immense wealth which Saudi Arabia has now, is mostly spent wrong. Is that because of Western influence?
Nasser (Colonel Djamal Abd al-Nasser, former persident of Egypt) tried to foundan United Arabian Republic between Egypt and Syrie. It fel apart. The Arabic leaders bicker about all kind of things during their top meetings. They don't need the West for that.
In the UNDP-report (United Nations Development Programme) about the arrears of the islamic world calls three causes: lack of freedom, knowledge and womenpower (reverse of manpower). The dictatorships in the Middle East are all from their own make, not imported.
The amount of books which are translated into Arabic is small. Who reads, has to isolate. It could be that it is expirienced as asocial. But the consequences are clear. How many Nobel Price winners has the Middle East with the recenty died Egyptian writer Mahfoes (Najib Mahfoez, died august 2006)?
Why is Azough not allowed to drive a car in Saudi Arabia? Is that because of the CIA? All those cases and states are grown on their own grounds, without Western intervention. The Arabic world suffers on a victim-culture. Her misery is because of the Americans, because of the West and especially because of the Jewish - but never because of themselves. De Arabic mediaare filled with loads of dirty anti-semitism.
Its a gotspe to say the misery in the Middle East is because of the West, like Azough does.
She says, Theo van Gogh (Dutch controversial film producer and writer) would not have been killed in november 2004, would there never had been the attac on the WTC. This is a saying out of the air without any evidence. How kan you make that up?
Rachida Azough should do good to broaden a bit more into history and fantasy less.

Frits Bolkestein (Dutch ex-eurocommisioner)
Volkskrant september 09, 2006. (Dutch newspaper)