More humiliation, please

The real problem with the Arab world is a humiliation deficit. So says Nick Denton, publisher of Wonkette, Gizmodo and other hipster blogs:

The US needs to destroy Saddam Hussein's regime because he's a bad man, sure, because he may conceivably be connected with Al-Qaeda, because he's developing weapons of mass destruction, because a friendly Iraq would alter the balance of power in the Middle East, sure, because of all of that. But the US needs to destroy Saddam Hussein's regime mainly because the West needs to humiliate the Arab world, and dispel the Islamic millennial fantasy.

Via Praktike, who very succinctly answered:

The Arab World needed another humiliation like it needed a hole in its collective head. The general reaction to such humiliation here (or anywhere, really) is not, contrary to fantasies of folks like Nick Denton, to embark on a mass regional modernization and democratization movement. Rather, it is to do things like elect Hamas, cheer for the Iraqi insurgency, and so forth.

OK, so this dates from 2002, but it grabbed my attention.