Worldwide Java Jag: 2006-12-03

Monday, December 04, 2006

SHEIKH MAHATMA

SHEIKH MAHATMA


Sheikh Nasrallah has put aside Katushya and Zelzal missiles donning the robes of the late Gandhi, in favor of “peaceful” protest. Having utterly failed to do much but destroy decades of Lebanese infrastructure and bring back the Crusaders under U.N. auspices, he has changed his form of “resistance.” To be fair, Nasrallah gave the Arab world hope… the days of retreating as fast as your feet and tank treads can carry you are over. Now the Arabs can take pride in having their country destroyed, launch pad adjacent women and children wounded and killed in situ. Without air cover or air defenses the count down to defeat and destruction may take longer than the six days of war once needed, but is inevitable nevertheless.
This divine delusion that Nasrallah’s victory entitles him to dismantle the Lebanese government, bringing into sharp relief the strategic and policy blunders of the fuzzy thinkers in Washington and its diminishing allies in the region.
What is clearly needed is less democracy and more realpolitik. Instead of preaching democracy to the Egyptians and the Syrians, the U.S should listen carefully to their sermons on effective domestic and foreign policy implementation. Have you ever asked yourself why all the assassinations in the Mid-East are of moderates and forward thinkers? How is it that Mokada al Sadar, Bashar Assad and Nasrallah happen to order all the killings? Is it because they are more ruthless and their enemies more principled? Or is it that they just don’t operate with the same inhibitions that we do?
What do you think will be the fate of the 138 “enemies” the Saudi security forces just rounded up? They may wish they were in collation hands at Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib. Do you think there will be any t-shirts or plays or documentaries about the fate of this bunch?
The entire Mid-East could be rearranged if we dealt with our enemies the same way they deal with their enemies. Why are there no destabilizing protests in Syria, Saudi Arabia or Iran? Egypt for example understands exactly what the cancer of the Muslim Brotherhood represents and exorcizes it immediately. Fahoud Sinora clearly did not understand that there is no cozying up to fanatics. Now Hezbollah has turned on him. General Casey in Iraq let Mokada build up his Mandhi army from 300 to 30,000. This resulted in a government unto itself, which can be characterized as a sectarian killing machine, ultimately because he did not understand the fanatical mind.
The results we see in Iraq, Lebanon and in the Gaza withdrawal is all one and the same: tolerance and weakness by moderates and the western minded and the resulting victory of fanatics. Eliminating Saddam opened the door to the Jihadists and religious killers. Tolerating an armed Hezbollah by Beirut-suits created a political Frankenstein. Withdrawing, rather than brutalizing the members of Hamas who live in Gaza, only encouraged the missile attacks and cross-boarder kidnappings. The neo-con freedom movement just can’t be applied to the Arab world. It only results in the opposite, easing the way to power of religious zealots determined to banish all freedoms, the Taliban being the best example.
As much as I hate to say it, it would have been better for Bush to bring back the old war criminal Henry Kissinger than James Baker. Our interest now lies in negotiating deals with the Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians, and the United Arab Emirates. Once the deep pocket payoffs are made in an effort to re-cement US relations in the Mid-East and we regain our footing with our allies, we can then go after our enemies: Iran and Syria. We can also leave Iraq to fend for itself. A divided, murderous Iraq will be a lesser threat after we snuggle up close to its near and far neighbors.
Actually, the playbook for this dose of realpolitik hummus- style is a return to another Cold War. In those murky days of yore we made deals with the devil, toppled threatening governments, eliminated their elected leaders, and undermined our enemies. As we see under Putin today. The lines of our self-interest were much clearer back then. Now our Mid-East policy is to shoot ourselves in the head and choke in the sand storm that freedom brings. With the rise of fanatics there is actually less freedom than before. Secular Iraqis and women are less free. A Hezbollah-run Lebanon will have all the freedoms of Iran, that is to say none. The only freedom that Hamas seems to allow is poverty, instability and attendance at martyr’s funerals.
Since we have delivered nothing and spent billions doing so, a return to pragmatism is not a retreat it is actually an advance toward a rational state of mind…Jean LeCarré anyone?