The UN, US and Iraq IV

Dear Hobitbob:

I believe that the Zogby family has an Arabic heritage.

If I am wrong, I stand corrected.

The famous Helen Thomas of the press corps has a lebanese heritage, does she not?

I must confess to being guilty of linking some people's prejudices to their ethnic backgrounds.

Perhaps I am mistaken.

But, again--what is Zogby's ethnic background???

No matter what happens, Bush and Co. profit from their corporate connections. If Bush is defeated in 2004, how much you wanna bet Daddy Bush buys the 2008 election for Jeb?

Walter Hinteler:

I did not mean to imply that you were a militaristic conservative.

Did you not tell us that you were from the Prussia section of Germany?

If I am mistaken, I apologize.

Did you not tell us that you were from the Prussia section of Germany? If I am mistaken, I apologize.

hobitbob wrote:

No matter what happens, Bush and Co. profit from their corporate connections. If Bush is defeated in 2004, how much you wanna bet Daddy Bush buys the 2008 election for Jeb?

Anyone else remember the pundits theorizing -- in the aftermath of the 2000 Republican convention -- that Bush chose the semi-geriatric Cheney as a running-mate because Cheney could be counted on to step aside in 2008 and let Jeb take his turn in the White House?

Walter Hinteler:

I did not mean to imply that you were a militaristic conservative.

Did you not tell us that you were from the Prussia section of Germany?

When such errors are made, one has to wonder about the depth of the reasoning offered by the contributor!!!!!

I must confess to being guilty of linking some people's prejudices to their ethnic backgrounds.

I must confess to being guilty of linking some people's ethnic backgrounds to my prejudices.

If I am mistaken, I apologize.

Iraq is turning out to be a mixture of the US role in Vietnam and Iran. Just as the US went to Vietnam to save the world from communism, it waded into Iraq to save the world from WMDs. But it failed to realise that, in both countries, the locals do not like invaders, even if the latter are burning with altruistic passion. So, as the Americans sink deeper into the desert sands, they may be unable to set up the kind of puppet regime they once did in Iran.

But, notwithstanding these failures, the people who had been goading the US into its latest adventures may not give up easily. They are the neoconservative hawks at home and the Israeli hardliners abroad. To start with the Israelis, their country is now paying the psychological price of being implanted in a hostile territory. To use a medical analogy, Israel is coping with the constant threat of rejection by the West Asian body politic.

As a result, it has become the Sparta of the modern world, a military State always ready for warfare. It's still a democracy, but barely. There are areas of its government which are as sealed off as in any totalitarian country. The incarceration of Mordechai Vanunu, the man who blew the whistle on Israel's nuclear secret, belongs to one such area. The other is Mossad, the secret service, whose reputation for torture has assumed legendary proportions. Now Tel Aviv is making life difficult for any Israeli citizen of Arab origin married to a Palestinian. A commission has also found evidence of systematic discrimination against the Arabs in Israel.

The threat from Palestinian terrorists has made Israel impervious to human suffering while retaliating, and disdainful of the dangers of pursuing a reckless policy in that volatile region. Its hint to Washington, for instance, to attack Iran's nuclear facilities takes no account of the Islamic fundamentalist fires which such an action can light.

The neocons in the US complement Israel's recklessness. Firm believers in the theory that the 21st century is America's, they had set out to mould the world in America's image. Their Project for the New American Century envisaged keeping the world "friendly to our security, our prosperity and our principles" and challenging regimes "hostile to our interests and our values". Their first targets were Iraq, Iran and North Korea in the ?'axis of evil', which was later to be expanded by including Syria and Cuba.

The neocons' strategy focused on pre-emptive strikes. America won't wait to be attacked as on 9/11, they argued, but will take the battle to the enemy territory. Iraq was the testing ground. But the new crusaders have been flummoxed by the turn of events. Mesopotamia, the old name for Iraq, has become a ?'mess pot', as the British, the earlier colonialists, called it.

So, like the Thousand Year Reich, Pax Americana, too, may prove to be short-lived. The US may not have the stomach for any more pre-emptive strikes, at least not in the immediate future. But even if it wants to retreat to its earlier isolationism, Israel will be loath to let
it go. The latter's precarious existence in a hostile neighbourhood means not only that it will forever remain dependent on America, but that it may also try to embroil the US in conflicts of the region so that America cannot leave it in the lurch.