LAT: Sudden, Painful Rebirth Unsettles Stagnant (Middle East)

[DeepModem Mom]

IRAQ: ONE YEAR LATER
Sudden, Painful Rebirth Unsettles Stagnant Region

By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer


RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — These are days of heady promises, when kings and despots are making emphatic gestures of reform. There are petition drives in Syria and Saudi Arabia and women's rights negotiations in the United Arab Emirates. Human rights initiatives are suddenly being aired by members of oppressive regimes....

***

But behind the gestures of political change, contradictions and resentment are as thick and dark as the pools of oil under Saudi sands. One year after the campaign to oust Hussein, other regimes have lost their sense of invulnerability and appear uncertain of the new order. Pro-democracy reformists from Damascus to Dubai took strength from the disintegration of the Iraqi regime — but also were saddled with the poisonous label of American sympathizer.

The United States has paid for the war and the occupation with a profound anti-American backlash. The fires of jihad have been fueled in the hearts of a new generation of extremist recruits. Sectarian tensions are spilling from Iraq, drawing out tribal, religious and ethnic splits in neighboring countries and raising fears of instability.

The United States argued that toppling Hussein would ease the path to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But another year of horrendous bloodshed in the Palestinian uprising has sunk Arabs deep into despair and intensified rage against U.S. foreign policy. That anger found form in wide-ranging street protests after the assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the militant Hamas movement.

"If you ask us whether American foreign policy is working, we will say no," said Mustafa Harmarneh, head of Jordan's Center for Strategic Studies. "We went to American schools, and we will tell you: 'No. "


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-arabs26mar26,1,6825242.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[JM]

1. Ah yes...The "Pimple Principle" of Diplomacy

The Pimple Principle is as follows:

Everyone has had a zit at some time or another. There are three ways to handle it.

1) Leave it alone and eventually it will go away (ignorance approach)
2) Apply moist heat and possibly medication and eventually it will go away (containment approach)
3) Use the thumb and forefinger to squeeze the living shit out of it, the result of such action being either success with some pain and/or infecting the surrounding tissue.

Care to hazard a guess as to W's favorite approach? My take is the work is full of zits, and George has employed an admininstration of thumbs and forefingers.

JM

[The Stranger]

2. No, it is really more like a fire.

You kindle the fire for its warmth and enjoy its heat, even though it is dangerous to have around. It is profitable, and does what you need it to do. It is not in your home anyway, and the people in whose home the fire exists don't have much of a say anyway. The fire will keep them quiet.

Later, when you need a new kind of fire, you start sounding fire alarms, make up a fire department and attack the home where the fire is. It is suddenly an emergency, the fire that you have created. Once the fire is extinguished and the home destroyed, you congratulate yourself and convince yourself that you are now a fireman.

The people who still have to live at the home look at you puzzled. But you can't understand for the life of you why they would not love their fireman.

[enough]

3. Empire building seen

snip>

From shopkeepers to scholars, people throughout the Arab world are convinced that invading Iraq was the first step in a broad plan. The United States waged war as an early blow of empire, they argue — to protect Israel, stake a claim on Iraqi oil and begin a gradual conquest of the region.

Few Arabs believe that their deliverance from repression will come from the United States, and their skepticism is fed by the continuing violence of the Palestinian intifada. Most Arabs are convinced that the United States, preoccupied with its struggles in Iraq and mindful of the looming presidential election, has abandoned the peace process. They blame the U.S. for supporting Israel with billions of dollars in aid but failing to broker talks.

Perceived American indifference to the Palestinians' plight feeds the image of the United States as a superpower that fails to grasp what to most Arabs is an irrefutable logic: There's no use in discussing stability, peace or democracy in the Middle East until the Palestinian question has been resolved.

snip>