Hi folks, I have read the rants. We are all frustrated.
For those of you who are seriously interested in mid east politics, not just blowing off steam but reading real articles, making salient comments only when they are thought out and relevant, I maintain a small mid east discussion group list. We mostly exchange pertinent articles from sources other than the Boston Globe, some of which are hard to find, some easy but who has time. Occasionally one may comment on one by way of introduction, and so forth. Our goal is to educate ourselves, not pursuade each other. We maintain a very high standard of decorum and do not personalize the discussion or exchange of ideas. An example article circulated this week follows. You will immediately see it's different than what we see regularly. Sometimes articles very much in favor of going in are circulated also. But this one was the last to go round. Just let me know if you want to be on the list. Joel A Feingold The recent article: Wolfowitz and His Successfully Evil Cabal Richard H. Curtiss, Special to Arab News Published on 23 February 2003 Whatever comes next in the battle against Saddam Hussein, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz has achieved a life-long aim. He has diverted the search for a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem onto the back burner while turning up the heat on the problem of Saddam Hussein. Wolfowitz has a long history working for the government. After completing his university graduate work, he was a management intern in the Bureau of the Budget (1966-67), where he began his steady ascent up the bureaucratic ranks. As assistant secretary of defense in the current administration, however, Wolfowitz has come into his own. Some say he considers himself the administration's resident intellectual. Whether that is true or not, Secretary of State Powell is his chief rival for influence in the White House. At least once in the Bush administration Powell has come down hard against Wolfowitz. But Wolfowitz indefatigably bounces right back from such upsets, all the while pursuing his own private agenda. That agenda is to deflect attention from the problem of Israel by finding Washington new enemies anywhere else in the world. This long-term goal of his has been Wolfowitz' idee fixe for many years. Apparently with the president's blessing, he has elaborated this goal into calling for the defeat of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and the creation of a military occupation government. Wolfowitz maintains that, since Saddam is so hated by his people, once serious military action begins he will fall rapidly. It will not be terribly long, Wolfowitz argues, before a military government can be melded into a democratic country, perhaps the first in the Arab world. The civilian Defense Department official tends to minimize problems that don't fit into his world views - such as the fact that Iraq's Kurds may have different plans of their own. The country's Shiites also may have a different game plan. Waving aside these practical considerations, Wolfowitz insists that these matters can easily be dealt with later. There are others, however, who believe that Wolfowitz has a separate agenda of his own, and who believe, in fact, that Wolfowitz welcomes each new international problem. He may want the United States to remain bogged down in various crises and thus give the Israelis more time to consolidate their own conquest over the Palestinians. Indeed, some Wolfowitz-watchers warn that he is, in the words of one conservative, "the most dangerous man in the current administration." This is partly because he both advocates hard-line positions and has the ability to defend them. One observer has described Wolfowitz and his cohorts as "democratic imperialists." In addition, Wolfowitz and other hard-line commentators are talking about US military action to bring about changes in both Syria and Iran after subduing Iraq. Said Hugo Young of The Guardian of Dec. 3, 2002: "In Washington, as well as in Europe, Paul Wolfowitz is regarded as the most awesome of the hawks in his appetite for war to overthrow Saddam Hussein. A Republican senator saw him as a 'weirdo' whose views were so dogmatic as to put him outside the realms of normal debate." In a press conference after Sept. 11, 2001, Wolfowitz declared that American policy "is ending states that sponsor terrorism." This earned a public remonstrance from Colin Powell, who said that Wolfowitz "can speak for himself," but the US goal is only to end "terrorism." Wolfowitz's enthusiasm for nailing Saddam was thus quashed for the time being, as Powell and others made it clear that such a widespread war would destroy the anti-terrorism coalition and infuriate Arab allies. While this was neither the first nor the last time Wolfowitz and Powell have clashed, the secretary of state has not totally quashed the assistant secretary of defense. Wolfowitz' knack for the unexpected and his eagerness to deploy American forces earned him a reputation for both prescience and nuttiness, in the words of David Plotz. Wolfowitz reportedly has said, for example, that "a kiloton of prevention is worth a megaton of cure." In October 2002, The New York Times published a leak about Wolfowitz and his coterie. According to the article, Wolfowitz wants an immediate war with Iraq, believing that the targeting of Afghanistan, an already impoverished wasteland, falls far short of stopping the global war the cabalists are seeking. Iraq, however, is just another stepping stone in turning the "war on terrorism" into a full-blown "Clash of Civilizations," where the Islamic religion could become the "enemy image" in a new Cold War. The Times also revealed deep divisions within the Bush administration, describing how the Wolfowitz clique plots behind the backs of Cabinet officials such as Secretary of State Powell in the name of the US government. "The group wants to obliterate Iraq, and put the Palestinian Authority and President Arafat on the terrorism list," wrote Michele Steinberg in the Oct. 26, 2001 issue of Executive Intelligence Review. The "Wolfowitz Cabal" is now determined to push the US in the same direction as Israel's most dangerous right-wing policy and take on as an enemy every Islamic nation Israel perceives as a threat. In this Wolfowitz and his colleague, Richard Perle, seem to have succeeded beyond their wildest and most fevered dreams. Richard H. Curtiss is the Executive Editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Magazine. Arab News Opinion 23 February 2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Copyright C 2003 ArabNews All Rights Reserved.
