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How We Denied Democracy
To
The Middle East
By
Robert Fisk
The Independent - UK
11-8-3
- We created this place, weaned the grotesque dictators.
And we expect the Arabs to trust Bush's promise?
-
- It gets weirder and weirder. As his helicopters are
falling out of the sky over Iraq, President Bush tells us things are
getting even better. The more we succeed, he says, the deadlier the
attacks will become. Thank God the Americans now have a few - a very few
- brave journalists, like Maureen Dowd, to explain what is
happening.
-
- The worse things are, the better they get. Iraq's
wartime information minister, "Comical Ali", had nothing on this; he
claimed the Americans weren't in Baghdad when we could see their tanks.
Bush claims he's going to introduce democracy in the Middle East when
his soldiers are facing more than resistance in Iraq. They are facing an
insurrection. So let's take a look at the latest lies. "Sixty years of
Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the
Middle East did nothing to make us safe," he told us on Thursday.
"Because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense
of liberty." Well said, Sir. George Bush Jr sounds almost as convincing
as, well, Tony Blair. It's all a lie. "We" - the West, Europe, America -
never "excused and accommodated" lack of freedom. We endorsed lack of
freedom. We created it in the Middle East and supported it.
-
- When Colonel Ghaddafi took over Libya, the Foreign
Office thought him a much sprightlier figure than King Idriss. We
supported the Egyptian generals (aka Gamal Abdul Nasser) when they
originally kicked out King Farouk. We - the Brits - created the
Hashemite Kingdom in Jordan. We - the Brits - put a Hashemite King on
the throne of Iraq. And when the Baath party took over from the monarchy
in Baghdad, the CIA obligingly handed Saddam's mates the names of all
senior communist party members so they could be liquidated.
-
- The Brits created all those worthy sheikhdoms in the
Gulf. Kuwait was our doing; Saudi Arabia was ultimately a joint Anglo-US
project, the United Arab Emirates (formerly the Trucial State) etc. But
when Iran decided in the 1950s that it preferred Mohammed Mossadeq's
democratic rule to the Shah's, the CIA's Kim Roosevelt, with Colonel
"Monty" Woodhouse of MI6, overthrew democracy in Iran. Now President
Bush demands the same "democracy" in present-day Iran and says we merely
"excused and accommodated" the loathsome US-supported Shah's
regime.
-
- Now let's have another linguistic analysis of Mr
Bush's words. "The failure of Iraqi democracy," he told us two days ago,
"would embolden terrorists around the world, increase dangers to the
American people, and extinguish the hopes of millions in the region."
Here's another take: the failure of the Bush administration to control
Israel's settlement-building on Arab land would embolden terrorists
around the world, increase dangers to the American people and extinguish
the hopes of millions in the region. Now that would be more like it. But
no. President Bush thinks Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is "a man
of peace".
-
- And then there's that intriguing Bush demand for a
revolution in undemocratic Iran. Sure, Iran is a theocratic state (a
necrocracy, I suspect), but the morally impressive President Mohamed
Khatami, repeatedly thwarted by the dictatorial old divines, was
democratically elected - and by a far more convincing majority than
President George Bush Jr in the last US presidential elections.
-
- Yes, "democracy can be the future of every nation",
Bush tells us. So why did his country support Saddam's viciousness and
war crimes for so many years? Why did Washington give its blessing, at
various stages, to Colonel Ghaddafi, Hafez Assad of Syria, the Turkish
generals, Hassan of Morocco, the Shah, the sleek Ben Ali of Tunisia, the
creepy generals of Algeria, the plucky little King of Jordan and even -
breathe in because the UNOCAL boys wanted a gas pipeline through
Afghanistan - the Taliban?
-
- A break here. Fouad Siniora is the finance minister of
Lebanon. He is a believer in the American way of life, a graduate of the
American University of Beirut and a former lecturer there, an
ex-executive of Citibank. He has a valid American visa in his passport.
Yet he has been telephoned by the American embassy in Beirut to be told
he will not be permitted entry to the US.
-
- Why? Because last year he gave $ 660 at a Ramadan
fast-breaking iftah to a charity that runs educational projects and
orphanages in Lebanon. The organisation is run by Sayed Mohamed
Fadlallah - once described by the Western press as the "spiritual
adviser" to Hizbollah. CIA sources long ago revealed that they tried to
kill Fadlallah - they failed, but their Saudi-prepared car bomb killed
75 civilians - so Siniora, an Americanophile to his fingertips, is
persona non grata in the US. Fadlallah is not Hizbollah's "spiritual
adviser" - so he could hardly withdraw his support for its victory over
the Israeli army in Lebanon three years ago - but the loony- tune
"security" legislation in the US has deprived Siniora of any further
contact with a country he admires.
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- Yes, roll on democracy. Bring 'em on. The new
"Rummyworld" war on terror is in Iraq. Ban the press from filming the
return of dead American soldiers to the US. Liberty is what it's about,
democracy. "Accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East",
indeed. We created this place, drew its borders, weaned their grotesque
dictators. And we expect the Arabs to trust Mr Bush's promise?
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- � 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://www.bestofdesign.co.uk/antiwarblog/archives/000079.html
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Mulindwas Communication Group
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anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans
l'anarchie"
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