Bush of Arabia

To a Lebanese Friend -

Bush's visit to the client regimes in the Middle East is a circus. It
is a photo opportunity for his White House scrapbook, not an
opportunity for peace as he announces. It is designed to give the
impression that the US-absurdly called "an honest broker"-is engaged in
something called a "peace process" with "road maps" and "confidence
building measures." It is not intended to accomplish anything except to
inject more US weapons in the region and to raise false hopes. And to give
his remaining months in office a little bit of glamor and to burnish his
"legacy." As to the latter, it is pretty clear he will go down as one of
the worst presidents in US history. And a major war criminal who should be
prosecuted for crimes against humanity. And the media while Bush roams the
lands of Araby? 18 Palestinians killed- page 8 New York Times. 6
Palestinians killed- page 12. Imagine the media coverage if Israelis were
killed in those numbers. As Vonnegut would say, And so it goes.
Bush of Arabia. There he was in robes hobnobbing with the Saudi emirs.
And holding a sword and swaying back and forth. What a spectacle. S.A.
is one of the most misogynist, homophobic, sectarian, fundamentalist
regimes in the world and the "Leader of the Free World" is kissing up
to them begging, Please pump more oil. The Saudis almost invented the
Taliban with assistance from Zia ul-Haq in Pakistan. S.A., Kuwait, and the
other emirates are not even countries in the conventional sense. They
are family-run businesses that operate petrol pumps.
As I tell people here, if a Saudi woman were to go to sleep tonight
and wake up tomorrow in Iran, she would think she is in heaven.
On his Voyage to the East, Bush is still promoting his "Attack Iran"
symphony. He is having trouble enlisting anyone to perform in his
orchestra so he may have play alone. That's what freedom and democracy
require. Resolve. Toughness. More terms of propaganda like his
preposterous War on Terror. Why not declare a War on Greed or a War on
Hypocrisy? Orwell must be doing back flips in his grave. The banality
of language.
In Egypt, the American president cuddles with the dictator Mubarak. If
he completes his current term, he will be the longest serving ruler of
Egypt since Ramses II. Political opponents are in jail, human rights
violations are widespread, and elections are rigged.
As to expansion of Israeli colonies, "settlements" is too polite,
Washington has always gone along with practically everything Israel
does. There is a technical term for what Israel does. It's called
stealing. Arabs, and Palestinians in particular, are a nuisance except
when they kiss the hand of the Master then they are acceptable. Those
in opposition to the Empire raise uncomfortable questions and
inconvenient facts. They must be taught lessons in obedience and
servility. The US media compliantly reflect the official line in
"reporting" on "terrorist" groups like Hizbollah and Hamas and
"terrorist" states like Iran and Syria. Most journalists here are poseurs.
They are actually stenographers.
Frederick Douglass, an African-America freedom fighter once said,
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never
will."
That's the reality and how the world works.
I suspect you have, but if you haven't already, I suggest you read
Fanon's "Wretched of the Earth." It explains a lot of why
post-colonial societies are they way they are. Colonialism hasn't
really ended. It has taken new shapes and forms. Old wine in new
bottles. Do you read Eqbal Ahmad, Eduardo Galeano and Arundhati Roy? I
spent a few days with her in Delhi last month. She's an inspiration.