No More Mr./Ms. Nice Guy
The topic of the war on Iraq supposedly will be much ignored in the Tuesday night State of the Union Address. It's hardly surprising that the cretin in chief wants to avoid dealing with the mounting carnage. He's about to raise the level and create some more, despite the fact that the American public has rejected the war and its increasing toll on this country's well-being.
Overturning a brutal despot and giving greater liberty to the people of Iraq is probably the only positive achievement that anyone in our country would agree would, if it succeeds, be a good thing. But it is the very emphasis on personal liberties in the Middle East that the administration is retreating from. Sadly, it seems that our embrace of existing despotic regimes is the reversal of this country's only perception of positive gains, gains now being denied.
Well, we hoped for better, but it seems that by this trip to the Middle East the Secretary of State is exhibiting a new tactic. We give up on democracy and personal freedoms, we are trying to salvage the military operation which is all this White House is capable of.
Mubarak canceled scheduled parliamentary elections. His security forces violently broke up protest demonstrations. Opposition leaders, from members of the Muslim Brotherhood to pro-democracy bloggers, were arrested and tortured. Nour's appeals were denied.
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Before Rice arrived in Cairo this time, the city was buzzing about Internet videos -- not of Saddam Hussein but of Egyptian police who had been captured torturing innocent citizens. Mubarak had just announced a series of constitutional amendments that would exclude serious opposition candidates from future elections and curtail independent judicial monitoring of balloting. Nour is still in jail.
About all this, Rice said nothing. Instead, she praised the "important strategic relationship" with the 78-year-old Mubarak. In Rice's new parlance, Egypt has suddenly become part of a "moderate mainstream" in the Middle East, which, the secretary hopes, will stand with the United States and Israel against the "extremists" -- Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Cynically, this administration is retreating from its own, albeit after the fact, rhetoric about bringing a nation of laws abroad, that nation of laws the citizenry here have finally forced it to return to here at home. Its return to operating within the constitution must be a real pain, and the administation won't be requiring that its allies in war do the same.
Our supporters abroad are coming out publicly with their rejection of the U.S., in return for the C-i-C's abandonment of the freedoms that they supported us in order to secure.
****"They would get into some kind of shifting sand, and it would be difficult for them to win the war," he remembered thinking. "I knew at that moment they have the force, but they don't have the brains to manage the Iraqi situation."
**************************************************************************
At a fashionable cafe in Beirut, Young talked about a region where "the sectarian genie has been let out of the bottle." American policy, he said, reminded him of past decades: engaging despots for the sake of stability. Words such as "disaster" and "civil war" peppered his conversation. And he hinted at a sense of bitter frustration, even betrayal, in his views.
"The American agenda has completely changed," Young said. "What Iraq was set out to be has been supplanted by a completely different agenda -- containing Iran and containing Iran's allies."[emphasis added]
There may indeed still be support here at home for the war on Iraq, although yesterday's announcement of the latest Newsweek Poll announced on NBC news yesterday shows only 24% support the C-i-C's handling of the war. In the Middle East, where we have wreaked havoc and done nothing to show we are worth their support, the few who saw promise from our invasion recognize our dismal failure.
I encourage anyone who cares about this country to demonstrate on the 27th in one way or another that we reject the monstrous violence this White House has irresponsibly inflicted on our world. The best we can hope for is to get out of the chaos and let it begin to heal.
Overturning a brutal despot and giving greater liberty to the people of Iraq is probably the only positive achievement that anyone in our country would agree would, if it succeeds, be a good thing. But it is the very emphasis on personal liberties in the Middle East that the administration is retreating from. Sadly, it seems that our embrace of existing despotic regimes is the reversal of this country's only perception of positive gains, gains now being denied.
Well, we hoped for better, but it seems that by this trip to the Middle East the Secretary of State is exhibiting a new tactic. We give up on democracy and personal freedoms, we are trying to salvage the military operation which is all this White House is capable of.
Mubarak canceled scheduled parliamentary elections. His security forces violently broke up protest demonstrations. Opposition leaders, from members of the Muslim Brotherhood to pro-democracy bloggers, were arrested and tortured. Nour's appeals were denied.
*************************************************************************
Before Rice arrived in Cairo this time, the city was buzzing about Internet videos -- not of Saddam Hussein but of Egyptian police who had been captured torturing innocent citizens. Mubarak had just announced a series of constitutional amendments that would exclude serious opposition candidates from future elections and curtail independent judicial monitoring of balloting. Nour is still in jail.
About all this, Rice said nothing. Instead, she praised the "important strategic relationship" with the 78-year-old Mubarak. In Rice's new parlance, Egypt has suddenly become part of a "moderate mainstream" in the Middle East, which, the secretary hopes, will stand with the United States and Israel against the "extremists" -- Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Cynically, this administration is retreating from its own, albeit after the fact, rhetoric about bringing a nation of laws abroad, that nation of laws the citizenry here have finally forced it to return to here at home. Its return to operating within the constitution must be a real pain, and the administation won't be requiring that its allies in war do the same.
Our supporters abroad are coming out publicly with their rejection of the U.S., in return for the C-i-C's abandonment of the freedoms that they supported us in order to secure.
****"They would get into some kind of shifting sand, and it would be difficult for them to win the war," he remembered thinking. "I knew at that moment they have the force, but they don't have the brains to manage the Iraqi situation."
**************************************************************************
At a fashionable cafe in Beirut, Young talked about a region where "the sectarian genie has been let out of the bottle." American policy, he said, reminded him of past decades: engaging despots for the sake of stability. Words such as "disaster" and "civil war" peppered his conversation. And he hinted at a sense of bitter frustration, even betrayal, in his views.
"The American agenda has completely changed," Young said. "What Iraq was set out to be has been supplanted by a completely different agenda -- containing Iran and containing Iran's allies."[emphasis added]
There may indeed still be support here at home for the war on Iraq, although yesterday's announcement of the latest Newsweek Poll announced on NBC news yesterday shows only 24% support the C-i-C's handling of the war. In the Middle East, where we have wreaked havoc and done nothing to show we are worth their support, the few who saw promise from our invasion recognize our dismal failure.
I encourage anyone who cares about this country to demonstrate on the 27th in one way or another that we reject the monstrous violence this White House has irresponsibly inflicted on our world. The best we can hope for is to get out of the chaos and let it begin to heal.
Labels: Cut and Run, Foreign Policy, Iraq War, Middle East
posted by Ruth at 2:36 AM
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