Another Shot in the Foot

I've often thought that the United States does not really need any foreign foes, since our own politicians are so adept at shooting us in the foot when it comes to really looking out for national security.

President Bush, out of deference to the Israeli lobby, happily ignored the conflict in the Middle East. A few people tried to warn him that the Arab world has changed significantly since the 1990s. Today, Arabs are served by Arab satellite television and watching the Israelis brutalizing the Palestinians was creating boiling anger not only against Israel but its accomplice, the United States. Oh, pooh on the Arab people, the administration said. Their opinions don't count even in their own countries.

Wrong. Except for Iraq, there are dictatorships but no totalitarian governments in the Middle East. They might not follow the Anglo-Saxon form of democracy (sorry, but that's what it is, even if most Americans today are so poorly educated they don't know it). But they have various forms and means for consulting their people. All dictators know that there is always a line in the sand that they cannot cross without facing a rebellion. King Abdullah of Jordan, for example, sometimes disguises himself and goes out alone to see how his government is treating the people. I don't see George Bush doing that. In Saudi Arabia, they have councils of representatives from different tribes.

So when Mr. Bush decided to attack Iraq, he was surprised to find all the Arab leaders saying that they won't support an attack on Iraq as long as the United States continues to allow the Israelis to trample on the rights of the Palestinians. He sends the vice president overseas, and Dick Cheney gets the same message. To save face, Cheney comes back and slyly resurrects the old canard that Arab leaders say one thing in public and the opposite in private. Notice, however, that Cheney did not say that any Arab leader either said or implied that he would support an attack on Iraq in private. No, Cheney, a master of double talk - as all experienced politicians are - said that in private ``they expressed concern about Saddam Hussein.'' Hell, they've been expressing concern about him in public for years. But Cheney wanted to leave the impression that they secretly support the U.S. policy. They don't. Neither, for that matter, do most of the European countries.