I think several of us have written every paragraph of that story in our posts here. I think this is dead on:
An administration self-confident in war now insists on dissipating its awe by allowing itself to appear panicked by the
Israeli-Palestinian "cycle of violence," warnings from the rulers of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and a Gallup poll depicting America in
a bad light among the Muslim masses
The US administration is letting itself be swamped by noise (I hope only momentarily) and is losing sight of the most important thing: That right now, in the middle east and south asia there is a totalitarian movement afoot supported and financed by an absolute minority and that is what has to be attacked in every possible way. Israel is only a small part of the struggle but very important because it's the only clearly democratic regime in the middle east and so must be supported.
Bush needs a group like Ridge's to concentrate on every aspect of this war against totalitarianism. Perhaps he has it in his inner cabinet but if he does, it isn't doing a visibly good job, yet.
Al Qaida is a visible manifestation of the movement and it's suppression is important but far less important than suppression of the totalitarian messages coming out of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, (and also Iran and Pakistan) and out of mosques all over the world.
This is an enormous task. It includes such things as modernizing Afghanistan, replacing the Iraqui regime with a democratic one, getting the Egyptians and Saudis to stop their support for medieval obscurantists and providing competition for the decentralized message at the 'street' level.
I think the Europeans - some of them - are not objecting to some of the US projects because of fear of their Arab/muslim citizens and residents so much as they are trying to promote a United States of Europe, (which some day will be a great power perhaps, but not yet, or ever, if it doesn't improve its capability to project power), by distinguishing themselves from the US. But even as the rhetoric flys it's notable the important European states are all participating in the Afghanistan effort in some way and are monitoring very closely the activities of certain islamist congregations in their own countries.
Washington needs to wean itself from viewing the Israeli-Palestinian collision as the center of the Middle East.
He's quite right. It's part of the fight against against totalitarianism, an important one, but only a part. The israeli-palestinian clash is a comfort for the regimes of Egypt and Saudi and it's in their interests (and those of regimes of Iraq, Syria, and Iran) to see it continue and so their support for their proxies there must be stopped and their proxies destroyed.
9/11 and the Afghanistan operation gives US leverage against Egypt and Saudis and it shouldn't be wasted. Healthy fear on the part of their regimes should be encouraged: become modern or be replaced - there are lots of scores to be settled - the dreadful fate of retirement to the Riviera or Switzerland can be exchanged for one far worse. The threat of disorder might be unsettling to the US but will be mighty fearsome for Egyptian and Saudi elites - there is a large BS quotient in "I can be replaced with something worse" because the speaker doesn't want to be replaced and he's not going to do a whole lot if he can live under the umberella supplied by US security. So they won't take any risks.
Let the US and Europe take risks in the face of aggressive totalitarian movement is an unspoken position that has to be dislodged. Too many governments of so called western friends are playing both sides of the street at no cost to their elites and at great cost to their citizens. Time to spread the costs around, should be Bush's message. Then he'll have their attention. Supporting Israel unequivocally and deposing Saddam Hussein will certainly get the message through to some. |
