Iraq Anniversay: Myth of a Genocidal Army, Joe Lieberman Saves McCain's, Singer Transfers to Salafi U
(Saudi blogger Fouad al-Farhan has been in detention for 90 days without charges. In this New Middle East.)
Why Paul Bremer was right to disband the vanishing Ba'ath army.
McCain is saved by Lieberman.
Anniversay of Halabja.
Iraqi position at meeting draws Arab anger.
Young Gulf singer gives it all up for al-Qaeda.
Another never again... He saw no evil either, nor read of any...
Iraq: Five years later:
US media and pundits are doing much soul searching on the anniversary of the war. It revolves mostly around what could have been, had Bremer not dissolved the Iraqi army. The army that was used to invade neighbors twice and to commit genocide by using WMDs. The idea is that the Sunni insurgency would not have taken place, and no al-Qaeda in Iraq would have been possible. This whole idea has been promoted over the years by some in the Arab media, by some in Arab governments.
But this is wishful thinking, because something worse would have happened. Here is what would most likely have happened:
Had the old Iraqi army, with its Ba'athist Sunni leadership and officers corps been put in charge, that would have angered the Shi'as, 60-65% of the population. Raising the hopes of the oppressed and then dashing them is a sure way to invite rebellion. Then we would have had an insurgency supported by that many more Iraqis than the mere 15% who are Sunni Arabs. Then we would have an armed Iran, with hunderds of miles of common border, training and supplying this huge insurgency. Then we would have an almost exact replica of Vietnam.
Now: what is more manageable, an insurgency potentially supported by by 15% or an insurgency supported by 60-65% of the people?
Paul Bremer was absolutely right in disbanding the old army. In any case it had already vanished.
King Abdul's Revenge:
The National Security candidate of 2008 made a serious booboo today in Jordan. Fresh from meeting with King Abdul, Senator McCain told the press on camera that Iran "was arming and training al-Qaeda and sending them into Iraq". Then he added something like, "It is common knowledge, the media has covered it."
Except that it is not "knowledge", Shi'a Iran arming Sunni Salafi al-Qaeda who consider its faith heretic? Its is as impossible a team as Communists and Nazis.
At that critical moment his consigliere Senator Joe Lieberman, the real national security expert of the two, whispered corrections in his ear, and the Senator corrected himself with "I am sorry, not al-Qaeda. I meant Iran is arming and training terrorists." The Senator needs a crash course on the differences between Shi'a fundamentalism (Iran) and Sunni Salafi fundamentalism (al-Qaeda/Taliban).
I told you last week that there is something in that Jordan River water- or maybeit was the Dead Sea.
Halabja: A Late Arab Mea Culpa:
Suddenly Arab media, especially some Saudi and Jordanian newpapers are commenting on the massacre and genocide at Halabja. They are bing introspective and self-analyzing about it, which is a first. They are doing it twenty years too late.
March 16 was the 20th anniversary of the gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja by Iraqi Ba'athist forces. At that time the Arab media, all of it, either ignored or denied the crime where thousands died. The best of them ignored it.
I heard and read about Halabja only in the foreign media even though I lived in a Gulf state, just about fifty miles across Safwan from Saddam's Iraq. I still keep the cover of a French newsmagazine that carried a large grisly picture of the victims. Back then, our poets and journalists went on glorifying Saddam until he decided to come visiting uninvited. That quickly cured everybody's lovesickness.
This is one fact I have noticed about Arab tyrants: they are often loved only by people who are not ruled by them.
Now some, a few, are revisiting the whole thing. The Saudi Asharq alawsat from London has published a column by its former chief editor that goes a long way toward atonement, actually talking of some guilt. A Jordanian column today tries to be 'fair and balanced' by dividing the blame between Kurds and Arabs. I am not sure how that works, but the man tried. Still, it is better late than never.
Speaking of which: Arab media is full of anger at Iraq because of a meeting of Arab parliamentarians in the Kurdish city of Irbil. Some Arab delegates (some of whom are actually elected) wanted to insert an item about three small islands in the Gulf that Iran occupies but are claimed by the United Arab Emirates. The Iraqi delegation objected, which angered some Arabs because it showed bias toward Iran.
The Kurds may be regretting holding the meeting in their territory: with Arab parliamentarians come the usual Arab baggage, issues and problems. Some things never change.
A Singer Repents- seeks al-Qaeda work-study:
For all its worth: A young Kuwaiti professional singer has changed his haircut, grown a shaggy beard, given up singing and gone to Afghanistan to join al-Qaeda. He is giving up the very real groupies in hand for the promised but delayed diversions on the tree high up there.
No word yet if the former singer has taken the Salafi SAT, but he is showing up at al-Qaeda-Taliban State Madrassa anyway. It is not clear which campus of the Salafi university he will settle in, 'Qandahar or Pakistan. No, he did not a get a scholarship, but maybe he will sing out the text of the messages of Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri- a sort of work-study program
Maybe it is a ploy: in a few weeks he will repent and return- shave the beard and sell a hell of a lot more songs. But he has to change his mind fast, before he gets into the dorm- or the frat house if he is going the Greek route.
Cheers
mhg
m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com
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