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Tuesday, January 16, 2007 We can't afford to do any more stabilizing in the Middle East
While Condoleezza Rice has been on her ironic "peace-seeking" mission in the Middle East, Israel announced yesterday that it was going to build more homes on Palestinian territory. Building more settlements, even so-called "natural growth" additions to previous settlements, are banned under Bush's "road map for peace." That tells you how much Israel is concerned about American opposition to their increased settlements. They don't even wait until the Secretary of State is out of the region before they announce plans to build.
It is perversely funny to watch Dr. Rice skip from country to country and talk about peace.  It is kind of like listening to a priest give a sermon about sex. It becomes more and more apparent as they yammer on that they have no clue what they are talking about. Stick a microphone in front of any White House official and they will talk about how certain countries want to "destabilize" the region. It is amazing to me that the two countries that do all the invading aren't the ones that are destabilizing the area. The ones that invade are the "stabilizers" and the ones that resent having their region thrust into chaos are trying to "destabilize" the area. Arguably, the main country doing the "destabilizing" in the region is Iran. Iran has a very conservative President that says dumb things about the Holocaust. That is it, that is the case for invading Iran. They have the right to a civilian nuclear program and no one has given any proof that Iran has a nuclear weapons program of any kind. All 118 countries of the Non-Aligned Movement signed a statement of support for Iran's civilian nuclear program in Havana last year, giving it a majority of support from the 192 nations that make up the UN. Another reason given to confront Iran militarily is the widespread view that President Ahmadinejad is the "new Hitler." Never mind the fact that Iran has the second largest Jewish population in the Middle East, (and unlike the Palestinian Arabs, those Jews aren't under military occupation) it is simply a poor comparison. It is a poor comparison that has been applied to anyone perceived as an enemy by the West. The real tragic part of all this is that it proves that the White House still hasn't learned that you can't bring democracy to a country by force. It is quite shocking that they still believe that a person would look at the pile of rubble that used to be his or her home and think "I am finally free!" It simply doesn't happen. People will rally around their homes, their country and their leader if they are attacked by an outside force. While he is growing more and more unpopular, Ahmadinejad isn't hated as much as Saddam was and any foreign intrusion will rally opposition forces to his side. Remember how much 9/11 boosted President Bush's ratings? We can't afford another mislead incursion into the Middle East. We haven't won in Afghanistan, we are escalating the war in Iraq and we are still talking as if we are prepared to invade, rather than talk with, Iran and Syria. There are voices of dissent in the Middle East, from Israel to Iran. They want nothing to do with Islamic extremism nor do they care for US militarism. These two different kinds of extremism feed off of each other and our people and their people end up dying for nothing. We have all had enough. Graeme Anfinson 1 Comments:
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