[Mb-civic] Fallujah...and...Arab democracy just an illusion?

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Here is a poignant paragraph about Fallujah, an entire city of 300,000 that the 
U.S. forces "destroyed in order to save it."  And then a revealing piece about 
Arab democracy.

http://www.juancole.com/2005/03/fallujah-tent-city-awaits-
compensation.html

"Readers often write in for an update on Fallujah. I 
am sorry to say that there is no Fallujah to update. 
The city appears to be in ruins and perhaps 
uninhabitable in the near future. Of 300,000 
residents, only about 9,000 seem to have returned, 
and apparently some of those are living in tents 
above the ruins of their homes
. The scale of this 
human tragedy -- the dispossession and displacement 
of 300,000 persons -- is hard to imagine. Unlike the 
victims of the tsunami who were left homeless, 
moreover, the Fallujans have witnessed no outpouring 
of world sympathy. While there were undeniably bad 
characters in the city, most residents had done 
nothing wrong and did not deserve to be made object 
lessons--which was the point Rumsfeld was making with 
this assault. He hoped to convince Ramadi and Mosul 
to fall quiet lest the same thing happen to them. He 
failed, since the second Fallujah campaign threw the 
Sunni Arab heartland into much more chaos than ever 
before. People forget how quiet Mosul had been. And, 
the campaign was the death knell for proper Sunni 
participation in the Jan. 30 elections (Sunnis, with 
20 percent of the population, have only 6 seats in 
the 275 member parliament). However much a cliché it 
might be to say it, the US military really did 
destroy Fallujah to save it."

------------------------------

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Eric_Margolis/20
05/03/13/pf-959224.html

Sun, March 13, 2005
Arab democracy just an illusion?
By Eric Margolis

THE BUSH administration is crowing about what it claims is "a wave of 
democracy and freedom" sweeping the Middle East. And it's all thanks 
to the invasion of Iraq, insists the White House, offering the umpteenth 
new rationale for going to war.

Just look: Iraq held an election of sorts under U.S. "guidance." Egypt's 
long-time ruler, Gen. Hosni Mubarak, says he will allow multi-party 
elections. Tunisia and Saudi Arabia recently held elections. Lebanon, 
rent by pro- and anti-Syrian protests, may soon hold new elections.

All this does look like the dawn of Arab democracy -- to those who 
don't know much about the region. Up close, the picture is less rosy.

Ironically, the man most responsible for pushing the Arab world 
towards political change is not George W. Bush, but his nemesis, 
Osama bin Laden.

Overthrow

For over a decade, bin Laden has agitated for the overthrow of the 
corrupt, despotic Arab regimes supported by the U.S., and their 
replacement by a traditional Islamic democratic consensus.

As bin Laden's anti-American insurgency gathers strength and 
resonates among the restive Arab masses, the Bush administration 
has urged the frightened kings and generals running Washington's 
client Arab regimes to make a show of democratic reforms to head off 
popular uprisings.

Most of these reforms are pure sham. Washington stage-managed 
Iraq's vote to empower Shia and Kurdish yes-men who will pretend to 
rule while the U.S. continues to run Iraq and pump its oil. Mubarak, the 
U.S.-backed military ruler of Egypt, is apparently grooming his son to 
take over under cover of rigged "open, multi-party" elections.

In October, Tunisia's U.S.-backed military dictator won "re-election" by 
a Soviet-style 94.5%. Saudi Arabia's recent vote was an empty 
exercise.

Lebanon's noisy anti-Syrian demonstrations, which Bush hailed a 
"democratic revolution," were staged by a minority of its citizens -- 
mostly anti-Syrian Maronite Christians and Druze.

Lebanon's largest ethnic group, Shia, strongly back both Syria's 
presence and Hezbollah, Lebanon's most popular political party. 
Mounting U.S. involvement in Lebanon risks re-igniting that nation's 
bloody, 15-year civil war.

The Arab world desperately needs democracy, rule of law, free speech 
and honest government. Ironically, even Israel's Arabs, though 
second-class citizens, enjoy more human and political rights than in 
many Arab states.

But most Arabs see Bush's "freedom" crusade as a cynical campaign 
to tighten U.S. control of the Mideast by ditching old-fashioned 
generals and monarchs for more modern, democratic-looking civilian 
regimes that still do Washington's bidding.

The Arab world's only truly free election was held in 1991 by Algeria's 
U.S.- and French-supported military regime. Islamic parties won a 
landslide. The military annulled the vote and jailed Islamist leaders -- 
backed by Washington and Paris.

It's likely any honest votes held in feudal Jordan, Morocco, Saudi 
Arabia, or military-run Egypt, Libya, and Syria, would produce similar 
results.

Most Arab states lack political legitimacy. Soldiers and ferocious secret 
police keep their repressive regimes in power. Once U.S. support for 
these oligarchies wavers, as is happening now, opposition swells up.

After Washington began voicing doubts in 1979 about the old U.S. ally, 
the Shah of Iran, revolution ensued. The same process is now under 
way in Saudi Arabia.

The Bush administration is right. Arabs need democracy. But it is 
behaving like a bull in the Mideast china shop and is following 
contradictory policies. Bush wants more popular, less dictatorial 
regimes, but only those catering to U.S. strategic interests.

Dangerous muddle

All this ham-handed U.S. political engineering may produce a 
dangerous muddle or even provoke collapse of pro-U.S. despots and 
their replacement by anti-U.S. revolutionary forces.

If Bush really wants real Mideast democracy, he should begin with 
Egypt, which contains a third of all Arabs, and is essentially a U.S. 
protectorate. End its military dictatorship, allow real political parties, a 
free press, and honest elections. Do not allow Egypt to get away with 
more sham elections. Set a sterling example for the democracy-
deficient Muslim world.

The problem, unfortunately, is that the Arab world's most popular 
political figure is very likely bin Laden.


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"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
   ---   George Orwell


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