Cut Our Losses

The apparently inevitable murder of Benazir Bhutto only confirms what an unholy mess the Middle East has become, how badly Bush's "strategists" have handled it, and how limited are our options in the face of upheaval there.

Consider this news story last month. A Saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes, more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative, a newspaper recently reported. Since then she's been "pardoned" by the kindly old King who no doubt admonished her not to let it happen again!

As we can't help but remember, she was gang raped by seven men and when her lawyer complained that their sentences were two lenient the judge agreed and increased them. At the same time, of course, he had to consider that if the seven were to be punished further, so should the rapee so her sentence was more than doubled. She got what she deserved, no doubt. After all, any woman who goes into the car of someone not her relative deserves a sound lashing -- wouldn't you agree?

Teddy bear justice

Let us now consider that enemy of Allah, Gillian Gibbons, the English school teacher whom the Sudanese court sentenced to 15 days in jail and 40 lashes for taking a pupil's suggestion and naming a teddy bear Mohammed. When she was freed from jail and "pardoned" by the Sudanese president, 10,000 citizens took to the streets and demanded that Ms. Gibbons be put to death!

We have as well the image of George Bush holding hands with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the picture on the dust jacket of House of Bush/House of Saud by Craig Unger. Good grief! Is this what we've come to in the western world? The most powerful man on earth hand in hand with the head of a country that lops of thieves' hands, stones adulteresses (never adulterers) to death and gives 200 lashes plus jail to a horribly victimized young woman?

And we complain about China's dubious record on human rights!

Bush's gulag

That's not all, of course. The Bush administration spawned Abu Ghraib where ghastly things were done to Iraqi prisoners for which there have been virtually no penalties extracted; a series of crimes that had to be known to Donald Rumsfeld. If the Bush administration didn't know, it's because they didn't want to know.

The Bush administration has detained nearly 700 men for six years in Guantanamo Bay without any charges and in spite of rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. Bush defies the highest court in the land and intends to hold them for as long as he wants.

And then there's torture. And we, the West, the defender and propagator of civil rights, are debating the issue! Bush has declared that some forms of torture are just not on, though sleep deprivation, mock drowning and the like are quite OK. We live in a society, or next to a society, proclaiming itself as the repository of freedom, that not only condones torture but has it as a policy!

All of this started with a war based upon a tissue of lies from Bush and his government. Americans -- and Canadians for that matter -- are supposed to be culturally and legally bound by the rule of law. We each have bills of rights that express our joint concerns for the rights of all, even those accused of the most heinous crimes. We lecture others on how they should behave, while the American president lies, illegally detains and tortures, while holding hands with the man whose legal system punishes the victim of a gang rape.

What the devil's happened to us?

Bad to worse

Take a bit of a peek at what we call the Middle East. If the "democracy" of Pakistan were made into a movie it would have to be X-rated or made into a comedy starring Peter Sellers or perhaps done by Monty Python's Flying Circus. Even before the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan-style democracy was a vicious version of Through the Looking Glass.

Afghanistan, cleansed of all evil, so we were assured, by American troops, is on the threshold of another Taliban government and Canadian soldiers are there being killed and maimed while plucking American chestnuts out of the fire.

Iran, which until Bush was moving towards a semblance of democracy, may in the foreseeable future have nuclear weapons aimed at Israel which has nuclear weapons aimed back.

Iraq is a bloody mess with one major centre, Basra, and a province in the hands of bloodthirsty insurgents now that the Brits have pulled out.

A strange comparison comes to mind. When the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini ruled with an iron fist it was said "at least he made the trains run on time." It is now said of the bloodthirsty Saddam Hussein, "at least he held the country together."

Then there's Israel which thinks that the road to peace is planting huge Israeli settlements on disputed lands.

Next door are Bush's bosom buddies, the Saudi royal family who only stay in power because the Wahhabi, who funded 9-11 and provided most of the terrorists involved, wait patiently for the right moment to evict them from their disgusting palaces of pleasure and, no doubt, behead them -- all to be replaced by a government even more horrible.

Then there is Hosni Mubarak who, aping North Korea, is grooming his son to take over the great Egyptian democracy.

The plain fact is that all Middle East countries who profess to be friends of Bush have vicious religious zealots as the governments-in-waiting.

The Bush legacy

No one lays all the blame on George Bush. The moment the United States began supporting Israel 60 years ago, a seething and watchful Muslim world has looked for opportunities to hurt the Great Satan. Britain and France, going back a century or more have both left behind legacies of bitter memories.

This was, in fairness, the situation inherited by George W. Bush. Bush's sin, and it's a huge one, was to make matters very much worse, mostly because he didn't know anything about the area -- or any other area for that matter -- and permitted himself to be advised by hard-nosed, vicious men like Donald Rumsfeld and Vice-President Richard Cheney. (The latter case is especially interesting since vice presidents are supposed to occupy the most anonymous office in the world. This vice president acts as though he is a co-president and Bush seems content with the arrangement.)

Here's the Bush legacy which makes one wonder why anyone is campaigning to be his successor.

Pakistan: an economic and political basket case that most certainly will be in a de facto civil war by the time the Democrats (it's devoutly to be hoped) take over the White House.

Afghanistan: back to business as usual with warlords and a revived Taliban suzerainty prevailing.

Iran: bitterer by the day against the U.S. and on the cusp of having deliverable nuclear weapons.

Israel: hyper aggressive and getting more so for a reason few acknowledge -- within a decade or two Jews will be outnumbered by the more baby-productive Israeli-Palestinians. This is why Israel seizes disputed lands and will resist to the death the repatriation of a single Arab.

Syria: continuing to covet Lebanon and ever ready to make mischief wherever Americans are involved, such as Iraq and Israel.

Egypt: only waiting for the death of Mubarak, when radical Islam will take over.

Jordan, perhaps the best of a bad lot, has a young king standing in its way to a more active role in the ongoing fight with Israel.

Now what?

Add up all of the above and you have one, literally, unholy mess. The major miscalculation by Washington has been to believe that because it was the most powerful nation in history that it could therefore do as it wished wherever it wished. Alexandria the Great couldn't do that; the Romans couldn't do it nor could the British. Vietnam ought to have taught the Americans that they can't do it either.

The solution?

There isn't one and hasn't been since Winston Churchill converted the Royal Navy from coal to oil in 1911 bringing European powers and the United States into the region.

There is no solution but there is a course of action which, while terrible, is better than the others. Cut your losses and get the hell out.

Related Tyee stories:

• Pick Your Middle East Myth
  Western, Israeli or Muslim leaders: no one is innocent.
• What to Read While the Cradle Burns
  Book list for Middle East issues.
• Fisk Raises 9-11's Rude Question
  Maverick journalist dared to research Muslim anger.