Fantasia

By PLS

Every so often I get into a wistful mood and find myself trying to imagine where we’d be if we had an intelligent foreign policy. For instance:

What if the U.S. Department of Defense had paid attention, over the past several years, to where our millions of dollars were going after they reached Pakistan or Iraq—or Boeing, for that matter? But then the Bush Pentagon doesn’t pay much attention to anything. The proper name for Blackwater is the Black Hole of Bagdad—and now those blackguards want to do our spying for us. Given their murderous ways in broad daylight, imagine how nice they’ll be in the dark. And you thought waterboarding was bad! Obviously the administration’s taboo words have more than four letters: accountability and transparency. No wonder Republicans hate government. The kind they know best is the cruel and intolerable kind they create.

What if someone at the Pentagon had remembered that Pervez Musharraf was behind the failed 1999 invasion of Indian Kashmir via heights of Kargil, which suggests the General’s notion of Pakistan’s real enemy has nothing to do with George Bush’s war on terror? Has anyone in Washington pointed out to him, in no uncertain words, that, given the Islamacized hash he’s made of Muslim Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world, no Indian leader in his (or her) right mind would considering absorbing Pakistan today?

What if Musharraf were as tolerant of peaceful political speech as he is of violence-inciting religious speech? Extremism in Swat has been simmering for a long time. The lawyers just want the rule of law. So who gets swatted? Well, the Islamists get fly-swatted by poorly trained, badly armed militias. The serious troops do battle with unarmed democracy-demanders in the city streets. And if Musharraf were really worried about corruption, why doesn’t he investigate the military’s virtual monopoly of the Pakistani economy in which the not-so-private sector provides cushy nest-feathering retirement for the officer corps? Was Benazir Bhutto really any more corrupt and kleptocratic than the once admired and respected Pakistani military today?

What if the neo-cons could admit that Hamas and Hezbullah win elections because they provide social services and look after people, whatever their less savory inclinations? What if Washington dared to admit that Israel is in a pickle because Israel’s ethnic cleansing (to put it politely) policies have failed. The Palestinians are still around and still mad. If you were a Palestinian, would you disarm without a neutral army guarding the border? I wouldn't.

What if American (male) leaders could get over their macho superhero/cowboy fixation and trust the democratic processes they like to sermonize about? Talk about fantasies! This one gets us into very serious trouble. The miracle man swoops in and puts everything right. My hero! Swoon. Smooch. End of story or history. So they thought.

Please! Let's hire a better scriptwriter

Comments

[Andrew Foland]

What if the U.S. Department of Defense had paid attention, over the past several years, to where our millions of dollars were going after they reached Pakistan or Iraq—or Boeing, for that matter?

Call me tin-foily if you like, but I lived through the Iran-Contra hearings. I've always assumed this apprent lack of control over cash disbursals was a feature, not a bug.