By PHK
Here we go again: the Bush administration’s almost instantaneous reaction to attempt to capitalize on what it knows best – igniting yet another round of the “war on terror” scare in its continual battle for "the hearts and minds" of US voters. This is the first time, however, that I recall hearing W refer to suspected Islamic militants as “Islamic fascists.” Doesn't this latest bit of counterproductive name-calling come straight from Israeli and neocon playbooks? Doubtful Condi or the State Department wrote the statement that contains that phrase. Bet they never saw it. Somehow I don’t think the "Islamic fascist" label - whatever it means - plays well among Muslims here and abroad or among many Europeans – but then W has made it patently clear since before March 2003 what he thinks of both.
Our public diplomacy Czarina Karen Hughes’ ideas notwithstanding, America's poor image and other problems among the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims will not be improved through setting up overseas English language summer camps or any of the other public diplomacy quarter-measures this administration has dreamt up since 9/11 but also grossly under funded. W's latest outburst will just make Hughes' task of selling America to the Muslim world all that more difficult.
Maybe I’m naïve, but it seems to me that although Bush’s intemperate verbiage yesterday was designed to resonate among his hometown crowd of sycophants - the Evangelicals and the neocons, it will not make this country any safer from terrorism. Au contraire. And certainly Cheney’s cheap shot of calling the Democrats weak on terrorism in light of the Lamont victory over the Republicans’ favorite “Democrat” Joe Lieberman is the height of ridiculousness. This doesn’t compute.
Kudos to the Washington Post, by the way, for reporting in advance tomorrow’s anti-war demonstration "to encircle the White House" that is being organized by a coalition of American Muslims, Lebanese as well as other Americans horrified at what the Israelis are doing to the small multi-religious country. This is far different from the WaPo’s head-in-the-sand approach to the anti-war demonstration against the continuing occupation of Iraq, a demonstration that the newspaper tried its best to ignore last September 24.
Exactly who’s lax on terrorism?
Meanwhile, has anyone asked lately about what the Republican controlled Executive and Congress has done to improve port security and inspections of freight coming into U.S. ports? The last I heard just a few months ago, the Chinese had excellent port security in busy harbors like Hong Kong, but the U.S. had nada. Nothing. Rien. Why not? I don’t think the fault can be laid on the Democrats – Cheney’s intemperate and inaccurate comment notwithstanding. The latest WaPo poll data shows Americans are beginning to understand.
What about inspections of checked airline baggage? Whatever happened to this procedure? If we’re going to become Israel’s surrogate, then shouldn’t the US adopt some of its extremely tight security measures?
If I remember correctly, Pan Am 103 which blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988 was detonated as a result of a plastic explosive in a suitcase in the plane’s cargo-hold. Instead, the US is now focusing on banning baby formula bottles although I guess I’d be suspicious too if someone came on board carrying the bottle but not the kid. Of course, if the airlines served food and drink like they used to instead of making folks bring their own then we wouldn’t have to worry about people bringing lunch, dinner and snacks on board - would we.
I’m once again impressed with Scotland Yard’s crime detection abilities. When push comes to shove, it seems to me that the Yard - apparently operating on a tip from the Pakistanis – and working with them in other ways – is the real hero in Thursday’s foiled airline bombing attempt. How W can claim his administration was in any way responsible for keeping America safe – or in this instance – keeping American airlines, their passengers and crew from being blown to smithereens – is beyond me.
What W could do most effectively to get the U.S. out of militant Islam’s bull’s eye is to reverse the direction of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. This includes concluding the failed U.S. military occupation of Iraq now in its third year and ending W’s neocon inspired, Cheney-driven supine, unconditional support for Israel’s indiscriminate attacks on, and drive to occupy ever more of, southern Lebanon. Clearly, this Texas bike-riding “village idiot” – as a bumper sticker I saw in Albuquerque refered to him – still doesn’t get it. Meanwhile, maybe Condi does, and the latest US-French brokered UN Resolution calling for a ceasefire and more which Secretary General Kofi Anan had been pushing for since the shooting started will stick so that both the Israelis and Hezbollah can declare victory and put away their guns." Otherwise, the Guns of August" as described by Richard Holbrooke in August 9WaPo will roar on and the Middle East will more and more resemble Europe in 1914.