Bush said in a speech on Thursday that he hopes Iraq will be like Israel, a
democracy that faces terrorist violence but manages to retain its democratic
character:
' In Israel, Bush said, "terrorists have taken innocent human life for years in suicide attacks. The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it's not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities. And that's a good indicator of success that we're looking for in Iraq."
I mean, aside from the dubious goal, does he even realize how this is playing into Jihadi propaganda?
That sort of scenario is precisely the propaganda message broadcast by the Jihadi websites in Iraq and the Arab world! They say that the US military occupation of Iraq, in alliance with Shiites, has turned the Sunni Arabs into Palestinians! Bush could not have handed the guerrillas a better rhetorical gift. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that DVD's of Bush's comments will be spread around as a recruiting tool for jihadis, and that US troops will certainly be killed as a result of this speech. You could say that the US military presence is already pretty unpopular in the Sunni Arab areas. But what of the progress in al-Anbar Province? Will Bush's speech help or hurt Sunni Arabs who want to ally with the US against the foreign Salafi Jihadis?
As usual, Juan Cole has a brilliant assessment:
These words may be the stupidest ones ever uttered by a US president. Given their likely impact on the US war effort in the Middle East, they are downright criminal.
The US political elite just doesn't get it. Israel is not popular in the Middle East, and it isn't because Middle Easterners are bigots. It is because Israel is coded as the last European colonial presence in the region, an heir to French Algeria, British Egypt, and Dutch Indonesia-- and because the Israelis pugnaciously continue to try to colonize neighboring bits of territory. (This enmity is not inevitable or eternal; in 2002 the Arab League offered full recognition of Israel in return for its going back to 1967 borders, but the Israeli government turned down the offer.) But for the purposes of this analysis it does not really matter why Israel is unpopular. Let us just stipulate that it is. Why would you associate American Iraq with such an unpopular project, if you were trying to do public diplomacy in the region? .http://www.juancole.com/
(Sometimes I wonder why I bother blogging on the Middle East. I should just post "go read Juan Cole" everyday.)
3 comments:
Both you and Juan Cole forgot to mention that Isreal is a police state and not a democracy.
True.
It is a semidemocratic apartheid police state like the United States has been.
My hope is to change these countries from within.
Oh, and Juan Cole is interesting to read and I would probably miss some of his important points if you didn't excerpt. I don't have time to read every blog in the world, if you see my blogroll the ones which are "blessed" I read every post if possible.
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