DISARRAY AND...THE EGYPTIAN-SAUDI COMEDY ACT

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VICTORY FOR THE AMERICAN-ISRAELI ALLIANCE IN EGYPT TURNS INTO DEFEAT...IN IRAQ

The harmful idiots took their policy to split and slice the Arab World on behalf of Israel too far in Iraq. Along with their Israeli ally, at Camp David, the harmful idiots had sidelined Egypt. They turned it into a true plantation, a beggar-country, led by Uncle Toms. As a result, Egypt became insignificant regionally. Too, the consistently high demand for oil, in part the result of the dollar glut, in part to rumors-of-war speculation, has all but stripped Saudi Arabia of its influential status as "swing producer."

In short, both sets of elite–the Uncle Toms of Egypt and the kiss-Israel’s-ass princes of Saudi Arabia–have become eminently irrelevant.

But to read the Egyptian press one is led to think otherwise. The Egyptian establishment elite talks about Egypt as leader of the Arabs. This elite is disturbed by the attempts of its Saudi counterpart to wedge Egypt’s elite out of the alleged Arab leadership role. Absolutely delusional! Why? The Egyptian establishment elite had ceased to be Arab when it had left the Arabs behind, signing a peace agreement with Israel, separate from Syria, and failing to include the Palestinians.

For its part, the Saudi elite lost any and all Arab credibility when it colluded with the harmful idiots to destroy Arab Iraq–its Sunni, in particular. Mission accomplished! Congratulations to King Abdallah, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and all their Saudi associates.

And yet these two sets of elite believe they are competing over leadership of the Arab World. They choose to ignore their very recent past.

Oh well, denial is not a river in ....Egypt.

So the Egyptian establishment elite is busy competing–only in its mind–with the Saudi on who should be leading the Arab World. True, Saudi Arabia has the money, they argue , but Egypt has the oldest state, possibly in the world. Egypt has tradition and bureaucracy--way too intricate for the "poor" Saudis to match.

DELUSIONAL PRETENDERS

Sadly for the Arab World, both countries’ elite are delusional pretenders. Neither has the armies; both sets of leaders are perceived by their own streets as traitors or sissies–hush-hush in Saudi Arabia and not so hush-hush in Pharaoh’s Egypt. All Hizbollah need do is ignite the Lebanese-Israeli front to have the Arab Street stand behind it, as defender of Arab honor, patriots and true men in the world of Arab agents of Israel, of the harmful idiots, Uncle Toms, and Arab sissies.

Iran, my dears, is now the defender of the Arab World and its unchallenged leader, as is Hizbollah. Unless the Iranians screw it up by failing to control their Persian chauvinism, they ‘ll continue to be the leaders of the Arab World–not the Saudis and not the Egyptians.

Both Saudis and Egyptians are now under the protection of the American-Israeli alliance. They would like to be under the protection solely of the Americans. But the masters insist that they give Israel a role–darn it!–among their brotherly ranks. Saudi princes and the Egyptian establishment elite oblige. Meanwhile, therapeutically, only the Iraqi resistance gives both sets of elite a sense of manhood. And Hizbollah. Very little else does. ("little," "manhood"–get it?) Grant it, they see the latter as a Shia (these aren’t Arab to the Saudi and the Egyptian elite) and as an arm of the Iranian state.

Yes Hizbollah is an arm of the Iranian state. But it’s a smart arm, way smarter than they, and a populist Lebanese political party, too. And way less corrupt by any standards, to boot. If it weren’t for these two–the Iraqi resistance and Hizbollah–the Saudi and the Egyptian establishment delusional elite might as well check their balls at the doorstep of the holy American-Israeli alliance.

THE DILEMMA FOR THE PROTECTOR OF SAUDI ARABIA

The pretenders’ protector–the United States–is torn. Its leader wants to stay in Iraq in part to convince the Saudis and the Israelis that it’s not abandoning them. (No one really wants to occupy or blackmail Egypt, lest they go bankrupt.) But the harmful idiots aren’t Arab nor Muslim. Worse, they’re total and absolute allies of the Israelis, the tormentors of the Palestinian Arabs for generations. They’re of that Judeo-Evangelical mind set which had destroyed Arab Lebanon–all to avoid the formation of a Palestinian state. And now this same mind set has destroyed Iraq–and threatens to drag us--the American public--deeper and deeper into an endless, winless, and terrifically expensive war. This mind set will bankrupt us, no two ways about it.

The delusional pretenders for more than 60 years have failed to hammer together a Palestinian state. They beg Israel and the idiots. Nothing works. For forty years, these silly pretenders have failed to do anything about the suffering of their brothers and sisters under occupation. They don’t care.

The Egyptian pretenders had once even gone sadistic against Arabs: Anwar Sadat, the darling of the American Jewish community, its favorite Uncle Tom, had watched as Lebanon burnt in the 1970s. He would feign ignorance and confusion about what was taking place there. He was way too comfortable to bother, what with his Uncle Tom non-Arab status, kissing the ass of the Israelis and the harmful idiots during the day, and smoking his marijuana at night. (See Woodward’s Veil.)

Jamal Abdel-Nasser he was not.

GETTING OUT OF IRAQ IF ONLY TO GAIN FLEXIBILITY

This President will not withdraw from Iraq, not so much because he believes that he can turn things around. I don't see how he can. His goal likely is political; he wants to buy a couple of years. Importantly, he and the Vice-President don’t want to be blamed for defeat. And that’s a matter of definition.

While in this newsletter defeat took place at the very moment the decision was made to invade, the two men know with certainty that their right-wing populist constituency, made up of people who have become economically marginal thanks to their own government’s fostering of globalization, have a more simplistic definition of "defeat." Since these see jobs in war, they would see defeat only in withdrawal–nothing short of that. Their employment in the globalized economy is threatened– no unions to collectively bargain for them to secure a liveable wage. They only have the armed forces for lucrative employment. Otherwise, they’d need to wait for the Chinese to go on a spending spree to get our industrial and agricultural base moving–somewhat. (See "China Plans U.S. Spending Spree," Financial Times, April 14/April 15, 2007, at 5.)

To get out of Iraq, it would help (immensely) to think long-term. Absolutely avoid thinking short-term. Thinking out loud, and long-term, a variation of the following would need to be done:

1. Withdraw from Iraq. Most of the collaborators should be expected to end up in San Diego. Accept it.

2. Allow the civil war to rage in Iraq.

3. Pressure all neighboring countries to desist from direct intervention in Iraq. All will supply weapons and money each to its Iraqi horse. Can’t stop that.

4. The harmful idiots can make life easier on the Iraqis they made destitute by bringing in U.N. troops. These won’t stop the bloodshed, but they can erect safe havens within Iraq for the refugees.

5. Likely, an Arab Islamic state will evolve, sooner or later. It’ll be the embodiment of an alliance between Arab Sunni and Shia. The two will set themselves to regaining the north.

6. Turkey will be torn between reining in the Kurds and supporting them to stand up to the new Islamic state. Eventually, as with all, it’ll seek a more extensive involvement by the U.N.

7. An endless stream of refugees will continue to leave Iraq to neighboring countries. Have the U.N., the Red Cross and all NGOs ready.

( The Lebanese churches in the U.S. should see their parishes’ numbers double with Iraqi Christian refugees. Add an Iraqi cultural night to the yearly bazaars. And sell books. Everyone in the Arab World knows that, before the harmful idiots made them destitute, the Iraqi Arabs were the most avid readers–of all the Arabs. They truly cherished literature and bought umpteenth volumes. The saying had been, before the harmful idiots made Lebanon and Iraq destitute: " The Egyptians write; the Lebanese publish; and the Iraqis read.")

8. Eventually, Turkey and Iran will meet and settle their differences. Both may mediate an agreement between the Kurds and the Arab Islamic state. Both should be aware that neither can afford a war with the other.

9. The alliance between the new Islamic state in Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran should not (and will not) be set in concrete. In other words, the harmful idiots should wait to take advantage of any differences and be ready to support that state to balance Iranian power if and when it would need it. This will happen sooner or later, probably much later. Again: T h i n k l o n g-t e r m. The harmful idiots, who are bankrupting us, and the wealthy Europeans, need to be ready to pluck that state or, at the very least, modulate its bahavior.

10. The harmful idiots, with the assistance of the affluent Europeans, should work hard to de-militarize the Middle East, including their darling.

11. The harmful idiots will have a problem getting accepted by the local population in the states where they’re based–Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait–especially as this presence intensifies after withdrawal. Their presence, therefore, will have to be away from population centers. So many in these hate the idiots’s guts. Never forget that in the mind of the Arab Street, the idiots and the Israelis are one and the same. Which is terrifically perceptive and to the point.

12. The harmful idiots, in their sophomoric and self-defeating tactics against Iran and Hizbollah--recruiting Balochi Sunni, Kurds, Lebanese Christians and Druse--are bringing disaster onto themselves and the people from whom they’re recruiting. Their trainees will be infiltrated. You think up the rest. Do refrain from giving these people visas to the United States. Thank you.

13. The harmful idiots, of course, can strike a deal with the Iranians. Not a bad idea. But they should be aware that, unless a strong state evolves in Iraq, even if sponsored early on by the Iranians and the Syrians, no one but that state can balance Iranian power. Certainly not the United States, with its Israeli Achilles’ heel. And certainly not the silly pretenders. (Don’t believe Nawwaf Obeid. He’s just blowing sophomoric hot air. My advice to him: to move to Egypt where he can join the delusional choir, or check in with a therapist to treat his (political) delusional disorder. Here, I said it! Been holding it for a good while.)

14. The harmful idiots can use a total Israeli withdrawal from the Joulan Heights. That will not change Syria’s course immediately; but it should, eventually. Syria mistrusts the harmful idiots immensely. It’s weary of the idiots’ desperate mining of minorities (e.g., the illusion of Jumblatt as chief of the Druse in Lebanon, Israel, and Syria--a highly doubtful proposition--who can be used to unseat the Baath government in Syria. One can tell this advice to the idiots had come from the Israelis, being such a typically colonialist brand of advice.) It’ll take Syria a while to see the new and improved harmful idiots.

15. The harmful idiots can’t do all of this without help from politicians. They need cooperation at home to protect the American state from the globalization this state has so nurtured. The American state needs to suck the dollars out of the world market–the glut it created. By so doing, it’ll put some brakes on the wealth of some of its foes–the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians. It can do it either by raising interest rates or by taxation. Since the Federal Reserve doesn’t factor in the idiots’ self-inflicted dilemmas in setting rates, our fearless politicians (Congress and the President) will have to raise taxes if they care about the future of American power. Can’t wage war on the words of right wing "theoreticians" (read: Israel-obsessed idiots of the American Jewish Right) that Iraqi oil should in the end pay for the war.