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| Iraq |
| Bush Of Arabia |
| 2008-01-08 |
| An impressive essay by Fouad Ajami. Excerpt It was fated, or "written," as the Arabs would say, that George W. Bush, reared in Midland, Texas, so far away from the complications of the foreign world, would be the leader to take America so deep into Arab and Islamic affairs. This is not a victory lap that President Bush is embarking upon this week, a journey set to take him to Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian territories, the Saudi Kingdom, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Bush by now knows the heartbreak and guile of that region. After seven years and two big wars in that "Greater Middle East," after a campaign against the terror and the malignancies of the Arab world, there will be no American swagger or stridency. But Mr. Bush is traveling into the landscape and setting of his own legacy. He is arguably the most consequential leader in the long history of America's encounter with those lands. Baghdad isn't on Mr. Bush's itinerary, but it hangs over, and propels, his passage. A year ago, this kind of journey would have been unthinkable. The American project in Iraq was reeling, and there was talk of America casting the Iraqis adrift. It was then that Mr. Bush doubled down--and, by all appearances, his brave wager has been vindicated. His war has given birth to a new Iraq. The shape of this new Iraq is easy to discern, and it can be said with reasonable confidence that the new order of things in Baghdad is irreversible. There is Shiite primacy, Kurdish autonomy in the north, and a cushion for the Sunni Arabs--in fact a role for that community slightly bigger than its demographic weight. It wasn't "regional diplomacy" that gave life to this new Iraq. The neighboring Arabs had fought it all the way. But there is a deep streak of Arab pragmatism, a grudging respect for historical verdicts, and for the right of conquest. How else did the ruling class in Arabia, in the Gulf and in Jordan beget their kingdoms? In their animus toward the new order in Iraq, the purveyors of Arab truth--rulers and pundits alike--said that they opposed this new Iraq because it had been delivered by American power, and is now in the American orbit. But from Egypt to Kuwait and Bahrain, a Pax Americana anchors the order of the region. In Iraq, the Pax Americana, hitherto based in Sunni Arab lands, has acquired a new footing in a Shiite-led country, and this is the true source of Arab agitation. |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #7 Thank you, TW. I always enjoy your comments so I'm glad to hear I've been able to return the favor for once. ETV |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2008-01-08 23:13 |
| #6 Not that we didn't have good reason to go in before 9/11, but that fateful day just made the necessity for it starkly obvious. I'd go so far as to say 9/11 made it possible to go in, where it wasn't before, because nobody would accept a pre-emptive strike, let alone a pre-emptive invasion. Wonderful rant, eltoreverde! And yours is nicely succinct, Glung McGurque2454. The history books are going to make for interesting reading, two generations later. I'm looking forward to expanding my library then. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-01-08 22:26 |
| #5 Bush flushed the punchbowl in the middle east. I'll always love him for that, despite his other faults... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-01-08 15:26 |
| #4 Glung McG: I hope, and suspect, you will be proven correct. In many ways, I have always viewed Bush's willingness to take action and not sit on the sidelines in the ME as really just a way to accelerate the natural progression of things. Not that we didn't have good reason to go in before 9/11, but that fateful day just made the necessity for it starkly obvious. The status quo of diplomacy and negotiation was proven ineffectual by 9/11. As a matter of national security and to protect innocent Americans not only against a repeat 9/11 but a far worse and now entirely plausible WMD attack on the US, things had to change. And how. In order for things to change, some sort of action needs to take place. Real action. Action such as going into a hornet's nest like Iraq. Shortly after we toppled Saddam, anyone with half a brain could have told you that it would get far worse before it even started to get any better. Whether or not we had the fortitude, courage of our convictions, and resolve to see it through was the real question. Fortunately for both the Arab AND American people (and which of the two is more fortunate is still up for debate but I'll say the Arabs for now), Bush has that fortitude, courage, and resolve. In spades. Say what you want about the man and his other policies, many of which deserve their fair share of criticism. However if the dramatic turnaround in Iraq continues, and all indications are that it will, I firmly believe more than ever now that history will judge him favorably. Not as the most articulate, not as the most likable, not as the most endearing President to lead this country. Yet when it mattered most, he stuck to his guns when he knew he was right-- just like a good Texan should-- despite the shouting voices to the contrary. For this, history will remember this President much like they do Reagan: The man who got it right when everyone said he was wrong. I say, three cheers for President Bush! Hip-hip Hooray! Hip-hip Hooray! Hip-hip Hooray! |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2008-01-08 13:25 |
| #3 Still waiting for evidence that Shiite liberation is on the way to Iran. May have already happened and we don't know yet. May be about to happen. May be a while yet. Anyway - I expect there will be a visible, tangible moment where it's clear that something in Iraq led to something in Iran. Sort of like analyzing stress building along a fault line. You pretty much know it's there, and BOOM, it's there. |
| Posted by: Glung McGurque2454 2008-01-08 11:13 |
| #2 Excellent. RTWT. |
| Posted by: Spot 2008-01-08 08:20 |
| #1 A loss for the wahabbi, salifist crude organizing of things to say the least. 60% of that nation was Shiite ruled by a brutal Sunni regime. That kind of rule will not be tolerated again. Do you have a problem with this? |
| Posted by: newc 2008-01-08 08:07 |