[lit-ideas] For Middle East Watchers
- From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:39:55 +0900
Here, FYI, is Kevin Drum (Washington Monthly)'s take on the Seymour
Hersch story about preparations for war with Iran.
----------------
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY....Over at the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh says
the Bush administration is honing its plans to attack Iran. Meanwhile,
the London Times reports that if Bush actually goes through with an
attack, "up to five generals and admirals are willing to resign rather
than approve what they consider would be a reckless attack."
I have a limited interest in both stories. Contingency plans are a
dime a dozen, and breathless British press reports are about a dime a
thousand. I hope the Times is right, but I'm not holding my breath.
In any case, Hersh's story has far more of interest than its throwaway
lines about military planning. The gist of his piece is that the Bush
administration has essentially decided to redirect its attention away
from radical Sunni jihadists -- i.e., the folks who attacked us on
9/11 -- and instead take sides in the brewing Sunni-Shiite civil war
in the Middle East. In fact, he says we've pretty much decided to
throw in our lot with the Saudis and buddy up with the al-Qaeda
wannabes:
This time, [a] U.S. government consultant told me, Bandar and other
Saudis have assured the White House that "they will keep a very close
eye on the religious fundamentalists. Their message to us was 'We've
created this movement, and we can control it.' It's not that we don't
want the Salafis to throw bombs; it's who they throw them at --
Hezbollah, Moqtada al-Sadr, Iran, and at the Syrians, if they continue
to work with Hezbollah and Iran."
....During a conversation with me, [a] former Saudi
diplomat...objected to the Lebanese and Saudi sponsorship of Sunni
jihadists in Lebanon. "Salafis are sick and hateful, and I'm very much
against the idea of flirting with them," he said. "They hate the
Shiites, but they hate Americans more. If you try to outsmart them,
they will outsmart us. It will be ugly."
....In an interview in Beirut, a senior official in the Siniora
government acknowledged that there were Sunni jihadists operating
inside Lebanon. "We have a liberal attitude that allows Al Qaeda types
to have a presence here," he said. He related this to concerns that
Iran or Syria might decide to turn Lebanon into a "theatre of
conflict."
Is this true? Who knows, since the sources mostly seem to be Hersh's
usual anonymous cast of ex-spies, ex-consultants, and ex-diplomats.
But the story is plausible. Having never really believed in the threat
of non-state terrorist groups like al-Qaeda in the first place, the
Bush administration may now have come full circle from 9/11, tacitly
teaming up with Sunni jihadists in the hope that they'll help us take
out the state-based terrorist threat of Iran -- after which,
presumably, the jihadis will all go home to watch TV and raise their
families. Just like they did after the Afghanistan war.
Lovely, no? And one more thing: Hersh says the covert side of this
plan is being run by the vice president's office. Which means, of
course, that it will be handled with the same finesse in international
relationships and grounding in reality that Dick Cheney is famous for.
------------------------
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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