[iwar] [fc:Shooting.snakes.while.supporting.snake.farms]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-15 17:28:01
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 17:28:01 -0700 (PDT)
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                               Don Feder
                          October 15, 2001
             Shooting snakes while supporting snake farms

 While Western leaders shuttle around the Middle East to shore up
support for the war on Afghanistan, our Arab allies (for want of a
better word) are providing precious little help.
Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab states whose leaders are even
willing to pay lip service to the campaign. Neither offers troops or
the use of military bases. We give Egypt $2 billion annually, and it
gives us two and a half cheers in the war on terrorism.
After heroically condemning the Sept. 11 massacre, the Organization of
the Islamic Conference insisted that the American-led coalition not
broaden the war to any other Moslem country.
The conference will be quite put out if we go after Saddam Hussein. In
terms of promoting terrorism, the Iraqi tyrant, armed to the teeth
with weapons of mass destruction, is to Taliban what Wal-Mart is to a
pushcart.
Arab moderates combine their rhetorical support for the war with
demands for "a just solution to the Palestinian problem." The problem
with the Palestinians is they prefer murdering Israeli civilians to
negotiating.
Reputed to be our best friend in the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia has
banned offensive operations from our bases there. The nation's ruling
class doesn't want to be seen as subservient to American interests. Of
course, it's fine for America to have 5,000 troops stationed in Saudi
Arabia a decade after the Gulf War, to help defend its decadent
monarchy.
"The Palestinian-Israeli problem is the cause of all violence and
chaos," says Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. He's right. If it weren't
for the Zionist entity, Pakistani terrorists wouldn't be blowing up
government buildings in Kashmir, Sudan wouldn't be committing genocide
against the nation's Christians, and Algeria's civil war would have
ended years ago.
Even worse than our ostensible allies in the region are America's
newfound friends.
Syria, which issued a pro forma condemnation of the World Trade Center
attack, won a seat on the United Nations Security Council last week,
thanks to American neutrality. Washington is rumored to be
contemplating removing Syria from its list of terrorist sponsors and
even providing military aid to Damascus.
Syria provides hospitality to almost every gang of rabid killers in
that part of the world, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine. President for life Bashar Assad
-- who inherited the family business from the late Hafez Assad --
could teach the Nazis a few tricks. On meeting the pope last spring,
Assad harangued him about Jews being the enemies of mankind. Along
with aid, perhaps we could give Bashar a brotherhood award.
We're also moving closer to Sudan's odious Islamic regime. Although
it's denounced U.S. operations in Afghanistan, after Sept. 11,
Khartoum "snapped into action" (in the words of a state department
official) and detained more than 100 people linked to militant groups.

If we end up embracing a regime that's murdered an estimated 2 million
Christians and revived the slave trade to dispose of captured women
and children, no amount of scrubbing will get us clean.
If that weren't cause enough for cheer, the administration is courting
Iran, described by a state department report as "the most active
sponsor of state terrorism in 2000."
Yasser Arafat has turned his guns on Palestinians to suppress
pro-Osama demonstrations. (A leader of Arafat's own Fatah party calls
bin Laden "the most popular figure in the West Bank.")
The godfather of suicide bombers hasn't become a Jeffersonian
democrat. During the Gulf War, he cast his lot with Saddam. But after
President George Bush's benediction of Palestinian statehood, and
given our willingness to do almost anything to appease the Arabs,
Arafat thinks he'll come out of this war the real winner.
In 1940, the West was allied with Stalin out of necessity. Evil he
was, but at least Uncle Joe was fighting a real war against Hitler.
Still, we paid the price in the post-war era, when the Soviets
occupied Eastern Europe.
Someday, the bill will come due for cozying up to the thugs in charge
of Syria, Sudan, Iran and the Palestinian Authority. In the course of
our expedition to Afghanistan, we could end up shooting a few snakes
while making capital improvements to the snake farms.
Contact Don Feder

http://www.creators.com/opinion_writetheauthor.cfm?pg=write&columnsname=dfe

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