-Caveat Lector- http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=20216
Arab News SAUDI ARABIA'S FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY Why the Democrats lost the election By Rasheed Abou-Alsamh Published on 08 November 2002 JEDDAH, 8 November — THE DAY after the US midterm elections this week was a dark one for Democrats: President Bush and his Republican candidates swept the elections, regaining control of the Senate, adding seats to their majority in the House of Representatives and winning a few key governorships in New England (Massachusetts and New Hampshire). No matter that the Democrats had won the governorships of Michigan and Pennsylvania, key industrial states, the losses in the Senate were humiliating enough. My take on the whole debacle is that the Democrats have been scared ever since the attacks of Sept. 11, frozen in time, too afraid to speak up for what they believe in. The Democrats have been too scared to speak up against Bush’s tax cuts that are supposed last for the next 10 years, despite a stock market that virtually collapsed post Sept. 11th, and the fact that huge federal and state budget deficits beggar the question of where Bush and his allies are going to get the money needed to pump-prime the economy, let alone finance a costly invasion of Iraq. The Democrats were also too scared to speak up and vote against giving President George Bush Jr. the power to go to war with Iraq whenever he sees fit to do so. Where were Dick Gephardt, Tom Daschle, Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman when the House and Senate gave Bush the green light to assault Iraq? They voted for the resolutions, too afraid of being tagged unpatriotic if they stood up for what they really believed in. In America today, it’s considered unpatriotic to be against aggressive American action abroad, no matter how uncalled for it is. Bush has cleverly managed to divert most Americans’ attention away from the crumbling economy (more than 1.7 million jobs lost so far according to conservative Patrick Buchanan), and the mounting corporate scandals by playing on Americans’ fears of further terror attacks post Sept. 11. What Bush and his fellow hawks surrounding him don’t realize is that unwarranted US aggression abroad is just breeding more hatred for America and Americans, a hatred that will endanger Americans for decades to come. The recent deadly missile attack on the Yemeni Al-Qaeda leader Abu Ali and five supporters in the Yemen was quickly claimed as being the work of the Central Intelligence Agency. It is strange that the CIA was so quick to claim responsibility, but when viewed in context of the general unabashed bragging practiced by most Bush administration officials, it’s not that surprising. Just this past Wednesday morning I watched the hawkish Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz actually burst out loud laughing when a CNN reporter asked him about the missile attack in Yemen. The obvious pleasure Wolfowitz felt at having dispatched an Al- Qaeda operative to the great beyond, was without question. My suggestion to the Bush administration: Gloat all you want in private, but when you’re on CNN International, for Pete’s sake, show some decorum! Although the Bush administration has failed miserably in making any connection whatsoever between the thuggish regime of Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaeda group, Americans have been badgered and scared into believing that regime change in Iraq is of utmost importance to future American security. No matter that Saddam was just as thuggish and brutal before he invaded Kuwait in 1990, no matter that the US and Britain turned a blind eye to that fact in the 1980s and were then the major arms suppliers to Iraq. Despite the best efforts of Bush warmongers, there is a vocal minority of decent Americans who are vocally opposed to invading Iraq, and they represent some of the best values of America in my opinion. What we fear here from abroad is that the overwhelming success of Republican candidates at the polls this week will send Bush the wrong message that it is OK to invade Iraq and otherwise bully the rest of the world into submission using America’s power and military might. While I do support using America’s power when absolutely necessary, such as the US bombing of Afghanistan earlier this year to overthrow the Taleban regime, I do not think Iraq fits the bill of being absolutely necessary. Yes Saddam is a dictator, and yes he does oppress Iraqis, but I think regime change would be much more acceptable if it came from the Iraqi opposition (with covert US help) or other Arab countries, rather than from the US alone. * * * * Attacking Muslims is the new anti-Semitism FOLLOWING THE Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington by Muslim terrorists, it has sadly now become increasingly acceptable to be anti-Muslim in the United States. Racial profiling at airports and nasty diatribes against Muslims on the Internet are the norm nowadays. The Canadian author Rohiton Mistry, of Indian origin but not even Muslim, recently canceled the second half of his US book tour after being constantly stopped at American airports along with his wife for security checks. The conservative press has been the guiltiest of whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment, especially the National Review, the Weekly Standard and the Wall Street Journal. Most of these publications have published alarmist articles about the rise of a fanatical Islam, mistakenly making the religion of over 2 billion people seem to be a monolithic bloc of anti- West hatred. On the Internet there is a plethora of American weblogs that just spend their whole time analyzing every single statement and action coming out of the Muslim world, ready to pounce upon and denounce Muslims at every turn. One weblog particularly guilty of this new anti-Semitism is Charles Johnson’s Little Green Footballs website. Just trawling through the comments (I should really say diatribes) left by regulars of the website, one is shocked by the virulent anti-Muslim sentiments expressed. If the same sentiments were expressed about Jews or Christians on a Muslim website, you can be sure that there would be an almighty uproar about it in the US. A few Americans have dared criticize LGF, most notably the weblog editor of MSNBC, but they have been few and far between. For sure the childish comments on LGF have perhaps allowed Johnson to keep running such a racist and nasty website. After all, who will take seriously the slurs produced by what seem to be 10-year-old brats high on steroids? Many regulars on the site talk about how the US should obliterate Iraq and Saudi Arabia with nuclear weapons and then take them over. For sure this is psychotherapy for those still managing their Sept. 11 anger, but does the whole world have to be subjected to it? LGF claims that it will remove offensive posts, but I have yet to see any of the anti-Muslim drivel removed. On LGF it’s unfortunately OK to hate Muslims. * * * * MY APOLOGIES to several readers who e-mailed me last week to protest the figures I quoted from Michael Moore’s film "Bowling for Columbine" concerning the number of murders committed in the United States every year using firearms.I mistakenly quoted from my faulty memory that 67,000 murders a year were committed in the US using firearms. That’s quite a lot of murders even for the US! To find the real figures I checked out the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2001 report on crime in the United States, which was just released at the end of last month. According to the FBI, there were a total of 13,752 murders in 2001, of which 63 percent were committed with firearms. That means 8,719 people were killed with firearms. Of that total, 6,790 were killed by handguns, 389 by rifles, 497 by shotguns, 58 by other guns and 985 by firearms. Gun enthusiasts will gloat and say, "I told you so!" I still think that more than 8,000 murders a year by firearms are much too much. * * * * MY APOLOGIES to regular readers of this column who expect to read about Philippine politics. There has been so much going on in the United States and the Middle East lately, that I have had to devote many of my columns to non-Philippine subjects. I hope you will bear with me. I promise to return to Pinoy subjects next week! * * * * Comments or questions? Email the author at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * Visit the author’s website at http://www.manilamoods.com to read past columns. Copyright © 2002 ArabNews All Rights Reserved. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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