On Sat, 22 Sep 2001, Max Sawicky wrote:
> Another interpretation of amply leaked debate is that it reflects a
> good-cop/bad-cop routine. It's a way of saying to uncooperative
> states, we can be sensible or we can go wild. Do what Colin says, or
> we turn Rummy loose.
And Wolfewitz. There's something to be said for that strategy. It makes it much easier for Arab governments to sign onto a coalition against Afghanistan if they say the price the have extracted for their cooperation is preventing strikes against Iraq.
But let me put myself down as saying that I think a strike against Iraq is mad. I can imagine scenarios where overthrowing the Taliban was good for the people that live there and the countries that surround it. And where it contributed to diminishing terrorist attacks like the one we just suffered by at least partially uncoupling the apparatus of seminaries and camps that Eqbal Ahmad once called "Jihad, Inc." And where it contributed, through its alliances and impetus, to solving each of the three political problems that seem most to lie at the root of such terrorism, namely Kashmir, Arabia/Iraq, and Israel/Palestine.
But I can't see any way that attacking Iraq can do anything but make things much worse. I can't see it doing anything except uniting the Middle East against us, no matter how favorable their reaction to an action in Afghanistan. I can't see anyway it wouldn't increase exactly those grievances that seem to have motivated individual to become terrorists. And along with that, the means to make them into terrorists, insofar as training camps and seminaries have been supported with Saudi money, and winked at by Saudi elites. And that will continue to be true if we ignore the one demand the Saudis are making.
It seems to me the simple and efficacious route to solving the Arabia/Iraq problem seems also the moral one: to stop bombing Saddam. Then we don't need troops in Arabia. Which offends a lot of muslims less extreme than bin Laden -- including rich ones who make their money available to train people with murderous beefs.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com