US going around the bend

Hakki Alacakaptan nucleus at superonline.com
Mon Feb 11 01:14:41 PST 2002


Ariel Sharon is reported to have told Shimon Peres, "don't worry about America, we control America". If any confirmation were needed, Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer (Labor) supplied it with the amazing statement to the press that Cheney told him in private "You can hang Arafat as far as I'm concerned". He was aiming to embarass Bush, who refused Sharon's demand that the US admin cut off ties with Arafat. Unsurprisingly, this scandal went largely unreported in the US media and the US admin carefully downplayed it. A former Israeli ambassador to the US remarked on how far Israel had come since Ben Gurion, when a similar gaffe resulted in the entire cabinet being fired. Not only is Ben-Eliezer still holding his job, he hasn't even been mildly reprimanded.

While being careful to oblige Israel, the US admin is riding roughshod over the EU with its "axis of evil" sabre-rattling, said axis containing 2 countries, Iran and Iraq, which Israel sees as a threat and the EU as a business opportunity (and US big oil as unwanted competition, needless to say). The CIA says none of those countries is involved in terrorism, while several countries (SA, Pakistan, and Syria) which manifestly are involved remain the US's allies. Th EU is crying blue murder and is scrambling to patch together an independent ME policy with the hope of preventing a new Arab-Israeli war. While distracting the world with its atrocities against the Palestinians, Israel is busy provoking Hezbollah, which is massing arms on the Lebanese border.

In disregarding US national interests, the US admin seems to be mimicking Ariel Sharon, and the US public appears to be as bent on suicide as the Israeli public. A times-CBS poll last month revealed a 7% decerase in the number of people who thought Bush favored the rich, an increase in the number who thought he "cares about the needs and problems of people like you", a 12% increase in the repug's favorable rating, a 16% gain for Bush as to "who is more likely to balance the budget" - this as he was merrily throws away $4 trillion of the $5.6 trillion surplus he inherited. With that kind of popular support and the corporate interests - from which it is indistinguishable - hungry for pork and plunder, the US admin looks hell-bent on destroying the global consensus on which its power relies, and which it imagines can be replaced with coercion.

The US is clearly going around the bend. The question now is: How bad is it going to be on the other side?

Hakki



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