Yemen Times, Yemen
'What Else Will Bush Break Before He Goes?'

By Munir Daair  

August 24 - 27 Issue
Yemen - Original Article (English)    

In his book Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward wrote that Colin Powel warned George Bush of the consequences of occupying Iraq. Powell called it the pottery barn rule: "You break it, you own it." But then, for a politician to take advice from a general is anathema, especially draft dodging politicians. One wonders how General John Abuzaid manages to function around Bush, Cheney, and Rice. Especially with American laser bombs falling on Lebanese children. They say blood is thicker than water ... Some blood anyway. But if you are busy killing Iraqis, killing Lebanese shouldn't bother you.

Anyway let's go back to the pottery barn rule. Three years after the invasion, America seems to have failed in Iraq. Now America has broken Lebanon. What else Bush intends to break before he leaves office is an open and frightening question. Assuming he doesn't create a crises of such magnitude that it justifies calling off or postponing the next election. After all, with a two terms limit, it is impossible for Bush to steal another election.

You think I am crazy? Under the new world order anything goes. Think about the scary London news. Granted, there might have been an attempted terrorist attack. How big? We don't know. What we do know is that it has diverted attention from Israel's atrocities in Lebanon. Nicely timed. Makes you wonder about the motives of both terrorists and Big Brother. Big terrorist and Big Brother now sound and behave so much alike that it's hard to know whom to believe. One has sleeper cells and the other sleep-deprivation cells, one uses suicide bombers the other smart bombers, both tell us "if you ain't with us, you're against us." Isn't Tony Blair the guy who claimed that Saddam could launch a WMD within 45 minutes? That lie contributed to the mass murder of 100,000 Iraqis and counting. How crazy was that? Maybe we should call him Tony B-liar. I sometimes wonder what's more idiotic. The fact that these lies are believed again and again, or the fact that the liars are elected, again and again.

Now they tell us that terrorists have tried to blow us to kingdom come. But we shouldn't be intimidated. Instead, we should just empty all of our pockets, get rid of all of our hand luggage, including your grandmother's milk of magnesia, strip whenever asked to do so, and have a pleasant flight. Yeah, sure!

More terrorist threats … real or imagined. More power to the intelligence organizations. In the past few years, Big Brother taped our phones, snooped at the wife's bank account for housekeeping, read our mother-in-law's medical records, checked our kids' report cards, and emptied our pockets in more ways than one. But it never seems to be enough. Think about it. How much money do these guys need to hijack or blow up a plan? A small wad of whatever banknotes and a few fraudulent credit cards, that's all. But what does Big Brother do instead? Big time global banking espionage. You think your local terrorists conduct their business making large bank transactions? And now after the London scare, what else is to be done? Need I spell it out?

Be that as it may, back to Lebanon and the pottery barn rule. How does America plan to mend this one? With a government hand picked by America ala-Iraq, Arab money, American contracts, business as usual, just a different address. But, for those weapons flights [to supply Israel with fresh supplies of U.S. arms], will Blair get a piece of the action for British business? After all, Tony has been telling anyone who will listen how well regarded he is in Washington and about his special relationship to George. But this didn't do him any good in Iraq. Why? Because it's all in Blair's imagination. One can't blame Blair for wanting desperately to hangout with the big boys. Of course, it would help if Blair occasionally read a bit of history. The page about Churchill's trusted friend Roosevelt during the WWII race to Berlin is interesting. That's how the big boys play, Tony.

[Editor's Note: The author may be referring to the fact that as victory in Europe appeared more and more certain, Roosevelt began to cultivate a bilateral relationship with Stalin that wounded Churchill's pride].

Back again to the pottery barn rule. Having broken Lebanon, what's the next address. Syria? The wishful thinking if the Neocons is an open secret. Stage one: Iraq divided into American oil fiefdoms, Palestine annexed by Israel, in practice if not in words, Syria and Lebanon part of one colony. Iran? Shah Junior is waiting in the wings [Reza Cyrus Pahlavi ]. Does this look anything like a "new" Middle-East? Looks like the old one to me, only with new players.

No Sykes-Picot here [the post WW I deal between France and Britain splitting up the Middle East ]. It's Neo-con-Zionism, America and Israel. It should rather be called Middle-East of the "new" instead.

No wonder good old Jacques Chirac is confused. The Middle-East of the new is no good for France. In the past, France had only Syrian influence in Lebanon to contend with. Chirac went along with America to kick out the Syrians, thinking it would help France regain its position in Lebanon. Sorry friend Jacques, you shot yourself in the foot. Again. You should read the same history page I recommended for Tony.

Anyway, back again to the pottery barn rule. American style won't work in Lebanon. Hezbullah will make sure everybody's party is pooped. Including all who quietly encouraged Israel, crocodile tears and hindsight notwithstanding. They knew Israel's brutality. They saw it in Palestine and in Lebanon in 1982. Yet the misplaced fear and hatred of Hezbullah [by Arabs and Europeans alike] blinded them. Now they have been cheated by America and Israel. Had they bothered to ask, I would have recommended they read the same history page I recommended for Tony and Jacques.

Pottery barn rule? Yes, America will mend Lebanon, just after they mend Afghanistan and Iraq. Might take years and lots of bloodshed, just like Afghanistan and Iraq. But that's the American pottery barn rule for you.

Munir Daair is a Yemeni political writer. His articles appear in a number of publications. He can be contacted at mdaair@gmail.com

VIDEO FROM YEMEN: THE PRESIDENT OF YEMEN

OFFERS ASSISTANCE TO THE ENEMIES OF ISRAEL

AL-JAZEERA, from Yemen: excerpts from an interview with President of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Saleh, who urges Arab assistance to Hezbullah and Syria's entry into the war, August 1, 00:04:24, MEMRI

"I hope that all the countries bordering with Israel, not just Syria, would enter the war. I meant the countries bordering with Israel. We will not enter the war officially, but we will open the borders to the fighters. We will allow the transfer of money and equipment, to support the Lebanese resistance and the Palestinian resistance in Gaza."

President of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Saleh