  HIGHLIGTS Legal –  Human rights urlLink The Age of Comparative Atrocity American shame;  Islamist snuff movies It's a tough call whether Abu Musab al- Zarqawi- the Jordanian " militant"
 who is reportedly responsible for the videotaped butchery of Nicholas Berg- is more stupid than he is brutal,  or whether he is a bigger monster than he is a fool.  Zarqawi's own nauseating videotape makes the case for his indescribable brutality.  The argument that he is Islamism's biggest lunatic yet- no small claim-
is similarly straightforward:  He has inaugurated an otherwise inconceivable display of comparative atrocity that could deliver his enemy from its own demoralization.  After all,  Americans have been sufficiently shamed,  dishonored,  and demoralized by the repulsive images of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib that even many prominent war supporters have been reconsidering the effort.
 Dispirited analysts at the conservative National Review Online have been looking for an exit from the occupation;  blogger Andrew Sullivan has asked himself if,  knowing in advance how the occupation would proceed,  he would have supported the war to begin with.  New York Times columnist David Brooks has concluded that the United States misconceived the effect of its own power,  and has pronounced the occupation an intellectual failure,
 even if it ultimately succeeds in establishing a liberal Iraq.  What does Zarqawi do?  In " retaliation"  for the Abu Ghraib imagery,  he stages a singularly nauseating "
execution"  of a private American citizen who has been wandering around Iraq.  The probable effect is to offer many Americans an exit from their own moral horror.  Mind you,  Zarqawi's ghouls in this video don't merely " behead"
 Berg,  as most accounts indicate.  " Beheading"  suggests a quick severing and a quick death.  What Zarqawi and his friends do is butcher Berg-
there's no other word for it.  They don't use a sword or an axe;  they use a knife.  You can hear Nicholas Berg screaming as Zarqawi's gang hacks at his neck and then pulls at his head until it comes off his body.  They then hold his bleeding head in front of the camera.  The tape is appalling not only for its utter bloodthirstiness,
 but also for the total absence of simple human empathy.  Elemental empathy- for example,  an unwillingness to rip a victim’ s heads from his body- is a primary measure of civilization.
 ( The shame Americans felt at the Abu Ghraib an image is,  after all,  rooted in such empathy.  Even in the dehumanizing context of warfare,  which strains the empathy of all its participants,
 this is savagery.  But if this is a moment of comparative atrocity,  the issue becomes whether the Zarqawi horror is capable of having any effect on the Abu Ghraib images.  The probable answer is that while the murder tape obviously doesn't make pictures of prisoner abuse any less disgusting or shameful,  it does offer many of those who feel disgust and shame a different context in which to perceive those images.  The Abu Ghraib pictures reveal American soldiers humiliating their prisoners in a sadistic manner (
in some images,  the Americans are actually smirking)  It's a painful sight because it is cruel on its own terms ( we don't even know if the terrorized individual prisoners are actually guilty of anything)  and because we regard such sadism as unworthy of our image of ourselves.  Indeed,
 the pictures are sufficiently difficult that American newspaper editors are increasingly unsure how to play the images that continue to appear.  Perhaps sensing a rise of " shame fatigue,  some editors have been moving newer images to inside pages.  As Washington Post editor Leonard Downie,  Jr.
 put it,  " W]  e decided we had published so many shocking photos that it was fine to publish inside rather than on the front page.  By contrast,  Zarqawi intentionally tapes and distributes his bloody atrocity;
 the literal slaughter of an innocent is offered as an example of his righteousness.  " Unworthiness"  simply never enters the calculation;  that it is inhuman is its point.  Shameless brutality of this degree has the power to transform the shame of Zarqawi's enemies (
those who seek such transformation)  Zarqawi has reminded his enemies that,  unlike him,  they are capable of shame.  One rarely encounters an enemy willing to dehumanize himself this way.  It's not unknown:
 Genghis Khan,  sweeping out of Mongolia in the 13th century,  sent out an advance phalanx of rumormongers to spread tales of massacre and cruelty,  in order to encourage the cities in his path to surrender the more quickly.  But that strategy was based on the Mongols' strength,  and the relative weakness of the cities that various waves of Mongol armies were intent on sacking,
 ( Baghdad was ultimately among them)  That's hardly the situation in which Zarqawi and his allies find themselves.  If the U. S.  has a military weakness,
 it's the one that Vietnam's Gen.  Vo Nguyen Giap identified:  Wars can be won on the American home front.  But you try to win such a war by demoralizing the populace,  not by demonstrating your own butchery.  Revealing yourself as a butcher only encourages your enemies to find you and kill you.
 That's the whole point of atrocity images and stories,  both true and false,  from Trajan's Column in Rome to the notorious false stories spread during World War I to the phony anti- Iraq baby- incubator testimony of the first Gulf War:  to dehumanize the foe.
 That's the business of the Pan- Arab press:  delegitimizing the American effort in Iraq by portraying it in terms of atrocity.  In the case of an Al Jazeera,  it has been to display civilian corpses;  in the case of some Pan-
Arab newspapers,  it has been to augment genuine pictures of prisoner abuse with stills from pornographic films,  and to claim that such stills are also from Abu Ghraib.  That sort of thing is recognizable propaganda in a classic mode.  Zarqawi's righteous snuff movie is something different:  an act of lunacy,
 a gift to his enemies,  and,  one hopes,  an unwitting suicide note.  Source;  Reason;
 May 2004 Write;  by Charles Paul Freund is a Reason senior editor.  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  Media –  Iraq affair Some Arab papers ignore Berg slaying Beirut,  Lebanon -
 Arab media reacted cautiously Wednesday to the videotaped beheading of an American civilian by Islamic militants in Iraq,  with some newspapers conspicuously playing it down or even ignoring it.  The biggest pan- Arab satellite television channels broadcast an edited version of the gruesome video,  not showing the actual killing of Nick Berg,  26,
 of West Chester,  Pa.  a Philadelphia suburb.  The businessman was abducted in April.  In one of the most explicit displays,  Kuwait's Al-
Siyassah daily ran a photo of a masked militant holding up Berg's severed head.  The video of the execution was released on the Internet too late for some Middle East newspaper columnists to react to it.  The killing,  attributed to Abu Musab al- Zarqawi's group,  appalled many Arabs.
 Some opinion- makers condemned the killing.  " This shows how base and vile those who wear the robe of Islam have become,  said Abdullah Sahar,  a Kuwait University political scientist.
 Some said it surpassed the American military's abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison,  which has been the top story for the past 10 days in the Middle East.  " We were winning international sympathy because of what happened at Abu Ghraib,  but they come and waste it all,  said Abdullah Sahar,
 a Kuwait University political scientist,  said of the Islamic militants responsible.  In the video,  the masked militants said they were taking revenge on Berg because of the abuses at the Baghdad prison.  Mustafa Bakri,  editor of Al-
Osboa weekly newspaper in Egypt,  said Berg's death will only hurt efforts to expose American offenses against Iraqis.  " Such revenge is rejected,  Bakri said of the execution.  "
The American administration will make use of such crimes just to cover their real crimes against Iraqis.  Bakri spoke as he took part in a Cairo demonstration by about 50 Egyptian journalists and lawyers against American human rights abuses in Iraq.  Al- Jazeera and Al- Arabiya,  the big two satellite networks,
 aired carefully edited versions of the video.  In Al- Arabiya's edit,  a militant is seen drawing a knife and jerking Berg's body to one side.  The rest is not shown.  "
The news story itself is strong enough,  said Jihad Ballout,  spokesman for Qatar- based Al- Jazeera.  "
To show the actual beheading is out of the realm of decency.  Lebanon's private Al Hayat- LBC station led its bulletins Wednesday with the video.  Its news presenter said:  " We apologize to our viewers for not showing the entire tape because of the ugliness of the scene.
 Kuwait state television broadcast the news of the execution late Tuesday but not the video.  Iraqi newspapers reported nothing about the killing,  although it may have broken to late for them.  Egypt's leading daily,  Al- Ahram,
 ignored the beheading Wednesday.  Two other major pro- government newspapers ran news agency reports on their inside pages,  without photos.  An Al- Ahram editor,
 Ahmed Reda,  said the news came too late Tuesday night for the paper to confirm the video's authenticity with the U. S.  government.  Newspapers in Syria,  where the government controls the press tightly,
 did not report it at all.  A professor of journalism at the American University in Cairo,  Hussein Amin,  said the handling of the story by Egypt's pro- government papers was political and appropriate.  "
I think that the government does not want to show this on the front page as a main item because it shows a very poor -  poor is not the proper word;  disgusting maybe is the better word -  example of revenge,  Amin said.  "
There is also the threat that it could be happening to other Americans.  If they put it on the front page,  ( it could be seen as)  they are favoring this kind of action.  Jordanian newspapers,
 state television and radio reported Berg's killing,  but without commentary.  Most Lebanese newspapers,  such as the left- wing As- Safir,
 published the report and a photograph of Berg sitting in front of the militants.  As- Safir ran the headline:  " Al- Zarqawi slaughters an American to avenge Iraqi prisoners.
 In many Arab newspapers,  the beheading received less display than the news of America's imposing sanctions on Syria and the killing of six Israeli soldiers in Gaza City.  Source;  AP,  May 2004 Write;  by Zeina Karan -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 GeoPolitica –  Afghanistan affairs Karzai calls for war on drug trade as illicit poppy- growing spreads Karezeq,  Afghanistan -  The bulb of the little pink flower reaches deep into Afghan society,  sowing problems with the country's allies,
 financing gunmen and even bringing addiction to ordinary Afghans.  In Afghanistan,  opium is everywhere.  The United Nations says the burgeoning poppy crop produced three- quarters of the world's illicit opium last year,  worth $
3. 2 billion Cdn and accounting for half Afghanistan's gross domestic product.  Output was 20 times more than in 2001,  the last year of rule by the strict Taliban regime.  Returning from a recent conference with donor countries,  President Hamid Karzai called on Afghans to wage a "
jihad,  or holy war,  on the drug trade.  It was a politically risky move.  Poppy farming supports thousands of families and is a major source of income for many powerful warlords.  On a recent day,
 a counter- narcotics team in Kandahar province fanned out across farms,  flanked by a dozen bodyguards armed with AK- 47s and rocket- propelled grenades.  In the town of Karezeq,
 farmers confronted the team at the edge of fields pink with blooming poppies.  An elderly farmer begged for an officer to " be a good Muslim"  and leave his crops alone.  The response was quick:  "
It's the opium that you grow that's un- Islamic.  Eventually,  they compromised:  One- third of the plants would be uprooted.
 The farmers glumly watched as tractors tore up the earth.  Karzai's government says the goal is not to destroy farmers' livelihoods,  but to encourage planting legal crops.  While wheat and corn are nowhere near as profitable,  at least the farmers know those crops will get to market,  officials say.
 The vast majority of the poppy crop is exported to meet the demand for drugs in the United States,  Europe and elsewhere,  but some stay at home,  feeding a growing addiction problem.  In the slums of western Kabul,  devastated by three decades of war,
 opium addicts gather in bullet- pocked ruins,  sheltering in basement rooms littered with used needles and burned matches.  They heat opium powder into a liquid and inhale the vapour.  Counsellors from the Najat drug rehabilitation centre scour Kabul for addicts,  offering first-
aid and encouragement.  Female doctors meet at the homes of women addicts,  and dozens of burqua- clad addicts come for checkups.  Each week,  dozens of addicts hope desperately for one of the few beds Najat offers for in-
house rehabilitation.  Once accepted,  they spend weeks in cramped rooms,  relearning responsibility and personal hygiene,  receiving medical attention and counselling,  and trying to get clean.
 Feradoon,  42,  can barely dream of kicking his habit.  He meets every day with other addicts in the ruins of an old Kabul cinema.  They have no one else to turn to.  In a culture where family is everything,
 these men are shunned by their relatives.  " No one can stop using this drug when he is alone,  Feradoon says.  Source;  AP,
 May 2004 Write;  by David Guttenfelder -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  GeoPolitica –  Venezuela affairs Venezuelan law enforcement agencies raid US Embassy warehouse;  makes more arrests Venezuelan authorities have raided a US Embassy warehouse in Caracas and made more arrests just a day after President Hugo Chavez Frias revealed another opposition- led conspiracy to overthrow his democratically elected government.
 Quoted by wire services,  US Embassy spokeswoman Victoria Alvarado says the embassy had used the warehouse to store furniture,  and denied any US involvement in efforts to oust Chavez.  -  Venezuelan security services had arrested scores of Colombian right- wing paramilitary fighters,
 Sunday,  thwarting a plot to launch another coup d'etat tomorrow,  Wednesday.  A US- backed coup d'etat in April 2002 saw the imposition of Dictator for a Day Pedro Carmona Estanga who immediately dissolved the National Congress,  the judiciary and the Constitution in one fell swoop,
 instigating a shoot- to- kill hunt for Chavez loyalists.  In Washington,  US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher trotted out the same old platitudes,  rejecting Chavez Frias' charges that the United States is also behind the latest conspiracy.
 Source;  Vheadline. com,  May 2004 Write;  by David Coleman -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  GeoEconomical -
Argentina urlLink A new government oil company is born in Argentina The Argentine government announced this Tuesday the creation of a government energy agency to ensure the supply of gas and electricity at accessible prices for the domestic market.  Argentina is currently undergoing a serious energy crisis with domestic shortages and reduced overseas sales with diplomatic consequences in the region. Minister Julio De Vido " The government decided the creation of Argentina Energy S. A.  Enarsa,
 with the purpose of participating in the hydrocarbons and energy markets through the rational exploitation of resources"  said Planning Minister Julio De Vido during a press conference in Government House in Buenos Aires.  The objective of Enarsa is to ensure the availability of gas and electricity at prices compatible with the economic level of the country and " rebuild reserves,  production levels,  gas supplies together with infrastructure needs in the transport of gas and electricity"
 added Mr.  De Vido.  Enarsa will be made up of 53%  non- transferable shares belonging to the government,  12%
 to the Argentine provinces and 35%  will be offered to the private sector.  Enarsa that is expected to associate with private companies to explore and exploit different fuels is the first government company in the local hydrocarbons market since the Argentine government privatized YPF and Gas del Estado in the nineties.  Several private companies have anticipated they will work closely with the Argentine government in the energy emergency.  Brazilian Petrobras promised to double the transport capacity of its gas pipeline that extends 3, 300 kilometres from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego to Buenos Aires,
 which means an additional 2, 8 million cubic meters in 2005 and another eight million cubic meters in 2006.  Repsol- YPF also is committed to increase gas production by 9, 5 million cubic meters.  Argentina has abundant reserves of natural gas but the lack of investments during several years and a booming economy have caused a bottle neck with shortages both for the domestic industrial market and overseas,
 mainly Chile.  " If we have an energy crisis in Argentina today,  unfortunately it's because corporations have not been investing particularly since 1998"  said President Nestor Kirchner.  The Kirchner administration also decided to increase taxes and retentions on hydrocarbon and fuel exports in an attempt to discourage overseas sales and ensure domestic supply.
 Source;  Mercosur,  May 2004 -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  Africa –  Nigeria affairs urlLink Mobs raze Christian- run businesses in Nigeria Kano -
 Muslim mobs looted and burned at least five Christian- run businesses in the northern Nigerian city of Kano on Tuesday,  after a rally called to protest a sectarian massacre.  A reporter at the scene said that gangs of young men torched and looted Christian properties on Gyadi- Gyadi Court Road in a mainly Muslim area of the city,  triggering explosions in a cooking gas store.
 Police jeeps were racing around the area,  with heavily armed officers sporadically firing warning shots,  but security forces appeared to be holding back to avoid triggering a full- scale confrontation with the mob.  Most businesses,  including the main Christian market in the minority community's ghetto,
 Sabon Gari,  had been closed before Tuesday's mass rally called in protest at last week's attack on the Muslim town of Yelwa.  There was no sign of any casualties in the violence.  On Sunday last week a heavily armed gang of militants from the Christian Tarok ethnic group stormed the mainly Muslim rural town of Yelwa,  in the Shendam local government area of central Nigeria's Plateau state,  and killed between 200 and 300 people,
 according to government figures.  At Tuesday's protest,  Islamic leaders demanded that President Olusegun Obasanjo put an end to the Plateau state crisis within seven days " or bear the blame of whatever happens"  Source;  AFP,
 May 2004 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  FOCUS GeoPolitical –  Iraq affairs The Curse of Pan- Arabia Consider a tale of three cities:  In Fallujah,  there are the beginnings of wisdom,
 recognition,  after the bravado that the insurgents cannot win in the face of a great military power.  In Najaf,  the clerical establishment and the shopkeepers have called on the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al- Sadr to quit their city,  and to "
pursue another way.  It is in Washington where the lines are breaking,  and where the faith in the gains that coalition soldiers have secured in Iraq at such a terrible price appears to have cracked.  We have been doing Iraq by improvisation;  we are now " dumping stock,
 just as our fortunes in that hard land may be taking a turn for the better.  We pledged to give Iraqis a chance at a new political life.  We now appear to be consigning them yet again to the same Arab malignancies that drove us to Iraq in the first place.  We have stumbled in Abu Ghraib.  But the logic of Abu Ghraib isn't the logic of the Iraq war.  We should be able to know the Arab world as it is.
 We should see through the motives of those in Cairo and Amman and Ramallah and Jeddah,  now outraged by Abu Ghraib,  who looked away from the terrors of Iraq under the Baathists.  Our account is with the Iraqi people:  It is their country we liberated,  and it is their trust that a few depraved men and women,
 on the margins of a noble military expedition,  have violated.  We ought to give the Iraqis the best thing we can do now,  reeling as we are under the impact of Abu Ghraib -  give them the example of our courts and the transparency of our public life.  What we should not be doing is to seek absolution in other Arab lands.
 Take this scene from last week,  which smacks of the confusion -  and panic -  of our policies in the aftermath of a cruel April:  President Bush apologizing to King Abdullah II of Jordan for the scandal at Abu Ghraib.  Peculiar,
 that apology -  owed to Iraq's people,  yet forwarded to Jordan.  We are still held captive by Pan- Arab politics.  We struck into Iraq to free that country from the curse of the Arabism that played havoc with its politics from its very inception as a nation-
state.  We had thought,  or implied,  or let Iraqis think,  that a new political order would emerge,  that the Pan-
Arab vocation that had been Iraq's poison would be no more.  The Arabs had let down Iraq,  averted their gaze from the mass graves and the terrors inflicted on Kurdistan and the south,  and on the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala and their seminarians and scholars.  Jordan in particular had shown no great sensitivity toward Iraq's suffering.  This was a dark spot in the record of a Hashemite dynasty otherwise known for its prudence and mercy.
 It was a concession that the Hashemite court gave to Jordan's " street,  to the Palestinians in refugee camps and to the swanky districts of Amman alike.  Jordan in the 1980s was the one country where Saddam Hussein was a mythic hero:  the crowd identified itself with his Pan- Arab dreams,
 and thrilled to his cruelty and historical revisionism.  This is why the late king,  Hussein,  broke with his American ties -  as well as with his fellow Arab monarchs -  after the invasion of Kuwait.
 His son did better in this war;  he noted the price that Jordan paid in the intervening decade.  He took America's side,  and let the crowd know that a price would be paid for riding with Saddam.  But no apology was owed to him for Abu Ghraib.  He was no more due an apology for what took place than were the rulers in Kathmandu.
 But this was of a piece with our broader retreat of late.  We have dispatched the way of Iraqis an envoy of the U. N.  Lakhdar Brahimi,  an Algerian of Pan- Arab orientation,
 with past service in the League of Arab States.  It stood to reason ( American reason,  uninformed as to the terrible complications of Arab life)  that Mr.  Brahimi,
 " an Arab,  would better understand Iraq's ways than Paul Bremer.  But nothing in Mr.  Brahimi's curriculum vitae gives him the tools,  or the sympathy,
 to understand the life of Iraq's Shiite seminaries;  nothing he did in his years of service in the Arab league exhibited concern for the cruelties visited on the Kurds in the 1980s.  Mr.  Brahimi hails from the very same political class that has wrecked the Arab world.  He has partaken of the ways of that class:  populism,
 anti- Americanism,  anti- Zionism,  and a preference for the centralized state.  He came from the apex of the Algerian system of power that turned that country into a charnel house,
 inflicted on it a long- running war between the secular powers- that- be and the Islamists,  and a tradition of hostility by the Arab power- holders toward the country's Berbers.
 No messenger more inappropriate could have been found if the aim was to introduce Iraqis to the ways of pluralism.  Mr.  Brahimi owes us no loyalty.  His prescription of a " technocratic government"  for Iraq -
 which the Bush administration embraced only,  to retreat from,  by latest accounts -  is a cunning assault on the independent political life of Iraq.  The Algerian seeks to return Iraq to the Pan- Arab councils of power.
 His entire policy seeks nothing less than a rout of the gains,  which the Kurds and the Shiites have secured after the fall of the Tikriti- Baathist edifice.  The Shiites have seen through his scheme.  A history of disinheritance has given them the knowledge they need to recognize those who bear them ill will.  American power may not be obligated -
 and should not be -  to deliver the Shiites a new dominion in Iraq.  But we can't once more consign them to the mercy of their enemies in the Arab world.  At any rate,  it is too late in the hour for such a policy,  for the genie is out of the bottle and the Shiites will fight back.
 Gone is their old timidity and quietism.  Their rejection of Mr.  Brahimi's diplomacy is now laid out for everyone to see.  For his part,  Mr.  Brahimi knew that the Americans were eager to dump,
 and he rightly bet on the innocence ( other,  less charitable terms could be used)  of those in the Bush administration now calling the shots on Iraq.  They were unburdened by any deep knowledge of the country,  and Mr.
 Brahimi offered the false promise of pacifying Iraq in the run- up to our presidential elections.  His technocracy is,  in truth,  but a cover for the restoration of the old edifice of power.  Fallujah gave him running room;
 its fight for a lost,  unjust dominion,  was his diplomatic tool.  His prescription,  he let it be known,  would calm the tempest in that sullen place.
 The Marines were fighting to bring that town to order.  The Marines were not Mr.  Brahimi's people:  Their fight,  and their sacrifices,  he dismissed as a "
collective punishment"  of a civilian population.  Mr.  Brahimi should know a thing or two about collective punishment.  His native Algeria has provided enough lessons in what really constitutes the indiscriminate punishment of populations that come in the way of military power.  In the scales of military power,
 the Arabs have not been brilliant in modern times.  But there is cunning aplenty in their world,  and an unerring eye for the follies of great foreign powers.  The Arabs can read through President Bush's stepping back from his support for Ariel Sharon's plan for withdrawal from Gaza.  There are amends to be made for Abu Ghraib,  and those are owed the people of Iraq.
 Yet here we are paying the Palestinians with Iraqi coin.  The Palestinians will not be grateful for our concessions;  and they are to be forgiven the only conclusion they will draw.  Those concessions have already been taken as the compromises of an America now in the throes of self- flagellation.  We can't have this peculiar mix of imperial reach,
 coupled with such obtuseness.  It is odd,  and defective in the extreme,  that President Bush chose the official daily of the Egyptian regime,  Al- Ahram,
 for yet another interview,  another expression of contrition over Abu Ghraib.  In the anti- Americanism of Egypt ( of Al- Ahram itself)
 the protestations of our virtue are of no value.  In our uncertainty,  we now walk into the selective rage of the Egyptians,  a popular hostility tethered to the policies of a regime eager to see us fail in Iraq -  a regime afraid that the Iraqis may yet steal a march on Egypt into modernity.  Cairo has no standing in Iraq.
 Why not take representatives of a budding Iraqi publication into the sanctuary of the Oval Office and offer a statement of contrition by our leader?  Our goals in Iraq are being diluted by the day.  There has been naivete on our part,  to be sure,  and no small measure of hubris.  We haven't always read Iraq right,
 but if we abdicate the burden and the responsibility -  and the possibilities -  that came with this war,  our entire effort will come to grief.  In Najaf on May 7,  in a Friday sermon made from the shrine of Imam Ali -
 Shiism's most revered pulpit -  Sheikh Sadr- al- din Qabanji,  a respected cleric with ties to Ayatollah Ali Sistani,  called on the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-
Sadr to quit the city.  " Listen to the advice of the ulema,  he said,  using the term for the recognized men of religion.  "
Come,  let us together find another way,  and go back to your homes and provinces.  The defense of Najaf,  he said,  belonged to its people,
 and the bands of young " Sadrists"  were told to return to the slums of Baghdad.  We haven't stilled Iraq's furies,  and our gains there have been made with heartbreaking losses.  But in the midst of our anguish over Abu Ghraib,
 and in our eagerness to placate an Arab world that has managed to convince us of its rage over the scandal,  we should stay true to what took us into Iraq,  and to the gains that may yet be salvaged.  Source;  Wall Street Journal,  May 2004 Write;
 by Mr.  Fouad Ajami,  of Johns Hopkins,  is the author of " The Dream Palace of the Arabs"  (
Vintage,  1999)  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  GeoSecurity –  Syria urlLink The Road for Damascus More of a sideshow in the US war on terrorism;  Syria hasn't been invaded like neighboring Iraq.
 Or warned with threats as North Korea or Iran -  although it was almost listed in President Bush's " axis of evil"  speech.  But finally this week,  the hard-
line secular regime in Damascus is due for some punishment from an administration long divided over whether Syria deserves more carrot than stick in dealing with its terrorist offenses.  Congress pushed Mr.  Bush to act by approving a measure last November calling for sanctions on Syria if it didn't shape up.  The move was driven as much by political pressure to help Israel as to protect the US.  But it's clear American patience with Syria's young leader,  Bashar al-
Assad,  has run thin because of his tactical feints in helping the US with post- invasion Iraq,  promoting of various terror groups,  and toying with weapons of mass destruction.  A Washington eager to reform the Middle East can't wait while Mr.
 Assad plays old games of conspiracy and half- steps,  despite having 130, 000 US troops next door in Iraq.  The latest Syrian game is to claim that it too is threatened by militant Islamists after a bombing in its capital on April 27.  But Bush isn't buying it,
 and in imposing sanctions this week,  he's decided Syria fits the category of being a nation against the US because Syria isn't doing enough to be with it in fighting terror.  He's expected to bar sales of dual- use items that could have military applications,  and will likely to restrict US oil investments in Syria as well as Syrian planes flying to or over the US -  for starters.
 The Western- educated Assad may want to help the US,  but he's surrounded by old generals who thrive off the business they've long enjoyed in Lebanon by having 20, 000 troops occupy that country.  ( Syria also allows Iran to use Syrian soil to support the anti-
Israel Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon.  The worst offense is Syria's unwillingness to prevent foreign fighters from entering Iraq across a 400- mile border.  It may be calculating that the US is on the run in Iraq and will soon exit.  Bush has every reason to send Syria a stern signal of US resolve.  Source;
 CSMonitor. com,  May 2004 -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -  -  -  -
 -  -  -
