Snap
A scathing op-ed in the Arab News about the importance of upcoming Iraqi elections and why they are receiving so little coverage in both the Arab and Western Media.
Arab media fears a successful Iraq because it poses a threat to their autocratic regimes. The Western media fears an Iraqi success because it'll prove Bush and Blair right.
The writer is spot on.
I had an interesting talk the other day with a very smart Egyptian filmmaker studying at USC this semester. He's made a couple feature films and is incredibly knowledgeable about the Middle East. He's even met with Karen Hughes, who visisted Egypt to find ways to improve the US image abroad.
He claims, rightly I think, that the reason there is so much hatred of America and Israel across the region is because dictatorial governments in the Middle East peddle the message that the US and Israel are the problem to distract citizens from the failures of their own regimes.
He is upset that the US government supports Mubarak, in Egypt, who in his view, has ruined the country.
At the same time, he does not support the Iraq invasion. He said to me, "I know the Iraqi people, and they need a Saddam, they cannot have a democratic society."
He also expressed disgust at the entire country of Saudi Arabia, whose history, he says, begins and will end with the discovery of oil. They preach an intolerant version of Islam, making women wear humiliating head scarves with only slits for their eyes.
All in all, he knows a lot, and I liked talking with him. But I asked him, "You say the problem with the Middle East is the dictators, so in Iraq right now, we're getting rid of the worst dictator of them all, and you don't support it. It doesn't make sense. How can you argue both?"
He says, "It won't work in Iraq."
Even if the odds are 25-75 that it'll work in Iraq, is the gamble worth it? If there's a huge pot in poker and you've only got a flush draw, and it only costs you a little bit more to see the river, it's worth the bet.
And the pot IS huge. If Iraq works, Egyptians will see it and want democracy too. So will Iranians, so will Syrians, and so will the Palestinians.
1 comment:
Your Egyptian friend, in addition to his disdain for Iraqis, is pretty caught up in stereotypes of Saudis. Granted that stereotypes have more than an element of truth to them, they don't tell the whole story.
Missing in this instance, for example, are the Saudi women who don't veil but may cover their heads, the Saudi women who don't veil and don't cover, the Saudi women who refuse to unveil even for their husbands.
Complexities always get lost in the stereotypes.
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