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Conflict Of Conscience Or Something
Rotten In Denmark
By Karen Nakamura
The
liberal-left in the United
States is going
through a crisis.
On one hand, they're thrilled to see people moving towards democracy in Iraq, Afghanistan,
the Ukraine, Palestine and Lebanon. Liberals have worked long and hard
to help spread democratic principals throughout the world. In fact, the One
World/Family of Man ideal is based on the equality of all people.
On the other hand, the hard working liberal-left is horrified that President
George Bush and Secretary of State Condi Rice could click their heels and
generations of oppression would fall away with the neocons seen as The Great
Liberators.
Suddenly, the Republican right wing that have backed Israel's right-wing and
its spokesman, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for decades, think they can
buy/own/dictate to Palestine and Lebanon by "bringing democracy" to
the region. Suddenly, they are the Palestinians' "Great Friend." Or
are they?
Many experienced civil rights activists smell something rotten in certain
aspects of these democratic strides. For example, is that all it's ever taken,
for the president of the United
States to order
freedom and it's done? Why wasn't it done long ago then?
In August of 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced proposals
to extend covert missions on a global scale under the Defense Department's
Special Operations unit. Not only would it seek out terrorists, it could also
become involved in "preparation of the battlefield." Is that what
this election fever is all about, preparation of the battlefield?
An important aspect is the similarity of the protest movements in both the Ukraine and Lebanon. The Ukrainian election was widely reported to have the
financial backing of the United
States and the
expulsion of Syria has been high on the Bush Agenda.
It also follows the Richard Perle/Paul Wolfowitz plan to take over the Middle East for American and Israeli interests.
As Noah Chomsky stated March 4 of this year, "Where democracy appears
to fit in well with US security and economic interests, the US promotes democracy. Where democracy clashes with
other significant interests, it is downplayed or ignored."
Kicking the Syrians out of Lebanon could
be seen as a move to create a vacuum that Israel and the US intend to fill. After all, the
Syrians were in Lebanon to establish stability when the
Israelis withdrew and to ensure they wouldn't return.
Speaking about Palestine, Chomsky went on to say "The
only substantive element [in current Palestinian/Israeli negotiations] is that
Palestinians, even against the occupying army must cease resistance. Nothing
could delight US-Israeli hawks more than complete peace which would enable them
to pursue, unhindered, the policies of takeover of the valuable land and
resources of the West
Bank and [continue]
huge infrastructure projects to break up the remaining Palestinian territories
into unviable cantons."
Despite Israel's false statements that it's the
only democracy in the Middle
East, Lebanon has had a thriving democracy since
at least the 1970s. Its parliament has a number of parties with representatives
ranging from Maronite Christians, Phalangists (the actual perpetrators of the Sabra/Shatila
refugee camps massacre), Druze and Hezbollah. It has an important election
coming up in May in which the Christian wing is a minority but represented.
Palestine also has a representative
government and would hold more elections if its citizens could get to the
voting booth without being shot by the Israeli military. The Palestinian
parliament meets regularly and had a working infrastructure until the Israeli's
bombed most of the record centers to smithereens.
Conservative columnist and CNN Crossfire host, Robert Novak, expressed a
possible problem with far-flung implications, in the administration's scenario.
Talking with other reporters about who assassinated former Lebanese Prime
Minister Hariri, Novak scoffed at the consensus the Syrians were responsible
and opined it was just the Israeli's up to their old tricks.
This perspective was bolstered by the support shown the Syrians by
demonstrators in Beirut and reinforced with the
re-instatement of Prime Minister Omar Karami. In a Zogby/Information
International poll taken in Lebanon right
after the assassination, 3/4s of the participants want May's elections to
continue with large numbers planning to vote for those candidates close to Hariri.
About half of the Druze community feel the Lebanese government and Syria were involved while 17% of the Maronites
(conservative Christian opposition) thought the Syrians were responsible. In
contrast, only 3-5% of Shiites thought it was the Syrians and while 53% thought
the Israelis were responsible, 19% felt it was the US.
That the conservative Christians faction or some other pro-western element
could have taken matters into their own hands to speed western domination is
almost never considered as a possibility among possibilities by the American
press.
A large percent of the demonstrators wanting the Syrians out are
conservative Christians from various parties. While the greater Lebanese public
undoubtedly wants all foreign elements to get out and stay out, the faction
closer in ideology to the Bush administration is not surprisingly, Christian
conservatives. One of these, opposition leader Michael Aoun exiled for 14
years, intends to return in time to run for office in the coming elections.
Mustafa Barghouthi, president of the Palestinian National Initiative
organization, spoke on the subject on C-SPAN's Washington Journal in March.
"The presence of the Syrian Army is the outcome of old conflicts but the
Lebanese have the right to govern themselves." He went on to say the real
problem is the Israel/Palestine conflict and Israel's previous invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s. The Syrians helped get Israel out and have been there on the numerous occasions when Israel has tried to re-occupy the
country.
Is this the beginning of another Israeli/American campaign to gobble more
land and resources? It's worth a deeper examination.