[Rhodes22-list] Politics--Ted Koppel on Iraq

[Herb Parsons]

There are too many things I disagree with in the editorial to list them
all, but if I tried to fairly sum up the thrust, it would be this:

That democracy is doomed to fail in the Mideast, and they treat it only
as a commodity, and there is evidence to support that.

If that IS the thrust of the argument, here's why I disagree that the
evidence means it will fail.

I remember a nation that once based it's creation on the notion that
all were to be created equally.
* They supported slavery.
* They spent their first 100 years or so virtually eliminating their
native population, while denying them any rights
* They didn't allow women to vote.
* They required land ownership as a pre-requisite to voting.
* Their initial constitution had so many initial flaws in it that they
added ten amendments that are now considered so obviously basic that
they've been labeled the "bill of rights". It took almost 20 years to
get THOSE added.

Yet somehow, in spite of all the initial mis-steps, that nation, and
their democracy, survived.

Sorry, but initial failures in the "democratic experiment" in the
mideast will never do anything to dissuade me from it's importance, or
its possible success.

Herb Parsons

S/V O'Jure
1976 O'Day 25
Lake Grapevine, N TX

S/V Reve de Papa
1971 Coronado 35
Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana Coast

>>> bill at effros.com 7/21/2006 7:44:01 am >>>
Herb,

Here is a column by Ted Koppel in today's NYT. Please read it, I'd like

to know what you think of it. I think it is a point of view that must
be 
carefully considered.

Bill Effros

Look What Democratic Reform Dragged In
July 21, 2006
Guest Columnist

By TED KOPPEL
The New York Times
Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By

The United States is already at war with Iran; but for the time being 
the battle is being fought through surrogates.

That message was conveyed to me recently by a senior Jordanian 
intelligence official at his office in Amman. He spoke on the condition

of anonymity, reflecting gloomily on the failure of the Bush 
administration's various policies in the region.

He reserved his greatest contempt for the policy of encouraging 
democratic reform. "For the Islamic fundamentalists, democratic
reform 
is like toilet paper," he said. "You use it once and then you throw
it 
away."

Lest the point elude me, the official conducted a brief tour of recent

democratic highlights in the region. Gaza and the West Bank, where 
Hamas, spurned by the State Department as a terrorist organization, was

voted into power last spring and now represents the Palestinian 
government; Lebanon, where Hezbollah, similarly rejected by the United

States, has become the most influential political entity in the
country; 
and, of course, Iraq, where the Shiite majority has now, through 
elections, gained political power commensurate with its numbers.

In each case, the intelligence officer reminded me, the beneficiary of

those electoral victories is allied with and, to some degree, dependent

upon Iran. Over the past couple of months alone, he told me, Hamas has

received more than $300 million in cash, provided by Iran and funneled

through Syria. He told me what has now become self-evident to the 
residents of Haifa: namely, that Iran has made longer-range and more 
powerful rockets and missiles available to Hezbollah in southern 
Lebanon. We'll come back to the subject of Iraq.

Only a couple of days after my meeting in Amman, I visited a 
then-superficially peaceful Lebanon, where I was introduced to Sheik 
Nabil Qaouk, the commander of Hezbollah forces in the southern part of

the country. Sheik Qaouk, who also holds the title of general, wears
the 
robes and turban of a Shiite religious leader. Indeed, he studied 
religion for more than 10 years in the Iranian holy city of Qom. He 
received his military training in Iran and his wife and six children 
still live there.

Sheik Qaouk portrayed Hezbollah as being a purely defensive, Lebanese 
entity. But the more than 12,000 missiles and rockets that the sheik 
said were in Hezbollah's arsenal were largely provided by Iran.

I asked about those newer, longer-range rockets mentioned by my 
Jordanian intelligence source. The sheik implicitly acknowledged their

existence, but refused to talk about their capacities, with which the 
world has since become familiar. "Let our enemies worry," he said.

When Sheik Qaouk talked about Israel and Hezbollah, his
organization's 
ambitions were not framed in purely defensive terms. There is only 
harmony between Hezbollah's endgame and the more provocative
statements 
made over the past year by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president.
Both 
foresee the elimination of the Jewish state.

Are the Israelis over-reacting in Lebanon? Perhaps they simply perceive

their enemies' intentions with greater clarity than most. It is not
the 
Lebanese who make the Israelis nervous, nor even Hezbollah. It is the 
puppet-masters in Tehran capitalizing on every opportunity that 
democratic reform presents. In the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon,

in Egypt, should President Hosni Mubarak be so incautious as to hold a

free election, it is the Islamists who benefit the most.

But Washington's greatest gift to the Iranians lies next door in
Iraq. 
By removing Saddam Hussein, the United States endowed the majority 
Shiites with real power, while simultaneously tearing down the wall
that 
had kept Iran in check.

According to the Jordanian intelligence officer, Iran is reminding 
America's traditional allies in the region that the United States has
a 
track record of leaving its friends in the lurch * in Vietnam in the

70's, in Lebanon in the 80's, in Somalia in the 90's.

In his analysis, the implication that this decade may witness a 
precipitous American withdrawal from Iraq has begun to produce an 
inclination in the region toward appeasing Iran.

It is in Iraq, he told me, "where the United States and the coalition

forces must confront the Iranians.'' He added, "You must build up
your 
forces in Iraq and you must announce your intention to stay."

Sitting in his Amman office, he appeared to be a man of few illusions;

so he did not make the recommendation with any great hope that his 
advice would be followed. But neither did he leave any doubts as to 
which country would benefit if that advice happened to be ignored.

Ted Koppel is a contributing columnist for The Times and the managing 
editor of the Discovery Channel.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

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