Other Misfortune

Getting Our Wish, and Other Misfortune
©2011 Ross Williams

Headline: Syria Condemns Arab League Sanctions

Article Synopsis: With only Iraq and Lebanon abstaining, the Arab League approved – 19-1 – sanctions against the Assad government over its repressive handling of “Arab Spring” protests in which thousands of Syrians have been killed. Syria, the lone ‘nay’ vote, called it a “betrayal” and said that cutting the Syrian government off from outside funding would hurt the Syrian people. Syrian Army defectors, calling themselves the Free Syrian Army, have joined the growing revolt. Syria is tightly connected to the Hezbollah group in Lebanon and, in a strange-bedfellows way, the Iranian theocracy.

Misfortune by Omission: Of all the Arab and Arab-like nations participating in the inappropriately-named [and celebrated] “Arab Spring”, Syria is the one with the greatest up-side. Tunisia was repressively Westernized and anti-pan-islamist; Libya was repressively stagnant but anti-pan-islamist; Egypt was repressively Westernized and anti-pan-islamist; Yemen is despotic but newly anti-pan-islamist; Bahrain is thoroughly Westernized and actively anti-pan-islamist; meanwhile ... Syria is repressively pro-pan-islamist ... the only one on the list. They would have nowhere to go but up.

Of all the nations to sit on the sidelines for Syria makes the least sense, just as getting involved with Libya makes the least sense.

Syria is the nation the US has done and said the least about.

Added to this are similar articles detailing the UN – never one to follow International Law when it can avoid it – calling Syria’s completely internal matters a “crime against humanity”, and another describing one of Syria’s other cabinet Ministers calling the Arab League move an act of “economic warfare”.

Conclusion: Rather than dithering in Libya [can you say “War for Someone Else’s Oil”? I knew you could] we might have spotted Syria’s military defectors some RPGs and helped end the major source of 40 years of Lebanese disharmony and the financial backing of two major, and countless minor, pan-islamist outfits. That would have gone farther toward Middle East peace than anyone has gotten since Carter got Begin and Sadat to kiss on the lips.


Headline: Islamist Party Wins Majority in Morocco

Article Synopsis: Moroccan voters have swept the Justice and Development Party – the political party of muslim theocrats, to a majority of its Parliamentary seats. It may be joined by the relatively moderate islamist party, Istiqlal, to form an unbreakable stranglehold on Moroccan politics.

Misfortune by Appeasement: Hoping to avoid the same type of unrest and bloodshed that has marked the rest of the misnamed “Arab Spring”, Morocco’s constitutional King Mohammed VI has ordered widespread legislative reforms – starting with early elections – to satisfy his people. And as has been seen in Tunisia, which just elected a theocratic dictatorship, and Libya, which has imposed islamist Sharia by dint of “provisional” authority, the default setting from north Africa through the Middle East and central Asia is islamist theocracy.

The scorecard – if anyone wishes to tally the world’s march backwards into chaos – paints a grim picture:
Tunisia: overthrew a pro-Western autocrat in the name of “democracy”, and democratically replaced him with a muslim theocratic autocracy;
Libya: overthrew a stagnating, ex-islamist autocrat and replaced him with a Sharia council – a muslim theocratic autocratic oligarchy, as an autocratic oligarchy is so much better than an autocrat;
Yemen: a repressive and newly-pro-Western autocrat in the birthplace of the same Wahabi-sect yahoory responsible for al Qaida is being henpecked by those Wahabi-sect yahoos in order to compel the nation to return to its muslim theocratic autocracy roots;
Bahrain: the Sunni royalty is being “Arab Springed” by the Shi’a minority which is invoking the western secular deity of “democracy” to justify overthrowing the government in order to establish their stated goal of a muslim theocratic autocracy outrightly aligned with Teheran;
Syria: one of the two remaining [large] state-sponsors, with Iran, of pan-islamist yahoos is in pre-civil war boil, and no one who is a current target of pan-islamist yahoos [i.e., The West] can manage to work up enough enthusiasm to pass bullets to the insurrectionists;
Egypt: [see below];
Morocco: attempted to appease the howling masses by giving them what they wanted – what they wanted was a muslim theocratic autocracy. The autocrat has yet to be defined and installed, though he is possibly among the incoming members of the new parliament.

Conclusion: We’ve seen this plot before. Haven’t we? All that would seem to be missing is a beer hall putsch.


Headline: Egyptians Head to Polls

Article Synopsis: Egyptians are voting in a “meaningful” election for the first time in decades after thirty years of Mubarak and several years of Sadat and even more years of Nasser having made elections moot. All experts expect Muslim Brotherhood to handily win, but secular muslims and Egypt’s Coptic christian minorities are voting to stop them. Yet Muslim Brotherhood “has always stood by us” when times were tough.

Misfortune by Deliberation: Hosni Mubarak, the pro-Western autocrat, was deposed by a brief revolt, and arrested; he’s now on trial for being... an autocrat, or something. The Egyptian military has run the country in his place by making promises and not delivering them, among which is free elections. An even briefer revolt against the military has compelled the military to hold the promised elections ... which are now occurring. Elections are expected to last several weeks, running in phases around the country as all elections with any integrity are handled.

It is widely reputed that the two Egyptian revolts were led and accomplished by liberal and democratic idealists – “students”, as they are sometimes known. This may be the case. But it doesn’t matter. Muslim Brotherhood is the major power remaining in the country when you take away the bureaucracy and the military which, thanks to the “students”, was handily accomplished and to the huzzahs of Western media.

The main criticism of the elections held under the presidency of Mubarak, and Sadat before him, and even Nasser, is that no matter who you voted for, it turned into a vote for Mubarak, Sadat or Nasser somewhere between the ballot entering the ballot box and when the scrupulously honest election official unlocked the sacred, untamperable container. Free elections in societies unused to freedom tend to work that way.

...as it will here, no doubt. Muslim Brotherhood has been behind virtually every political intrigue in Egypt for the past 80 years, and quite a number outside of Egypt as well. To suggest that they haven’t got their fingers in Egypt’s election apparatus is to admit to being nearly too stupid to draw breath; they’ve got a four generation head start in political organization over the brash and capricious “students” that idiot American neophytes cannot see past. No amount of international election monitoring – especially if they include the perennial bubble-brain Jimmuh Cahtuh – can prevent a Muslim Brotherhood landslide.

Conclusion: Our National Savior couldn’t wait to announce to the world that he – as titular head of the Free World – was welcoming this “democratic” expression as the beginnings of a New Caliphate. As President of the United States, he’s on our side by definition; but which side does he think we are on?