Dr. Hansen responds to some questions from Idris A. Ahmed, editor of Al-watan Newspaper, a daily Saudi news paper. Here's an excerpt:
6. The invasion and occupation of Iraq resulted in serious human, material damage and geopolitical change. Given that the proclaimed weapons of mass destruction—the reason that led U.S. to invade Iraq—were not found, how do you evaluate the stability of the world before and after the invasion of Iraq?
Read the October 11, 2002 Senate proclamation authorizing the use of force to remove Saddam: there were 23 clauses ranging from WMD to 22 other reasons like trying to assassinate a former US President, gassing his own people, attacking 4 countries, violating the 1991 peace accords, etc. WMD was only one writ-and remember Arab governments warned the US that Saddam would use WMD, hence the problems of outfitting thousands in chemical suits in Kuwait. Between 1979 and 2003 Saddam perhaps killed as many as 1 million Arabs or Kurds; that will not happen again in Iraq. Back-atcha! And the U.S. did not set up a Shah-like figure. With these elections and more to follow, most Americans hope to be gone rather quickly, once Iraq is fully constitutional.
7. Do you agree that the crimes of war committed by the American troops against the Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison has extremely damaged trust in the U.S. to bring democracy and maintain human rights for the Iraqi people—an event that distorted its image in the world?
Somewhat. Since America must be perfect and when it is not, it feels it is not even good. Remember that what happened in Abu Ghraib was investigated, stiff sentences were handed down and the judicial process continues. But such roguery is a daily occurrence for political prisoners in the Middle East, and only transparency can bring these problems to light.
One final point, the image of the Arab world in the U.S. after 9-11 is also at an all time low. Back-atcha Again! We saw dancing in Palestine on news of 3000 murdered, 15 of the killers were Saudis, Atta was not poor but middle class and Western educated. Stick in knife. Twist. Repeat. And now with all the translating of Arab speeches, documents, and TV news into English that is being done and printed freely on the Internet the American people are seeing a Middle East that they feel is violently hostile to the West and at odds with liberal values. We are seeing and reading uncensored things from the Arab world, and it has had a devastating effect here in the U.S. on our views of the Middle East. Not to mention Arab readers being able to see the original interview, compare it with the printed version, see what got cut, and draw conclusions from the differences.
The average voter in Kansas finally has read too many speeches by an imam or cleric calling Americans "pigs and apes" as well as infidels, and is asking very new questions: is it safer to open a mosque in Detroit or Church in Saudi? Is a Westerner safer on the street in Yemen or an Arab in Los Angeles? Can one more easily support Israel in a speech in Cairo or support the Palestinians in Washington? And out of this perceived imbalance, a new unease with the Arab Middle East has arisen. In your part of the world you talk easily about "Anti-Americanism" but that is old news and the wage of a superpower.
What is new, really new is what I would call "anti-Middle Easternism" in America. We have seen one too many beheadings, one too many burnings of the U.S. flag, one too many fist-shaking mobs, and collectively sighed, "Enough is enough, they really are different people and we must go our ways." Hence the brilliant tactics of the Iraqi terrorists who made themselves so grotesque that they hoped Westerners would simply say "all of these people are like that, let's not spend any more money or help in that part of the world."
Freedom and democracy alone will allow all this to recover and to renew our old friendship. But right now? I'd say we are waiting for the Arab world to democratize and join the other 4 billion who have, and until then, we are in a process of disengaging troops from Saudi Arabia, calls to cut aid to Egypt if it doesn't reform, cutting of all ties with Syria, almost no US tourism to the Middle East, hard look at visas and students coming to America, desperate efforts to look at non-petroleum energy, etc.
The editor brings up one tranzi meme after another, and gets bitch-slapped. What comes to mind is a Samurai confronting a band of brigands and elevating the ensuing dance of death into an art form. At the end, he returns his sword to his scabbard and bows briefly, sliced bodies littering the ground surrounding him, while the rescued applaud as if they have witnessed a Master Performance. Bravamissimo!
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