Detroit Free Press

Mideast policies create more enemies

BY SHERRI MUZHER
September 21, 2006

Last spring, VH1 aired a reality show called "Supergroup," on which Motor City Madman Ted Nugent and other rockers got together to write songs and perform. After many lively debates, they decided to call themselves "Damnocracy" -- the perfect name for a group that represented sheer rebellion.

But frankly, it's also the perfect name for what the administration of George W. Bush is pushing in the Middle East. America has itself to blame for the muting of Arab reformists. The emphasis on intimidation and overwhelming force has hardened the Middle Eastern populations against us for our seeming indifference to people's suffering under the guise of fighting terror.

When Palestinian Catholic priest Father Musallam recently sent nuns into the Jabaliya refugee camp, they came back crying at the horrors they saw.

"The cries of hungry children, the sullen faces of broken men and women who are just sitting in their hungry emptiness with no light, hope or love," the priest wrote. "I am against fanaticism and violence, but these actions guarantee an increase in support for Hamas."

Indeed, when Palestinians first voted for Hamas, it was to send a loud message to Fatah that corruption would no longer be tolerated. When they go to the polls next time, people will likely vote for Hamas out of anger against the United States and Israel for collective punishment and destruction.

How ironic that in its destruction of Palestinian and Lebanese lives and infrastructure, Israel is actually strengthening the very groups it claims to be targeting.

In a poignant scene from the movie "Syriana" -- which deals with the corruption of the oil industry, Arab regimes and human beings themselves -- a character named Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig) laughs as he tells American Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) about the U.S. oil industry: "You want to know what they're thinking? They're thinking that it's gone. It's drying up and 90% of what's left is right here. And they're thinking, don't develop your people or infrastructure because if you don't, there'll be more profit off the top for us."

Prince Nasir wanted to improve the lives of his people but his playboy brother, who enjoyed his rich lifestyle, wanted to continue the status quo. Nasir was assassinated by the CIA.

Sure, "Syriana" is only a movie, but it's not hard to find real-life examples of Arab regimes that care more about self-survival than the development of their own people.

"(Libya's Moammar) Qaddafi is a dictator, but he's now considered a good guy by the U.S.," a relative once told me. "It's not about democratic ideals for the Arab world. It's about U.S. national interests."

This country's misguided foreign policy of supporting repressive Arab regimes is backfiring. When democratic elections are held, the people are naturally inclined to support groups that represent the complete opposite of what they have always known. We've already seen this in the elections held in Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt.

Our government needs to do some serious soul searching and make up its mind about whether we genuinely support the aspirations of human beings. Since we're looking for national security, real democracy should be the goal.

Damnocracy will get us nowhere.

Sherri Muzher is director of Michigan Media Watch.