Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Ghosts of Defeats Past:
This day brings out a lot of "soul-searching" in the Arab World- mostly in the media, and perhaps among some "baby boomer" Arabs. Baby boomer here means the generation that was born between 1940 and late 1950s, almost the same American definition, but it has nothing to do with World War II soldiers coming home eager to procreate and do a lot of begetting. Every Arab generation is a baby boomer because there is always a lot of procreating and begetting: what we lack in quality, we try to make up in quantity.As for Arab governments: there is no soul-searching there, because there are no souls there.

A lot of the soul-searching this year is done through official, semi-official, and quasi-official media- is there any other kind in the Arab World? Even the now ubiquitous satellite television stations and offfshore newspapers are official-friendly, at least- often they are owned by the same princes and potentates who rule. So, they are being used to fight old battles and settle old scores. It is interesting how the petro-media that dominates these days uses evasive tactics to kick the dead secular, leftist, pan-Arabist horse. In the case of Egypt under Nasser, the big loser of June 5th 1967, for example, the petro-media takes this opportunity each year to attack everyone who was close to Nasser...except Nasser himself. This is a blatant and repeated case of moral cowardice. It is partly psychological, of course.

To this day, Nasser, with all his shortcomings and defeats, oddly represents a period of hope and healthy anger. Nasser was oppressive, but then which Arab ruler today is less oppressive and less intrusive than he ever was? He still has some hold on the Arab baby-boomers born anywhere between 1940 and the mid-1950s. This is more a judgment on the current trough of Arab political life than anything else.

Perhaps one reason is that the current Arab regimes have led their nations to an even more ignominious defeat than the Israelis ever inflicted on Nasser. They seem to have lost the will and the ability to shape events in their own region. Nasser died of a heart attack when he discovered that he could no longer dominate and shape events- a sort of an involuntary version of the defeated Roman falling on his own sword. While nowadays the kings, emirs, and presidents-for-life strut around their summits for the benefit of their media, the fate of the region is shaped by decidedly non-Arab forces. This is the case wherever one looks, from the Persian-American Gulf (this is a good realistic compromise name) all the way to North Africa. Unfortunately, unlike Nasser, current Arab leaders are too thick-skinned and shameless to even suffer heart attacks. As for falling on their own swords, forget about it: they have no swords and hardly any "intestines".

Al Qaeda in Iraq:
I watched a tape on the internet of the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq. One thing is certain to me: the man is not an Iraqi. Although he used classical Arabic, which is the same all over, one can always tell by the way certain words are pronounced. The man is definitly not Iraqi or Syrian. His pronounciation of classical Arabic indicates that he is someone from Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, or Yemen.
Cheers
Mohammed

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