Iraq and the Delusion of Reasonable Concessions. Yemeni Cure for HIV, and Jacob-ed in Arabia

The Arabs and ISG of Baker-Hamilton et al:
Arab media have been anticipating the ISG report on Iraq for days now, and most of them have considered it as some sort of admisson of American defeat. So does the Iranian media especially: perhaps this is part propaganda spin and part wishful thinking. The media of U. S allies are clearly unhappy with the anticipated report (already out today) because of its implications for regional security and for the feared role it might allow for Iran. Some of the normally anti-American media, pan-Arabs as well as Fundamentalists, seek a pan-Arab or Islamist arrangement to fill the expected regional 'power vacuum'- and fast, before the Iranian mullahs and their allies do that. Of course there is no Arab consencus on what to do about Iraq, and there is no legitimate avenue for direct outside intervention by autocrats in a country with an elected government, one of two elected governments in the Arab World. The foreign ministers meeting at Cairo this week called for disarming the militias, but did not condemn the Salafi-Ba'athist terror campaign that has pushed most Iraqis toward tolerating these violent militias. They condemned foreign intervention in Iraq, but did not propose anything tangible to improve life in that country.

There has been much talk of concessions to the 'insurgents' in Iraq: but does anyone really believe that the Jihadists and Ba'athists are fighting to secure a couple of more ministerial positions in the Iraqi cabinet for the Sunnis??? Has a terror/insurgent campaign ever been fought with that kind of limited goal? Can anyone be that naive??
Of course all this talk of withdrawal is a delusion- there will be no power vacuum: most influential American politicians are not foolish enough to abandon the Middle East to its fate. The simple reason is that the Middle East, especially the Arab part of it, has not yet shown any ability to manage its own affairs.

Bahrain:
The King of Bahrain has appointed the unelected half of the legislature. Of the 40 appointees, 20 are Sunnis, 18 are Shi'as. The most interesting are the last two members: one Jewish woman and one Christian woman. Jews served in the legislatures of Iraq and Egypt in the old monarchic days, up to the 1940s or early 1950s when these countries had large Jewish populations. Iran's parliament still has a seat reserved for Jews (and one for Christians), Ahmadinejad's anti-Israeli and anti-semitic diatribes notwithstanding. Perhaps we will see seats reserved for a Jew and a christian in a future legislature in Riyadh?

Yemen Cures HIV:
The head of a university in Yemen has claimed that he has discovered a cure for HIV-Aids. Al-Jazeera reported yesterday that Shaikh al-Zindani has called on the United Nations, world organizations and othjer interested parties to send representatives to learn the secrets of this new cure, which is purported to take days to cure the disease. Could it be 'qat????

Saudis do a Rachel-Leah Switch on their Jacob:
A Saudi man had a 'Jacob' done on him, as in switching Leah for Rachel. The man wanted to get married, but in Saudi society girls are under the Bur'qa'a and cannot be seen by other men, at least not while they are in the country. As is customary the man sent his mother around, looking for a wife. One family introduced her to their pretty daughter, and claimed she was available. It was agreed, and the wedding took place. Now, the man could not tell what his wife looked like before the wedding- he had never seen her. The mother could: she had seen her, and the daughter in-law after consummation looked quite different from the daughter in-law pre-concummation. The attractive girl, who is married with children, was used to get her much-less-attractive sister married. Now the man and his mother are demanding the right to return the merchandise back to the family, except that it has been unwrapped and used. They are also demanding the return of the exorbitant dowry he paid her family, and that her sister be prosecuted for impersonation and fraud.
History can repeat itself.

Cheers
Mohammed