Iranaphobia Or The Phony Middle East Visit

President Bush's Mid-East visit, ostensibly to drum up support from countries such as Bahrain, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait in the Bush 'war on terror', turned out to be little more than a bully pulpit from which Bush could once again beat the drums of war against Iran. Besides his having almost no knowledge whatsoever pertaining to the governments of the countries he is visiting, calling them bastions of democracy, his threats against the Iranians are not even based in reality.

Citing the recent 'confrontation' between Iranian speed boats and massive U.S. war ships, Bush uses this as an example of Iranian intent, when accounts are trickling in that the 'confrontation' was not all that it appeared to be.

A native of Bahrain, Abduljalil Alsingace, tried to deliver a petition to the U.S. embassy in the U.A.E. just before Bush was due to arrive, calling for democracy in his homeland, but his attempts to deliver the petition were met with cool resistance by embassy officials. That is, until the media got wind of it, and only then did they grudgingly accept it.

See, Bush was over there extolling the virtues of these governments, without ever once calling for democratic reform in the host countries, because he needs them if he is ever to achieve his dream of bombing Iran back to the stone age. A quick look at the governments that Bush visited and then sung the praises of, shows the hypocrisy in all it's glory.

In the Palestinian territories, Bush gaffed and lost many a Palestinian supporter, when he jokingly told the gathered crowd that he didn't have any problem getting through the stifling Israeli check points with his 45 car motorcade. The Palestinian people are being systematically starved to death by these choke points, stopping movement within their own territory, by what amounts to an illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. Despite U.N. resolutions demanding the removal of these check points, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza by the U.N., Israel defies international law with a stepped up and continued occupation.

But truth be told, Israel itself is the only country that Bush went to that even pretends to adhere to the principles of a free and democratic society.

Take for instance his visit to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis just beheaded another person on Saturday. A woman who they say was convicted of murdering her employer for financial gain, but whom others say was being abused by her rich boss to the point that the Indonesian woman killed her in order to get away. This is the same government that routinely whips women whose 'crime' is the audacity of going out and getting herself gang raped. Friends like these and all that.

The United Arab Emirates, another must see on Bush's daring Middle East mission, is little more than a safe haven for criminals the world over, corporate, terrorist, or just your run of the mill big time drug dealer. If you'll remember, this is where Halliburton just moved their headquarters to, in order to avoid any Congressional oversight and possible criminal liability in their rip off of American tax dollars. The government is a sultanate, or monarchy if you will, no democracy to be found here either.

Tiny Kuwait, another country for which American blood was spilled, is still not a democracy, almost 20 years after the first Gulf War. The royal family rules over all, paying lip service to American concerns of freedom for it's people.

But when one looks at the hypocritical words spoken by Bush to try and drum up support for some sort of an alliance against Iran, one could either laugh out loud at the absurdity of Bush's words, or, if so inclined, point out to our pinhead in chief, that what he spoke of amounted to the pot calling the kettle black.

Bush said that Iran is threatening the security of the world, as is the U.S. government.

Iran supports terrorists, as does the U.S. government by supporting the Iranian Resistance Movement.

Iran sends arms to the Taliban. Oh come on Mr. Bush! We, us, the United States, funded the rise of the Taliban back in the days of the Soviet occupation, and by proxy, funded Al-Qaida itself by providing Osama Bin Laden with over $6 Billion dollars!

Iran defies U.N. resolutions. So do we, as in there was no U.N. resolution for us to invade Iraq, in fact there was a vote calling for more negotiation with Hussein's regime, which was ignored and defied by Bush, who invaded any way. Little details, I know.

Iran refuses to disclose it's nuclear program, and thereby destabilizes the entire region. Hmm. We don't disclose anything about our nuclear program. We discard the treaties signed with the Russians, and so now they're rebuilding their stockpiles with bigger and better nukes, so who's destabilizing what again?

Even more laughable were his exhortations to his host countries to take Iraq's examples of democratic reforms, even as his own administration was saying that the Baath Party would be allowed back into the government. The same Baath Party we supposedly went over there to kick out. Or that we were now backing away from almost every benchmark we set for the Iraqi government.

So, this trip was about allaying the fears of Israel that we weren't going to attack Iran, and to drum up support among the most repressive and brutal dictatorial regimes in the region for such an attack. Just when we thought that the Iranaphobia was sliding off the slimy desk of Dubya, he decides the Iranians are the world's biggest threat after all, even as the Chinese send more defective products into the U.S., build up a military capable of taking on our own, and the Russians rebuild their nuclear arsenal. Not to mention the wide open borders and ports that anyone inclined to do so could smuggle themselves and whatever weaponry across or into whenever they so choose.

I would venture that the bigger threat to peace and stability is a President with a one track mind, albeit a small mind, and his determination to go out with another shock and awe campaign, leaving the rest of us holding the bag. Batmanchester