| [Al-Hayat, in its Friday edition, quotes this same passage at length, and also what came next in the statement, namely this: "You must also understand something extremely important, and it is that it is not you alone who represent the Iraqi people or who own the jihadi project. There is an environment that fosters the jihadi resistance, without which the work would be impossible--there are those who finance the work; the political and non-political forces that reject the occupation; those with functions and expertise of all kinds in the military and the civilian spheres who refuse to work with the occupation; and the population as a whole of all sects and races who have not connived with the occupation." The reporter notes that elsewhere the statement ((from the TwentyPercenter Muslim Clerics Association)) reminded the armed resistance groups that the mere fact of bearing arms doesn't necessarily qualify someone for running a country. And that internal fighting in the resistance will in effect throw Bush the life-jacket he needs to claim a form of victory, and it further warns that if there isn't unity soon in the ranks of the resistance, it is possible that the result could be a "bitter harvest" that will make the people yearn for a return to the situation as it is now, just as now some yearn for the prior regime, even though those days were not peaceful either.] |
Let's ’torialize that one for ourselves a little, Mr. Bones. You could also call it "deciding," perhaps, though is it really a proper "decision" when nothing at all depends on it except one's own views? The Baní Rupert aspire to sway elections, of course, not mere opinions, and there is nothing in sight that is the least bit likely to influence our electoral behaviour, let alone GOP occupation policy. But anyway,
(1) As a generalization of Pol. Sci. or Comp. Gov., it would appear that "the mere fact of bearing arms" is one of two alternative legitimations for a neorégime in the Greater Levant: one must plump either for that or for Cardboard Kingship. Speaking of which, are there no loyal Mecca Monarchists left in the former Iraq at all, then? Or at least skulking around the corridors of Háshim at ‘Ammán, hoping lightning will strike?
(2) More interesting still is the concern to equip Little Brother and the Big Managers with life-jackets. Does not this show the Anglo-Arabian Press Trust actually taking proper advantages of its potential opportunities for once? Well, no, presumably it doesn't, for the volunteer life guards are at brave New Baghdád and not at al-Hayát. All the more remarkable, then, that such a concern should enter a TwentyPercenter's bearded and turbaned head rather than a westoxicated Sunninterní journalist's! There is not enough of it to tell for sure, no doubt, but it does sound as if somebody native out there has been thinking about the politics of the holy Homeland to some purpose, does it not? A development much to be encouraged!
I'm not so sure it's quite the right purpose, however, from the narrow sectarian (or broad "pan-Arab") point of view of Sunnintern and TwentyPercenterdom. Having noticed that Little Brother is in sore need of a life jacket, as is undoubtedly the case, M. Tête draws the policy conclusion that Little Brother ought to be denied it, which seems perverse and lucus a non lucendo to this ’torializer. Why not let him have it and go away thinkin' that the militant extremist GOP has somehow won too? Ought Sunnintern and TwentyPercenterdom not rather be building bridges to facilitate the Occupyin' Party's retreat? For M. Tête, like Mu’ámara Junction, is quite sure that the bad guys are not really winnin', God forfend!:
| The current stage .... is that the occupation is on the verge of withdrawal and defeat ... with the help of God and His strength. ... [T]he American administration was put to the test of drawing up a successful policy for the country, once they occupied it, and met with devastating failure, for many reasons, the main ones being your jihad and your sacrifices. ... |
For those of who don't much like either crew, paleface Greater Texans or indig TwentyPercenters, the main feature of the current situation in the former Iraq is that somehow they both think they've all but cinched Success and Victory. Lady Logic advises me that at least one crew is bound to be grievously disappointed. [1]
But forget what we think, M. Tête thinks a restored Sunni Ascendancy is right around the corner, Deo Volente etsi non Adjuvante! -- unless something goes wrong at the last moment, that is. Well, stipulate him all that, Mr. Bones, and then don't you still have to wonder that he should worry that letting Master Dubya and the aggression-basers save a little face might be the fatal hitch?
Yet M. Tête seems to have two candidates for the fatal hitch, EITHER some fool might misguidedly throw the Occupyin' Party a life/face preserver OR ELSE "there isn't unity soon in the ranks of the resistance." The latter point, which is of course much closer to home for him, seems also much better taken from ten thousand kilometers away. Certainly no fool is M. Tête!, for in addition to his much better than average Crawfordology, he seems actually to notice, at least a little, that the TwentyPercenter Humpty-Dumpty has sadly gone smash. And here again there is a tendency to be commended and encouraged.
One might combine, and perhaps M. Tête does attempt to combine, the two points along the lines of "Look, guys, if we start quarreling now over whether to throw the GOP invaders a life/face preserver, maybe they won't need one at all!" Rather odd to do so, if even the total disarray of TwentyPercenterdom has not prevented its devotees from attaining the very threshold of Success and Victory, yet again let us simply stipulate it, Mr. Bones, but then move on to point out that even if M. Tête thinks that and thinks it correctly, his crew could preserve all the "unity" that seems to be absolutely required as well by all agreeing to throw a life/face preserver as by all agreeing to withold it.
[DIGRESSION: We've met that sort of Tautological Tawhíd product before, Mr. Bones, and quite outside any Muslim or neo-Muslim or Arab or Greater Levantine context. As I recall, it was the Rev. Moon's bats of Christokorea that we spoofed with our own simple unification-all-'round paradigm:
(1) It is more important that we all agree, than exactly what it is that we we agree on.
(2) So let's everybody agree on (1) and be done with it! Q.E.D.
Some of the Mu’ámara Junction ’torializing has vaguely noticed something of that sort, and Abú Aardvaark, being a good deal brighter and better, has come a good deal closer, although even A.A. is much too respectful of TwentyPercenter muqáwama ever to spoof it outright.]
The advantage of them all agreeing to throw the Crawfordites a life/face preserver rather than withhold it is that it would make the Crawfordites rather more likely to JUST GO AWAY. M. Tête's Crawfordology may, just possibly, be as good as our own if he subtly perceives, or even guesses by accident, that the militant GOP extremists have not the slightest sincere intention of JUST GOIN' AWAY from the former Iraq no matter what, that they're as determined to stick around (plus hopefully rule the roost, sort of!) forever as the extremist TwentyPercenter militants are themselves. I'm perfectly prepared to award M. Tête an 'A+' in Crawfordology if he really deserves it, Mr. Bones, and especially if in addition to agreeing with us, we are all three are in the event proved accurate in our convergent crystal-ball skills. I trust I do not reluct out of envy or any other unworthy churlishness, sir -- let that not be! But surely you can see the hold-up?
As we have long since agreed about everybody in politics, sir, I primâ facie take M. Tête to say what he means and mean what he says. Yet here what he says is "The current stage .... is that the occupation is on the verge of withdrawal and defeat." It's as easy as pie to see how he might think so if he reads our rightist e-gutter press barkin' and bellowin' at us irresponsible cold-turkey withdrawers the way Wingnut City and Rio Limbaugh do bark and bellow: soon "Democrat Party" "Surrender Monkeys" will take over, and even before that, they (we) may be able to compel the Yalie brat to JUST GO AWAY! Well, we've placed our own bets against that contingency, have we not, Mr. Bones? And I believe we've mustered up a certain show of subtlety in our Crawfordology, I trust, sir, in anticipating that the Responsible Nonwithdrawal™ lobby is likely to carry off the prize at the end of the day, that is to say there won't be any invasionite JUST GOIN' AWAY from the former Iraq any decade soon. The card-carryin' Boy-'n'-Party perps and their CFR/ISG neo-"coalition pardners" will have to hunker down and cut their losses, no doubt, but the face of Sole Remainin' Hyperpowerism simply cannot accept bein' pushed out of Peaceful Freedumbia (or out of anywhere else except maybe on occasion petroleum-challenged nowherevilles like Lebanon and Somalia and "South Vietnam") by mere uppity indigs, can it, Mr. Bones? (OK, sure, there was indeed once M. le Genéral De Gaulle beautifully expelled from La Algérie française! One handy counterexample shouldn't make your whole summer, sir. I liked "The Battle of Algiers" too, Bones, but it was only a movie, after all, sir.)
I digress. My immediate point about M. Tête is that to believe in "The current stage .... is that the occupation is on the verge of withdrawal and defeat ... with the help of God and His strength" he pretty well has to be taking the invasion-language MSM at their anti-surgista word, and that to do that marks him as only a conventional-wisdom Crawfordologist, not anybody to expect 'A+' revelations from. How would M. Tête know that his own preferred crew of extremist militants are (supposedly) winning if the Bushophobe fiends of the intellectually respectable Western press didn't keep insinuating so? That's a real question I ask, Mr. Bones, not a rhetorical question. M. Tête may indeed have private and secret sources of insider muqáwama and mujáhida information that he naturally cannot -- and very properly does not -- divulge. But then again, maybe he has nothing of the sort? How are we infidel paleface surrender monkeys to tell?
Best we suspend judgment, Mr. Bones, and grade M. Tête "on the curve" in a slightly unusual sense: 'A+' if he turns out to be right about everything questionable in what he vociferates, and no worse than 'B-' should he utterly wrong about it. An honours degree either way, no mere gentlemanly Kennebunkport-Crawford Dynasty 'C'! (BGKB!)
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[1] We ourselves prefer, loosely speaking, that both Tweedledumb and Tweedledee should get their well-deserved comeuppance, also a logically possible outcome, as I am expertly advised.
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