Eric Margolis: The Bull in the Mideast China Shop

[JohnyCanuck]

AMMAN, Jordan — The mood across the Mideast could not be grimmer. Criss-crossing the region and meeting with politicians, intelligence officials and businessmen reveals a pervasive feeling events are fast spinning out of control.

The destruction of a key Shia shrine in Samarra last week brought Iraq to the edge of all-out civil war. Some security officials here believe rogue Shia government troops blew up the mosque to steal the gold encrusting its dome. This criminal act provoked a Shia/Sunni bloodbath that left at least 1,300 dead.

Saudi Arabia and Jordan are quietly aiding Sunni forces in Iraq to counter growing Iranian influence over the Shia-run regime in Baghdad. Fears are even being expressed that Iraq’s civil conflict might ignite a Sunni/Shia war across the Mideast. Things are so bad in Iraq that a leading Israeli general just observed that overthrowing Saddam Hussein had been a mistake.

Even America’s staunchest Arab allies are deeply dismayed by the Bush administration’s destabilizing policies. Washington has become the proverbial bull in the Mideast china shop.

http://torontosun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2006/03/05/1473080.html

[acmavm]

1. Washington HAS BECOME??? This guy hasn't been paying attention.

.

[glarius]

2. "This guy" Eric Margolis has been against the Iraq war and warned against

it since before it began. He is an American Republican, living and working in Toronto. Although he is a Republican, he has repeatedly castigated the Bush regime for their many blunders since they took office. He is also a recognized expert on mid east affairs with many contacts in the area....He also answers his email...I know from experience.

[lumpy]

3. Kick

Margolis puts the mideast turmoil in perspective.

[Spazito]

4. Actually, he has written many columns about what Washington

was becoming long before today's column. His archived columns are MUST READS, imo. Although he is an American columnist, no American paper will print his columns, only in Canada is he read and heard, sadly.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. I've seen him interviewed on CNN as well, but not recently.

Here in Ontario he used to be a panelists on the TV Ontario current affairs program Studio 2, and he would often take a contrarian position to the rest of the panel who would be more inclined to be sympathetic to the US position or at least to give the US the benefit of the doubt when it came to discussing issues on US foreign policy and the Middle East/Afghanistan etc. He suddenly disappeared off the show with no explanation. It would be interesting to know if he left of his own volition, or if TV Ontario gave him the boot because his opinions didn't go over that well with management and/or their viewers.

[Spazito]

6. He was excellent on CBC during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq

but I have not seen him much since. I would like him to be back on television with his take on the deja vu run-up to Iran seeing as the rhetoric is a mirror image of the lies told about Iraq.

[1932]

9. Hopefully, he was just taking time off to write another book.

[enough]

7. Good clear summary of the situation.

snip>

Neo-conservatives around Bush were working to overthrow Syria’s isolated regime. But just as another “regime change” appeared likely, they pulled back when it was clear the only alternative to Syria’s Asad regime was the long-persecuted underground Muslim Brotherhood.

Washington’s support of minority, anti-Syrian factions in Lebanon and clumsy political machinations there risk re-igniting the ferocious civil war of 1975-1990.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s recent Mideast trip designed to financially and politically strangle the democratically elected Hamas government in Palestine roused widespread rage and contempt.

snip>

Egypt’s formerly petrified political system is beginning to wobble as Islamists gain momentum in spite of repression and vote-rigging. The Saudis escaped a potentially serious attack last week on their main oil complex. In Jordan, security is intense after the recent deadly bombing of an Amman hotel. The Danish cartoon drama enflamed anti-government passions from Morocco to Pakistan, shaking the entire region.

America’s allies in the Arab world and Pakistan are pleading with Washington to show some support for Palestinian rights and tone down what is seen across the Mideast as Bush’s anti-Islamic crusade. But Washington is heedless to the dangers faced by its allies.

more>

[JohnyCanuck]

8. kick n/t

[SixStrings]

10. One of my favourite writers. And, yes he does answer his emails. n/t