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Recent
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April
23, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
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Chris
Floyd
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by Example
Marjorie
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William
Lind
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April
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April 24,
2003
Meet
Gen. Jay Garner
Our Man in Baghdad
by SAM HAMOD
General Jay Garner is "our man in Baghdad."
It almost makes me think of that fine, sardonic novel by Graham
Greene, OUR MAN IN HAVANA. The way it's beginning to play out,
with Garner in his Dockers, sunglasses and his, "Hi, I'm
Jay Garner." and the Iraqi Muslims , in old clothes and
often unshaven and tired looking, greeting him with, "Assalamu
Alaikum (Peace be upon you)"--it's clear the two are not
on the same wave length.
The first thing you want to do when going
into a foreign country where you anticipate negative reaction
is to at least learn and say one of the more important phrases;
in this case, the most important phrase in a Muslim country is,
Assalamu Alaikum. This is the universal greeting among Muslims
and even among most Arabs. But General Garner was having none
of that, or no one told him how important this way--he went in
with his Texas twang and American greeting, just as he would
in Washington, DC (where he used to love to roam and schmooz
with the big boys who talked and even looked a lot like him).
But, as I used to tell my clients when I was President of Communications
International, Inc., in DC, when in Rome, do and speak as the
Romans do--don't be a sore thumb. Nothing ingratiates you to
people who speak a foreign tongue, especially if your army has
just destroyed their cities and their lives, like speaking to
them, at least some key phrases, in their tongue.
The next thing Garner and the American
troops did on his arrival was to arrest a prominent Shi'a cleric,
Imam Al Fartusi. This was bad enough, but it was compounded by
the fact that this is a time of mourning the death of the martyred
grandson of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), Imam Hussain, and millions
of Muslims were coming to Karbala to participate in this ceremony
after 25 years of having it denied to them by Saddam Hussein.
This caused even more trouble and discontent. Imagine, what would,
or could, with the world watching, the American troops do if
this large group of Shi'a decided to march on the American positions
and not back down. Could the Americans shoot these religious
people? I doubt it, unless they also killed all the camera crews
and newsmen from all over the globe who were there. The US government
and the US military already had been shamed by their killing
of journalists in the field and later at the Palestine Hotel
and at the Al Jazeera station, so killing the Shi'a and the newsmen
was now out of the question.
Fortunately, Imam Al Fartusi was released
and the confrontation wound down and the American troops stayed
away from the Shi'a in Baghdad, in Karbala and in Najjaf. But
the divide of cultures was evident, and as the time goes on,
it will be even more evident.
By calling Garner, the Viceroy of Iraq,
the Bush team has made another tactical error; this is scoffed
at by even Bush's British allies--they know how much trouble
that caused them in India, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The other
Europeans and the Russians, not to mention the Arab and Muslim
nations, see this as an outrageous insult, especially since Bush
keeps saying that this is not "occupation" but "liberation"
and that it is not "colonialism" but is "democracy."
The word Viceroy means that the person represents some kind of
royalty. The last time I checked, Bush was still just a president,
not a king or even a prince--so why, Viceroy? Of course, the
way Bush has been handling things in the US and in the world,
he may think he's a king--he certainly feels he has no need to
respect either the US Congress, nor does his possible leader,
Dick Cheney, and neither respects the UN--in fact, they think
it is just an organization that should be brushed aside except
when we need them for police actions in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan
and now in Iraq.
From what friends of mine tell me at
the State Department, neither our "Viceroy" nor any
on his team speaks Arabic, nor do they know much about Islam
nor do they care to know about it. I'm sure, just as the characters
in Graham Greene's novel, fiction and fact will start to intermix,
and it will lead to some serious disasters, to some unwanted
and unwarranted deaths and a botched mess before it's over.
This latter point was reinforced today
by an attack on those who do understand Iraq, Islam and the Arab
World, the US State Department professionals who have served
in the Muslim and Arab countries--this attack came at a press
conference at the American Enterprise Institute, from the insufferable
egotist and philanderer, Newt Gingrich and the morbidly bitter,
Charles Krauthammer who both attacked the State Department in
favor of the Pentagon know nothings like Garner, Rummy, Wolfowitz,
Perle and Feith. If these knowledgeable men in the State Department
are not listened to, we will have a terrible fiasco with major
blood letting in Iraq--even worse than has already taken place.
In fact, it could pull the whole of the Arab and Muslim world
into a war against America--a war that I'm sure that even Britain
would shy away from.
So there you have it, Gingrich and Krauthammer
attacking the State Department, saying, "They will lose
the war, the victory the Pentagon has won for us," not realizing
that the Pentagon has not won anything more than a battle, the
real war will be if America can handle the peace and create harmony
in Iraq and in the region. This war can only be won by diplomacy,
by men who know how to say and mean, "Assalamu Alaikum,"
not by men who neither know it or if they do, are ashamed to
say it. Unless you can meet a culture on its own terms, you will
fail in dealing with that culture--and remember, we are in their
country, not in Texas or in Washington, DC at the Pentagon or
White House. Viceroy Jay Garner failed on all these counts; obviously,
he'd better learn fast or face serious problems in Iraq.
If Graham Greene were alive, ironically
and tragically, he'd see history playing out his novel in Iraq,
not in Havana.
Sam Hamod
is an expert on world affairs, especially the Arab and Muslim
worlds, former editor of THIRD WORLD NEWS (in Wash, DC), a professor
at Princeton University, former Director of The National Islamic
Center of Washington, DC, an advisor to the US State Department
and author of ISLAM IN THE WORLD TODAY. He may be reached at
shamod@cox.net
Today's
Features
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
by Example
Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
The Fourth Generation of Modern War
Dave Marsh
Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
Binoy
Kampmark
Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq
David Vest
Who's Looting Whom?
Standard
Shaefer
Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Andrew
Rodman
Lawn Poem
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/23
Website
of the Day
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
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