The *FREE ARAB VOICE*
November 15, 1998

In this issue of the Free Arab Voice (FAV), we present:

1) "Making Sense out of Nonsense", an evaluation of the current         
situation with Iraq by Ibrahim Alloush.

2) "Simply Beautiful", on Iraq, a Lebanese Beauty, and the Beast.

3) "Zero Tolerance for Terror", another wonderful poem                   
by Nabila Martino 

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1) Making Sense out of Nonsense 
     by Ibrahim Alloush 

Eight Years of Nonsense:

Because eight years of strict Iraqi compliance with explicitly U.S./U.K, 
implicitly "Israeli",  weapons inspections would have probably been more 
than enough to disarm a whole continent, and because it has become 
blatantly obvious that the harsh sanctions on the Iraqi people and state 
are not going to be lifted anytime soon no matter what Iraq does or does 
not do short of becoming another Arab client regime that lets the CIA 
run domestic security as Arafat conceded in Wye, there had to come a 
point when Iraq sovereignly declares: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Then the U.S. Congress's recent Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, mandating 
direct and overt U.S. government involvement in the overthrow of the 
present Iraqi regime, came to confirm beyond reasonable doubt the point 
that both the sanctions and the war on Iraq sought all along to contain 
Iraq's strength and regional political role, regardless of the identity 
of the rulers.  For Iraq has long been out of Kuwait, and has had 
moreover to endure the most comprehensive weapons elimination program in 
modern times, unlike "Israel" and many other states with more serious 
weapons of mass destruction than Iraq's.  In the meantime, murderous 
sanctions continued to detrimentally erode Iraq's military and economic 
infrastructure and to reap hundreds of thousands of the very Iraqi 
people whose welfare and human rights the U.S. administration claims 
hypocritically to be concerned for. 

Old Policies, New Victims:

These practices however make sense from the point of view of the 
neo-colonial interests the U.S. government represents or the viewpoint 
of "Israel":  to try to destroy Iraq as a regional power, to strengthen 
the hold of the U.S. on the oil-rich countries of the Arab Gulf and to 
keep the Arabs weak in negotiations with "Israel", or to try to preempt 
Iraq as a potential base for Arab unity, is consistent with western 
policies in the region ever since the name of the Arab world became the 
misnomer "Middle East".  Thus to destroy Iraq's strategic defense 
capabilities, scientific and economic installations, social fabric, 
bridges, highways, oil installations, factories, people, civil society, 
and state is consistent with colonial and Zionist objectives in the 
region as suggested many times before (see
http://www.mindspring.com/~fav/special_Iraq.htm). 

The Real Nonsense:

What is neither rational nor logical however is the recent statement of 
the foreign ministers of the eight Arab states of the so-called Damascus 
Declaration warning Iraq to resume co-operation with the United Nations, 
and indicating that Iraq "must bear responsibility for triggering the 
current crisis".  Forget Arab unity and forget Islamic brotherhood!  To 
take such a flimsy position in the midst of the current crisis, is not 
only wrong and contrite, but runs contrary to one's own best interests.

Only yesterday Syria was very much under threat from the north (and the 
south) with the blessings of Washington and Tel Aviv.  A more logical 
move would have been to open up more eastward on Iraq.  Then the Wye 
Plantation security deal came to marginalize large Arab states like 
Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia as much as it enlisted some Palestinians 
to protect "Israeli" security.  The Jordanian economy is reeling from 
enforcing sanctions on Iraq.  The U.S.- "Israeli" policy of meddling in 
the internal affairs of Egypt under the pretext of helping the Coptic 
minority and "religious freedom" has become as brazen as the attempt to 
stir up religious and ethnic strife in Iraq under the pretext of 
"helping the rights" of the Kurds and the Shiites!!  

But do Saudi and Gulf rulers, with their large Shiite populations, 
understand the regional repercussions of any break-down of the central 
government in Iraq?  Do the Iranian and the Turkish rulers, with their 
large Kurdish minorities, understand the consequences for themselves of 
any breakdown of the central government of Iraq?  Can the governments of 
Syria and Egypt possibly fathom the advantageous impact on their weak 
hand versus "Israel" and the U.S. of re-allowing Iraq back into the Arab 
fold?  

Forget right and wrong.  Forget brotherhood. Forget eight years of 
compliance with UNSCOM that did not bear fruition.  Forget the suffering 
of the Iraqi people.  Forget the fact that enforcing the siege on Iraq 
became the stepping stone and the historical precedent for more 
sanctions on other Arab states like Libya and Sudan.  Forget the joint 
U.S.-"Israeli" naval exercises before the Syrian shore, and the 
strategic alliance between the U.S. and "Israel".  Moreover, forget 
Palestine and forget Iraq. Forget all that and much more.  The simple 
question is: can ruling Arab bastards, who tend to get quite fierce with 
their own people, at least dare to defend their own best interests? Can 
they at least protect themselves, like even animals instinctively do in 
the wild?

An Arab Siege: 

In a speech in Syria less than a year ago, Laith Shubeilat, the 
Jordanian opposition leader who just recently got out of jail, 
considered the siege on Iraq primarily AN ARAB AND AN ISLAMIC SIEGE.  
Indeed the siege would be totally meaningless if only a handful of 
neighboring Arab and Islamic states simply decided to not abide by it.  
What could the West do then?!  Arrest them all?! Have Hollywood make a 
Chunk Norris action movie about it?!  But no.  Our rulers choose to aid 
and abet, according to Shubeilat, in the "THIS SHAMEFUL CRIME [of the 
siege] THAT NO ARAB OFFICAL DARES TO WASTE ANY LOGIC OR THEORY IN 
JUSTIFYING EXCEPT TO CONFESS THAT HE HAS SUBMITTED TO THE WILL OF 
COLONIALISTS, THE SO-CALLED INTERNATIONAL LEGITIMACY, AND THAT HE HAS 
SURRENDERED THE SOVEREIGNTY OF HIS ARAB STATE" (see 
http://www.mindspring.com/~fav/shubeilatTheEyeOfTheTiger.htm

Blame Arab Division, not Arab Unity:

But in fact there is a rational, albeit a totally short-sighted, streak 
in the motives of Arab and Islamic states implementing the siege: they 
all mostly follow a weaken-thy-neighbor policy.  Most of them covet the 
roles that Iraq under any leadership would emerge to play when and if 
the siege is lifted.  So as rulers of their midget states, they have 
been set up from the start by Syckes and Picot, the drawers of the 
colonial map of Arab division,  to go at each others throats in their 
own midget ways in this world of giants.  

Therefore, the root of our problems lies in fact in the bitter reality 
of Arab division, not in the dream or hope of Arab unity as some have 
recently claimed.  Arab division is to blame for the continuation of 
sanctions on Iraq, Libya, and Sudan, and the general worsening 
conditions of Arabs.  Arab unity is consequently the solution to that 
problem. Understanding the problem this way immediately poses the 
unabashed political need of mass Arab uprisings to overthrow at least a 
couple of dictatorial Arab puppets to make room for any progress in any 
direction within the foreseeable future.  Understanding the problem this 
way also justifies the need to achieve our unity by hook or crook, the 
same way Abraham Linclon or Bismerck, maintained or achieved the unity 
of the United States of America and Germany, respectively, by hook or 
crook.  
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2) Simply Beautiful!!

In spite of the dire shortage of medications it suffers from, when Iraq 
discovered last month that a shipment sent through Jordan as donations 
contained medications made in "Israel", the shipment was returned 
instantly to the point of origin.  That however is not too surprising 
for Iraq.   

What was surprising was Miss Clemence Ashkar, the 1998 winner of 
Lebanon's beauty pageant, who displayed while answering some rather lame 
journalistic questions a great deal of intuition, self-confidence, and 
enthusiasm. Then, in response to a question about the world pageant, 
Miss Ashkar pointed out casually that she won't shake hands with the 
"Israeli" contestant if she met her there. She said: "I don't like to 
see a person without shaking hands with them, but Lebanon is more 
important".  She made clear that Lebanon is at odds with "Israel" 
because the latter occupies Lebanon's south.  Furthermore, she urged the 
new generation to hold patriotism dear, and carry Lebanon in their 
hearts. 

Ashkar added that she has political ambitions and that hopes to hold 
government office one day.  She emphasized that she believed that women 
are equal to men, and that women have qualifications that  enable them 
to hold high office competently, and hoped that the next Lebanese 
government would include women.
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3) "Zero Tolerance for Terror" 
      by Nabila Martino

Terror is...
The cry of a Palestinian child
When the ghouleh from the folktales
Masquerading in uniform
Breaks down the door,
Drags the father off to his lair,
And leaves a trail of blood behind,
Lacerated skin, shattered bones,
Mother, sisters, brothers,
All grist for the mill of the beast,
And the child's cries
Diminish under a sky
Where one Star reigns,
A single eye unwinking:
Blue star, white sky,
A world turned upside down,
The logic of madness triumphant.

Terror is...
A flag of blue and white
Spitting flame
From the sky,
Fire that feeds on water,
Moulding itself to flesh and bones.
Birds of steel 
Pursuing a quarry,
Preying on any sign 
Of human life.

Terror is...
The monster of the folktales,
Thirst and hunger insatiable,
Demanding human sacrifice.
Crushing houses and bones alike,
Taking whole villages in its gaping maw
And spewing them out as rubble,
Ruins by the wayside.

What is zero tolerance
For terror and violence
When the ghouleh occupies the land?

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