Remora

Yesterday, LI went downtown and witnessed the remains of the inauguration parade that heralded the enthronement of Rick Perry as Governor -- surely one of the luckiest politicians in Texas history; surely, also, one of the dumbest. Perry is at the crest of the Republican tide in this state. LI was delighted to see old men, in coonskin caps, carrying rifles, walking down Congress avenue. These had surely come from pockets of Perry's warmest supporters -- little villes in East Texas where lynching is looked back to, nostalgically. We nearly bumped into two cowgirl cheerleaders, who flashed very, very pearly smiles at us.

While one governor of Texas was whooping it up, our gift to the world -- the current commander in chief -- was pouting. Or at least for the cameras. As the war Bush has been planning on is about to take off, there are these last minute hitches. The American press has been especially kind about this. How often, in the last four months, have we been assured that, in secret, the Europeans and the Arabs are one hundred percent for us? The commentators explain this by saying that nobody wants to miss out when the U.S. occupies Iraq. However, it never seems to occur to them that France, for instance, might get more out of opposing that occupation. After all, positioning itself to oppose the U.S. might be more popular with not only the Middle East's street, but be welcomed by Middle Eastern leaders as a tool to redress the balance with the states. As has been the case since the get go, the scenarios go only one way in the U.S. press. The deluge of foreign news items that, over the past year, have assured us that Turkey, or Saudi Arabia, or France, or Germany, or Ireland, or whoever, was privately assuring the Bush administration of their undying love and devotion has started to shut off as it becomes more and more implausible that this is the case. To guage the deluge, go back to, say, July of last year. The US News published an analysis of Europe by Michael Barone that assured readers of European compliance with the Bush foreign policy. Barone points out that the chattering classes -- and oh yes, the popular majority -- is against war with Iraq. But he breezily continues:

Interviews and talks with government leaders and political insiders in London and Berlin leave a different impression. The leaders of major European governments would not have chosen on their own to require democratic reform among Palestinians before pressuring Israel to make concessions or to insist on regime change in Iraq--policies set forth by Bush and supported by large majorities of American voters. But they are going along with the first and will go along with the second--although both are opposed vociferously by articulate elites and not supported by popular majorities in their countries. America is leading and European governments, although grumbling that they have not been consulted on what will come after a war in Iraq, are following.

... Britain, as after September 11, will be on our side.That is true as well of major countries on the Continent. Italy's Defense Minister Antonio Martino, as reported here three months ago, is confident that his government can muster its majority in favor of military action in Iraq. Germany's Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping, interviewed July 4, says that his government would very likely do so too, a view that is echoed by the foreign affairs spokesman for the Christian Democratic opposition, which has been leading in polls and may take office after the September 22 elections. These European leaders are careful to say that the United States must make a convincing case that it has exhausted nonmilitary alternatives. But they argue only perfunctorily if at all that inspections can limit Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps reluctantly, they accept what their chattering classes are busy denouncing."

That was at the summer height of Bush's propaganda offensive. Now we have the frustrated Bush. Perhaps we are witnessing a charade, as the European nations fold and the coalition invades Iraq. But what if we are not? What if the advantage is in opposing the US invasion?

There's an editiorial in the Nouvelle Obs that makes a timely point about opposition to the war: it shouldn't be support for Saddam Hussein.

Un h�ros de Malraux (un anarchiste dans �l�Espoir�) finit par se demander s�il n�est pas aussi important de savoir avec qui l�on se bat que contre qui on le fait. Mais on pourrait dire aussi qu�il est important de savoir aux c�t�s de qui on renonce � se battre. Lorsque le pape, comme il vient de le faire avec force, rappelle que toute guerre est une d�faite de l�humanit�, il stimule la r�flexion. Mais lorsque, le m�me jour, nous apprenons que des �pacifistes� europ�ens, et surtout fran�ais, acclament dans Bagdad le r�gime et la personne de Saddam Hussein, alors on se sent pris d�un immense malaise. Et c�est un euph�misme. Ce que je ne pardonnerai jamais � George Bush, c�est de para�tre justifier par sa politique tous ceux qui, en se pr�tendant les champions des victimes et des faibles, confortent le pouvoir des oppresseurs et des bourreaux. Il n�en manque pas, je le sais depuis longtemps, du c�t� de ces pr�tendus amis de la cause arabe, qui ont toujours �t� plus soucieux d�obtenir les faveurs des gouvernants que de contribuer � l��mancipation des peuples.


"One of Malraux's heros (an anarchist in Man's Hope) ends by asking himself if it isn't as important to know who one is fighting with as to know who one is fighting against. It could be said that it is also important to know on the side of whom one renounces to fight. When the Pope, as he just said with force, recalls that every war is a defeat for humanity, he stimulates reflection. But when, the same day, we learn that european pacifists, mostly french, have acclaimed, in Baghdad, the regime and the person of Saddam Hussein, then we feel an immense malaise. And that's a euphemism. What I will never pardon George Bush for is to appear to justify, by his politics, all those who, pretending to be the champions of the weak, comfort the power of the oppressers and the hangmen. There are plenty of pretended friends of the Arab cause who are always more careful to obtain the favors of their governments than to contribute to the emancipation of their people -- that I know."