All the signs these days are pointing in one direction: a triumphant return of Right Arabist influence in Washington and a corresponding return of Baathist influence in Bagdhad.<\/p>\n
Just like the old days of Operation Desert Storm and its most cynical aftermath: Right Zionist encouragement of Shiite\/Kurdish forces, followed by a Right Arabist pact with Saddam’s Baathist party.<\/p>\n
In Washington, the Right Arabists at the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs are so eager for the dawn of a new day that they have gotten a bit ahead of themselves. As the Washington Post<\/em> reports in an October 23, 2006 article entitled, “Fernandez Apologizes for Iraq Remarks<\/a>“:<\/p>\n The State Department official in charge of public diplomacy for the Middle East apologized Sunday for telling the Arabic language Al-Jazeera television station that the U.S. had displayed “arrogance and stupidity” in Iraq.<\/p>\n Alberto Fernandez<\/strong>, director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department<\/strong>, made the remarks in an interview that aired Saturday on the Qatar-based channel, which is carried by satellite and is closely watched in the Arab world.<\/p>\n Speaking in Arabic, Fernandez discussed topics such as the United States’ willingness to talk with insurgent groups<\/strong> in an effort to advance national reconciliation in Iraq.<\/p>\n “We tried to do our best,” he said during the interview, which aired late Saturday. “But I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n As wire service accounts of his remarks began to appear, the state department initially said that Fernandez had been misquoted.<\/p>\n On Sunday, the agency posted a comment from Fernandez on its Web site apologizing<\/strong> for the remarks.<\/p>\n “Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera<\/strong>, I realized that I seriously misspoke<\/strong> by using the phrase ‘there has been arrogance and stupidity’ by the U.S. in Iraq,” Fernandez said in the statement. “This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department<\/strong>. I apologize.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In truth, Right Arabists have been saying this all along. Most, however, have either done so anonymously or have waited until after leaving the service of the Bush administration.<\/p>\n The loose talk from Fernandez might indicate that he anticipates that Right Arabist criticism of the war will soon<\/em> become official policy, presumably after the mid-term elections when James Baker’s Iraq Study Group issues its recommendations.<\/p>\n The other major sign of a major shift comes from the Baathist insurgents themselves.<\/p>\n According to an Associated Press<\/a> report (via the International Herald Tribune<\/em>), the US has been reaching out to Baathist insurgents:<\/p>\n A man claiming to be a member of Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath Party told a television interviewer the United States was seeking a face-saving exodus from Iraq<\/strong> and that insurgents were ready to negotiate but won’t lay down arms.<\/p>\n The interview with “Abu Mohammed”, a pseudonym, was taped several days ago in Beirut, Lebanon, according to Ghassan Ben Jeddou, the network’s bureau chief in the Lebanese capital….<\/p>\n “The [Baathist] party and other insurgency factions are ready to negotiate with the Americans,” said the man, whose face was concealed.<\/p>\n “The occupier has started to search for a face-saving way out<\/strong>. The resistance, with all its factions, is determined to continue fighting until the enemy is brought down to his knees and sits on the negotiating table or is dealt, with God’s help, a humiliating defeat.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, all of this points to a politics of Restoration.<\/p>\n These are not insignificant signs. Nevertheless, I reiterate here a few words of caution from a previous post<\/a>…<\/p>\n In an October 14, 2004 interview with the Financial Times<\/em><\/a>, Brent Scowcroft suggested that during the first term, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had Bush \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wrapped around his little finger.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n However, Scowcroft assured his Right Arabist allies, Right Zionist influence would diminish in a second term, once the Bush administration was fee from domestic (read, pro-Zionist) electoral considerations:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There has been some pulling back of the extremes of neo-cons\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n Mr Scowcroft said he hoped that if Mr Bush were re-elected he would change course more fundamentally.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is a man who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really driven to seek re-election and done a lot of things with that in mind<\/strong>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have something of a hunch that the second administration will be quite different from the first<\/strong>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In addition to being an implicit swipe at the domestic political power of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Israel Lobby,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the interview was surely designed to produce a ceasefire in the Beltway insurgency against Bush.<\/p>\n The trouble is, it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t true. Election year 2004 was the high point<\/em> for Bush administration Right Arabist policy in Iraq.<\/p>\n In 2004, Bremer reversed de-Baathification orders and appointed an ex-Baathist, Iyad Allawi, as the designated Prime Minister. In Fallujah, US forces handed power to a Baathist. The US even abandoned its new Iraqi flag in favor of the old Saddam-era flag.<\/p>\n Then came the November presidential election.<\/p>\n