Why Arabs Aren’t at the Table

New Republic had a story not long ago, two weeks ago, went over and talked to some of these undersecretaries of whatever and whoever, and they laughed. (doing impression of foreign leaders) “We’re going to do Iraq? (laughing) No way.” It’s not going to happen. And he must have said this 20,000 times in this idiotic — I’m sorry — in this all-over-the-board speech. Okay, we’re ready with the top of this bite. Okay, yeah, here comes, start again. I promise I’m not going to stop it this time, we’ll just let it go.

KERRY: We need a president who has the credibility to bring our allies to our side because that’s the right way to get the job done in Iraq and bring our troops home.

RUSH: See? The allies to our side and bring the troops home. What the hell — there goes the cigar. Everything is falling apart.

KERRY: And for anyone who questions that, I just ask you to use your common sense. Use your power of thought as a free American.

RUSH: Oh. Stop the tape. I heard that when I first heard this. Use your power of thought as a free American? Yeah, for how much longer, senator? Use your power of thought as a free American. Some of us are free Americans, some of us are gay Americans, some of us are football fan Americans, some of us are African-Americans, and then there are free Americans now. It is a little patronizing. This is his, you know, sophisticated way of saying, hey, use your common sense. He knows that freedom and liberalism are not words that go together so he wants to make sure that he convinces people he’s for freedom, we’re going to stay free and all this. Okay, so this is it, folks, this is the piece de resistance. You’ve been thinking about it now, using your power of thought as a free American, using your common sense, here’s the big setup. This, my friends, is what Kerry wants you to stop and consider.

KERRY: Every Arab country has a stake in not having a failed Iraq.

RUSH: Wrong.

KERRY: But they’re not at the table. Every European country has a stake in not having a failed Iraq. And not having a civil war.

RUSH: They don’t care.

KERRY: They’re not at the table.

RUSH: They don’t care.

KERRY: I believe we can do a better job.
RUSH: All right. Let’s stick with the Arabs first. He says every Arab country has a stake in not having a failed Iraq. The fact of the matter is just the opposite. Have you heard the term bandied about over the course of recent years “Arab unity”? I’m sure you have. What do you think it means? The Arabs are trying to put together in the Middle East their own version of the European Union. They want Arab unity. They want an amalgamation of Arab states that are socialist. They do not want freedom. You have to understand. What do you think al-Jazeera is? You think al-Jazeera is interested in a free Iraq? Now follow me on this because I got some backup on this and I’m going to make the certifications. I’m going to back ’em up here in just a second. Go back to Saddam Hussein. Saddam, remember when Saddam fell, remember the interviews on the so-called Arab street, which, frankly, I’m getting a little tired of hearing about the Arab street. But you remember, they were shocked, they were stunned, Saddam had them believing that he was going to throw us back into our own borders, into our own shores, we’re going to get shellacked, he was going to use weapons of mass destruction.

In two weeks Saddam is living in a hole and the Arab street filled with interviews of how embarrassed the Arab street was and Arab leaders. Saddam let them down, Saddam was their Saladin. Saddam was the guy that was going to teach us a lesson. Saddam was the guy that was going to take us on and prove that we cannot come in there and do what we want and straighten out that part of the world. That was a huge, huge let down. They have been set back in their quest for Arab unity for decades, folks. And they have no intention. A free Iraq is not what these people want. You think Iran wants a free Iraq? Do you think the Egyptians and the Saudis really want a free Iraq? If they did, they’d be with us. If they wanted a free Iraq, they would not have stopped us from using air bases or other parts of their territory to conduct the war. They would have been right in there with us. They’re nowhere to be found. They’re not interested in a free Iraq. They’re interested in Arab unity. And this is the biggest blow to that dream of theirs. Why do you think the Arab population in this country is so heavily in favor of Kerry? We hear all this talk about how Bush and the Bush family has this symbiotic and close relationship, this conspiratorial relationship with the Saudis and the Arabs around the world for oil. The Arabs of this country hate Bush. I mean, he’s losing in the Arab polls. You poll Arab-American voters, Kerry is by far favored. Why? Because Bush has destroyed this whole concept of Arab unity in the Middle East.

Speaking of this Bush conspiracy, where do we go when mainstream journalists let us down? You know, we’re consumers of news. Remember Bob Woodward’s book? Bob Woodward’s book and Kerry is out there trumpeting all this. Bob Woodward’s book told us that there’s going to be a secret deal between Bush and the Saudis before the election to lower the oil price to ensure the election. Remember that? That’s how it was first reported. And then Kerry said, “Americans aren’t going to put up with that.” What, they’re not going to put up with lower oil prices? Well, the point is the oil price is at a record high. The oil price is $47 a barrel. Now, where is this so-called association between Bush and the Saudis to lower the price of oil? Do you realize, even if there is such a thing, are they going to be able to lower the price of oil 17 bucks in two months or one month or even more?

So where do we go, when we as consumers have been given bad journalism? From one of the practitioners, the supposedly unassailable journalists of our time, Bob Woodward. (Breathing heavily.) I need that paper bag, I’m hyperventilating, I’ve got cigar all over the place here. I’ll give you the backup on this Arab unity business when we come back from the break. Sit tight. It’s okay in there, don’t worry, I’m fine. Everything is cool.
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RUSH: Now, here’s some backup for you on this whole Arab unity thing. I have here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers a piece today from the New York Post. It’s by Amir Taheri. “Although attempts at linking President George W. Bush to the Arabs have generated a veritable industry in the past two years, there is evidence that most Arabs favor his Democratic Party challenger Sen. John F. Kerry. A Zogby poll taken this month shows that in the November presidential election Kerry is likely to collect more than two-thirds of the Arab-American vote. A similar pattern is emerging in the Arab world itself.”

Let me just ask you people a question. Do you think that little tinhorn in Syria, Bashar Assad, wants a free Syria? You think he wants to be at a table that’s going to guarantee a free Iraq? Once there’s a free Iraq, then there’s a domino theory. Once there’s a free Iraq and there’s democracy and freedom in Iraq, why, these neighboring Arab countries and their little tinhorns are going to be threatened by it because their people are going to see what the Iraqis are being able to do, how the Iraqi people are living. Sort of what did in the Soviet Union, blue jeans and “Dallas.” And it’s the same thing. The idea that Kerry is upset that the Arabs aren’t at the table, there’s no table. It’s a battlefield, senator, for crying out loud, and there’s a reason why they aren’t there. They don’t want us to win! Jeez. I don’t understand what’s so cockamamie hard to understand about this, other than to explain he’s a liberal and they just don’t get this. Anyway, continuing on with the Amir Taheri piece.

Iyad Abu-Chaqra, an Arab columnist who has followed American politics for years, quote, “‘If it were up to us, it would be 60 percent Kerry, 40 percent Bush. Most Arabs have one dream this year: to see George W. Bush booted out.’ Dislike for Bush has created the most curious Arab coalition in a long time. The pan-Arab nationalists are angry at Bush because, toppling Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in Baghdad, he destroyed the illusion of a ‘strongman’ leading Arabs to unity and socialism. It’s exactly what I’ve been trying to pull all day.
“‘It may take a generation before anyone talks of Arab unity without being laughed out of the room,’ says columnist Ahmad Rabii. ‘Those who dreamed of an Arab superpower will never forgive Bush.’ The pan-Islamists also dislike Bush, but for different reasons. They see his talk of democracy as an attempt at preventing them from establishing their ‘ideal Islamic’ system based on the Shariah rather than elections. Bush’s ‘Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative’ is seen by Islamists as ‘a plot to impose a Western model.’
‘The Muslim world is not a blank sheet on which Mr. Bush could draw what he likes,’ says writer Walid Abi-Merchid, who would vote for Kerry if he could. Opposition to Bush’s plans for democratization in the Middle East is put even more dramatically by Muhammad Shariatmadari, a mullah of Arab origin now acting as an advisor to Iran’s ‘Supreme Guide’ Ali Khamenehi.” He says, “Bush is trying to develop an American Islam. He thinks that Americans will not be safe in their homes until the Muslim world is dominated by pro-U.S. governments.”

Now, you know, there may be a grain of truth to this. That’s really what the war on terror is all about, folks. And make no mistake, the Iranians know it. Make no mistake about it and make no mistake that that’s why their little so-called cleric, surrogate al-Sadr, was in there taking shrapnel. Because he is one of their surrogates. We’re fighting Iran in Iraq. I wish the administration would say this, because that’s what this is. You know, we fought the Soviet Union for all those years, and we never had a battle with them. We always had battles with their surrogates, and that is exactly what is happening now. Now, this view, that Bush is trying to develop an American Islam, “is echoed in sermons preached at mosques throughout the Middle East, Europe and the United States in recent weeks with an eye on the forthcoming American election. One theme of these sermons is that Bush’s call for free elections and reform in the Muslim world amounts to ‘an act of cultural aggression.'”

So these are the people who think that freedom’s an imposition. They don’t want it, folks, they don’t want freedom. This is why, Senator Kerry, they’re not at the table. You think if they wanted to be at the table we wouldn’t let them? If they wanted to be at the table, if they wanted a free Iraq, why, they’d be our allies. They would have helped us overthrow Saddam. They didn’t. This whole speech that he gave today was full of misdirection, deceit, a misstatement of the challenge we face, a lack of understanding of what it’s going to take to achieve victory, and a perfectly clear explanation if Kerry’s president, we’re going to lose it. That’s what he did today. It is stunning.

I wish I were not the only one recognizing this to tell you. If the mainstream press were doing its job the way it used to, there’d be a lot of people frightened about what Kerry said today. Not just in terms of his lack of understanding of the realities of the world, particularly the Middle East, but of the danger that his misunderstanding potentially exposes this country to. This is not chump change, and at the same time he’s promising to get our troops out of there in six months and the French and the Germans are going to ride to the rescue and beat back the Iranians and the Iraqis and whoever else, the terrorists. We should not be bringing troops home from places they’re not even engaged in battle and haven’t been for 60 years! It’s unbelievable. This guy is ripe for being tripped up and trapped every time he opens his mouth, if somebody knew how to do it.
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