The Weak And The Impotence Of The Strong

Ghassan Charbel     Al-Hayat     2003/10/13

The picture is worrisome. It is not an exaggeration to say it is terrifying. Rarely have all these dark clouds gathered over one scene. The Middle East today looks like a lake in which old and new wars are crowded. Chronic crises and other new ones. Rights, which are impossible to give up, and a hostile power that is tough to rein in. Nuclear weapons and human bombs. Barrels of gunpowder and fires that are impossible to contain. Weak people unable to surrender due to their belief in the justice of their causes. Strong people unable to impose their victories. The picture is worrisome. It is enough to review the news. The American military machine crushed Saddam Hussein's regime. However, it is currently impotent in protecting its soldiers in Iraq. The returning coffins haunt George Bush, who is running for reelection. He has no solution. The decision is costly and impossible. Withdrawal is costly and out of the question, for now at least. It would take many more coffins to force the White House to actually concede to the United Nations.

Hence, a number of wars meet in Iraq. A heated frontline between those who reject the occupation and the forces that toppled the regime of mass graves. Another between the Americans and the seekers of any scene that allows direct confrontation with them. This how the world of post-9/11 and post-'war on terror' mixes with the post-Saddam world. Confusion leads to solutions that aggravate the disease. The entrance of Turkish forces will awaken regional fears. What does Syria say? What does Iran do? And the sleeping Kurdish coal under the ashes is threatening to wake up once again.

The picture is worrisome. Israel can launch its nuclear missiles from land, air and sea. It can burry the Iranian nuclear dream like it did with the Iraqi program. Yet, this surgery also very dangerous.

The Israeli military's supremacy, regionally, is similar to the American military supremacy in the world. There is a wide technological gap between it and its opponents. Ariel Sharon could turn Gaza into a large crowded graveyard. He could kill Yasser Arafat and uproot the Authority. But he cannot guarantee to the Israeli citizens that a suicide bomber from Hamas or Islamic Jihad would not blow up today, or tomorrow, here or there.

Ariel Sharon hit a site inside Syrian territories. He could target the Syrian forces in Lebanon. He could take advantage of the cover from the current American administration. But, he cannot force Syria to concede the process that made it a regional opposition power and the cards that allow it to remind of that role.

It is the Middle East. Right people are weak but they are unable to surrender because they are right. Powerful people are unable to consecrate their victories on the theater of fire. Hence, they flee from their troubles by threatening to widen the war scene. This is a group of wars mobilized on and near the oil wells. The future of the sole superpower, the image of the Middle East and the future of the Jewish state as well. Rarely have dark clouds gathered over one theater, like they are today. The weak should pay attention to the features of both the regional and international scenes and to the danger of misreading the current danger in order for their resistance not to become just suicidal positions.