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Ayatollah Theodore
Giant Shia stick above Paul Bremer's head
February 4, 2004
iranian.com
Step aside everyone, my man - my main man - and the front runner
for the Man of the Year award, is the Iranian born Grand Ayatollah
Sayyid Ali Husaini Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraqi Shia's.
He is the acknowledged religious leader of 60% of the population
that Mr. Bush recently happened to "free" while looking
for WMD's.
Liberating people is a sensitive subject; especially
when you have been telling them all along about human rights, democracy
and the
right of self-determination. You simply cannot put them back in
a cage and have a Mobarak look-alike run the show. It is almost
like trying to score a home run on the first date while promising
matrimony. Sure, you might score from time to time, but only for
a few runs; sooner or later your ass is dumped.
Characteristically, the xenophobic neo-cons are
trying to score again. "No Way Jose, Iraq can't sit on top
of all that oil and be a democracy," they're quietly murmuring.
Why not have appointed caucuses instead, so that the American viceroy
can pick "the good guys" instead.
Well, let's not hold
our breath, there still may be a home run in the making, but one
man is ensuring a quick three strikes soon
after.
Our old chap Theodore Roosevelt coined the phrase
"speak softly and carry a big stick". He would have indeed
been awfully pleased with the way Sistani is speaking and hovering
a
giant Shia stick above Paul Bremer's head.
Indeed what an extraordinary time it is. We all
survived the latest "orange" alert
to see the day that a religious leader - from the Islamic world;
an Ayatollah no less - calls for free and fair elections while
the Americans huff 'n' puff and refuse to allow them.
Now, I am
not familiar with Mr. Sistani's disposition, nor am I confident
that we would be sharing a cup of coffee any time soon, but it
is ever so delightful to witness such a turn of events.
With his insistence for a free and fair election
now, Sistani is showcasing the insincere promises and shortcomings
of the
West.
There go all those belittling speeches about how the West should
teach the semi-barbaric Easterners life as a democracy. There
go all the demeaning observation teams dispatched from Carter
Center
and Amnesty International to teach the 1-2-3's of free elections.
Let's not deceive ourselves, as the recent free
elections in Iraq demonstrate, the concerned pleas from all western
institutions
(governmental, international organizations, NGO's and the
media) that the East (namely the Middles East and China)
should democratize is a disingenuous one. It is economic interest
that
dictates policy in the West, not a fundamental belief in
democracy.
In other words, it's all about the home run, not matrimony.
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