The Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom, who last week advised Egypt to prepare for war against Israel, is now, rather undiplomatically, blasting President Bush as a man with "complexes."
Ghaza Al-Quseibi, in a column in the London Arabic daily Al-Hayat, ridiculed Bush and contrasted him with "the popular and beloved Bill Clinton."
"When George Bush Jr. came to the White House, after a long period of ambiguity and confusion, it was clear from the outset that his behavior stems from two enormous complexes," wrote Al-Quseibi, in an article translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. "His first complex is [an urge to] manage matters completely differently than his predecessor, the popular and beloved Bill Clinton. His second complex is [an urge to] prove to himself, to his family and to the world, that he makes his own decisions and that his being the son of a former U.S. president has no effect whatsoever on his political conduct."
In his previous signed article in Al-Hayat, Al-Quseibi said Arab states need to overcome their fear of a war with technologically superior Israel – a war, he says, whose result is not inevitable if the Jewish state is forced to fight on two fronts. While many Arab states – including Iraq, Yemen, Sudan and Syria – have called for war with Israel since the outbreak of the Arab uprising led by the Palestinian Authority, this article is the first hint of a shift in thinking by the wealthy oil state with close ties to the West.
His new target is Bush.
"From the very beginning, it was obvious that little George wanted to come out from under the shadow of big George (who should have chosen a different name for his son)," Al-Quseibi wrote. "The truth is that his complex was evident even before he entered the White House, when he insisted on introducing himself as George W., or 'Dubya,' as he pronounced it, so that no one would confuse him with his father. His complex became deeper when he needed the help of the old faces of his father's administration. If we take into account the Freudian problems of which no family is free – one example of many is Dubya's past alcoholism and his father's disappointment with him; another is the problem of the widespread belief that his younger brother is smarter and more talented than him – we will understand that his desire to prove that he has come of age is uncontrollable."
Al-Quseibi said Bush's complexes are fair game because "we are dealing with the most powerful country on earth, and with a man whose decisions, positive or negative, affect the entire world."
"If only the matter ended with these two complexes! [But in addition,] the new president has arrived from the depths of domestic American politics with no experience whatsoever in foreign affairs," he wrote. "It has been said that during his term as governor of Texas he went abroad only twice – once to South America and once to Israel. Anyone familiar with [Midwest] America, remote from both liberal coasts, knows that there is a '[Midwest] American' ideology that leaves its mark on almost every politician from the depths of the U.S. This ideology is based on simple principles which some may view as naive. It includes a solid belief that the entire world needs the U.S., but the U.S. does not need the world. There is tremendous caution regarding 'entanglements' in adventurism abroad. And there is ignorance about what is happening in many regions in the world – first and foremost in the Middle East."
Al-Quseibi suggests Bush has shifted Mideast policy toward Israel in direct opposition to the more even-handed approach of Clinton and Bush's father.
"Thus, the man who now carries the White House is a man who carries these fundamental principles with him," he writes. "[He is] a man lacking in foreign affairs experience; a man who wants to be different from his predecessor even when his predecessor was right; a man who does not want to carry on with the same policy as his father, even when that policy was wise. In a few months, this man has succeeded in creating so many enemies for the U.S. that he deserves a prize that should be called: 'The Prize for Non-Stop Turning of Friends into Enemies.'"
He suggests the whole world has something to fear from Bush.
"Dubya began his term with talk of a new military program that no American commentator calls anything less than idiotic," he writes. "This program – nicknamed 'Son of Star Wars' – is based on the extremely bizarre idea that the source of menace to the U.S. is not the USSR, which no longer exists, but a group of rogue states – Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. One of these states, if not all, has the capability to develop nuclear warhead missiles that can reach the U.S. The only way of dealing with this menace is to establish a defense shield of missiles that will destroy every rogue missile reaching American territory. No one, not even Dubya himself, knows what the final cost of this project will be – although no one doubts that it will run in the hundreds of billions of dollars."
He continues: "This decision alone is enough to make the world – the entire world – fear a future in the shadow of Dubya. But little George didn't stop there. Without consulting anyone, he decided to have the U.S. bow out of the international treaty [i.e., Kyoto protocol] against environmental pollution, which had taken many long years to draft. With the same ease, he decided that the U.S. would exit the negotiations on biological weapons disarmament. He decided to simply let loose the war criminal [Ariel] Sharon, who immediately embarked upon daily acts of massacres. As an afterthought, Dubya added an implied threat to OPEC countries not to dare to intervene in oil affairs."
Al-Quseibi also hinted at the possibility of coups in certain unnamed Arab governments over their failure to help the Palestinians in their uprising against Israel.
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