You couldn't make it up dept. no.66: sure, they love him in Peshawar

[fpb]

The context is scary. The situation is potentially deadly, and will inevitably grow worse. But what seems to have led up to it is simply too hysterical for words:
From The Guardian:

The committee that recommended Salman Rushdie for a knighthood did not discuss any possible political ramifications and never imagined that the award would provoke the furious response that it has done in parts of the Muslim world, the Guardian has learnt.

It also emerged yesterday that the writers' organisation that led the lobbying for the author of Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses to be knighted had originally hoped that the honour would lead to better relations between Britain and Asia...

One of my first pieces when I started this blog four years ago was about the ludicrous incompetence of the British ruling class. It was not welcomed then - http://fpb.livejournal.com/4790.html. I rest my case now.

Comments

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

America's lackluster record at dealing with the Iranians certainly didn't help.

Once again, I blame Jimmy Carter. He could have given the Iranians a bloody nose in 1979: among other things, the war probably would have destroyed the Tomcats and the surface combatants. Instead, he left them with the lesson that if you grab Westerners, you'll get what you want.

I'm not too happy about Reagan and the Iranian end of Iran-Contra, either.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Ronald Reagan did much worse than that. In 1983, the US, Britain, France and Italy agreed to send a fairly large peacekeeping force to Beirut - Italy provided more than 2000 men, the US and France about a thousand each, and Britain a token force of a hundred or so. I was in the Italian army at the time and I nearly volunteered for Lebanon (purely for the rich combat pay), till an older soldier explained to me that they would never take me. That is why I remember this well.

Well, at the time there was a new political movement being set up in Lebanon, called Hezbollah (most Lebanese Shias were then represented by something called Amahl), and they decided to get themselves some useful publicity by taking a great big bite out of the Americans. They sent a truck loaded with explosive, and something like 179 Marines, IIRC, were murdered.

The Americans fled without even telling their allies, leaving Italians, French and Britons to make their own arrangements. If you want to know why no European can take the burnished, heroic image of Reagan the Cold Warrior seriously, that headlong flight from Lebanon, leaving allies in the lurch, is a good place to start. It was also disastrous because it taught all sorts of Arabs, from Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein, that Americans have ships of iron but hearts of straw. The result of that lesson was an appalling series of abductions and murders of American agents, the Achille Lauro affair, Saddam Hussein's convinction that he would be allowed to get away with the invasion of Kuwait, etc.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Reagan's whole Lebanon policy was foolish. First of all, he prevented Israel from crushing the PLO when their leadership was besieged in Beruit, supposedly to prevent civilian casualties. Secondly, he failed to take out, or let the PLO, eliminate this PLO cadre when they were being withdraw by ship (an ideal moment for a capture or drowning of these criminals). Then, as you said, he cut and ran rather than punishing the Terrorist States for the 1983 Embassy Bombing, and left our European allies in the lurch.

He did, right after that, succeed in liberating Grenada. But this victory, in our own hemisphere, at the expense of the Old World, sent a dangerous signal to our enemies.

Fortunately, the strengths of other aspects of our foreign policy prevailed, in the end.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Actually, liberating Granada - even assuming that "liberating" is the right word; I accept it, but a lot of people will be thinking of "invading" - actually diminished Reagan's European reputation further. Coming as it did after the Lebanon debacle, it left the impression of America restoring her pride at the expense of an insignificant enemy after having their tails chased away from a serious conflict; and Margaret Thatcher, America's closest ally, was seriously offended (and let it be known) that the US would take it on themselves to invade a Commonwealth country with strong ties to the UK (this country is full of West Indians, who were at the time one of Mrs.Thatcher's most serious political concerns) without so much as informing Britain first. The relationship was quickly repaired, but, in the eye of British and European public opinion, the reputation of "Ronnie Ray-gun" as irresponsible isolationist, bully, and coward, was as good as established.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

but, in the eye of British and European public opinion, the reputation of "Ronnie Ray-gun" as irresponsible isolationist, bully, and coward, was as good as established.

Western European public opinion. The liberation of Grenada greatly enhanced Reagan's reputation in Eastern Europe, where "liberation" was exactly what the people were hoping for.