Superpower practices vs preaching

anyone want to write this Muslim??? HIs email is at the bottom of this message.
That’s all we need is more Syrians and Saudis in America!!

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=OTQ1NjExNDI0

Superpower practices vs preaching

Published Date: April 22, 2007

By Dr Sami Alrabaa, Staff columnist

The US is considered a superpower by many people. But is it really a superpower in every respect? Undoubtedly, the US is an economic, scientific and military superpower. It possesses the strongest economy in the world and has the largest army worldwide. The majority of Nobel Prize winners are American. But is the US also a superpower in terms of national and international policies?

Two areas indicate that the US is as underdeveloped as Chad or Yemen. The first area is of the so- called undocumented illegal immigrants, who predominantly come from developing countries. Successive American administrations have failed to put an end to a major humanitarian ordeal of more than 12 million people who illegally entered the US. Some of these people have been living in the States for years, some for 10, 20, and more years.

The immigration policy of the US is paradoxically weird and inhumane. On the one hand, it yearly invites millions of people to settle and work in America. On the other, it demeans its "illegal immigrants". These people live in hiding and constantly fear that they could be deported any time. If they ever find a job, they are underpaid and lack proper housing and medical care.

Hassan, a Syrian citizen who was working in Saudi Arabia and whose eldest son was born in the US during a visit to this country in 1990, wanted to escape job insecurity in Saudi Arabia, travelled six years ago on a tourist visa with his family, wife, son, and two daughters to live in the US. He thought that having a son who was born in the States, and as such he is entitled to the American nationality, would help him settle in the new world. He was dead wrong.

On my latest visit to the US I met Hassan. He said, "Three things should enable me to live and work in this country. I'm Syrian and hate the regime in Damascus as much as President Bush does and I would hate to be deported to live under that regime. Secondly, my son is American according to the American naturalisation law. I want him to study and work in the US. As he is still minor I cannot leave him alone. My family and I must live with him. Is this illegal? Is this a crime? And thirdly, I'm a professional interpreter. For 20 years I had translated from Arabic into English for a hospital in Riyadh. After 9/11, America needs interpreters. Since I came to the US I have worked and never received a penny from any charity organization. My wife is also working and my kids go to school. After all this they tell us, we are illegal. This is preposterous!"

One expects from a superpower to have mind and heart for little people. One also expects from a superpower to practice the same human rights it preaches worldwide. Also a superpower should be in a position to tell the difference between formal legality and petty illegality. A superpower has certainly enough competent people to come up with an immigration scheme that discriminates between people like Hassan and someone else who cannot deliver the same conditions.

After 9/11, the immigration counters at US airports resemble those in authoritarian countries: long queues, hours of waiting, and ridiculous questions. The immigration officer would open your passport and ask about the countries you had been to, why, and what you were doing there.

The worst, however, is the question: "Do you have anything to do with terrorism? Which you have to answer with "yes", or "no" on the entry card you have to fill out. This is naive and violates all rules of privacy. The other thing that indicates that the US does not deserve the title superpower is its foreign policies, especially in the Middle East. Sadly, the US foreign policy has always been driven by reflex, lack of knowledge over alien cultures, short supply of long-term planning, and shortsighted egoistic economic interests.

After the debacle in Iraq, the White House is struggling to sort out things in the Middle East. The Washington Post reported last week, Stephen J. Hadley, the national security advisor, is sounding out retired military commanders to assess their interest in joining an advisory team about Iraq. The Iraq Study Group cited last December in its report to the President, "a lack of coordination by senior management in Washington," and declared that, "focus, priority setting, and skilful implementation are in short supply."

Consequently, the New York Times reported (April 12), "The insurgency in Iraq grew formidable, reconstruction efforts were slowed, the State and Defence Departments reverted to bureaucratic spats, and the White House never managed to get its arms around the scope of the problem, in Baghdad or in Washington."
Until recently, leading American politicians could not tell any difference between Sunnis and Shiites without which it is extremely difficult to understand sectarian conflicts in the Middle East and their historic roots.

The question is, where are all those serious research centres? What happens to their publications? Who reads these publications? Politicians? I doubt it.
From the messy US foreign policies, it is inevitable to assume that officials in the White House listen almost exclusively to Rush Limbaugh. This American populous media man is a blend of polemic, uni-dimensional, misleading, and ignorant.

American politicians should listen to people with practical experience, to people like Gaylan King, a former Vietnam jet pilot. King has established business relations with both Sunni and Shiite people in Iraq. "Vetted businesses like mine, who will employ large numbers of Iraqis in projects bettering their infrastructure, without corruption or excessive profit margins," is what American politicians should promote.

Historical evidence shows that confrontation has rarely paid off. Besides, it is destructive to all parties involved. Thanks to "Wandel durch Annaehrung" (Change through rapprochement) initiated and practiced by the late German Social Democrat Willy Brandt and his colleague Egon Bahr, and thanks to Nixon's visit to China and Reagan's talks to the Soviet leader Gorbachev, a third war between the socialist and capitalist camp was avoided.

George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and other American decision-makers need a couple of lessons in social and cultural anthropology. Only then they would understand what is going on in the Middle East and elsewhere.

People expect politicians to study decisions thoroughly before they take them. In-depth informed politicians make reasonable decisions and spare people death and destruction. Had the Americans scrutinised all aspects of life and their historical roots and taken them into consideration in the Middle East, they would have spared thousands of American and Iraqi lives. Stephen Hadley told New York Times last week, "The administration has discovered that changing regimes was a lot easier than changing habits." Too late!

I suggest that politicians undergo a test like that one we drivers take to acquire our driving licenses. I do not mean the Kuwait one which most Kuwaitis get home-delivered without a test. I mean the German one which is a tough one. Driving a vehicle is a simple thing. Learning the traffic rules and applying them properly are of paramount significance for safe traffic. Diving from A - B and arriving safe and sound without harming other traffic users is crucial.

Politicians and their aides should clearly prove that they can drive the vehicle of politics skilfully and lead without inflicting any harm on anybody. They should know well those countries they have to deal with, at least those volatile ones. They should prove that they are well informed about the culture of these countries, their ethnic, religious, and socio-economic set up before they make any decision related to these countries. How much do Americans, and for that matters most Europeans, know about Iraq and the Middle East at large? It is a region that is rich in oil. That is it.

Email me at drsami@kuwaittimes.net
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"May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't." -General George S. Patton

Psalm 82-8: Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You inherit all the nations.