The Bush administration, writes Ayman El-Amir*, has replaced politics with PR The Bush administration has deployed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, its latest salesperson, to pitch to an increasingly sceptical American public -- not to mention the world at large -- a story of moral, if not military, success in Iraq and the dawning of a new age of democracy in the Middle East. Rice's self- righteous admission in London this week that "thousands of mistakes" had been committed in Iraq, though all for the right cause -- i.e. the ouster of Saddam Hussein, did not go down as well as she would have hoped. The anti-war demonstrators she faced, and pretended to ignore, in London and, later, during her brief visit to Blackburn, drove the point home. Her surprise visit to the ravaged Arab country with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to unlock the sectarian political logjam that continues to paralyse the country has yet to show tangible results. At a time when Iraq is staggering towards the precipice of civil war, terrorism is rife in the region and President Bush is facing calls in Congress for censure, Rice's public relations stunt is hardly the answer to a festering situation. With the senior architects of the invasion of Iraq either departed or discredited the administration badly needs a success story. Vice- President Dick Cheney's influence over policy has been undermined by the scandal involving his chief of staff. The combative secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, has used up all his ammunition defending the military misadventure that was the invasion of Iraq. The Bush administration, facing domestic and international siege, is obviously feeling the need to raise its sunken profile and shore up its image, most notably in the Middle East. A success story would help soften the impact of President Bush's dismal ratings in recent public opinion polls. Yet three years after the fall of BaghdadIraq is further than ever from being the model of democracy that was supposed to spread benignly throughout the Middle East. Washington's confrontation with Iran is also heating up while the administration's once full-throated serenade to the cause of democracy in the Middle East has now been toned down to a whisper. Rice has often been touted as the brightest member of the Bush administration's otherwise lacklustre team. Dubbed "the warrior princess", she is considered a brilliant academician, a persuasive negotiator, a suave socialite, a loyal friend to the Bush family, a knowledgeable expert on European affairs and, most importantly, a reliable ally of Israel. She has defended the president's policies with gusto, particularly when they started to go wrong. She has justified Guantanamo Bay, denied the existence of secret interrogation centres in Europe and supported domestic eavesdropping on US citizens. She has even been trailed as a possible candidate in the 2008 presidential elections, though she quickly scotched any suggestion that she had ambitions for the White House. She is, in short, an articulate spokeswoman for a failed policy -- a fact that may well lead to her credibility being undermined. She has been the most outspoken supporter of the offensive against Afghanistan and the US-led invasion of Iraq. Many will recall that, as President Bush's national security advisor, Rice was one of the most ardent proponents of the claim that Iraq had caches of weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam Hussein was pursuing the development of nuclear weapons and that his links to Al-Qaeda were "indisputable". These were the three justifications for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and all of them were proved untrue. Three years later, they have been replaced by the worthy cause of overthrowing a dictator. Given the audacity of the U-turn political analysts must wonder how much credibility they should lend current US claims about Iran's nuclear intentions. Under the Bush administration stewardship has been replaced by salesmanship. Radio Sawa, Al-Hurra satellite channel, the "embedding" of correspondents, the pre-packaging of TV stories with a positive spin, prepared under the guidance of White House communication experts for aering on national television networks as independently-gathered stories, and the creation of Karen Hughes's high-profile position as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, are integral parts of this promotional strategy. The current administration, more than any other, espouses public relations as an instrument of policy. It is an instrument, though, of limited value when it comes to defending military invasions or trying to destabilise the regimes of Syria and Iran. So far, it does not seem to have swayed many Americans, let alone Middle Easterners. In this troubled region, Iraq and the Palestinian question remain the most daunting challenges to US foreign policy. Looking at both situations from the perspective of "the global fight against terrorism" misses the point. In Iraq the US-led invasion has resulted in fragmentation of the country into sectarian and ethnic enclaves. US Ambassador in Iraq Zilmay Khalilzad recently admitted as much when he described the invasion as opening up a Pandora's box. Before the Anglo-American invasion Iraq, under the secular, albeit brutal, regime of Saddam Hussein was much like the former Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito -- a motley patchwork of ethnic pieces held together by a dictatorial grip. While military intervention has loosened the grip, it has disingenuously caused Iraq what Slobodan Miloöevi� insidiously brought on the former Yugoslavia: it lifted the lid on the pressure-cooker. The lid cannot now be replaced and the contents of the pan are boiling over. While it is true that the Iraqis had the chance to vote three times to choose a president, approve a constitution and elect a legislature, each time they did they voted from an ethnic or sectarian perspective. The Iraqis so far do not seem able to resolve their differences and form a government. Can Secretary Rice put the jigsaw pieces together? The Palestinian-Israeli confrontation has continually escalated during the Bush presidency. By boycotting the democratically-elected government of Hamas, the White House is abetting Tel Aviv's unbridled expansionist ambitions. One consequence of the mounting pressure on the Palestinians will be to push them back into the inescapable corner of armed resistance. In the Bush lexicon this is a synonym for terrorism. The vicious circle of the fight against global terrorism will roll on, providing a political environment favorable to the new Israeli government's attempts to unilaterally impose final borders and in the process gobble up as much territory as it can. Democratic forces in the Middle East now consider the Bush administration's commitment to democratic transformation in the region as a charade. For an embattled administration facing challenges on multiple fronts, it feels more comfortable working with the devils it knows rather than risking overturning the apple cart. The Bush administration now needs to mobilise its traditional regional allies to isolate Iran, exercise pressures on Syria, Sudan and Hamas and contain the fall out from a disintegrating Iraq. For now, the cause of democracy has to take a back seat. * The writer is former Al-Ahram correspondent in Washington, DC. He also served as director of United Nations Radio and Television in New York.
