Having your cake and eating it, too

It’s the Fourth of July as I write this, and I’m thinking, “It’s all politics.” A recent “New Yorker Magazine” cover has a sad Uncle Sam at his birthday party, without any guests to share his birthday cake. Some Americans these days are feeling like that birthday boy, without a friend in the world.

A friend’s daughter, who recently returned from Europe, found anti-American sentiment high among the young people she met. She told us about her experience of trying to change their opinion of Americans, one person at a time. I was grateful for her effort. I never liked dining alone.

Recently, I had an epiphany about the war. I wondered why there have not been any more terror attacks in the U.S. since we went to war in Iraq. Is it because the Patriot Act is doing such a good job protecting us ? Or, because now we take off our shoes before we get on airplanes? Or is it because we are doing exactly what the terrorist organizations, like Al Qaeda, want us to do?

Their strategy has been to use our assets and technology to attack us. On September 11th they used American jetliners to destroy the Twin Towers, and to seriously damage the Pentagon building. They would have destroyed the White House, too, if it weren’t for a few American heroes. All it cost them was some flight training expenses and 19 colleagues who, apparently, in their worldview are expendable.

This minimal investment yielded mighty returns—a nation, stunned and afraid, went to war against one of Al Qaeda’s arch-enemies, Saddam Hussein.

Hussein, although a Muslim, was a tyrant who controlled the wealth of his country, and sought to control the region for his own benefit. (The age-old battle for control, either by secularists or by fundamentalists, had been held in check in recent times by Saddam’s own reign of terror.)

By inciting America against Hussein, Al Qaeda used our mighty army and our nation’s children to do their dirty work. Now, the fundamentalists in Iraq are free to do battle with secular Islamists.

Prolonging conflict is what the radical fundamentalist Muslims want, especially conflict with Western forces. Their aim is to prevent the further Westernization of their culture, and keep their followers in the dark ages for as long as possible.

Another of Al Qaeda’s enemies is the Saudi government. The Saudi monarchy controls its region’s vast wealth. Historically it has made bad decisions for its people, while enriching itself. But unlike Al Qaeda, it embraces a brand of Western culture, having to do with commerce.

And, of course, there’s all that oil. The current Saudi leaders keep it flowing for us. And our trade with the Saudis has enabled them to essentially buy us, piece by piece, with our own money. (Maybe that’s where Al Qaeda learned how to hoist us by our own petard.)

Now the United States, after sponsoring “free” elections in Iraq and Iran, where the voters surprised everyone by electing a conservative cleric, wants to take on the Saudis by sponsoring “freedom” in the region. (“Freedom” is what this Republican administration calls democracy. I suppose ‘democracy’ sounds too Democratic.)

It’s easy to understand the desire to overthrow Hussein’s autocracy, in basic humanitarian terms. But why would an American administration with close personal and business ties to the Saudis want to overthrow its own friends and allies?

And wait, isn’t that what Al Qaeda wants — the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy’s reign? There we go again, doing their work for them.

It sounds good, doesn’t it? Wanting political freedom for all people? Who could argue against it? But what if a government had figured out how to control democracy so that their candidate always won? What if they could prevent some people from voting and use computers to skew election results? What if they could legitimately buy the free press?

Why, if that government could spread its form of democracy, or freedom all over the globe, they could rule the world.

Then, they wouldn’t have to invite anyone to the table, and they could eat the cake all by themselves.