War Handwavium

Salon had an article yesterday by Iranian-American journalist Hooman Majd.

Majd served as the English-language translator for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2006 speech at the United Nations. The son of an Iranian diplomat under the shah, and grandson of a powerful ayatollah, Majd grew up mainly in the United States. He is openly linked with the reformists, and is related by marriage to former President Mohammed Khatami.

If anyone knows what is going on in Iran and also has enough cultural experience of America to explain it to Americans, Majd is that man.

The bit from the article that really struck me was Majd talking about the “will of the people” in middle eastern countries and how America relates to it:

If Ahmadinejad is president, the United States is going to have to deal with him whether or not his election was the will of the people. Clearly it’s not the will of the people for Hosni Mubarak to be president of Egypt. It was the will of the people to have Hamas represent the Palestinian territory and we decided not to deal with the will of the people there.

We’ve dealt with Egypt for years and Mubarak has been president there since 1981. You don’t see John McCain condeming Mubarak for rigging his elections for the last two decades. Where is the American outrage over the will of the Egyptian people being suppressed by its government?

On the other hand, the Palestinian people elected Hamas to numerous political positions in their 2006 elections. Many saw Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas as ineffectual in securing a Palestinian state with the Israelis. Abbas was ineffectual. His approach to the Israelis was essentially give the Israelis everything they wanted and do nothing when the Israelis violated their agreements.

When Hamas won 76 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian parlimentary elections, Fatah and Hamas began infighting. Fatah ejected Hamas from the West Bank and replaced their seats with Fatah or other members. Hamas retained control of the Gaza Strip.

And when Fatah used violence to overthrow the will of the Palestinian people, what did America do? Nothing. Hamas was on America’s terrorist organization list and refused to make any contact with Hamas. In 2007, Norway was the first was the first Western country to recognize the 2007 Palestinian government consisting of both Hamas and Fatah, and America attempted to dissuade Norway from making that contact.

What it comes down to is that “the will of the people” is a smoke screen for “American Interests”. America doesn’t want to say it is in America’s interests if the Islamic Theocracy of Iran were overthrown and a secular democracy put in its place. Instead, since many people of Iran appear to be protesting the Islamic theocracy, America supports their cause by saying they support “the will of the people”.

When the “will of the people” might cause trouble for America, America ignores it. Such as in the case of Egypt. The will of the people in Egypt has been suppressed for two decades, but America doesn’t protest that and you don’t hear American soundbites about how this is a travesty and needs to be condemned, because the government of Egypt is giving America what America wants.

And when the “will of the people” elect politicians that America doesn’t like, America pretends they weren’t even elected. Hamas was elected by the will of the Palestinian people in democratic elections. America refused to acknowlege their existence. Not only that, but when Fatah used violence to remove Hamas from the West Bank, America did not condemn the use fo violence to usurp the “will of the people”.

This American concern for the “will of the people” in the Iranian elections, isn’t the reflection of a consistent idealogy in favor of democracy. Instead it is more a smoke screen to put some handwavium on something more ancient: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/25/hooman_majd/index.html