Dictators Are Not for Embracing

...Selfishness...

...All that, and malice, too Under the impact of the Vietnam War and the mind-crushing repetitiveness of Communist propaganda, and in consequence of the debasement of standards in the bigger universities where rational debate is a dying art and students and many teachers derive their understanding of current affairs mainly from extremist diatribes, many "intellectuals," communicators and others who help shape public opinion in southern Europe consider America, not Russia, the imperialist power In France and Spain Rightwingers compete with the Left in denigrating me United States They are usually Gaulhsts or ex-Francoists, anti-Communist but jealous of America's economic, military and cultural pre-eminence Many Europeans rejoiced over the Shah's flight and Indira Gandhi's victory not because the\ thought these political changes might benefit Iranians and Indians, but in the hope that they would embarrass the United States The pro-American camp is, however, a substantial one Many of its liberal members are worried lest the U S become, morally, Russia's hostage The Jimmy Carter who laid such stress on human rights, and in 1977 spoke ol freeing American policy from the "inordinate fear of Communism which once led us to embrace any dictator who joined us in that tear," was a dangerous man from the Kremlin's point of view Moscow prefers U S Presidents who embrace dictators, dismay democrats and make a mockery of the American ideal In the opinion of pro-American liberals over here, Russia's hawks will be able to claim a major success if, at the cost of the cheap, quick invasion of Afghanistan and a few weeks of opprobrium, they succeed in converting Carter the human rights champion into Carter the champion of dictatorship and obscurantism After South Vietnam and Shah Mohammed s Iran, is General Zia ul-Haq is Pakistan now to be proclaimed an instant bulwark of the tree world' Is the world greatest democracy really about to lavish immense subsidies on the Army of a man who is considered by main of his subjects a judicial murderer...

...Mnopi...

...For an inside view of his regime, the Carters should invite Mrs Bhutto and her brave daughter to Washington for a weekend ) British officials and correspondents who have just returned from Pakistan speak of a cowed, divided society and racial tension even within the Army, whose Pa-than and Baluchi elements may one day be tempted to support Soviet-backed autonomist movements against Zia's harsh centralism American support of Zia could push much of the Pakistani opposition into Russia's arms and alienate India?which, for all its imperfections, is still the only democracy on the Asian mainland (Israel excepted) and therefore worthy of some consideration Any Indian government would be bound to seek Soviet help to counterbalance U S aid to Pakistan, and, knowing that Pakistan is making an atomic weapon, India would feel obliged to develop a delivery system for its own nuke One can only hope that the Carter Administration will do some serious thinking before embarking on a policy that would probably (1) make the Kremlin a gift of India, (2) stimulate a nuclear arms-race between two of the world's poorest countries, and (3) contribute nothing to Western security at great cost Jet Set Saudi Arabia's rulers are ready to fight to the last American They have lately been urging Washington to guarantee their side of the Persian Gulf against a Russian or revolutionary takeover, while telling other Arab governments that they will not join any Western defensive lineup Some members of the Saudi family have actually flirted with Moscow in the hope of buying survival—in the same spirit that they subsidize Palestinian politicians and terrorists in order to buy immunity from subversion Last year, with the knowledge (according to Egypt's President Sadat) of Crown Prince Fahd, Soviet planes were allowed to cross Saudi airspace in order to transport arms to South Yemen Certainly, the Saudis have a lot to worry about They are scared of the Palestinians, they are worried about the Khomeini fans among their Shnte minorities, sections of their Sunm coreligionists are critical of their un-Islamic conduct in the fleshpots of Europe, some of their Army officers want more power and perks, they are divided among themselves, and they have probably realized that their very existence will make social and/or religious change violent when it comes All significant members of the huge Saudi family have funk-holes and great wealth ready in Western Europe and America (It's nice to know the extortionate price we now pay for gasoline serves some humanitarian purpose) But there is no lack of Arab revolutionaries ready to follow the Iranian example and hold Western hostages if the West gives asylum to fleeing oil potentates and their plunder Most Western embassies in Saudi Arabia and adjoining territories have already worked out drills to protect their staffs and documents Meanwhile, as a British official observed the other day, it would not be unreasonable to ask the Saudis, and other Gulf rulers who are dependent on the West for their survival, "to contribute much more to the defense of their own region and their fellow Moslems ' He suggested that they be given the bill for whatever arms are supplied to Pakistan (Colonel Qaddafi is, after all, helping to finance Pakistan's atom-bomb, which he hopes to see deployed one day against Egypt and Israel) The West would then incur less odium in New Delhi's eyes and could afford to help India strengthen its defenses against Pakistan—just in case Anyone compiling an anthology of hypocrisy should study some of the speeches made last month at the meeting of Islamic governments in the Pakistani capital The gathering approved a statement condemning Egypt for making peace with Israel and thereby "abandoning Palestinian rights ' Those supporting this condemnation included Arab states that in 1948 told the Palestinians to leave their homes ("to make way for our glorious armies") and then kept them in camps for a quarter of a century in order—as their politicians have admitted—to exploit their tragedy and exert leverage on the West (An exception was Jordan, but its efforts to integrate the Palestinians were frustrated by extremism ) For many years these Arab states even refused to contribute to the UN funds that kept the refugees alive Their callousness contrasts shamefully with the achievements of Greece in resettling refugees from Turkey after 1918, and of West Germany and France in absorbing refugees from Eastern Europe and North Africa, respectively, in the 1950s and '60s "the world's first superpower the Iranians' Their upsurge swept aside the laws of history First-class administrators, they were surprisingly tolerant of the laws and traditions of their vassals Today, their descendants are again defying history what lessons can they teach us...

...There was more to it than mere pique, of course The 19th century Russian idea ol expansion "in the general direction of the Persian Gulf" appealed to Stalin, as Molotov told Ribbentrop, and still flourishes in Moscow That aim may be pursued more forcibly in the late 1980s if Siberian oil reserves prove too difficult to exploit Any chess player can see the attraction of Afghanistan as an area from which to launch a diversionary move, if not a major attack, or as expendable or (more likely) neutralizable territory in a square-for-square exchange The invasion had a certain defensive usefulness as well?Afghanistan could serve as a base for hostile agitation and sabotage in Soviet Central Asia—but, given the geopolitical conjuncture of late 1979, this was obviously not its main purpose Few people outside the French Communist Party can have believed the Russians' "explanation" that thev were saving Afghanistan from Western plotters Even so, few Western European or Third World governments are ready to impose meaningful sanctions on Russia—or, for that matter, to jeopardize their oil-supplies by standing too conspicuously beside America in its dispute with Iran Fear of war...

...Euro Vista BY RAY ALAN Dictators Are Not for Embracing The most disturbing thing about the Soviet Union is that it possesses advanced military technology but is governed by old-fashioned bureaucrats whose ethos is a mishmash of steam-age social and economic ideas and 19th-century imperialism Their foreign policy shocks modern liberals but would not have surprised anyone, even liberals, 100 years ago When the Dey of Algiers tapped a French envoy with a fly-whisk, the French government, grateful for the excuse, occupied Algeria and kept it for 130 years When the Bolivian dictator Melgarejo seized a British diplomat and paraded him naked on a donkey, Queen Victoria called out the Royal Navy and was restrained from launching a punitive raid on Bolivia only by the tact that it has no coastline When, last December, Afghanistan became uncomfortable for the Russians—their puppets were unreliable and some Russian officers, including a senior official of the Soviet Ministry for internal Affairs, had been murdered—what could have seemed more natural to the Kremlin than a military occupation of the country...

...From a leaflet (in French) advertising a Time-Life book that appeared in my mailbox recently A conspiracy-theorist would no doubt link this with Time's selection of Ayatollah Khomeini as Man of the Year -England's ayatollahs can, at times, in their quiet way, be just as startling as Iran's Bishop Robert Runcie, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, has admitted in an interview with the London Observer that he may have killed two Germans during World War II I was, at first, as shocked by this as many other people I was brought up to believe that men of religion, like girls, should in some indefinable way be purer than the rest of us On reflection, I think the admission is to Bishop Runcie's credit In the same interview he said "I am prepared to carry a large measure of agnosticism along with me " The retiring archbishop, Dr Donald Coggan, said the other day (according to the BBC) that the ideal upbringing for a boy would be the one Jesus received An Anglican archbishop recommending a Jewish upbringing' How's that for ecumemcalism7...