RUTHFULLY YOURS

Recently, President Barack H. Obama (the “H” is silent) met the emir of Qatar. Here’s what he said:

I had the emir of Qatar come by the Oval Office today. Pretty influential guy. He is a big booster, big promoter of democracy all through the Middle East. Reform, reform, reform. Now he himself is not reforming significantly. There’s no big move toward democracy in Qatar. But you know part of the reason is the per capita income of Qatar is $145k a year. That will dampen a lot of conflict.

But what if Qatar is not exporting “reform, reform, reform” but rather Islamism, Islamism, Islamism? Thus, Obama’s bemusement about Qatar’s hypocrisy is correct but he’s misunderstanding wherein the hypocrisy lays.

A quarter-century ago, much was made of the Reagan administration’s use of Saudi Arabia as an American surrogate to provide arms for the Nicaraguan “Contras” opposing the pro-Communist regime there. Might the Obama administration be using Qatar as an American surrogate to provide arms for rebels who would in the end impose an anti-American regime?

Remember, it isn’t just a question of the rebels’ politics because they have many different viewpoints among them. But the identity of the specific leader and group that gets the guns may well determine who rules the country — and who rues the day they made such a mistake — in the future. Do you want Qatar, Iran’s good buddy, choosing the recipients?

An article in the New York Times on Qatar is ahead of Obama, at least noticing the ambiguity of Qatari policy. It begins:

Friendly to Iran even as it serves as a base for the American military, Qatar has long had one of the most creative foreign policies in this unstable region. But now, by sending its tiny air force to fly missions over Libya and granting other critical aid to the Libyan rebels in their fight for freedom and democracy, this very rich Persian Gulf emirate is playing a more ambitious and potentially more risky role. But for an absolute monarchy that was part of an alliance that supported Saudi Arabia’s move into Bahrain to crush democracy protests there, it is also somewhat incongruous.

By the way, are the Libyan rebels fighting “for freedom and democracy”? How does the Times know this? It doesn’t! It just assumes, since obviously there are only dictatorships and freedom fighters. Things like radical nationalism and Islamism don’t exist. But I digress.

This isn’t just about Qatar, it’s about understanding the Middle East. Is this really such a paradox? Let’s see.

First, like many countries, Qatar would like to enjoy the benefits of being on both sides. Yet nowadays there’s something asymmetrical about this process. Anti-American, radical, and terrorist-sponsoring forces generally do well with this trick.

Pakistan gets massive U.S. aid while sponsoring terrorism against India and doing the minimum possible to help fight terrorists. Indeed, its intelligence and military often assist the Taliban fighting America in Afghanistan.

Syria works closely with Iran, sponsors terrorism, and helps kill Americans in Iraq — among many other things — without incurring any cost in U.S. policy. On the contrary, its dictator is called a “reformer” by the Obama administration, which has no criticism of its violent repression of peaceful demonstrations.

Hizballah faced no real Western problems due to its terrorism and power grab in Lebanon. While Hamas doesn’t get to hold meetings with American diplomats, it received U.S. help in destroying almost all of the Israeli sanctions; getting rid of the Egyptian government (its number-two enemy after Israel); and obtaining several hundred million dollars of aid (indirectly via U.S. payments to the Palestinian Authority earmarked for the Gaza Strip).

And don’t get me started on the current Turkish regime, throwing one pie after another into President Obama’s face and then getting praised by him.

Compared to these miscreants, Qatar actually does balance its policy more. But for such a country to play both sides is hardly surprising. The only thing surprising is how U.S. policy lets all these countries get away with it. Being America’s enemy is so profitable and being America’s friend is so costly that almost everyone — Israel, of course, has no choice on this point — is rethinking their policies.

Consider al-Jazira, the satellite television network, owned by Qatar, that is number one in Arab ratings. It preaches anti-American and anti-Western hatred, extols revolutionary Islamism, is full of lies and propaganda and yet — ta da! — the secretary of state says how great it is and urges others to be more like al-Jazira.

You know what? I don’t think Turkey is the role model for the region. Qatar is the role model for the region: side with Iran to buy yourself peace; do a few things for the United States to get lots of goodies.

Second, there’s no problem for Qatar to back Saudi Arabia in crushing opposition in Bahrain and supporting democracy (sic) in Libya! The opposition in Bahrain is overwhelmingly Shia. Even the Muslim Brotherhood’s chief cleric, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, has publicly condemned the opposition in Bahrain! He’s the great “champion of democracy” in Egypt yet its enemy in Bahrain? Why?

Well, let’s say you are a revolutionary Sunni Islamist or a sheikdom that’s decided allying with Iran is in your interests. You want to get rid of governments on the other side, like Egypt, and replace them if possible by other Sunni Islamist regimes.

You want to preserve a Sunni regime in Bahrain — here there is a difference between Qatari and Iranian interests, but nobody’s perfect! — as well as keeping the Saudis happy. After all, Saudi Arabia is very angry about what appears against it on al-Jazira so the Qataris don’t want to push them too far.

And maybe, just maybe, Qatar hopes that the evil Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi might be replaced by a nice Islamist regime, courtesy of the United States, or at least one more aligned with the Iran-Syria-Qatar bloc. True, Qadhafi has been a radical, terrorist-supporting dictator but he’s a radical, terrorist-supporting dictator who doesn’t work and play well with other radical, terrorist-supporting dictators.

Maybe the Qataris know what they’re doing.

Maybe the Americans don’t.