From: sehari@iastate.edu (Babak Sehari)
Subject: FOR MANY MUSLIM NATIONS, BUSH'S DEFEAT IS UPLIFTING NEWS
Originator: sehari@class1.iastate.edu
Organization: Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa.
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 22:43:46 GMT

FOR MANY MUSLIM NATIONS, BUSH'S DEFEAT IS UPLIFTING NEWS

ISLAMABAD (NOV. 5) IPS - Across parts of the Muslim world, news of President
George Bush's ignominious defeat in the U.S. elections today has been uplifting
news. 

In many of these countries Bush is seen to be the arrogant architect of the
"new world order" who needed an enemy, and simply replaced communism with Islam
to focus his attention on with the end of the cold war. 

For many developing countries and some in the Muslim world, nothing epitomized
this arrogance more than the U.S.-led attack on Iraq in January 1991. 

Iraq's punishment for having invaded Kuwait was to be bombed back to the middle
ages, but they felt it was hypocritical of Bush not to mete out similar
punishment on other nations that over-ran little neighbors. 

So, 18 months after he won the Gulf war and soared in popularity ratings at
home to an unprecedented 91 percent, Bush is voted out of office -- much to the
delight of Saddam Hussein. 

"Saddam Hussein still has his job, do you?" was a favorite bumper sticker in
the United States earlier this year, reflecting Bush's failure to ride the wave
of glory by repeating his Gulf war victory over the domestic economy. 

The Texas multi-millionaire and independent candidate, Ross Perot, said during
the campaign: "The only thing that the Gulf war did was to hand back the emir
of Kuwait his palace." 

Even Bush's desperate last-minute campaign tactic of warning that Saddam
Hussein planned to have a party in Baghdad if he was defeated seemed to have
backfired. Voters were reminded that the Iraqi dictator was not vanquished. 

In its first presidential election after the demise of the Soviet Union and the
cold war, the United States, instead of basking in the warm glow of victory,
looked inward at domestic social and economy decay. 

"With the Soviet Union gone, any serious discussion of foreign policy simply
ceased at the level of presidential politics," said one leading Middle Eastern
commentator here. 

President-elect Bill Clinton's tactic was to make the U.S. economy itself an
international strategic and security issue. 

Analysts say this increasing self-doubt about its role as the only superpower
has forced the United States to take the role of a military power in a
tri-polar world where Europe and Japan take the roles of political and economic
powers. 

Bush took the role of global policeman seriously: by a divide-and-rule policy
in the Arab world, protecting Western strategic interests wherever it was
threatened, and using the United Nations as cover whenever convenient. 

Countries perceived to be "fundamentalist" like Iran, Iraq, Syria or Pakistan
had their militaries emasculated, while "moderates" like Saudi Arabia and Egypt
were rewarded. 

In South Asia, the new post-cold war scenario has dramatically shifted
geo-political alliances. 

India is cozying up to Washington, and this process is expected to accelerate
with the Clinton Administration's emphasis on human rights and democracy. 

There will be no tears shed for Bush in Muslim Pakistan, but most analysts here
say Washington's carrot-and-stick approach to dissuade Pakistan from rolling
back its nuclear program will continue. 

"But we expect less bullying and arm-twisting from the Clinton administration,
" said one senior official here. 

Pakistani officials are bitter at bush for cutting off economic and military
help in 1990 even though Pakistan was the first non-Arab Muslim country to
offer troops for the anti-Iraq coalition despite domestic opposition to the
move. 

Pakistani officials felt the Bush Administration singled their country out
unfairly while letting other suspected nuclear powers like India and Israel go
scot-free. 

Muslim countries in the region have also voiced varying degrees of opposition
to the perceived double standards in arms sales in the volatile West Asian
region. 

After itself selling billions of dollars' worth of F-15 fighter jets to Saudi
Arabia last month, the Bush Administration blocked the sale of two ageing
Russian diesel submarines to Iran. 

Washington reportedly asked Saudi Arabia last month to pay hard-up Moscow off
for the cancelled deal. 

And last year, Bush sent Secretary of State James Baker to China to prevent
Beijing from going through with a deal to sell M-11 missiles to Pakistan. 



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