The Price of Fantasy

by Patrick Lang (bio below)

[O]n Thursday morning, Hamas officials said the group had won up to 75 seats — giving it a solid majority in the 132-member parliament. Officials in Fatah conceded that Hamas had won at least 70 seats, or enough to rule alone. They spoke on condition of anonymity because counting in some districts was continuing.

Palestinian pollsters were at a loss to explain the discrepancy between the exit polls and the reality. It may have been partly due to a reluctance by some voters to admit to pollsters that they were abandoning the ruling party.

Also, the errors appeared especially glaring in the district races, where smaller numbers of voters were polled. ” Yahoo News

Some estimates indicate an 80 seat majority for HAMAS. If this were not so sad a development, it would be amusing. What is “revealed” here is that in a popular democracy, voters, given a chance to vote their will in secret will do just that. I wonder how “Miss America” is going to deal with this outcome.

As in Iraq, and with regard to Iran as well, the neocons and other utopians have operated on the assumption that if empowered, Muslim and Arab voters would vote for western style secular liberals, heavily acculturated away from their own people and traditions. … continued below …
This has not happened anywhere, not in Lebanon, not in Iraq, not in Egypt, not in Iran and now most spectacularly in Palestine. Nevertheless, the “faith” of people at AEI, Heritage and in the West Wing has not been shaken and we will probably continue to seek the creation of earthly paradise through the mechanism of implementation of electoral reform. Well, good for us.

Why do the Muslims and Arabs keep voting for theocracy? Don’t kid yourself. Theocracy is what HAMAS, Hizballah, The Shia Alliance in Iraq, the MB spin-offs in Egypt and the Ahmadedinajad all really want.

I live with a very perceptive observer of the Middle East. She says that the reason we don’t “get it” about the Middle East is that we have missed the point that many people in the Middle East really do believe in God and are really more concerned with salvation (look it up) than they are with democracy.

I can hear it now! Surely that can’t be right!! Surely, these folks really want what we do; a “chicken in every pot,” an SUV parked out front of the single family dwelling and freedom from religion.

Maybe not.

Pat Lang

Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann (interview), CNN and Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room (interview), PBS’s Newshour, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” (interview), and more .

Personal Blog: Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005 || Bio || CV
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Novel: The Butcher’s Cleaver (download free by chapter, PDF format)


“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2