Le rire de Haass nous console un instant de bien des sottises

Le site MSNBC.com reproduit un article de Peter Baker, du Washington Post, du 30 juillet, sur une analyse très critique de la situation au Moyen-Orient et de la politique (?) bushiste en l’occurrence. Le journaliste a pu trouver l’un ou l’autre optimiste parmi les experts, mais ils sont vraiment rares. Le ton général est le suivant :

« Others are not so hopeful. Outside the White House, the mood among many foreign policy veterans in Washington is strikingly pessimistic, especially as leaders of Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, traditional rivals based in different Islamic sects, began calling for followers to take the fight to the enemy.

» Analysts foresee a muddled outcome at best, in which Hezbollah survives Israel's airstrikes, foreign peacekeepers become bogged down, and U.S. relations with allies are severely strained. At worst, they said, Hezbollah and Iran feel emboldened, Islamic radicalism spreads, and a region smuggling fighters and weapons into Iraq fractures further along sectarian lines. »

Parmi les experts consultés, on retiendra quelques citations de Richard N. Haass, ancien chef de la planification du département d’Etat dans l’administration de Bush-père. Haass est intéressant parce qu’il emploie le ton qu’il faut pour une critique dont l’évidence est par ailleurs presque accablante. (Il est extrêmement accablant de devoir encore débattre pour savoir si la politique la plus extraordinairement et la plus évidemment stupide qu’il ait été donné de voir l’est effectivement.)

Voici donc Haass, par ailleurs parfait expert américaniste, tout le contraire d’un dissident, — souligné en gras par nous, le passage à retenir.

« “The arrows are all pointing in the wrong direction,” said Richard N. Haass, who was President Bush's first-term State Department policy planning director. “The biggest danger in the short run is it just increases frustration and alienation from the United States in the Arab world. Not just the Arab world, but in Europe and around the world. People will get a daily drumbeat of suffering in Lebanon and this will just drive up anti-Americanism to new heights.”

(…)

» Haass, the former Bush aide who leads the Council on Foreign Relations, laughed at the president's public optimism. “An opportunity?” Haass said with an incredulous tone. “Lord, spare me. I don't laugh a lot. That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. If this is an opportunity, what's Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?”

» In the long run, he and others warn, the situation could cement the perception that the United States is so pro-Israel that a new generation of Arab youth will grow up perceiving Americans as enemies. The internal pressure on friendly governments in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere could force them to distance themselves from Washington or crack down on domestic dissidents to keep power. In either case, Bush may have little leverage to press for democratic reforms. »

Mis en ligne le 31 juillet 2006 à 08H26