BACKGROUND

Quicksand

Continued from preceding page

HIBERNATOR outdoor furniture covers
make sure you're covered for fall and
winter weather! Why haul the patio
furniture into the garage and basement
when you can easily protect them where
they are!
• Generously sized for easy covering
• Easy to clean and lightweight for easy storage.
•100% nylon fiber / coated with acrylic 2 sides
Covers also available for: barbecues, air
conditioners, motorcycles, automotive & more!

Come in now and wrap your
summer up right!

CASUALSOCTIDOORRAINTIME

RUSTICS

Come See Our New Store In NOVI - 48700 Grand River - 348-0090

Livonia - 522-9200 - 29500 W 6 Mile Rd. • Birmingham - 644-1919 - 221 Hamilton

We the members of CONGREGATION [MAI ISRAEL OF
WEST BLOOMFIELD wholeheartedly believe that our
synagogue is the warmest, the most caring and the most
concerned of all synagogues in greater Detroit

It is for this reason that we would like to invite you and your
family to join with us in perpetuating the finest traditions of
Judaism contained in our

*DAILY MINYAN SERVICE *SABBATH SERVICES & HOLYDAY SERVICES
We therefore wholeheartedly invite you to share with us in
our beautiful
HIGH HOLIDAY SERVICES
Barry Keller
Cantor Barry Ulrych
Dr. Sherman P. Kirshner
President
Hazzan
Rabbi

Our three-day Hebrew School Program, affiliated with United
Hebrew Schools is now housed in our new fabulous
FRANCES AVADENKA EDUCATIONAL CENTER
Contact Dr. Jerry Rose — Membership Chairman, 851-0330 or
the synagogue office - 4200 Walnut Lake Road
Telephone — 681-5353 or 681-6430 for Membership,
Religious School information or the purchase of
High Holiday tickets

42

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1990

credibility to suggest that
the United States, confron-
ting major domestic econ-
omic problems, would em-
bark on such a hideously
dangerous and expensive
course if it did not perceive,
beyond the great moral
issues, some vital self-
interest at stake.
That self-interest does not
rest on a special affinity
with Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed
al-Sabah, however well-
disposed to human rights
and democracy the unelected
former Kuwaiti ruler might
be. Nor does it rest on defen-
ding the despotic Saudi
monarchy, which publicly
executes adulterers and am-
putates the hands of
shop-lifters.
Nor, indeed, does it reflect
a particular distaste for
Iraq's capacity to inflict
mass destruction, which
was, after all, provided by
the West and which has al-
ready been used against
Iraq's own Kurdish popula-
tion in the town of Halabja
(not to mention the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards dur-
ing the Gulf War).
America's intentions,
though still essentially
undefined, are nevertheless
becoming increasingly
transparent to even the most
casual observer: they are,
quite simply, to insure the
security and stability of the
region's vital energy
resources.
The Gulf states, as was
demonstrated in Kuwait, do
not have the ability to de-
fend themselves against
their larger, mightier,
predatory neighbors and
they will remain intact only
as long as they can shelter
under a massive security
umbrella.
The unavoidable, un-
palatable truth which
follows is that the Gulf
leaders, having lost any
vestige of legitimacy within
the Arab world as soon as
the first United States
troops set foot in the region
to safeguard their existence,
will never again be secure
without a solid protective
cover.
And as long as oil remains
a strategically critical de-
terminant for the in-
dustrialized West, United
States forces will be com-
pelled to protect them from
those who will neither
forgive nor forget their
"crime" of having legitimiz-
ed the entry of foreign forces
in the first place.
The bottom line: American
troops will remain in the re-
gion so long as the oil wells
remain a key to the
economies of the West — and

that stretches into the in-
definite future.
The prospect of a long-term
United States military
commitment was raised by
none other than Secretary of
State James Baker when he
addressed congressional for-
eign affairs committees in
Washington last week.
During two days of
testimony, Baker said in
public what many others
had been whispering in pri-
vate: that the United States
military presence in the re-
gion could very well involve
an open- ended commitment,
albeit within the context of

Wittingly or not,
Washington today
appears to be
pursuing the twin
tracks of classical
colonialism:
overlaying its own
vital self-interest
. . . with a cloak of
morality.

an undefined regional
"security structure."
While emphasizing that
the major component of such
an alliance would consist of
Arab forces, it is in-
conceivable that the United
States would accept the role
of junior partner.
Wittingly or not, Washing-
ton today appears to be pur-
suing the twin tracks of
classical colonialism:
Overlaying its own vital self-
interest — the stability of oil
supplies — with a cloak of
morality which speaks of
resisting aggression, restor-
ing legitimate governments
and protecting traditional
allies.
Many would not question
the need for the American
action in the Gulf or the
need for its continued
presence as long as its stra-
tegic interests in the region
remain essentially unstable
and imperiled by irrational
forces.
The harsh fact of life in the
Middle East, however, is
that foreign intervention —
however benign and noble
its intention —is perceived
in terms of Arab humiliation
and the negation of Islam's
glorious past and its pro-
phetic future.
The arrival of United
States forces will undoubted-
ly serve to catalyze the re-
gion and create the most
highly combustible mix on
the face of the earth: a
radicalized generation of