COMMENTARY:

Alif for Allah, Baa for Bush

The Bush adventures in the Islamic world, however, fix our gaze onto the reality of Baa. Bush begins with Baa (which in English means to make a bleating sound, as a sheep or goat.). Bush is using the power of America to change the Islamic world. Bush the warrior is rummaging through Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan to kill "terrorists" and thereby make America safe. Bush the reformer aspires to renovate Islam and thereby liberate Muslims from its theological tentacles. Bush the preacher wants to save the world. George Walker Bush, however, should know that, at least in the past centuries, many invaders of the Islamic world were themselves captured by the power of Alif.

In pursuing the Islamic world, Bush the warrior gathers the awe of a daringly written fiction, such as the adventures of Don Quixote. Don Quixote is a Spanish fictional knight that Cervantes, its author, borrowed from a Muslim storyteller. Like Quixote, Bush is most intriguing when he is searching for truth, that is, when he is looking for nuclear weapons in donkey carts, insurgents among the herds of sheep, documents in inns and castles, and giants disguised as windmills.

President Zapatero, who pulled Spanish troops from Iraq, obviously has no taste for fiction. The critics argue that George Bush is unreal. But so is Don Quixote. Illusion is part of their charm. Don Quixote is charming because he rides a pencil-thin horse in various parts of the world, fighting oppression and righting wrongs. George Bush is charming because he has dismantled theocracy in Afghanistan and secularism in Iraq, the two opposite evils.

And more seems to be coming in the next four years. Sweetened with fantasies and delivered with chivalric gusto, George Bush's second inaugural speech is a precious gift to law and literature. Its major theme comes straight from the Spanish classic. Here is Don Quixote: "I looked for no less, my lord, from your High Magnificence....I so much desire to lawfully roam through all the four quarters of the world seeking adventures on behalf of those in distress, as is the duty of chivalry and of knights-errant like myself." Here is President Bush: "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know (that I) will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors....[I will proclaim] freedom sustained by the rule of law....throughout all the world and to all the inhabitants thereof." It is the power of fiction, and no mere coincidence, that both Don Quixote and George Bush wish to fight evil, a la grandiose, but within the bounds of law.

The fictional comparison must stop here. To stretch it further would defame the President, for Don Quixote'’s notion of law is delusional. The peoples of the world, as the President calls them with affection, should quit brooding over the unlawful stuff that happened in the last four years. The President is promising the rule of law in the next four years. Hence, there is going to be no more torture in camps and prisons, no more deportations for traffic violations, no more indefinite detentions in secret locations, no more assassinations by state aircrafts, no more naked pyramids, and no more hooded men standing on stools with their arms stretching out, doing Pilates.

Forgetting the sickening scenes, Muslims should be particularly thankful to the President for he is bringing “the untamed fire of freedom” in the darkest corners of their world. The metaphor of “the untamed fire” is somewhat inapt since it unwittingly refers to bombs and missiles raining blindly over the Muslim world. The President means well. He wants to introduce whiteness to dark places. Therefore, when the bombs fall, Muslims should gratefully receive them as friendly fire.

Even if Muslims are unsure about the President’'s adventures, they cannot fault the President for what he says. America would prevail in its mission, says the President in his inaugural speech, “Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills.” And now compare these words with what the Quran says: “"Surely Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition.”" (13:11) And furthermore, "Say: O Allah, Owner of the Kingdom, Thou gives the kingdom to whom Thou wills, and takes away the kingdom from whom Thou wills.” (3:26)"

This is a remarkable coming together of Allah and Bush, the Alif and the Baa. The dervishes are dancing in ecstasy. Since the Alif is all powerful, they say, it remains to be seen whether the Baa would prevail.