April 3, 2003
If one talks about Israel to a man from mainland China, he will reply by raising his palms to shoulder level, pointing his bent fingers toward you. Then, in a springy little movement, he rotates his wrists, the stiff fingers of each hand pointing outward. In the same instant his knees bend on springy feet, and he has assumed the crouching position of Kung Fu. "This," he says, "is the two-headed snake."
China, he explains, knows Israel from years of experience. "When Israel is talking to the Americans, it poses as a friend and ally. However, when Israel's agents come to China, it is a different story. In China, Israel exchanges choice secrets and willingly sells its latest military technology. The Americans are referred to disparagingly, with obvious contempt. Israel is not afraid of the US. The US is ignorant, impotent. As Ariel Sharon recently told his Cabinet associates, 'Don't worry about the Americans; we own America, and they know it.'
Israel knows the US gives Taiwan military support, and opposes Israel's arms trade with mainland China. The US makes routine objections. Israel pretends to accept US objections fawningly. The US pretends to be satisfied by this mock display of Israeli acquiescence. China just laughs at the frivolous entertainment, taking the intelligence secrets as sauce with the technology and hardware. To the Chinese, it is a dance of two-headed snakes. The Israeli's think China is too far away to hurt them. They might be fatally wrong in thinking this.
China, seeing these double-dealings from the objective perspective of a third party, considers Israel the epitome of a two-headed snake, a monstrosity that has no loyalty, no friend. China deals with Israel realistically, finding the relationship rewarding and satisfactory for both the intelligence and the technology. Israel hopes to improve trade with China (as do America and England). Such are the strange intrigues of international affairs.
Let us suppose that portable guided rockets, powerful weapons that can bring down a helicopter, stop a tank, or destroy a fuel tanker traveling slowly over lonely desert wastes, are part of the Israeli armament portfolio. Suppose further that these rockets suddenly appear in an active war zone, significantly endangering the extended supply lines of an invading army. Vehicles are hit and burn through the night. Fuel factored for forward forces is frustrated in the freighting. The fuel tanks of these obese and obsolete dinosaurs are drained dry by the voracious appetite of three-gallon-per-mile turbine engines. The metal monstrosities yawn helplessly in the hot sun, yawping thirstily for at least enough energy to move out of harm's way.
The fuel tankers do not arrive. The tanks, the armoured personnel carriers, the helicopters, and everything else that moves mechanically, sits sweltering in the hot mid-day sun. The men are forced outside, exposed, sweating on the sand, swatting sand flies, waiting, hoping that the enemy does not take advantage of their plight. Now the guided rockets come onto the scene.
The targets cannot move. They sit idly in the sun, inviting enemy attention. The rockets were designed in Israel. Initial shipments came to China from Israel. Subsequent supplies were made in China, under a royalty agreement. Instruction manuals are provided, translated from Hebrew to Chinese to Arabic. It is one head of the Israeli snake, come round to bite its ally in the belly.
The other head of the Israeli snake makes a profitable contract with the United States, to design an improved guided, portable rocket. The design secrets are shared as they develop. The intelligence agencies cooperate in the war on terrorism. Nothing is leaked to enemies in the occupied territories. No weaponry is sold to anyone who might re-sell it to an Arab country. Turkey is trusted, because it is an ally. Turkey is a member of NATO. The US is an ally of Turkey, a fellow member of NATO, and a fast friend of Israel. There is thus an Israel-Turkey-US axis. Turkey, a Muslim country 98% of whose people oppose the Iraq war, lives uneasily between two two-headed snakes. It is not a comfortable position. They refuse the Americans a land base from which to attack Iraq.
Turkey is very concerned about the Kurds, who live on both sides of its border with Iraq. They are especially concerned just now, that the Kurds do not profit from the regime change in Iraq being orchestrated by the United States and England. The Kurds want their own country, to be called Kurdistan. They are in a long on-going war against Turkey, Iraq and Syria for independence and recognition.
The US, rebuffed by Turkey, comes making deals for Kurdish assistance against the Iraqi's. The Kurds receive US assurance their aspirations will not be betrayed. After all, the US provided shelter for the Kurds under the northern no-fly zone. The Kurds allow a cautious American presence. An airfield is taken by paratroopers during the night. The Kurds do not complain; the Iraqi's are far away. The US helps the Kurds fight Muslim warriors living in hill towns. The Muslims are indeed driven back. The US, jubilant this potential threat in their rear is removed, begins to build a large invasion force in the Kurdish controlled north. The US invites the Kurds to join them when they turn south to fight the main Iraqi army.
Before they answer, the Kurds look over their shoulder to the north, and see their ancient foes, the Turkish army, lined up along the border. "What are they waiting for," The Kurds wonder. Colin Powell is flying to Ankara. The Kurds are not invited. Why not, they wonder, "Whose side are these Americans really on?"
Turkey, armed by the US and NATO, sees that US soldiers are helping their age old enemy the Kurds. They listen as the US insists the Turk army must not move further into Iraq. The Turks ask, "Whose side are these Americans really on?"
To the Turks and the Kurds, America and Israel are simply two similar two-headed snakes, contemptuous of truth, unwilling to recognise a treaty, lacking in regard for past international norms, making any convenient mendacious justification for invading Afghanistan, and now Iraq. They watch as destruction is dropped by blind aerial delivery onto their Muslim neighbors. To this arrogant and cruel conduct is joined England and Australia, two countries with nothing to gain from this insanity, and everything to lose. They join because the spoils are too tempting. The operative aphorism of the capitalist system is, "Money makes the world go 'round." Oil is money. There is plenty of oil in Iraq. The invaders plan to have some of it.
The information minister of Iraq has described the present scenario, saying, "The head of a snake is outside Baghdad, and its body stretches 300 km back to Kuwait. We will decide when and where to chop this snake into small pieces." Now even France is salivating, dropping every principle of ethics to be accepted back into the c-OIL-y coalition. South Korea, with one eye to North Korean belligerence, is forced to send an armed force. Two-headed snakes are reproducing like rats.
What are needed are snake killers. Where are they to be found? Why, the two-headed snakes will sell them, of course. The line of potential donors to the snake-killing grows longer each day, including most of the major countries of the earth. Since few countries of consequence are "for us," that places almost everyone "against us." Many are themselves snake killers of skill and experience, and many grow more eager to join the desert war in Iraq with each passing day.
Is it to be a great scotching of two-headed snakes? It grows more likely. What we wait for, watch for, is when the two-headed snakes inevitably turn, either away from each other in disgust, or to fight against each other, as the case may be. Snakes are not known for honour.
The url of this page is: https://harunrmy0.tripod.com/37TwoHeadedSnakes.html