[A-List] US imperialism: West Asia

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Washington Post / Bush unveils scheme for Mideast free trade zone / Mike
Allen  and Karen DeYoung  in Columbia, South Carolina

Bush unveils scheme for Mideast free trade zone

Mike Allen  and Karen DeYoung  in Columbia, South Carolina

President Bush told University of South Carolina graduates last week that
economic growth and the rule of law are keys to quieting the rage of the
Middle East, and promised to build on the victory in Iraq by increasing
trade with the Arab world.Bush launched a 10-year effort to form a
U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Area, and pledged to help modernize the region's
justice, education and political systems and promote concrete steps to
equality for women.

"The bitterness of that region can bring violence and suffering to our own
cities," Bush told the 1,200 graduates in his first commencement address of
the season. "The advance of freedom and peace in the Middle East would drain
this bitterness and increase our own security."
Describing "a great goal for this nation," Bush said "across the globe, free
markets and trade have helped defeat poverty, and taught men and women the
habits of liberty."

Bush's announcement added economic rewards to the administration's military
and diplomatic efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East. His aides
said they saw the free trade offer as a short-term step toward easing the
anti-American views that hardened during the Iraq war.
The administration also hopes to show that Bush had a higher purpose that he
now intends to pursue. Over the longer term, the president's aides believe,
opening some of the globe's most closed and moribund economies - not only to
the United States, but also Israel - will increase political stability. "In
an age of global terror and weapons of mass destruction, what happens in the
Middle East greatly matters to America," said Bush, who was awarded an
honorary doctorate of laws. "We will use our influence and idealism to
replace old hatreds with new hopes across the Middle East."

The president described the proposals as part of a policy continuum that
includes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and peace between Arabs and
Israelis. Bush has kept his distance from the Israeli-Palestinian issue over
the past year, but he has now pledged to devote new, personal energy toward
its success.

Although he made his customary call for Palestinians to "take concrete steps
to crack down on terror," Bush also sharply warned that "Israel must take
tangible steps to ease the suffering of Palestinians and to show respect for
their dignity."

In proposing to build a thriving Middle East free-trade area by 2013, Bush
is offering to eliminate tariffs and other barriers to imports from the Arab
world, to spur investments and jobs in the region.

"From the U.S. standpoint, the whole payoff is political stability," said
Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics.
"If it pays off, the whole oil picture is a little more settled than it
otherwise would be," he said, along with the prospect of decreasing the $3-4
billion in annual U.S. aid to Egypt and Israel.

The Guardian Weekly 20-3-0515, page 27