People demonstrate in front of the White House in Washington against US intervention in Syria on 7 September 2013. (Photo: AFP - Nicholas Kamm)
In vain, I searched for people around me in Lebanon who might have heard of Wyoming. Even those enamored with the "American Dream" had not heard of it. A friend, who is addicted to documentary films, suddenly remembers the name, but could not go any further. A senior journalist dug deep in his memory, recalling the TV series “Dallas.” But for him, Wyoming was synonymous with Bobby and JR and their antics.
In fact, Wyoming is merely a US state, one of those with straight-line borders. On the map, it looks like a rectangle, as if whoever created it never bothered to look for geographical or demographic features to draw the borders. He took a pen and a ruler and drew a rectangle, calling it Wyoming.
In any case, Wyoming is the least populous US state (around 570,000 living in an area 24 times the size of Lebanon). Yet, like all other states, it has two representatives in the Senate. One of them is Mike Enzi, who is considered one of the US' most hardline conservatives.
Enzi is not known for his positions on foreign policy, with the prominent exception of supporting the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the rejection of setting a timetable for US withdrawal from Mesopotamia. Much like others from the far right, Enzi categorically rejected giving more rights to Guantanamo detainees.
Internally, he is proud to be part of the corrupt game of electoral campaign funding. He received money from pharmaceuticals to oppose Obama's healthcare plan. In the last round of elections in 2008, he received around 189,000 voted, around 75 percent of Wyoming’s electorate. This was a personal record for someone whose popularity was built on opposing the legalization of gambling.
One can say without hesitation that he is an example of US congressional members whose world ends at US borders and have no idea about what's outside. Some of them won because they oppose abortion. Some because they were against gay marriage or calling for lower taxes on tobacco trade between states, or even for the legalization of marijuana, and so on.
But once they get to Congress, they become the leaders of the world. They can punish a people and spare others. They can destroy Iraq. They can also make amends for the sins of their allies and give their president-god the right to decide the fate of humanity.
When Obama announced he was referring the matter of a Syria attack to Congress, a US journalist commented on Twitter that "members of Congress will have to consult maps and figure out where Syria is."
Mike Enzi is one of those we can describe as "rulers of the world." A few days ago, he said that the US president is "dragging his feet." This came during elections campaigning, where he is pitted against none other than Dick Cheney's daughter.
All that Mike wants is to win the majority of Wyoming votes another time. His worries are over there, thousands of miles away from Damascus. However, on the margins of his electoral campaign, he will be deciding my fate and that of my family, friends, and tens of millions of women and men in this region that he knows nothing about.
Our whole future is being decided by a gambler called John McCain and an anti-gambler called Mike Enzi, a senator from the mysterious rectangular state.
Dear Mike, our bodies are not poker chips.
Hassan Illeik is the politics editor at Al-Akhbar
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
In fact, Wyoming is merely a US state, one of those with straight-line borders. On the map, it looks like a rectangle, as if whoever created it never bothered to look for geographical or demographic features to draw the borders. He took a pen and a ruler and drew a rectangle, calling it Wyoming.
In any case, Wyoming is the least populous US state (around 570,000 living in an area 24 times the size of Lebanon). Yet, like all other states, it has two representatives in the Senate. One of them is Mike Enzi, who is considered one of the US' most hardline conservatives.
Enzi is not known for his positions on foreign policy, with the prominent exception of supporting the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the rejection of setting a timetable for US withdrawal from Mesopotamia. Much like others from the far right, Enzi categorically rejected giving more rights to Guantanamo detainees.
Internally, he is proud to be part of the corrupt game of electoral campaign funding. He received money from pharmaceuticals to oppose Obama's healthcare plan. In the last round of elections in 2008, he received around 189,000 voted, around 75 percent of Wyoming’s electorate. This was a personal record for someone whose popularity was built on opposing the legalization of gambling.
One can say without hesitation that he is an example of US congressional members whose world ends at US borders and have no idea about what's outside. Some of them won because they oppose abortion. Some because they were against gay marriage or calling for lower taxes on tobacco trade between states, or even for the legalization of marijuana, and so on.
But once they get to Congress, they become the leaders of the world. They can punish a people and spare others. They can destroy Iraq. They can also make amends for the sins of their allies and give their president-god the right to decide the fate of humanity.
When Obama announced he was referring the matter of a Syria attack to Congress, a US journalist commented on Twitter that "members of Congress will have to consult maps and figure out where Syria is."
Mike Enzi is one of those we can describe as "rulers of the world." A few days ago, he said that the US president is "dragging his feet." This came during elections campaigning, where he is pitted against none other than Dick Cheney's daughter.
All that Mike wants is to win the majority of Wyoming votes another time. His worries are over there, thousands of miles away from Damascus. However, on the margins of his electoral campaign, he will be deciding my fate and that of my family, friends, and tens of millions of women and men in this region that he knows nothing about.
Our whole future is being decided by a gambler called John McCain and an anti-gambler called Mike Enzi, a senator from the mysterious rectangular state.
Dear Mike, our bodies are not poker chips.
Hassan Illeik is the politics editor at Al-Akhbar
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.