Illl MI,KI( N PK()S( I.Ml MnTwo Nations?nIn 1969, after race riots that shooknAmerica, the National Commission onnCivil Disorders, or the Kemer Commission,nissued a report. The most ominousnconclusion of the report stated that ifnracial divisiveness persists “our nationnwill be moving toward two societies,none black, one white—separate and unequal.”nIn the decade-and-a-half sincenthe report was issued, nothing seems tonhave boosted that gloomy premonitionnmore than the Rev. Jesse Jackson’snDamascus episode. Throughout the VietnamnWar period, our nation was dividednalong ideological lines to the extent thatnthe American ultra-liberal and radicalnleft initiated its own foreign policy,nthrough which it openly challenged thenofl&cial moral and political vision of thenwar. The end result was the first unmitigatedndisaster in American history: thenpredicted domino effect went into fuUnswing; some societies teetered on thenverge of genocide, while others wentnover the brink and experienced thencrudest exterminating subjugation ofnour time. Our diminished global potentialnand our consequent woes on theninternational scene fell upon us so oppressivelynthat the tragic eventuality ofna nuclear war became more real thannit had been before our defeat in SoutheastnAsia. What’s most important, however,nwas the destructive feeling, bolsterednby history’s teachings, that oncenone part of a society (that wWch disagreesnwith its democratically elected government)nstarts conniving with an enemynand that activity becomes acceptable asna result of moral relativity or laxness ofnlaws (that are supposed to protect ournfreedom), our national sovereignty isnjeopardized to an intolerable degree.nRev. Jackson did not connive with annenemy, because Syria is not an enemynat war with us. What we witnessed wasna surfeit of either deliberate stupiditynor not-too-discreetly concealed smartness,nboth of which bode ill. Let’s recallnthe now £amiliar stages of Rev. Jackson’snexcursion. Our liberal, all-distortingn36inChronicles of Culturenmedia saw in it “a drama”: one still remembersnthe manic gleam in Mr. Rather’sneyes when he elaborated on the “suspense”nlinked to incertimde whether ornnot the Syrians would let Lt. Goodmanngo. But there was no drama involved:ntotalitarian countries do not admit innvisitors for negations, only for enactingna priori-contrived scenarios. Syria is, ofncourse, ferociously totalitarian. Therefore,nbefore they issued a visa to Rev.nJackson, the decision had been made:nsupport was going to be given to a strongjynadversarial Democratic presidential candidate,na veritable demagogue, a politiciannwith a powerfiil (if incoherent) leftwardnpudi and a record of subservience to Arabncauses and interests, and, after all that,na black to boot. There are many throughoutnthe world who dearly wish to thrownsome sand into the Republican administration’snforthcoming campaign; thenembarrassing problem of a military captivenwho’s not exacdy a prisoner of war,nand with whom no one knows exactlynwhat to do, suddenly has become annopportunity to do so. President Assadnquickly made up his mind, consultednwith the Soviets (one always consults anworldwide enterprise to which onenowes some IX-billion for delivery ofnarms), who reinforced the idea that itnmakes a lot of sense to stir up the racialnantipathies in America.nBy now we know that the Syrian governmentneven shouldered the lion’snshare of Candidate Jackson’s expenses,nwhich the good Reverend promised tonreimburse, but we won’t wait with batednbreath for the drafting of the check. Allnwe know is that when Jackson embracednPresident Assad, whose avuncular smilencannot overcome the intensity of hisn..p^Sf’-C*nnnbeady, cruel, mercilessly watchful eyes,nMr. Rather went into another transportnof dimwittedness and quoted Assad asnsaying that he was the only one for Lt.nGoodman’s release, that he went upnagainst the opinion of all his ministers.nIn Mr. Rather’s media-engineered intellect,nthis was obvious proof of the Arabnleader’s independence of mind andncourageous pluralism. At that moment,nMr. Rather convenientiy forgets that thisnis the same Arab leader whose politicalnpolice arbitrarily breaks into his citizens’nhomes and rapes the women onna whim—not because the citizens arenantigovernment (those people werenkilled off long ago), but because theynhappen to be appealing women. This isnthe type of “statesman” that Assad is.nWhen he and the Rev. Jackson smoochednin the pubUc eye, Mr. Rather seemedntransported with bliss.nAll of the media’s inane jubilations,nanalyses, and political projections aside,nthere are questions that remain to benanswered: why did Reverend/CandidatenJackson become a tool, and whonwielded it? Our enemies on thisnplanet—^and Syria is one of the mostnimplacable of our foes, if only becausenof our chumminess with you-knowwho—wantnnothing more than our beingnturned into two nations with two separatenforeign policies, a paralyzed entitynin which Uncle Jesse fixes things fornUncle Sam’s soldiers. Many blacks couldnconclude that Jackson’s maverick approachnis the ri^t one, and our enemiesnwill know how to use this new concept,nthe dangerous alteration of a lawMndemocratic polity. There are alreadyncelebrations imder way throughout thencountry that cast the whole event inton