The Middle East rejoices as the financial market in the West fails. They are looking for the “super powers” to become Dubai and Abu Dhabi

On October 11, 2008 · In USA

hat tip-Rachel Ehrenfeld-“Funding Evil”

Financial Times FT.com

MIDDLE East jubilant over Wall St woes

By Lionel Barber and Roula Khalaf in Damascus

Published: October 10 2008 18:23 | Last updated: October 10 2008 18:23
The Wall Stree

t crash has provoked undisguised gloating among the US’s enemies in the Middle East who claim the global financial crisis is a further sign that the US has lost its superpower status.

From Damascus to Tehran, a loose coalition of government officials and clerics view the financial meltdown as the result of divine retribution and the Bush administration’s costly foreign policy in the region, notably the invasion of Iraq.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, an influential hardline figure in Iran, has described the crisis as a punishment.

“As Americans are happy to see problems in Iran we are happy to see the US economy disturbed and problems extended to Europe,” he said recently. “They see the results of their vicious acts and God is punishing them.”

A senior Syrian official said the fall-out showed “the US is no longer a superpower. It is a big power.”

Hardliners are under the impression that the crisis will not directly affect their economies, and assume that the apparent failure of liberal policies vindicates their view that the state must continue to play a central role

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