Finding more in Morocco

WASHINGTON

For three long weeks our newspapers and television news have beendominated by the brilliant raid by a U.S. Navy SEAL team thatresulted in the shooting to death of Osama bin Laden and caused aripple through the al-Qaida terrorist network.

We quickly learned that reports about bin Laden, spanning fiveyears and widely believed, were untrue. He had been living a cozyand secure life in the middle-class city of Abbottabad, Pakistan.His neighbors were retired officers of the Pakistani military andintelligence services.

Still unanswered questions are whether the government inIslamabad knew of his presence or provided an active operationalcover. It also is to be seen whether bin Laden's home was known allthe way to the top of the Pakistani Cabinet and presidency.

We in the United States now look like a country boy -- a rube --at a city fair buying a gold brick for 50 cents.

But that is the way it has been throughout the spring of 2011.Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Algeria, Libya, Syria and Yemen all haveerupted. Few were anticipated. Some major regimes -- our allies forgenerations -- have vanished. Some remain under attack and some,thanks to hasty changes, have prevailed.

The Arab world we knew has changed. For three weeks, this writerhas moved through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia to the borders ofLibya, asking questions and getting replies.

There can be no doubt that the large Internet social networks,with tacit U.S. support, played a major role in getting the crowdsout and some of the leaders running.

However, we oldies, who need our grandchildren as guides to thesepromised lands, seek more and we found it in Morocco. There, oursources were individuals from all over the Arab world, more thanwilling to reply to our questions.

A great majority supported the SEAL raid that brought about thedeath of bin Laden.

The belief was general that the method of burial at sea was wrongand that the ban on photographs of the body compounded manyconspiracy theories.

Very prevalent was that having been recruited by our CentralIntelligence Agency in the 1970s, bin Laden, because of his family'sconnections to the Bush family, had remained a conduit for Texanpolitical drama in the United States.

This continued even after 9/11 and was designed to increasesupport for the Afghan war and the Pakistani generals.

Morocco is the true haven for conspiracies in the Arab andWestern worlds. Since Humphrey Bogart made his great movie"Casablanca" and Rick's Cafe Americain appeared, the answers to manyquestions are sought in that city. Rabat, the capital, and Marrakeshin the southeast each provide more information.

The changes in the Arab world were identified as being caused bymassive unemployment in the under-30 groups, a badly strained socialnetwork, poor health care and a desperate housing shortage. We allknow what changes have taken and are taking place.

Thus, a practical answer to the demands from masses on thestreets for a "democracy," which is not understood, must betranslated into demands for work, housing and education, with healthand social care. But that requires major real investment.

Peak oil is past; peak phosphate has yet to come. Oil powers thewealthy; phosphate feeds the poor; and Morocco is indeed fortunate.It has more than 60 percent of the phosphate reserves in the worldneeded to fertilize agricultural land. Africa, Asia and Europe allbuy from Morocco. And as Canadian phosphates begin to be depleted,North and South America are buying, too.

Morocco's king, with great foresight, already has plans in placefor this fertile wealth that empowers young people and financechange through national rock.

A mass of contradictions, Morocco is governed by a young king. Heuses his wealth to spend on building communities and roads, plantingforests and opening beaches, making jobs and encouraging education.And the government, despite being socialist, endorses his manyplans.

First contradiction: King Mohamed VI is a devout Muslim, yet hischief administrator, the grand vizier, is of the Jewish faith.

Once dominated by the French, the second contradiction is thefocus on adding English to the generally used Arabic, Berber, Frenchand Spanish.

If Morocco were taken as an example, the Osama bin Ladens of theworld would have no place as neither would the stupidly greedy, fromthe oligarchs in Russia and the flimflam boys of Wall Street to theoil princelings in the gulf to Chinese entrepreneurs in Macau. Allit would take is a massive reinvestment in basics, which we as afree society in the United States are qualified to lead.

A popular song of the 1940s had Bing Crosby and Bob Hope singingthat "like Webster's Dictionary we're Morocco bound!"

Why not?

Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalistand political observer.