Why are Arab governments — and, thank God, their military arms — so almost uniformly incompetent and corrupt? Well, John Burgess doesn’t quite put the question that way (he wouldn’t), but he explains that the problem is one we’ve seen in our own history: It’s called, in Arabic, wasta, and I think it’s what the Israelis call, in English, “Vitamin P” for protekzia:

The use of personal connections and influence is very much a part of traditional Arab culture, but it presents serious problems when it comes to ensuring that the most technically qualified person is in the right job. It’s not unlike how American politics and the military were run in the early- and middle-19th C. in the US, where who you were decided what you did, from postmaster to army general. The bloody results of battles in the American Civil War were in part due to the utter incompetence of military officers who were selected as leaders based on family connections.

While competence is clearly seen as a necessary measure of suitability to jobs, it’s hard to override the patron/client relationships by which the Arab world functions for most of its history.

John cites an article that calls wasta — quite aware, I’m sure, of the corresponding Israeli nutrient — “Vitamin W.” So why does Israel, which has a very similar problem, not only not fail as a polity as utterly as the Arab states do, but usually — when it bothers to bring its “A” game — completely embarrass them (HT to IP)? Did the Zionist colonialist lackies bring just enough Western advancement beyond this ancient and stupid way of doing business to figure out how to put it all together when it really counts?

Probably. The bright sunshine that comes with democracy, however poorly executed it is in Israel, is not healthy for cronyism. In fact, notwithstanding the racism of the Left that sees the Arab world as incapable of civilization, it seems the more democratic the Arab country, the less incompetent (and the more peaceful) its government. That’s why the greatest threat to Israel remains not the fairly hapless gazillion Arabs that surround it, but its own internal rot — most of which grows on a steady, illegitimate and undemocratic diet of Vitamin P.

Improper colonial deference to Baroness Clinton and the Marquess of Levin:

Iraq’s beleaguered prime minister on Sunday lashed out at Democrats who have called for his ouster, saying Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Carl Levin need to “come to their senses.”Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting to hold his government together, issued a series of stinging ripostes against a variety of foreign officials who recently have spoken negatively about his leadership. But those directed at Democrats Clinton, of New York, and Levin, of Michigan, were the most strident.

“There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin. They should come to their senses,” al-Maliki said at a news conference.

Good for him. That certainly adds an interesting dynamic, wouldn’t you say? Ironic, quite, yes. Good show.

UPDATE:  “It takes a village… idiot.”